Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador led a tribute on Tuesday in Mexico City's central square in memory of the victims of the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes.
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The Mexican president witnessed the ceremony, in which members of the Armed Forces raised the national flag at half-mast, while the music band and the choir of the National Defense Secretariat sang the Canto a la Bandera (Song to the Flag).
At the end of the ceremony, the military silence was heard and the National Anthem was intoned.
López Obrador was accompanied by the Security Cabinet, the national coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez, and the head of the Federal District Government, Martí Batres. Also in attendance were the Secretary of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde, and the Secretaries of National Defense, Luis Crescencio Sandoval and José Rafael Ojeda Durán.
The tweet reads, "Today we remember the fateful moments of the earthquakes of September 19, 1985 and 2017. Hugs to the families of the victims. We also participated in the Second National Drill 2023 called by the National Coordination of Civil Protection."
The ceremony took place at 7:19 a.m., the moment when a powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale was registered in Mexico on September 19, 1985. This was one of the most devastating earthquakes in the country's history.
The occasion also commemorated another earthquake that occurred on the same date but in 2017. The 7.1 magnitude quake left 369 dead in the country, most of them in Mexico City.
At 11:00 a.m. Central Mexico time, the 2023 National Drill was held, which is carried out every year so that the country's residents become familiar with the seismic alert and the protocols for action in the event of an earthquake.