6.5 Earthquake Hits Mexico, Killing Two and Testing Sheinbaum’s Early Crisis Response

Mexico jolted as morning quake triggers evacuations

The first hint that something was wrong was the siren.

Shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, the seismic alarm wailed over Mexico City as President Claudia Sheinbaum was midway through her first televised morning news conference of the year at the National Palace. Cameras captured her looking up as the sound filled the ornate room.

“Uy, está temblando. A ver, con tranquilidad,” she told reporters — “Oh, it’s shaking. Let’s stay calm” — before staff, cabinet members and journalists filed out to a courtyard, the live feed still running.

Hundreds of kilometers to the south, near the coastal town of San Marcos in Guerrero state, the same 6.5‑magnitude earthquake that gently rocked the capital was strong enough to bring down a house and kill a woman inside.

Epicenter near San Marcos; shaking felt across much of Mexico

Mexico’s National Seismological Service reported that the quake struck at 7:58 a.m. local time Friday, Jan. 2, with an epicenter near San Marcos, about 65 to 70 kilometers (40 to 45 miles) east of Acapulco along the Pacific coast, at a depth of roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles). The tremor was felt across a wide swath of southern and central Mexico, including Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Hidalgo, Tabasco, Colima and Jalisco.

Authorities said at least two people were killed and more than a dozen injured. Civil protection officials reported hundreds of homes damaged in Guerrero, mostly in and around San Marcos, as well as minor damage in the state capital, Chilpancingo, and in Acapulco. In Mexico City, buildings swayed for about half a minute, prompting mass evacuations but little structural damage.

Beyond the casualty count, the quake became an early test of Sheinbaum’s crisis management, a real‑world trial of Mexico’s expanding earthquake early‑warning systems and another blow to a coastal region still rebuilding from recent Category 5 hurricanes.

Guerrero reports home collapse, landslides and injuries

In Guerrero, the most serious damage was recorded close to the epicenter.

State authorities said a woman died when her home collapsed in the San Marcos area. Images shared by local media showed cracked walls, fallen facades and piles of rubble in several communities. Guerrero’s civil protection agency reported landslides and rockfalls on roads including the Tixtla–Chilpancingo route, along with reports of gas leaks and small electrical fires.

Hospitals and clinics under the federal IMSS Bienestar system in San Marcos, Chilpancingo and Acapulco were evacuated briefly for inspections after sustaining non‑structural damage such as broken windows and fissures in walls, state officials said. There were no reports of major hospital collapses or of highways being completely cut off.

Mexico’s federal civil protection coordination said more than a dozen people were injured in Guerrero, primarily by falling debris or during hurried evacuations. Detailed assessments in rural areas, some of them still difficult to reach, were expected to take several days.

Mexico City activates emergency protocols; second death reported

In Mexico City, Mayor Clara Brugada said emergency protocols were activated in all 16 boroughs as soon as the sirens sounded.

The capital’s government reported one death: an elderly man in the Benito Juárez borough who fell while descending the stairs to evacuate his apartment building after the alarm. Local media said he suffered a fatal medical event shortly afterward. At least 12 other people were treated for injuries, most from trips, falls or anxiety during evacuations.

Despite the shaking, city authorities said initial inspections found no major structural failures in bridges, main roads or public hospitals. There were reports of scattered damage — a toppled light pole, a fallen tree, broken glass and minor electrical fires — but nothing comparable to the scenes from Mexico City’s most devastating quakes.

Aftershocks mount; no tsunami warning

The National Seismological Service said the earthquake reached an intensity of around VII, or “very strong,” on the Modified Mercalli scale near the epicenter. Throughout the day, the service updated its tally of aftershocks: from dozens in the first hours to more than 500 by midafternoon, and over 1,000 by late evening. The largest were in the magnitude 4 to 4.7 range.

No tsunami warning was issued. Seismologists said the quake occurred in the familiar context of the Cocos Plate subducting beneath the North American Plate along the Middle America Trench off Mexico’s Pacific coast, one of the country’s most seismically active zones.

Early test for Sheinbaum and Mexico’s alert systems

For many Mexicans, especially in the capital, the sirens and swaying buildings instantly revived memories of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands and the September 2017 quakes that crumpled apartment blocks and schools. In Guerrero, the jolt came on top of fresh memories of Hurricane Otis, which slammed into Acapulco as an unprecedented Category 5 storm in October 2023, and Hurricane Erick in 2025.

Sheinbaum, a physicist by training and former head of government of Mexico City, has cast her administration as science‑driven and focused on risk reduction. Speaking after she returned to the podium at the National Palace courtyard, she said federal authorities were in contact with Guerrero Gov. Evelyn Salgado and with Brugada in Mexico City.

“Civil protection protocols have been activated at all levels,” Sheinbaum said. “So far there are no reports of major structural collapses, but inspections are under way, especially in Guerrero.”

The moment was closely watched as one of the first major emergency tests of a presidency that began in October 2024.

Guerrero’s government said it had deployed inspection teams to dozens of municipalities across the coastal, central and mountainous regions. Salgado said early reports indicated “no grave collapses” but acknowledged “various affected homes” and one confirmed fatality near San Marcos.

The quake also served as a stress test for Mexico’s dual earthquake‑alert system.

Mexico operates one of the world’s few national seismic early‑warning networks, coordinated through the Seismic Alert System of Mexico, known by its Spanish acronym SASMEX. Sensors near the coast detect strong shaking and, when thresholds are exceeded, trigger sirens in cities farther inland, offering tens of seconds’ warning before the strongest waves arrive.

Residents and officials in Mexico City said the sirens sounded as designed on Friday, giving many people time to leave their homes, schools and offices before they felt the shaking.

More uneven was the performance of a newer cellphone‑based alert service, which the federal government has promoted as a way to extend warnings beyond siren coverage. Telecommunications authorities and civil protection officials acknowledged that not all antennas transmitted the alert correctly; some users reported receiving notifications only seconds before the shaking, or not at all.

Officials said engineers would review the system’s performance and make adjustments to antenna coverage and redundancy. The glitches reignited public debate over technological reliability and who has access to timely warnings in a country where much of the housing stock is informal or lacks engineering oversight.

A warning from the “Guerrero Gap”

The epicentral region also lies near the so‑called Brecha de Guerrero, or Guerrero Gap, a segment of the subduction zone that has not produced a very large earthquake — magnitude 7.5 or greater — in more than a century. Some researchers have warned that the area is accumulating strain and is capable of generating a major event affecting both the coast and Mexico City.

Seismologists cautioned that Friday’s 6.5‑magnitude quake, while strong locally, is far too small to release most of the accumulated energy in the gap and does not significantly change the long‑term probability of a larger earthquake. Authorities urged the public to view the event as a reminder to maintain preparedness, rather than as a sign that a “big one” had been averted or was imminent.

Since the catastrophic 1985 quake, Mexico City has steadily tightened its building codes, and many mid‑ and high‑rise structures are now designed to withstand strong shaking. But enforcement remains patchy in other parts of the country, particularly in rural and peri‑urban areas where homes are often self‑built or made from adobe and unreinforced masonry.

The contrast between the rural home that collapsed in San Marcos and the largely minor damage in modern buildings in Mexico City underscored that gap.

Inspections continue as aftershocks expected

The National Civil Protection Coordination urged residents in Guerrero and neighboring states to stay away from damaged buildings and to expect more aftershocks in coming days. It said structural evaluations would determine which homes are safe to reenter and where emergency shelter or reconstruction support would be needed.

As rescue and inspection teams moved through Guerrero’s coastal communities, the images from the National Palace — the president pausing mid‑sentence as the sirens rose, then walking out alongside reporters — continued to circulate on television and social media.

In a country accustomed to living with earthquakes, those two scenes — a controlled evacuation in the capital and a collapsed house in a small town — distilled the day’s events. The ground had moved again, and once more it revealed where Mexico’s defenses have been strengthened and where they remain dangerously fragile.