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December 13, 2022

Andrew Campbell 

The Guatemalan volcano Fuego began to erupt on December 11. The 3,763-meter-high volcano, 35 kilometers southwest of Guatemala City, is erupting, according to the state-run Institute of Volcanology (Insivumeh), with persistent weak, moderate, and severe explosions. 

Antigua, the country's most popular tourist destination and picturesque former capital, is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) away from the volcano. Every four to five years, Fuego erupts. The Fuego volcano erupted on June 3, 2018, causing an avalanche that killed 215 people in Guatemala. An eruption in 2018 destroyed the village of San Miguel Los Lotes with lava rivers.

The Fuego volcano, located between the provinces of Escuintla, Chimaltenango, and Sacatepéquez, also produces an incandescent source of lava that rises more than 500 meters above the crater and an ash column that rises more than one kilometer from the volcano's summit. According to Rodolfo Garca, a spokesman for the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred), the official in charge of civil protection, no evacuations have been implemented thus far.