Rescuers are still trying to find survivors reported missing after the January 25, 1999, earthquake. Having virtually given up hope of finding survivors, rescuers have been forced to follow the stench of death to locate the bodies. "From now on, our mission is to recover corpses,' said a Venezuelan rescuer Juan Carlos Delgado.

"To find survivors after so much time would be a miracle,' Delgado said. According to Red Cross figures, 938 people died and more than 4,000 were injured when the earthquake which registered 6 on the Richter scale, shook Colombia's coffee-growing Andean region.