Peruvian President Alan Garcia and his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe on Sunday visited Pisco, the hardest-hit by Wednesday's powerful earthquake in Peru.
Before flying into Pisco from Bogota, the Colombian capital, at 10:00 a.m. local time (1500 GMT), Uribe met with Garcia at Peru's Air-Force Base (FAP) and the two sides discussed such issues as formulating coordination strategies and expanding cooperation.
"We have to overcome this tragedy. We Colombians have a feeling of brotherhood and have to get together to advance like families, we come here to collaborate," Uribe told the press.
The president said professional Colombian teams, in civilian defense and rescue, among others, will stay indefinitely to help handle the aftermath and contribute to the reconstruction of the most affected zones.
"I want to express my solidarity to the Peruvian people and to President Alan Garcia, who we love so much in Colombia where he had lived for a long time," Uribe said, adding that the earthquake brought to mind the fear of the 1979 quake in Tumaco, Colombia.
Pisco, like the cities of Ica, Chincha and Canete, south of Lima, bore the brunt of the 7.9-magnitude tremor felt throughout this South American country.
Preliminary official reports showed that over 500 people had been killed, 1,600 injured in the quake which also destroyed thousands of houses.
The main public services such as electricity, telephone lines and drinking water system, were also wrecked in the quake-jolted regions.
Source: Xinhua
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