Colombia: The earth shook to show people that Necoclí exists

On the 2^nd of March 2011, a tremor measuring 5.5 [es] on the Richter scale was felt in the department of Antioquia and part of northern Colombia. The epicentre of this shock was in the Necoclí municipality (located in Antioquia) and although there were no victims, an extraordinary fact – as well as the quake itself – that emerged through Twitter was the ignorance of some to the existence of Necoclí.

Several people confessed to not knowing where it was located or they admitted never to have heard of this municipality before; a municipality where 59% of the population is made up of people of African descent [es], characterised by a history of poverty and state neglect.

Beach in Necoclí, Antioquia, Colombia. Image by Flickr user DDirac, used under licence CC BY 2.0

Juan Lozano (@Juan_ LT) wrote:

Se los juro que no sabia que existía necoclí.

I swear I didn’t know that Necoclí even existed.

While referring to the social reality of the district, Alejandro F. A (@D_VAGO) does his own analysis and states:

Para salir del anonimato y hacer q hablen d ellos, tuvo q temblar en #Necoclí ahora toda #Colombia sabe donde está ubicado y d q SOBREVIVE.

To emerge from anonymity and get themselves talked about, it had to shake in #Necoclí now all of #Colombia knows where it’s located and that it SURVIVED.

In general the tweets confirmed that there were no injuries after the tremor. Johan Estévez (@Troguan) and Alexander Reyes (@alexanderreyes1) shared the corresponding link from the local newspaper La opinión [es]; while from the Twitter account of the Venezuelan National Radio (RNV [es]) it was reported that the earthquate centered in Colombia was also felt in the Táchira state [es]:

Sismo registrado en Colombia se sintió en Táchira: Su epicentro se localizó en el municipio de Necoclí […] http://bit.ly/i72mmK

Colombia earthquake felt in Táchira: Its epicentre was located in the Necoclí district […] http://bit.ly/i72mmK [es]

No injuries were reported on the Venezuelan side either, according to RNV [es].

Links of interest:
– Necoclí's Official website [es]
– With regard to the name, Necoclí, there is a legend [es] that tells how a weary traveller went to this place to relieve his thirst, but he was told “there is no ‘coclí’ around here”, “coclí” being a very common drink in the region.
– @TTTube_Co shares recent videos tagged with the name Necoclí [es].