Colombia’s New Government Faces First Test as Quake Aid Delays Shrink Rescue Window

Colombia has started receiving international aid and rescue support after a period of hesitation and mixed messages that ate into the critical hours following Monday’s 7.4-magnitude earthquake. The delay has quickly become the first political flashpoint for the country’s new government under conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office only days before the quake.

Rescue experts say survival rates fall sharply after the first 72 hours, and that deadline was approaching as Colombian officials began saying yes to some international offers. Offers of help arrived quickly across the Americas, in echoes of the June response to Venezuela’s twin tremors, where international rescue groups were accepted without delay. Colombia took a far more cautious line: some offers were declined, while others were reduced to supplies or technical support.

The bottleneck appears to have been shaped by a rocky political transition. Former administration officials did not carry out a formal handover, and the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management had no permanent director until Wednesday, when David Tamayo Roldán was appointed. Sandra Borda, a political scientist at Universidad de los Andes, said it was “perfectly normal” for short circuits to occur under such conditions.

In the first 48 hours, Colombia had not filed a formal request for international support. The UN humanitarian office said its system and humanitarian actors stood ready, but spokesperson Jens Laerke said that readiness depended on receiving such a request. Mexico, which had prepared 255 military personnel and tons of supplies, also said it had not been asked to deploy. China’s ambassador to Colombia, Zhu Jingyang, urged the government to immediately name an official to coordinate assistance, saying: “We hope the Colombian Government will immediately announce the name of the official and their contact to coordinate international assistance for the earthquake victims.”

As the hours passed, coordination finally began. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said his country was sending humanitarian aid but that Colombia had requested supplies only, adding that rescue and medical personnel were not needed. Peru later confirmed it would send volunteers. The U.S. said it had mobilized search-and-rescue teams from Virginia and California after receiving a request from Colombia. The Colombian Foreign Ministry said it was preparing a list of “specific needs” and had asked the UN Development Programme for support.

Colombia’s disaster management chief said the government asked for rescue teams from only four countries: the United States, El Salvador, Ecuador and Israel — explaining that those teams held the international and national certifications required. Foreign Minister Omar Bula insisted no country offering help had been ruled out, and that cooperation was without ideological or political consideration.

But questions continued. In Cali, the emergency chief of the fire department said volunteers should not approach collapsed sites because enough specialized personnel were already at work. The Topos Tlatelolco Rescue Brigade, a Mexican group with extensive disaster experience, said Colombian authorities indicated they would not allow outside rescue groups to enter. At the same time, officials in Pereira celebrated the arrival of 19.5 tons of aid from Mexico, and President Claudia Sheinbaum said the flight included Mexican Army members to assist in the effort. “Colombia is not alone! The international community is with us,” the foreign ministry wrote on X.

The episode has become a test of the new government’s crisis management, and the missteps are likely to be examined long after the rubble is cleared. Borda said there was “deep distrust of some parts of the international community” in the new administration, and a lack of public technical evidence that national rescue teams were sufficient to handle the full scale of the damage. For now, with the search clock nearing its limit, the priority is simply getting help to where it is needed — a process that, in this response, took valuable days to start.