A devastating 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico on January 2, 2026, resulting in at least two fatalities, widespread structural damage in Guerrero state, including collapsed homes and cracked buildings, landslides on highways, gas leaks, and impacts to public infrastructure such as hospitals, while intense shaking was felt across central regions including the capital.

The quake originated at approximately 7:58 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located about 14 kilometers southwest of San Marcos or near Rancho Viejo in Guerrero state, close to the Pacific coast resort city of Acapulco, at a depth of around 35 kilometers, as reported by the U.S. Geological Survey and Mexico's National Seismological Service, triggering hundreds of aftershocks in the hours following.

In Mexico City, over 400 kilometers from the epicenter, seismic alarms blared through loudspeakers and smartphone apps, prompting mass evacuations that disrupted daily life and briefly halted President Claudia Sheinbaum's morning press conference at the presidential palace, where she calmly directed an orderly exit before resuming shortly after, with minor injuries reported but no significant structural damage in the metropolis.

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The human toll included a woman in her fifties who perished when her house collapsed in a community near the epicenter in Guerrero, as announced by Governor Evelyn Salgado, alongside a man in Mexico City who suffered a fatal fall during evacuation; local officials in San Marcos described around 50 homes destroyed or severely cracked, with residents reporting visible wall fractures, fallen sections, and a sense of devastation in the affected towns.

Mexico's location at the convergence of multiple tectonic plates makes it one of the most seismically active nations globally, with advanced early warning systems providing crucial seconds for safety, yet the event evoked memories of catastrophic past quakes like the 1985 and 2017 disasters that claimed thousands of lives primarily in the capital, built on vulnerable lakebed soil that amplifies ground motion.

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