Colombia mudslide toll rises to 46 dead

9 December 2010 - 02H33

A rescue worker is seen at the site of a landslide caused by heavy rains north of Medellin in Colombia. Rescuers have said they have recovered 46 bodies from the scene of the disaster in the northwest of the country.

A rescue worker removes rubble on December 8, 2010 at the site of a huge landslide caused by heavy rains north of Medellin, Colombia. This rainy season, the country's worst in decades, has left at least 119 people missing and 1.7 million homeless from flooding and landslides.

VIDEO: Police officers, soldiers, rescue workers and volunteers have been digging through the rubble of homes near the Colombian city of Medellin in search of survivors of a deadly landslide in the Northwest of the country. Duration: 00:40

AFP - Rescuers have said they have recovered 46 bodies from a massive weekend mudslide in northwestern Colombia, which was under a local state of emergency to cope with the massive catastrophe.

Among the victims were 22 children, many of whom had participated in celebrations for their first communion near Colombia's second-largest city of Medellin, local disaster relief chief John Rendon told reporters.

As many as a hundred other people are believed to be trapped under tons of debris since Sunday, when a wall of mud slid down a sodden hillside, burying about three dozen homes in the town of Bello.

Manual digging in the area gradually gave way to heavy machinery this week, as rescuers battled a narrowing time window to find people still alive under the mud.

Relatives of the victims, meanwhile, made arrangements for funerals.

Amid the historic downpours, the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group proposed a bilateral truce with President Juan Manuel Santos's government.

"Given the magnitude of the tragedy, the National Liberation Army proposes to agree to a ceasefire with the government and end hostilities on a bilateral basis in order to focus attention on the emergencies," it said in a statement posted online.

Colombia's second largest rebel group, the ELN has been engaged in on-and-off negotiations with the Colombian government since December 2005. The ELN has an estimated 2,500 fighters compared to an estimated 7,000 in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

This rainy season, the country's worst in decades, has left at least 119 people missing and 1.7 million homeless from flooding and landslides. Another 246 people have been injured and some 2,049 homes destroyed, according to the Interior Ministry.

The foul weather has been blamed on the La Nina phenomenon of cooler temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean.

Elsewhere in Latin America, La Nina has also unleashed deadly havoc, killing over 400 people in Central America, including 263 in Guatemala and over 130 in Mexico.

The Panama Canal was closed to ships for the first time in over two decades after heavy rains swelled nearby lakes flowing into the key transport route that handles five percent of global trade.

At least eight people have died, according to Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who said his country had "never before" seen such heavy downpours.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned his fellow citizens that "the situation remains critical" in Venezuela, where torrential rains left at least 35 people dead in and affected 124,000 in the past three weeks. Another six people are still missing.