Ecuador Cotopaxi Volcano Eruption Threatens 325000 People

Increased activity at the Cotopaxi volcano lead to a state of emergency and precautionary evacuations in Ecuador. On Friday, it shot ash 12km (seven miles) into the air.

After the initial rumbling, hundreds of people were evacuated from Cotopaxi’s slopes and Correa placed a prohibition on journalists from reporting information that wasn’t from official sources. “God willing, everything will go well and the volcano will not erupt”.

The decree will allow the government to redirect budgeted funds for a possible emergency and prevent rumors from inciting panic, President Rafael Correa said in his weekly television and radio address to the nation. But they labelled internal activity at the volcano “high” and surface activity “moderate”.

“No pyroclastic eruption have taken place, so there are no lava flows”, Ecuador’s Security Minister Cesar Navas told AFP. Press freedom groups, which have long been at odds with this administration’s communications policies, criticized the president’s move.

During the last major eruption in 1877, the city of Latacunga, which lays in the path of the volcano lava, was destroyed.

Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador’s most active volcanoes and, at 5,897m (19,347 ft), its second-highest peak after the Chimborazo.