Colombia has repatriated 125 Colombians and three Ecuadoreans who were stuck in Chile following the devastating earthquake, authorities announced on Tuesday.
The Colombians and Ecuadoreans were picked up at the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago in a Boeing 707 airplane. On Monday, the same plane had flown 150 Chileans stranded in Colombia back to Santiago.
Because of restrictions on commercial flights out of the Chilean capital, the two groups had found themselves unable to fly home without government assistance.
The Colombian government also sent a crew from the National System for the Prevention and Attention to Disasters, to determine what supplies are needed and the logistics of coordinating further assistance to the suffering country.
The earthquake, which measured 8.8 on the Richter Scale and has so far left 795 people dead, has also devastated Chile’s transportation infrastructure.
The Colombian interior and justice minister said that the three Ecuadoreans were met in Bogota by staff from their embassy.