The shaking triggered landslides that buried some of the victims in cars on a highway just outside Bogota.
Authorities said that more than 400 houses, a church and several schools were destroyed or damaged in the quake, and several roads were blocked by landslides.
In Bogota, two buildings caught fire during the shaking. Other structures around the capital suffered cracks and telephone service was interrupted.
The earthquake struck at 2:21 p.m. from an epicenter in El Calvario, a town in central Meta, at a depth of 2.5 miles (4 km), the Colombian National Seismology Network said.
