Wildfires Bring Chaos to Colombia and its Neighbors

Wildfires are sweeping across Colombia and neighboring countries, fueled by severe drought conditions in South America.

The fire has been eating through the Colombian jungle, reaching the country’s borders and burning segments of land in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil.

According to Colombia’s National Unit for Risk and Disaster Management, nearly 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) of forest have been destroyed by the fires.

Governments across the region have been forced to implement programmed power outages due to the sudden jump in pressure to their hydroelectric capabilities. Ecuador is experiencing blackouts in 12 provinces.

The Colombian government reported on Sunday that it is battling fires in seven departments, as the country faces its worst drought in 60 years. The agricultural sector has been hit hard, with analysts warning that the resulting downturn could drive inflation.

In Brazil, segmnets of the Amazon are on fire and major cities like Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have been covered with a thick blanket of smoke. Analysts estimate that millions of acres of Brazilian farmland have already been lost to the fires.

Peru declared a state of emergency in its three hardest-hit departments, located in jungle regions near the borders of Brazil and Ecuador. The wildfires are also spreading into Argentina and Uruguay, while the flow of the Amazon River is dwindling downstream from Brazil.