President Abelardo De La Espriella and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed two bilateral framework agreements in Barranquilla on September 8, 2026, covering critical minerals supply chains and civil nuclear cooperation, in what Rubio said was his first trip to Colombia since becoming secretary of state. The signing was held at the Batallón Paraíso, which has served as a presidential venue in Barranquilla during the visit, according to El Heraldo. It capped a day of meetings between Rubio, De La Espriella and Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar that De La Espriella framed as the start of a broader package he called the Acuerdos de Barranquilla (Barranquilla Agreements).

The first instrument, the Framework Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Colombia for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths, sets up cooperation on mineral supply-chain security. The second, the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Colombia Concerning Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation, links Colombian and American nuclear researchers, regulators and industry and supports US non-proliferation objectives. According to El Tiempo, the nuclear memorandum does not authorize any transfer of nuclear technology, which would require a separate, longer-negotiated “123 Agreement,” and Colombia becomes the 16th country to sign this kind of arrangement with Washington since 2019, following Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Ghana, the Philippines, Armenia, Kenya, Singapore, El Salvador, Malaysia, Bahrain, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Paraguay.

De La Espriella tied the agreements directly to the August 10 earthquake that struck near San José del Palmar, Chocó, and damaged municipalities in Valle del Cauca. He said the US has provided $26.5 million USD in humanitarian assistance since the disaster, calling it more support than any other country has given, and said the two governments are moving “from emergency solidarity to a long-term strategic partnership.” The US Department of State has said the aid, delivered in two tranches, covers food, health care, protection, shelter and post-earthquake structural assessments, and is channeled through groups including the International Federation of the Red Cross, the International Organization for Migration, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and World Vision, according to Portafolio.

De La Espriella described the Acuerdos de Barranquilla as organized around three goals: rebuilding earthquake-affected areas, recovering the economy and strengthening hemispheric security. On the economic side, he proposed a bilateral prosperity dialogue with specific, funded, timelined projects on infrastructure, technology, industrial rebuilding and the minerals sector, and asked Rubio to back Colombia’s access to multilateral financing instruments. He also asked for a US commercial-diplomacy commitment covering investment, funding and technology, in exchange for Colombia offering project sites, production capacity and streamlined regulation.

On security, De La Espriella again pressed for what he calls the Plan Patriota Siglo XXI (21st Century Patriot Plan), a proposal to modernize Colombia’s aircraft, drones, radar, helicopters, counter-drone systems, air defense, cybersecurity and special-forces capability, financed partly with Colombia’s own resources. He said Colombia wants to be Washington’s top hemispheric security partner and set annual, verifiable counternarcotics targets covering precursor chemicals, trafficking routes, leadership networks and money laundering. Colombia joined the Coalition of the Americas Against the Cartels, a multinational anti-cartel effort coordinated by US Southern Command and known regionally as the Escudo de las Américas (Shield of the Americas), on August 12, becoming its 19th member nation, and De La Espriella said Medellín will host the coalition’s Colombian coordination site. Rubio, for his part, said Colombia has not asked for US troops and described the cooperation instead as intelligence-sharing, equipment, target identification and specialized training, according to El Heraldo.

De La Espriella also raised Venezuela, noting the two countries share more than 2,000 kilometers of border and that instability there affects Colombian security, migration, smuggling, armed groups and energy supply; he said Colombia would cooperate with the US on regional stability “in a very responsible manner.” In a separate press appearance the same day, Rubio said Washington had raised the presence of ELN camps and other armed groups operating from Venezuelan territory with the interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez, and that the matter would also be taken up with what he called Venezuela’s future democratic government, calling the pattern of fighters crossing into Colombia to commit crimes and returning across the border “not sustainable,” according to El Tiempo. De La Espriella said the two governments had agreed to expand migration-data and biometric cooperation and border enforcement, and he asked Rubio to study reopening a US consulate in Barranquilla, which last had one years ago. On illicit finance, De La Espriella asked for expanded judicial and financial cooperation to trace and seize laundered proceeds and hidden assets tied to organized crime.

Foreign Minister Bula Escobar cast the visit in commercial terms, saying before Rubio’s arrival that Colombia would pursue “solid, constructive and mutually beneficial relations,” with particular emphasis on “economic and commercial diplomacy: attracting investment, opening markets, promoting exports, tourism, technology and innovation.” Colombia’s ambassador to Washington, María Consuelo Araújo, said in the same release that the bilateral relationship in security, commerce and culture remains “extremely important and relevant” to both countries, according to the US Embassy in Bogotá.

“We look forward not just to restoring that but building upon it and creating a golden age of relationships between our two countries and our two people.”

— Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Rubio, who first met De La Espriella years before either held his current office, said the previous four years of distance between the two governments were “not natural” given the scale of economic, cultural and personal ties between Colombia and the US. Neither side put a dollar figure on the broader minerals, infrastructure or energy commitments discussed; De La Espriella said working teams in Washington and Bogotá will develop specific projects, funding and timelines in the coming weeks.

Full remarks: the Barranquilla signing ceremony and joint statement

The following is the full text of the signing ceremony and joint statement between President Abelardo De La Espriella and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, released by the US Department of State, Office of the Spokesperson. Video of the exchange is available from the official Colombian Presidencia YouTube channel.

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Good afternoon. Good afternoon. The Presidency of Colombia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to welcome you to the ceremony of two memorandums of understanding between the Government of Colombia and the Government of the US of America.

We are pleased to have His Highness President Abelardo De La Espriella, who is the president of Colombia, that’s going to be in this act as the witness — as a witness of honor. And we would also like to greet Omar Bula Escobar, who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, and His Excellency Marco Rubio, who is the Secretary of State of the United States of America, who are going to sign both agreements.

(In English) Good afternoon. The Presidency of the Republic of Colombia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcome you to the signing ceremony of two memoranda of understanding between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the Government of the United States of America. We are honored by the presence of His Excellency Abelardo De La Espriella, President of the Republic of Colombia, who joins us as witness of honor. We also welcome His Excellency Omar Bula Escobar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, and the Honorable Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States of America, who will sign both instruments.

(In Spanish.)

(In English) We will now proceed with the signing of the first memorandum of understanding, the Framework Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Colombia for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths. (Applause.)

(The Memorandum is signed.)

(Applause.)

(Via interpreter) Okay, thank you so much. We will now proceed with the signing of the second memorandum of understanding that it’s called the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of Colombia and the United States of America about Civil Strategic Cooperation, signed by the chancellor of Colombia and the Secretary of State of the US.

(In English) We will now proceed with the signing of the second memorandum of understanding, the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Colombia Concerning Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation. (Applause.)

(The Memorandum is signed.)

(Applause.)

(Via interpreter) Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And now we were going to go to the joint declaration about the meeting between the statement between Abelardo De La Espriella and the Secretary of State of the United States Marco Rubio. And we’re going to initiate with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr. Secretary, welcome. Welcome.

SECRETARY RUBIO: (Via interpreter) Thank you so much, Mr. President. And thank you. I’m so glad — I’m so glad. I came here last time as a senator but in the last four years as a senator, and then as the Secretary of State we hadn’t traveled here. And I think that until a certain point, this is a signal of the distance that had been created between our governments, which is not natural because the relationship between Colombia and the United States is almost impossible to replicate because they are personal links, cultural links, and also — and also at the economic level. And also we also have the opportunity to restore that natural relationships that we have between our countries, but also to grow into a new stage, a new cooperation stage with our president even stronger than we had before.

We talked a lot about security, because always security is key, because without security there is no prosperity. But the opportunities that exist between Colombia and the US is much more than security because it’s the base of everything. Without security it’s impossible to operate as a country and as a society. But beyond that — because sometime people say that I — now they’re telling me I’m speaking in a low — you can hear me well, right? They say I’m speaking in a very low voice.

There is no doubt that without security a country cannot progress, and the threats to security that Colombia is facing, it’s the same things that we face in the US: the same networks, the same criminal groups that, although they commit their crimes here, they also commit crimes in the US, and they damage our people. But that’s the base. That’s the key. That’s the most relevant thing.

And because the most important role of any — of any government in any part of the world, it’s the security of its people. But above that, we can build on prosperity, which is extremely important to move forward. And also the opportunity that exists for Colombia at the economic level are huge, are amazing, and these are opportunities that Mr. President has in mind that we can work together so that it benefits both countries.

We have a lot to do because, unfortunately, this government inherited a series of disasters, bad decisions, and we feel — we feel the same when we went into power a year and a half ago. But you are facing the errors of the last four years, and you need to face this. And besides that, there was a disaster. There was an earthquake that was tragical.

But there are amazing opportunities, and we’re going to use this opportunity that we have nowadays, because the links between our two governments are so solid to ensure that not only are we going to focus on security, but this is something going to be key in our relationship, but we’re also going to focus in what we call the opportunity of creating a prosperity that helps the North American people and also helps the Colombian people.

And this relationship between our governments have a — have direct impact on the daily life of people here but also the people in the US, and especially people in the certain part of Florida where I’ve lived most of my life.

If you allow, Mr. President, I’m going to give a couple of words.

(In English) I want to say a few words in English as well. First, I want to thank the president for receiving us. It — it’s not every day — let me say in this in Spanish first. I should’ve said it earlier.

(Via interpreter) It’s not — and we’ve not always traveled to a country and we have the opportunity to exchange with chief of state that you met before they were president, before he was a politician, because of the mutual relationships that we have. And even when we were talking not long ago, the two years ago when we were in the same — we were in the same table at a wedding in the southern part of Florida. That’s why this is a place where the president of the — the president is someone that I’ve met at a personal level. And then he went crazy and decided to become a politician and decided to turn president.

(In English) So I think that it’s unusual that you travel to a country that you meet with a head of state and a president who you’ve actually known for years before he was president, before he was even in politics. And as I was joking, when he lost his mind and went into politics, and — but he’s going to do a great job for this country, and I know that. I know that from what I know about him from before he was president. This is a man of energy. This is a man of strength. This is a man of vision and of courage because he’s confronting a very difficult situation. He has inherited many disasters.

Obviously, the country faces the aftermath of a natural disaster in an earthquake, but he also faces a disaster that’s institutional, that goes through four years of very bad management and that, frankly, harmed the relationship between the United States and Colombia, something that simply is not natural. The United States and Colombia have a strong bond that exists well beyond just the cooperation of our governments. It’s a strong economic bond. It’s a strong cultural bond. It’s a strong people-to-people bond, a social bond.

I can tell you personally, having lived in south Florida the majority of my life, how we follow so closely the events that happen in Colombia, because it has a direct impact on life in south Florida and ultimately in our country. This is the natural state of things, is for the US and Colombia to be strong allies and strong partners, and the last four years is an aberration between our governments. But that is changing as well.

Clearly, the most important obligation of any government is to provide for the security of their people. It’s the number one obligation, and that is certainly an issue that you will confront here and that I am confident the president and his team are very serious about, and we’re going to do everything we can to help you.

But security is the basic and most important requirement of a government, but prosperity follows closely behind it, and that is opportunity of a country and an economy that provides the opportunity for upward mobility and prosperity for all of its people. And we believe we have a lot we can do together in the field of energy, in the field of trade, in the field of commerce, that allows both countries to benefit: the people of the United States, who I work for, and the people of Colombia, who the president works for and his team works for.

So I’m excited that after not having been here for a while, to be back, to be back with someone I know so well as president, who I know has a great vision and energy for the future, and excited to be back in a country that has been our strongest ally and partner in the region for many, many years. And we look forward not just to restoring that but building upon it and creating a golden age of relationships between our two countries and our two people.

Muchas gracias. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT DE LA ESPRIELLA: Thank you.

(Via interpreter) A very special welcome to all of you today. Barranquilla has been the scenario of a very strategic conversation for the present and for the future of Colombia and of our relationship with the United States of America. To welcome the Secretary of State Marco Rubio here in the Colombian Caribbean has a very special meaning, because Barranquilla has been historically the Golden Door of Colombia to the world and represents an absolute conviction of my government because Colombia, it’s not just governed from Bogotá, Colombia; it’s governed from its regions.

I would like to thank Secretary Rubio. His presence — we are honored by his presence. He has been an inspiration for this battle for democracy, institutionality, and freedom because there is no Latino in the world that doesn’t feel represented by Marco Rubio, that has always done things the best way possible. And with regards to our community, that’s why I thank you so much, Mr. Secretary of State. It’s a pride and honor to have you here in the land of Barranquilla.

I also would like to publicly acknowledge the solidarity of the US Government after the earthquake that we endured on August 10th. They have helped us with $26.5 million USD in humanitarian assistance, and besides all of what they are doing regarding the fires that people are suffering near Tolima. No country in the world has helped as much as the United States, and today we’re giving a step forward. We are not going back from the solidarity in the emergency, to a very strategic partnership, a long-term strategic partnership.

From this meeting there is a guideline that we’ve called the Barranquilla agreements, and they follow three main topics that are highly relevant for our country and for the hemisphere. We are going to rebuild the homeland, we are going to recover the economy, and we are going to protect the hemisphere. And we’re initiating a historical and close relationship that was interrupted during four years, but it has always been there in the deeper areas, in the deeper basis of Colombia, because the United States has been our partner. We have been their ally and partner, and when the United States and Colombia have worked together, the only thing that we have had, it’s development, security, and progress.

The main purpose of this agreement, it’s the rebuilding and the economic recovery. The earthquake left huge challenges in households, in bridges, utilities, and in productive capacity. We were thinking where we wanted to work on cooperation, investment, and funding mechanisms, including the International Development Corporation, other agencies, the private sectors and companies from both countries. We would like to attract investments to the infrastructure, energy, households energy, and the productive reconstruction Colombia is also going to do (inaudible) because we are going to do what we have to do regarding fiscal discipline, the legal certainty, efficiency, expanding better investment conditions.

In the same way, I requested Mr. Secretary of State to accompany us before multilateral organisms to enable instruments that allow us to fund these transitions without sacrificing the economic transition of our countries.

We are proposing to the US a partnership where Colombia puts project territories, productive capabilities, resources, and clear rules and regulations (inaudible) the US supports investments funding technologies and business capability.

Other of the important points, it’s shared prosperity. I have proposed Mr. Secretary to have this bilateral prosperity dialogue with very specific projects with — that has funding, timelines that our teams in Washington are going to continue developing. We identified some policies regarding infrastructure, technology, industry, rebuilding, and also rare minerals, which is the treatment we’ve just signed. Colombia has access to two oceans, has the strategic resources and human talent. We need to turn all those opportunities that Colombia has in investments and productive chains, in manufacturing and also in employment for our people.

Another very important point, it’s security in the struggle against drug terrorism. Colombia wants to become the first hemispheric security partner with the US, and we’re going to be the partner number one in South America. The 21st century requires new capabilities. That’s why we have proposed to the government, and I said it once again today, the Patriot Plan 21st century is to update airplanes, drones, radars, helicopters, anti-drone systems, aerial defense, mobility, intelligence, cyber defense, special forces, and the maintenance and the operationality. We’re going to have our own resource and we hope to build together capabilities to be able to face sophisticated threats.

But at the same time, we need the support — we need the support, a push from the United States, and we’re going to work in a very decisive manner in our fight against drug trafficking. We’re going to start with — we’re going to go through the precursors, we’re going to go through the pathways, we’re going to go through the leaders, we’re going to go to the narco-terrorists, we’re going to go through the money laundering and other criminal equity and also those international networks that are a huge challenge not only for the hemisphere but also for humankind. Colombia, it’s ready to have annual quotas, verifiable indicators, and very specific agreements. We’re going to do what we are (inaudible), and with that basis we want to have a co-responsibility that is effective for both countries.

Another important thing — it’s the Shield of the Americas. We’re already operational. Colombia is going to fulfill its responsibilities. We’re going to have the site in Medellín, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to be able to attack and to be able to give them the place that they deserve, which is either a prison or a tomb. And I say it: If a criminal doesn’t — if a criminal doesn’t follow the law, he is not going to get it his way.

And we also talked about Venezuela because we share more than 2,000 kilometers of borders with the neighboring country, and everything that happens in Venezuela has a direct consequence in Colombia regarding security, migration, smuggling, armed groups, and also energy. Colombia will participate along with the United States in a very responsible manner in the focused efforts to be able to ensure regional stability and will delve on trans-border cooperation, migration, and security. Our interest, Mr. Secretary of State, it’s that we each have institutionality, stability, and also security. We want to avoid any type of issue.

Another very important point that I mentioned to Mr. Secretary, it’s our foreign policy is based on a main policy. It’s that Colombia relates with the world from its own national interests. It has sovereignty, autonomy, pragmatism, and also a long-term vision, and this is where we’re perfectly tuned with the United States. We have now resources, geographic positions, human talent, and also very strategic assets. Our diplomacy needs to turn those strengths in opportunities to be able to become the best partners of the US. And we’re going to do it, Mr. Secretary, because this is a new rebirth.

Another very important topic, it’s migration and the rule of law. We agreed to delve on migration — more migration cooperation, exchange of information, biometric tools, identifying of the people (inaudible) to struggle against the migrants’ networks, and also the strengthening of border controls. Our idea, it’s that legal migration and — legal, safe, and organized migration, because our principle, it’s the same one that the United States shared. We’re not against migration. We’re against illegal migration, which is something different.

And there is a topic that it’s very close to my heart, and I said, Mr. Secretary, you know that many years ago we had — we had a consulate. And I said, hey, as the son of this region, I said if you can please open a consular office in Barranquilla, the alternate capital city of Colombia. And we are — we want a venue. We would like to consider it if possible, Mr. Secretary, because it’s been something that we’ve expected for years. First we had a consular office in Barranquilla, and then they took — and they removed the one from Barranquilla. The idea, it’s to go back to things as were before, and we hope to have here in Barranquilla the American consular office.

And once again, a topic that it’s also close to my heart, it’s cooperation to follow the path of the money. We would like to see what’s money laundering resources that come from resources and hidden assets, strengthening judicial cooperation and financial cooperation. All of this, it’s going to be under the evidence of the framework of law, due process, and the respect for institutions, because to catch criminals, it’s not enough. We also need to strike the money that supports those financial structures. We need to affect the pocket of the criminals because it will hurt them.

This was a very deep, cordial, strategic conversation. Not only are we talking about the United States can do for Colombia, we also talked about what Colombia and the United States can do together for the hemisphere, because Colombia contributes a geographic position, strategic resources, productive capability, human talent, a very experienced armed forces, and a government that is committed. And we would — wanted this — this new stage to start here in Barranquilla, in the Colombian Caribbean, and in the region. The Barranquilla agreements need to turn into projects, investments, and cooperation.

In the security and also specific outcomes, we need to rebuild the homeland. We need to recover the economy. We need to protect the hemisphere. As of now, our teams will start to work to turn those expectations, those desires, those projects, and realities. May God bless the United States of America. May God bless Colombia today more than ever. Thank you. (Applause.)

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary of State. We — in this way, we are fulfilling the agenda of Mr. Marco Rubio to the city of Barranquilla. Thank you so much.

Headline photo: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella and Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar at the signing ceremony in Barranquilla on September 8, 2026. (Photo courtesy Presidencia de Colombia via YouTube)

“Japan is looking at Colombia again, and we are ready to capitalize on that confidence.”

— Mauricio Gómez Amín, Colombia’s minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism

Gómez Amín, who leads the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MinCIT), met separately with Toshiro Ino, Japan’s state minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, and with Hiroshi Nanbu, president of Business Planning and Operation at Toyota. The trip is part of President Abelardo de la Espriella’s administration’s push to attract long-term Japanese investment and generate employment.

With Ino, Gómez Amín advanced an agenda to reactivate and conclude the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Colombia and Japan, an accord intended to open Colombian agroindustry to Japanese investment and technology transfer. The two countries began negotiating the EPA in December 2012. 16 of its 18 chapters have been agreed, but two — rules of origin and market access — remain unresolved, and the talks were suspended in 2021, according to Colombia’s embassy in Tokyo. El Tiempo reported that Colombia and Japan reactivated the negotiation in September 2025, when then-President Gustavo Petro and then-Trade Minister Diana Marcela Morales Rojas met their Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of Expo Osaka 2025.

“Japan is looking at Colombia again, and we are ready to capitalize on that confidence,” Gómez Amín said.

The Toyota meeting revisited a relationship of more than five decades. The first Toyota vehicles reached Colombia in 1959, and the company formalized a local distributor in 1967. Sofasa, the assembler that has long built Renault vehicles in Envigado, Antioquia, signed a letter of intent with Toyota in 1989; assembly of Land Cruisers and Hilux pickups began in 1992 and continued for 17 years, before Toyota exited its stake in the plant. In Tokyo, the Colombian government invited Toyota to expand its footprint into the assembly of hybrid and electric vehicles, along with charging infrastructure and the development of local suppliers.

The government describes the push as an effort to draw on Colombia’s talent, strategic location and existing conditions to build a regional production and investment platform. Gómez Amín said the goal is to put Bogotá “on the world map of investments, strengthening relations with a region that for years looked favorably on Colombia,” according to comments carried by El Tiempo.

Japan is the largest Asia-Pacific source of foreign direct investment in Colombia. Japanese investment flows into the country totaled $562.7 million USD between 2010 and 2021, or 32.9 percent of all Asia-Pacific investment Colombia received in that period, ahead of China (21.2 percent) and Australia (14.6 percent), according to the Colombian embassy in Tokyo.

The Tokyo meetings produced no signed agreement and no specific investment commitment from Toyota; both would require further negotiation that the two governments have not scheduled publicly.

Headline photo: Colombia’s Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Mauricio Gómez Amín (right) and Japan’s State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshiro Ino, in Tokyo. (Photo courtesy MinCIT)

Colombia’s government told its Pacific Alliance partners this week that it will send Congress the bloc’s free-trade agreement with Singapore, a step meant to bring Bogotá into line with Chile and Peru, where the pact has been in force since May 2025.

The pledge came at the first meeting of the Alliance’s High-Level Group hosted by Mexico since it took over the bloc’s rotating presidency from Colombia earlier this year. The Grupo de Alto Nivel (High-Level Group, or GAN) — the vice ministers of foreign trade and foreign relations from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru — met August 20 and 21, 2026, in Mexico City, in a session that photos released by the Alliance place inside Mexico’s Secretaría de Economía (Ministry of Economy).

Colombia’s vice minister of foreign trade, Sandra Carvajal Sáenz, told her counterparts that President Abelardo de la Espriella’s government would submit the Pacific Alliance-Singapore agreement to Congress for the legislative and Constitutional Court review that Colombian treaties require before they can take effect. Singapore, Chile and Peru completed those procedures and put the deal into force on May 3, 2025, three years after it was signed at a Pacific Alliance presidential summit in Colombia; Mexico and Colombia are the two Alliance members that have yet to ratify it.

The High-Level Group’s agenda covered four areas. On regional value chains and regulatory cooperation, the vice ministers looked for ways to integrate production across the four countries and cut the regulatory barriers that keep exporters from adding value before selling into outside markets. On public-private coordination, they discussed concrete steps to link the bloc’s technical working groups with governments and with the private-sector Consejo Empresarial de la Alianza del Pacífico (Pacific Alliance Business Council, or CEAP). On small and medium-sized enterprises, the goal is turning those businesses into a bigger driver of the bloc’s trade and growth. And on trade promotion, the vice ministers discussed how the four countries’ promotion agencies affect trade, investment and tourism, and agreed those agencies need to be a governmental priority. Carvajal told her counterparts Colombia was “fully willing to work hard, constructively and decisively with our Pacific Alliance partners to actively contribute to this integration mechanism having an increasingly tangible impact on our economies and, above all, on generating jobs and opportunities for our citizens.”

The vice ministers’ meeting followed a forum the CEAP held on attracting foreign investment to the bloc’s four economies. Speaking on behalf of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Mauricio Gómez Amín, Carvajal said legal and regulatory stability — along with tools such as free-trade zones and trade-facilitation mechanisms — are priorities for the ministry. Gómez Amín made the same point in an August 10 statement from the ministry announcing his appointment: “Colombia needs clear rules, legal certainty and a government that sees business as an ally, not an adversary,” he said. “We are working to unblock projects and bring domestic and foreign capital into infrastructure, logistics, energy, connectivity, agribusiness, tourism and exportable services.”

Carvajal is one of two vice ministers Gómez Amín swore in on August 14, 2026, alongside Manuel Alejandro Naranjo Giraldo as vice minister of business development, El Heraldo reported. She joined the ministry after 17 years at ProColombia and, most recently, as the Caribbean regional manager for the exporters’ association Analdex. Gómez Amín, a Barranquilla lawyer and former senator, took over the ministry after de la Espriella’s government was sworn in this year, El Tiempo reported.

Mexico assumed the Pacific Alliance’s rotating presidency from Colombia on January 30, 2026, after Colombia closed out its own term with the signing of the Bogotá Act. The bloc, created in 2012 by the presidents of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru to pursue free movement of goods, services, capital and people among its members, is also working through Costa Rica’s bid to join, a process that began when Alliance ministers accepted San José’s candidacy in December 2024, under Chile’s presidency, and has continued through working-group sessions on framework-agreement compliance and trade-protocol negotiations since.

Carvajal used the Mexico City trip to also hold separate bilateral meetings with counterparts from Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile and Peru, the ministry said.

Headline photo: Vice ministers of foreign trade and foreign relations from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru meet as the Pacific Alliance’s High-Level Group at Mexico’s Secretaría de Economía in Mexico City, August 21, 2026. (Photo courtesy Pacific Alliance)

De la Espriella confirmed the appointment Monday, August 17, after the US government granted diplomatic approval for Araújo’s nomination.

“I have just been notified by the US Embassy in Colombia that approval has been granted for the person I nominated as Colombia’s ambassador to the United States. I am pleased to inform the country that my good friend, someone I have trusted and held dear for many years, will be the new Colombian ambassador to the United States: María Consuelo Araújo Castro,” De la Espriella said in a message posted on social media.

Araújo will take on one of the main foreign policies challenges De la Espriella has emphasized since his presidential campaign: strengthening relations with the United States following tensions under the previous government and coordinating economic, trade and security matters with President Donald Trump’s administration.

A relationship De la Espriella seeks to strengthen

The rapprochement between the two governments began during the first days of Colombia’s new administration.

On August 8, one day after De la Espriella took office, the US government announced plans to provide a $1 billion aid package to Colombia, which still requires approval from the US Congress. That came in addition to $15.5 million offered by the State Department for emergency shelter, food and protection for victims of the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck August 10.

Read “United States Pledges $1 Billion in Security Assistance to Colombia’s New de la Espriella Government.”

Security cooperation is also playing a central role in the renewed bilateral relationship. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday, August 12, that the Colombian government had authorized joint military operations to combat narcoterrorism, which would make Colombia the fourth country in the region to give the green light to operations involving US forces.

Colombia also joined the Shield of the Americas (Escudo de las Américas) initiative, which brings together right-wing governments in the region to confront threats including terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational organized crime.

On the economic front, De la Espriella said he had already held a roughly 10-minute phone call with Trump.

“I deeply thanked him for all the economic assistance and the support of US rescue teams in the face of the tragedy we are experiencing. President Trump also expressed his condolences for the victims of the earthquake and his solidarity with the Colombian families affected. I told him that we have an enormous challenge ahead: rebuilding Colombia amid the very difficult and apocalyptic economic situation I inherited,” De la Espriella said on X.

The Colombian president also said he used the conversation to raise one of the main outstanding trade issues between the two countries.

“I also asked him to consider temporarily suspending the high tariffs affecting Colombian products in order to provide relief to our businesses, which are facing very difficult circumstances because of the effects of the earthquake,” he added.

Araújo will therefore arrive in Washington with talks between the two governments already underway and with reducing or suspending US tariffs on Colombian products among the key issues on her agenda.

A former foreign minister returns to diplomacy despite family ties to paramilitary scandals

Araújo has an extensive career in the public sector and comes from a political family in the northern Colombian department of Cesar, with longstanding ties to the Partido Liberal, one of Colombia’s traditional political parties and now part of De la Espriella’s governing coalition.

According to her professional profile, she studied finance and international relations at Universidad Externado de Colombia and completed postgraduate studies in government, management and public affairs at Columbia University in New York.

During former President Álvaro Uribe’s administration, she served as culture minister from 2002 to 2006 and later became foreign minister during his second term.

Araújo resigned as foreign minister in 2007 amid the “parapolitics” scandal, which involved members of her family. Her brother, former Partido Liberal congressman Álvaro Araújo Castro, and her cousin Hernando Molina Araújo, a former governor of Cesar, were convicted. Her father, Álvaro Araújo Noguera, also faced criminal proceedings over an alleged kidnapping, although the case was later closed and he was released.

The new ambassador has also held several positions in Bogotá’s city government, including director of the Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte (IDRD), head of the Secretaría Distrital de Integración Social and general manager of TransMilenio, the capital’s public transportation system, during the administration of then-Mayor Enrique Peñalosa.

In 2026, she became executive president of the Cámara Colombiana de la Infraestructura (CCI), a position she held until her appointment as ambassador to the United States.

Her arrival in Washington marks a return to the forefront of Colombian foreign policy nearly two decades after her tenure as foreign minister. Araújo will assume the diplomatic post as the new government seeks to rapidly deepen ties with the Trump administration, expand cooperation on security and economic assistance and, at the same time, secure trade relief for Colombian exports affected by US tariffs.

The election took place during a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, with 269 of the 286 members of Congress participating: 95 senators and 174 representatives. The other 17 lawmakers either did not attend the session or abstained from voting.

Laverde, a lawyer with ties to the Partido Liberal, had served since 2015 as secretary of the Senate’s Sixth Committee, which handles matters related to public services, transportation, education, communications and technological development.

He will now lead the Contraloría General de la República, Colombia’s highest fiscal oversight body, for four years. His main responsibilities will include overseeing the management of public funds and assets, determining fiscal liability when resources are misused and pursuing proceedings aimed at recovering state funds.

“We will adopt global standards to pursue assets and fight corruption anywhere in the world. We will be the home of transparency and a technical institution at the service of the Colombian people,” Laverde said after his election.

“I will defend all citizens under an unwavering premise: zero political persecution, zero impunity. The Contraloría will not be a political weapon, but it will have all the resolve and authority necessary to punish, without distinction, anyone who touches public funds,” he added.

An election without direct government backing

Laverde’s candidacy received support from several parties backing the new government, although neither Salvación Nacional, De la Espriella’s party, nor the executive branch directly participated in selecting the candidate.

The president and his interior minister, Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, chose to remain on the sidelines to avoid becoming involved in another political dispute with the opposition after the executive branch suffered a defeat in the election of the Senate president at the beginning of the new legislative term.

Lara publicly acknowledged the government’s decision not to participate in the comptroller general election and urged its allies not to strike deals with or support the Pacto Histórico, which he described as an “opposition party and enemy of the government.” A similar situation occurred during the election of the Senate president, when the government lost because of an alliance between the Centro Democrático and the opposition Pacto Histórico, led by former President Gustavo Petro.

Laverde’s candidacy, however, ultimately drew support from different political sectors.

Before the vote, the Centro Democrático, Partido Liberal, Partido Conservador, Partido de la U and Cambio Radical issued a joint letter saying Laverde possessed “the highest professional, technical and personal qualifications to exercise this important responsibility,” backed by “a recognized career, extensive experience and deep knowledge of public affairs.”

Even the Pacto Histórico, the main left-wing opposition force led by former President Gustavo Petro, announced its support for Laverde hours before the vote.

“Our decision responds to the need for an independent, transparent Contraloría that firmly defends public resources,” the congressional bloc said on Facebook.

A key position in the system of checks and balances

Although Laverde received the backing of parties allied with the executive branch, his election also puts Colombia’s system of separation of powers and checks and balances to the test.

The Contraloría General de la República is the state’s highest fiscal oversight body, primarily responsible for ensuring that public resources and assets are managed efficiently and transparently and for determining liability when they are misused.

Its oversight extends to resources administered by the different branches of government, including the executive branch headed by De la Espriella, as well as Congress and the judiciary. The election of the comptroller general is therefore particularly sensitive for any administration because the officeholder must exercise fiscal oversight over the national government throughout the four-year term.

The election takes on additional significance in the current political landscape: Although the new government has allies in Congress, no political force holds a sufficient majority on its own, requiring agreements among different parties to secure major legislative and institutional decisions.

Before joining Congress, Laverde worked as a judicial attorney at the Procuraduría Regional de Risaralda and served as a member of the Caldas Departmental Assembly, in his home department.

His more than a decade working inside Congress has given him extensive knowledge of how the legislative branch operates. Since 2015, he had served as secretary of the Senate’s Sixth Committee, a position from which he participated in the consideration of initiatives involving some of the country’s major areas of public policy.

That career now presents a significant shift in responsibilities: After more than 10 years working within Congress, Laverde will lead one of the institutions responsible for overseeing the use of public resources, including those administered by the same branch of government where he previously worked.

“Colombia recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara,” Bula Escobar said at the meeting. Restrepo described the announcement as “a new beginning” for the two countries and called Morocco “Colombia’s first ally in Africa,” adding that Bogotá wants to build a strategic partnership with Rabat. Restrepo also raised the possibility of negotiating a free trade agreement to encourage Moroccan investment in Colombia, though no such talks have formally begun.

Colombia reconoció la soberanía de Marruecos sobre el Sáhara Occidental.

El anuncio se dio durante el primer encuentro del vicepresidente José Manuel Restrepo (@jrestrp) y el canciller Omar Bula (@omarbula) con el Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores del país africano.

Con esta… pic.twitter.com/aas0pirwSc

— Cancillería Colombia (@CancilleriaCol) August 8, 2026

Two days later, Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the Cancillería) issued a formal statement confirming the decision followed a “sovereign review” of the recognition its predecessor government had granted to the entity it calls the República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, or SADR), noting that the United Nations does not recognize it as a member state. Bogotá said it would freeze all political and diplomatic contact with the SADR, halt exchanges of missions, and withdraw support for it in multilateral forums, “including the United Nations and the Security Council, where Colombia currently serves as a non-permanent member.” The ministry identified trade, investment promotion, tourism, food security, port and logistics development, and Atlantic connectivity as areas it wants to expand with Morocco.

A colonial-era dispute still unresolved

Western Sahara has been contested since Spain withdrew from its former colony in 1975. Morocco organized the “Green March” that year, sending hundreds of thousands of civilians into the territory to press its claim, and has administered most of it since. The Polisario Front, an armed movement representing the territory’s indigenous Sahrawi population, fought Morocco and declared a government-in-exile, the SADR, in 1976. A 1991 ceasefire monitored by the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) held for nearly three decades without the referendum ever taking place; fighting between Morocco and the Polisario Front resumed in November 2020 and has continued intermittently since. Morocco controls roughly the western three-quarters of the territory, separated from the Polisario-administered “Free Zone” to the east by a fortified sand berm running the length of the territory. Morocco has offered the region autonomy under its sovereignty since 2007; the Polisario Front continues to demand a UN-supervised independence referendum.

A widening diplomatic tilt toward Rabat

Colombia’s move follows a broader realignment in Morocco’s favor. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2797 on October 31, 2025, renewing the MINURSO mandate and, for the first time, calling on the parties to negotiate on the basis of Morocco’s autonomy proposal as the most “feasible” path to a settlement. Eleven Council members voted in favor; China, Russia and Pakistan abstained, and Algeria — not a Council member at the time — did not take part. Morocco’s foreign ministry says more than 130 countries now back the autonomy plan as the most realistic basis for resolving the dispute, and only about a dozen of the African Union’s 54 members still recognize the SADR. Mali withdrew its recognition of the SADR in April 2026 and Ecuador suspended its own in 2024; Peru ended its recognition in 2023. Colombia’s reversal extends that trend into what had been one of the Polisario Front’s remaining strongholds in Latin America.

For Morocco, Colombia’s recognition is a further diplomatic gain and another setback for Algeria, the Polisario Front’s principal regional backer. It also positions Rabat as an intermediary between Latin American and African markets, a role Bourita highlighted directly, saying Morocco and Colombia “could represent economic platforms for each other” given their respective positions on the two continents. He described Colombia’s decision as “historic,” saying it could give “great momentum” to bilateral relations, and said his presence in Cali reflected the Kingdom’s intent to elevate ties “to a higher level.”

“A regrettable quid pro quo arrangement driven by a deeply ideological agenda.” — Polisario Front, in a statement condemning Colombia’s decision

The Polisario Front rejected the decision. In a statement carried by Moroccan outlet Yabiladi, the movement said it “strongly condemned” Colombia’s move, calling it “a regrettable quid pro quo arrangement driven by a deeply ideological agenda” that helps “legitimize a situation resulting from the military occupation of a territory that remains subject to a decolonization process.” The Front argued the decision conflicts with Article 9 of Colombia’s own constitution, which grounds the country’s foreign relations in respect for international law and peoples’ right to self-determination, and said it undermines “Colombia’s international role as an important actor in the pursuit of peace.” It called on Bogotá to reconsider. Algeria has long framed the dispute as a matter of “incomplete decolonization and an unfulfilled right to self-determination,” and has backed the Polisario Front diplomatically and militarily for decades.

Why Colombia had not recognized Morocco’s claim before

Colombia’s position on Western Sahara has shifted with its governments for four decades. Bogotá first recognized the SADR in 1985 under President Belisario Betancur, then froze those ties in 2001 under President Andrés Pastrana. President Gustavo Petro restored full diplomatic relations with the SADR in August 2022, shortly after taking office, framing it as support for Sahrawi self-determination consistent with his government’s broader identification with Global South and non-aligned foreign-policy positions. Petro reaffirmed that stance as recently as November 2025, pledging what he called “unrestricted” support for the Sahrawi cause and linking it to Colombia’s arrival on the UN Security Council for a two-year term beginning in 2026.

That position did not survive the change of government. De la Espriella, a right-of-center former defense lawyer who took office August 7, had campaigned on unwinding Petro’s foreign policy, and moved quickly on more than one front: alongside the Western Sahara reversal, his government also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and moved to restore ties with Israel, becoming only the second country after the United States to do so. Colombia’s recognition of Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara is best read in that context — less a response to new facts in the territory than a marker of where the incoming administration wants to position Colombia internationally, closer to Washington, Jerusalem and Rabat and further from the non-aligned coalition Petro had cultivated.

What remains untested is the commercial follow-through. Restrepo’s reference to a possible free trade agreement was aspirational rather than an announcement of negotiations, and the Colombian and Moroccan governments have yet to lay out a timeline for the trade, investment, port-logistics and Atlantic-connectivity cooperation both sides say they want to pursue.

The city of Medellín will welcome an evening of blues, jazz and soul on Friday, September 4, as the Centro Colombo Americano Medellín and Teatro El Tesoro present Noche de Blues, Jazz y Soul en El Tesoro. Scheduled for 7:00 p.m., the performance will bring together US vocalists Jillian Harrison-Jones and Sandy Lomax with the Big Band de Medellín for an evening centered on music’s ability to connect people across cultures and generations.

The concert will feature enduring classics including Misty, How High the Moon and Green Dolphin Street, alongside other selections from the blues, jazz and soul repertoire. The organizers describe the evening as a celebration of music’s ability to elevate the human spirit, inspire audiences and create connections across generations.

The principal artist, Jillian Harrison-Jones, is a US vocalist, choir director, educator and cultural ambassador whose career has taken her to audiences across the United States and internationally. Known for her expressive interpretation and ability to connect with audiences, Harrison-Jones combines performance with a broader commitment to music education and cultural exchange.

She will be joined by guest artist Sandy Lomax, an internationally active US jazz vocalist whose career has taken her from clubs and concert halls in Indiana to audiences throughout Europe and the United States. Lomax is recognized for her warm and expressive vocal style and ability to move naturally between jazz, blues and contemporary styles. Her career has also included work as an actress and producer.

The Colombian component of the collaboration comes from the Big Band de Medellín, an ensemble with a history dating back to 1988. Founded by Dr. Ricardo Uribe together with musicians Luis Uribe Espitia, Juancho Vargas and Jaime Uribe, the group has performed at important venues in Medellín, including the Teatro Metropolitano. Its repertoire encompasses classic big-band jazz from the 1940s and 1950s, contemporary arrangements, Latin jazz and Colombian music adapted for the ensemble.

The Centro Colombo Americano Medellín is a binational nonprofit organization dedicated to educational and cultural exchange between Colombia and the United States. Through English-language education, arts programming and cultural initiatives, the organization provides a platform for Colombians and Americans to engage through shared educational and artistic experiences.

The performance will take place at Teatro El Tesoro, located within the El Tesoro complex in Medellín. Ticket prices range from $67,500 COP for upper balcony seating to $108,000 COP for central seating, with side seating priced at $94,500 COP and balcony seating at $81,000 COP.

Members of the Colombo Americano Medellín community can receive a 10% discount on tickets by using the code COLOMBOTESORO at checkout.

The event will take place on Friday, September 4, at 7:00 p.m. at Teatro El Tesoro in Medellín.

Tickets are available through Tuboleta.

Jazz performers Jillian Harrison-Jones and Sandy Lomax

Headline photo: Noches de Blues y Soul poster.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia at 7:34 a.m. local time on August 10, with an epicenter about 3 miles (5 kilometers) east of San José del Palmar in the department of Chocó, roughly 150 miles (241 kilometers) from Bogotá, according to the US Geological Survey and Colombia’s Servicio Geológico Colombiano (Colombian Geological Survey). The quake originated at a depth of more than 100 kilometers, classifying it as a deep intraslab event tied to the Nazca Plate’s subduction beneath the South American Plate. Tremors were felt as far away as Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru.

As of August 12, Colombian authorities had confirmed more than 188 deaths, over 1,600 injuries, 222 people missing, and 260 people still trapped in debris, according to the Unidad Nacional de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (National Disaster Risk Management Unit, UNGRD) and figures reported by El Tiempo; earlier tallies from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put damaged homes at close to 5,000, with 61 buildings collapsed and more than 550 schools and 24 health facilities affected across roughly 16 departments. Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío sustained the heaviest damage. President Abelardo De La Espriella declared a national disaster, invoked an economic emergency, and decreed three days of national mourning.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry, the Cancillería, installed an international cooperation command post led by Foreign Minister Omar Bula to field and coordinate offers of assistance from foreign governments and multilateral organizations. Vice President José Manuel Restrepo said more than 12 countries had formally pledged humanitarian aid or rescue personnel, and that multilateral institutions alone had presented cooperation proposals totaling $1.3 billion USD in assistance of various kinds. “We have already received proposals worth $1.3 billion USD in cooperation of various kinds from multilateral organizations in the midst of this tragedy,” Restrepo said.

“We have already received proposals worth $1.3 billion USD in cooperation of various kinds from multilateral organizations in the midst of this tragedy.” — José Manuel Restrepo, Vice President of Colombia

United States

The US Department of State said it mobilized an initial $15.5 million USD in emergency shelter, food, and protection assistance, along with post-earthquake structural assessments, according to an August 11 media note from the department’s Office of the Spokesperson. The funding is being channeled through five partner organizations: Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Miyamoto International, the UN World Food Programme, and World Vision. Of the total, $3 million USD routed through CRS draws on funding already committed under a separate, previously announced global assistance award to that organization, meaning it does not represent new incremental spending beyond what State had already budgeted for CRS programming.

The department also activated a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), a standing mechanism of humanitarian specialists drawn from across the State Department, with members arriving in Colombia the day of the earthquake to coordinate needs assessments and the broader US government response alongside embassy personnel in Bogotá.

Separately from the new $15.5 million USD package, the State Department noted that as part of its existing $3.8 billion USD contribution to OCHA, the United States had previously provided $200 million USD to the Colombia Pooled Fund, a standing mechanism OCHA can draw on for earthquake-related needs as well as humanitarian programming in Colombia that predates the earthquake. That $200 million USD figure reflects prior funding availability rather than a new pledge tied specifically to the August 10 disaster.

On consular matters, the US Embassy in Bogotá remained open and continued providing emergency and routine passport, notarial, and consular services; its consular agency in Barranquilla also remained open. The embassy advised American citizens in Colombia to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at step.state.gov and to follow [@USEmbassyBogota](profile/USEmbassyBogota) and [@TravelGov](profile/TravelGov) on social media for security updates. US citizens seeking assistance can reach the Bureau of Consular Affairs at 888-407-4747 from within the United States, or +1-202-501-4444 from other locations.

Multilateral development banks

The World Bank disposed $200,000 USD in a non-reimbursable grant, without an associated credit line, to fund post-earthquake damage assessments. Susana Cordeiro Guerra, the World Bank’s vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, offered technical expertise drawn from the institution’s experience responding to disasters elsewhere, in addition to the grant.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved $500,000 USD in non-reimbursable technical cooperation funding, of which $350,000 USD was made immediately available to the Colombian Red Cross and $150,000 USD earmarked for technical support, Restrepo said. Separately, IDB Group President Ilan Goldfajn said the institution has up to $300 million USD in contingent emergency financing available to Colombia should the government request it; wire reports including CNBC and CBC cited a related figure of $50 million USD as immediately available for reconstruction support, reflecting different tranches or reporting of the same contingent facility.

CAF, the Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe (Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean), pledged $500,000 USD in humanitarian donations to be channeled through its Social and Human Development Funds, CAF executive president Sergio Díaz-Granados said.

European Union

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced €2.1 million EUR in humanitarian funding for health, water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, food, protection, and cash assistance in the hardest-hit areas, according to the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO). The European Union activated its Civil Protection Mechanism, which pools resources among the bloc’s 27 member states, and deployed its Copernicus satellite mapping service to support damage assessment. A further €100,000 EUR was reallocated from an existing EU-funded project implemented by the German Red Cross to meet immediate needs of roughly 2,500 families in Chocó and Valle del Cauca.

Switzerland

The Swiss government approved 1 million CHF (about $1.23 million USD) in aid, with half directed to the UN World Food Programme and local nongovernmental organizations for emergency assistance and the remainder allocated to restoring living conditions in destroyed areas, according to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Swiss President Guy Parmelin offered solidarity with Colombia the day of the earthquake.

Spain

Spain’s Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development, AECID) mobilized an initial €1 million EUR package covering shelter materials, water and sanitation kits, medication, and support for deployed health personnel, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said. Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported no confirmed Spanish fatalities as of August 12, though it had not yet located 75 Spanish nationals believed to have been in the affected region.

El Salvador

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, dispatched two aircraft carrying 100 tons of humanitarian aid along with medical and rescue teams, according to the Presidencia de la República de El Salvador (Presidency of the Republic of El Salvador).

Ecuador

Ecuador’s Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility) sent 47 rescuers with canine units and equipment provisioned for seven days of operations.

Mexico

Mexico deployed 255 specialized military search-and-rescue personnel, including canine handlers and medical staff, along with 4 tons of medications, 8.4 tons of food, satellite phones, radios, generators, and tents, according to Mexico’s Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Peru

Peru sent a plane carrying 12.5 tons of supplies and 62 rescuers through its Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Chile

Chilean President José Antonio Kast offered his government’s civil and technical resources through Chile’s Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), without publicly specifying the scope.

Venezuela

Venezuela’s government, through Vice President and Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez and the Ministerio del Poder Popular para Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs), said it would send rescue brigades, an announcement that drew domestic criticism within Colombia given the state of bilateral relations.

Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged solidarity and said logistical and technical teams were on standby through Brazil’s Ministério das Relações Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Argentina

Argentina’s Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio Internacional y Culto (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship) offered material assistance, civil protection assets, and logistics support.

Additional Latin American and Caribbean support

Several other countries in the region conveyed solidarity or more limited offers of support:

• Panama — President José Raúl Mulino offered collaboration “within our capacity” through the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Panamá (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Panama).
• Costa Rica — The government conveyed solidarity through its Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship).
• Dominican Republic — President Luis Abinader said his country stood ready to provide assistance, coordinated through the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de República Dominicana (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic).
• Guatemala — The disaster-response agency, the Coordinadora Nacional para la Reducción de Desastres (National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction, Conred), remained in contact with Colombian counterparts to determine whether a formal request for assistance would follow, President Bernardo Arévalo de León’s government said.
• Cuba — Expressed willingness to help without publicly detailing specific commitments.
• Bolivia — Expressed willingness to help without publicly detailing specific commitments.

Other countries

Vice President Restrepo named Japan, Sweden, and Turkey among the more than 12 governments that formally offered humanitarian aid or rescue support, though itemized figures for their pledges were not publicly available as of this writing. Israel, France, Germany, Italy, and Ukraine also expressed readiness to coordinate assistance, according to Colombian media reporting, without confirmed dollar figures attached to those offers.

Red Cross and Red Crescent movement

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an emergency appeal for 11.7 million CHF to support the Colombian Red Cross, which activated its National Crisis Room and deployed a 30-member urban search-and-rescue team from its Antioquia branch to Chocó, alongside volunteers from its Quindío and Caldas branches. The Colombian Red Cross also activated its Restoring Family Links service to help reunite people separated from missing relatives.

Private sector

Among corporate contributions, Spanish bank BBVA (BME: BBVA) (NYSE: BBVA) said it would provide 3,500 food and hygiene kits, including nonperishable staples and personal care items, distributed through Colombia’s regional food bank network.

How to contribute

Colombian donors and members of the international community seeking a vetted local channel for contributions can direct support through somosone.com.co, the Colombian strategic-philanthropy platform operated by ONE Inversión Social. The organization has partnered with Sankofa Danzafro, La Pascasia, and Presentes Corporación on a Chocó-focused relief campaign, with a donation page linked from the platform’s homepage.

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella announced the declaration of a state of economic, social and ecological emergency to accelerate the response and reconstruction following the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck August 10, leaving more than 265 people dead, nearly 3,500 injured and 495 still missing.

The extraordinary measure will temporarily allow the executive branch to issue decrees with the force of law directly related to the emergency, mobilize resources and expedite procedures that, under normal circumstances, require lengthier administrative or legislative processes.

“I am informing the country that I have decided to make use of the economic emergency, a mechanism provided for in our Constitution that will allow us to address this crisis as required,” De la Espriella said during a televised news conference.

According to figures from the Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres, UNGRD (National Unit for Disaster Risk Management), released by the Presidency, the earthquake also damaged the homes of about 25,800 families and affected critical infrastructure, including medical centers, pedestrian bridges, roads, aqueducts and airports.

Among the hardest-hit areas are cities such as Manizales, Pereira and Cali, as well as the department of Chocó, which was the epicenter of the earthquake. The scale of the damage now opens a reconstruction process that could extend well beyond the duration of the state of exception. But what exactly does this measure entail? Here we explain.

What is a state of economic emergency?

The state of economic, social and ecological emergency is one of three states of exception established under Colombia’s 1991 Constitution to address extraordinary circumstances.

The other two are a state of foreign war, regulated by Article 212 of the Constitution, and a state of internal disturbance for security reasons, established under Article 213. The mechanism now being used by De la Espriella is regulated by Article 215.

That article establishes that when events other than a foreign war or internal disturbance occur that “seriously and imminently disrupt or threaten to disrupt the country’s economic, social and ecological order” or constitute a “serious public calamity,” the president, with the signatures of all Cabinet ministers, may declare a state of emergency.

Each declaration may remain in effect for up to 30 days, and the different periods of emergency may not total more than 90 days within the same calendar year.

To use this mechanism, the government must demonstrate the existence of real and verifiable circumstances that represent a serious and imminent threat and explain why the state’s ordinary powers are insufficient to respond to the crisis.

In addition, measures adopted through emergency decrees must be directly related to the causes that prompted the declaration.

Video news conference by President Abelardo de la Espriella announcing a state of economic emergency in Colombia.

What can the president do during the emergency?

In practice, the mechanism temporarily expands the executive branch’s powers by allowing it to issue decrees with the force of law without initially following the ordinary legislative process in Congress.

Among the measures it can adopt are the reallocation of budget funds, creation of funds to respond to the emergency, authorization of direct contracting mechanisms, changes to tax calendars and, under applicable constitutional conditions, the establishment of temporary taxes.

Those taxes must cease to apply at the end of the following fiscal year unless Congress subsequently decides to make them permanent. Colombia has had several examples of this. In March 2026, amid heavy rains, the government of former President Gustavo Petro enacted Decree 0240, creating two temporary taxes. The first was a 16% consumption tax on gambling platforms, along with an expansion of the wealth tax.

The 30-day window will be particularly important for the immediate response. During that period, the government will be able to establish extraordinary mechanisms to assist victims, mobilize resources and launch the initial phases of reconstruction, including the potential channeling of international cooperation.

However, because the reconstruction of infrastructure and housing will likely extend for months or years, much of its implementation will subsequently have to continue through ordinary legislation and resources from the national budget.

Government announces the ‘Fondo Milagro’

De la Espriella also announced that the emergency will allow the creation of the so-called “Fondo Milagro,” a name connected to “Patria Milagro,” one of his government’s political slogans.

The president described the fund as “an entity that will channel national and international contributions, which will be allocated to the reconstruction of hospitals, educational centers, buildings, roads and airports that were damaged by the earthquake.”

The government also intends to use the extraordinary powers to promote economic recovery in the affected regions.

“The emergency must also include economic recovery measures that stimulate investment, reduce obstacles to project development and generate more jobs,” De la Espriella said.

Is it a blank check for the president?

The scope of the extraordinary powers explains why states of emergency often generate political and legal controversy in Colombia.

The ability to issue decrees with the force of law, temporarily modify certain fiscal and budgetary rules and accelerate contracting processes can be interpreted as a way to reduce the ordinary controls and procedures that normally constrain executive action.

However, the Constitution establishes specific limits.

The president cannot use the emergency to suspend fundamental rights, weaken workers’ social rights or interrupt the functioning of the other branches of government. Nor can the president use extraordinary powers to adopt decisions that are not directly aimed at addressing the causes and consequences of the emergency.

In addition, legislative decrees issued during the state of exception are automatically subject to review by the Constitutional Court.

Congress also retains its political oversight functions and may examine the reasons that led the government to declare the emergency and assess the appropriateness and timing of the measures adopted. Within its constitutional powers, it may also modify, add to or repeal certain provisions issued during the emergency.

Those checks have already had an impact in 2026: In April, 2026, the court struck down the emergency declared by Gustavo Petro in December 2025, while in June it upheld, with restrictions, another declaration issued in February.

An economic emergency and a national disaster are not the same

Before announcing the state of economic emergency, the government had declared a national disaster, a different legal mechanism.

The disaster declaration stems from Law 1523 of 2012 and is linked to the Sistema Nacional de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres, SNGRD (National Disaster Risk Management System). Among other tools, it allows resources from that fund to be mobilized and expedites the contracting needed to provide humanitarian assistance.

The state of economic, social and ecological emergency, by contrast, is constitutionally grounded in Article 215 and grants the executive branch extraordinary and temporary legislative powers.

The two mechanisms can therefore operate in a complementary manner: One facilitates the administrative and operational management of the disaster response, while the other temporarily allows measures with the force of law to address a crisis that the government considers impossible to manage solely through ordinary mechanisms.

De la Espriella’s use of the mechanism now opens a new period of constitutional and political oversight. Although the executive branch will be able to act more quickly during the initial earthquake response, the measures it adopts must remain directly connected to the calamity and will be reviewed by both the Constitutional Court and Congress.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia at 7:34 a.m. local time on Monday, August 10, 2026, killing at least 111 people and injuring 87 others, according to figures confirmed by President Abelardo de la Espriella and reported by Noticias Caracol. Twenty-nine of the deaths occurred in capital cities. The figures are expected to rise as search-and-rescue teams continue working through collapsed buildings in Cali, Chocó, and the Coffee Axis region.

“The same seismic systems and plate tectonics powering today’s earthquake are also behind recent volcanic activity at Volcán Puracé, but it would be a mistake without more evidence to infer any causality between the phenomena.” — Isabella Casasbuenas, mining engineer, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

The US Geological Survey (USGS) located the epicenter 5 kilometers south of San José del Palmar, a small municipality in the department of Chocó, at a depth of approximately 110 kilometers. The Servicio Geológico Colombiano (SGC, Colombian Geological Survey) described it as the strongest earthquake to hit Colombia in a decade. It was felt as far away as Bogotá, Medellín, and neighboring Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama.

The national government declared a “situación de desastre nacional” (national disaster situation), and President de la Espriella, who was inaugurated just three days earlier, canceled his Monday agenda to lead the response personally. “He asumido directamente el liderazgo de la atención por la emergencia en San José del Palmar” (“I have taken direct leadership of the emergency response in San José del Palmar”), the president wrote, announcing a Puesto de Mando Unificado (Unified Command Post) at the Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (UNGRD, National Unit for Disaster Risk Management). He later said he would travel to Bogotá to run the response from the UNGRD’s crisis room, with the vice president and cabinet ministers dispatched to Chocó, the Eje Cafetero (Coffee Axis), and other affected zones. “Lo primero es el rescate de las personas que están bajo los escombros, esa es la prioridad” (“The first priority is rescuing people under the rubble”), he said, according to Noticias Caracol.

The most dramatic footage I’ve ever seen of an earthquake as it was occurring … 🙏🏼🙁 pic.twitter.com/yg1BWUnhFc

— John (@market_sleuth) August 10, 2026

According to the president’s office, the earthquake damaged 1,575 homes and destroyed 37 others, collapsed 61 buildings, and damaged 18 health centers, 52 schools, 17 community centers, and 18 roads. Six airports, including those serving Pereira, Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago, and Buenaventura, lost commercial operations, and a seventh sustained runway damage. In Cali, the mayor’s office reported more than 20 collapsed structures with people trapped inside; in Manizales, a tower of the city’s cathedral was damaged. The UNGRD said four urban search-and-rescue teams, from Bogotá, Envigado, Yopal, and Medellín, were deployed, with Bogotá and Antioquia contributing heavy equipment and aircraft. The agency also confirmed there is no tsunami threat to Colombia’s Pacific coast, and the SGC recorded two aftershocks, of magnitude 2.8 and 4.8, near the Chocó municipality of Nóvita.

Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM, Medellín’s public utility, which operates several of the country’s hydroelectric dams) said in a statement that its infrastructure was undamaged and no injuries were reported at its facilities. “Producto de nuestras operaciones no se han presentado personas o estructuras afectadas,” the utility said, adding that it continues operating normally while monitoring the situation. Read the full statement at epm.com.co.

The One Foundation is mobilizing to support the response in the hardest hit areas. Click or scan the QR code.

How to help

Readers looking to support relief efforts can donate through the UNGRD‘s official channels , the One Foundation (One Inversión Social), or the Cruz Roja Colombiana (Colombian Red Cross), which coordinates emergency response nationally; its website was intermittently unreachable Monday amid the surge in traffic following the earthquake. In Medellín, the Fundación Banco Arquidiocesano de Alimentos de Medellín (Carrera 52 No. 30A-97) and Fundación Saciar (Carrera 50 No. 25-261) are collecting non-perishable food, water, rice, cooking oil, pasta, lentils, beans, canned goods, cornmeal, wheat flour, panela, powdered and UHT milk, hygiene products, diapers, and bedding for affected families. Noticias Caracol has additional donation points as they are confirmed.

Understanding the science: why a deep quake shook such a wide area

For readers unfamiliar with seismology, a few basics help explain why an earthquake this size caused damage across several cities at once, rather than concentrated destruction near a single epicenter.

Estimated shaking intensity for the August 10, 2026, earthquake near San José del Palmar, Chocó. Image: US Geological Survey (USGS)

Earthquake magnitude measures the total energy released at the source; USGS calculated this event at 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, the modern standard that replaced the older Richter scale for large earthquakes. Depth matters just as much as magnitude in determining what people on the surface actually feel. Most damaging earthquakes, like Ecuador’s 2016 Muisne quake or Haiti’s 2010 disaster, originate less than 20 kilometers below the surface, concentrating destructive shaking in a relatively small area near the epicenter. Monday’s earthquake originated roughly 110 kilometers down, a category seismologists call an “intermediate-depth” earthquake (any quake between 70 and 300 kilometers deep). Energy traveling that far to the surface loses some of its punch directly overhead, but it spreads shaking, typically more moderate but still potentially damaging, across a much broader region. That is why residents felt Monday’s earthquake as far as Bogotá and across three neighboring countries, even though the shaking was most intense closer to the Chocó-Valle del Cauca border.

The quake’s mechanism was primarily strike-slip faulting, meaning the two sides of the fault slid horizontally past each other, rather than one block thrusting up over the other, as happens in the shallow “megathrust” earthquakes more familiar along Chile’s or Japan’s coastlines. USGS’s analysis of the seismic waves (a “focal mechanism”) could not distinguish between two possible fault orientations, a steeply dipping fault with a mix of reverse and left-lateral motion, or a moderately dipping fault with largely right-lateral motion, but both are consistent with deformation occurring inside the Nazca plate itself as it descends beneath the South America plate along Colombia’s Pacific margin. Given the depth, USGS said the rupture likely occurred within the subducting plate rather than at the shallower boundary between the two plates.

Intermediate-depth earthquakes like this one are common along the length of the South America subduction zone and are generally attributed to bending stresses within the descending plate, distinct from the shallower interface earthquakes that produce tsunamis. Monday’s event occurred near the northernmost point where this type of intermediate-depth seismicity has historically been observed in Colombia. USGS noted that only two earthquakes of magnitude 7 or larger have occurred within 250 kilometers of Monday’s epicenter since 1950, and both were located near the coast; the region has more typically produced earthquakes below magnitude 7. USGS’s automated PAGER impact system, which generates preliminary loss estimates within hours of an earthquake to guide humanitarian response, issued an “orange” alert, its second-highest level, indicating significant casualties and widespread damage were likely; the system’s early statistical model, not a confirmed count, pointed toward hundreds of fatalities and roughly $649 million USD in economic losses, broadly in line with the toll now being confirmed on the ground.

Estimated population exposed to each level of shaking intensity. Image: US Geological Survey (USGS)

A volcano already on alert nearby

The earthquake struck as Colombian authorities were already managing a separate, unrelated emergency: an orange alert at Volcán Puracé (Puracé Volcano) in the department of Cauca, roughly 150 kilometers south of Monday’s epicenter. The SGC has kept the Coconucos volcanic chain, which includes Puracé, Piocollo, and Curiquinga, under its second-highest alert level since a sharp rise in seismicity and gas emissions began around July 20, with instrumental readings in early August reaching the highest levels recorded since continuous monitoring began in 1993.

The volcano has produced six ash emissions since the afternoon of Friday, August 7, including two significant plumes, documented by residents and the SGC’s monitoring cameras, on Friday at 5:57 p.m. and Saturday at 9:12 a.m. Sulfur dioxide flux from the crater has measured around 2,100 tons per day, well above the volcano’s historical average, while ground-based carbon dioxide readings have also climbed. Natalia Contreras, the SGC official who oversees geohazard information, said the seismic activity driving the alert is dominated by fluid movement in shallow volcanic conduits, tremor and long-period earthquakes located less than a kilometer beneath the crater, rather than by rock-fracturing earthquakes, which have stayed comparatively rare and weak. It is the second time in less than eight months that Puracé has reached orange alert. The UNGRD has begun trucking water to roughly 3,000 residents in nearby communities after ash and acidic gases affected local water sources and pasture, and has prepared, but not activated, evacuation routes for the area.

Finance Colombia asked Isabella Casasbuenas, a mining engineer from Colombia’s Universidad Nacional (National University), whether Monday’s earthquake and Puracé’s unrest are connected. She explained that the same regional seismic systems and plate tectonics, ultimately driven by the Nazca plate’s subduction beneath South America, underlie both phenomena, but cautioned against inferring any direct causal link between the two without further evidence. Seismologists broadly share that caution: Monday’s rupture occurred roughly 110 kilometers underground, within the subducting Nazca plate, while the seismicity driving Puracé’s alert is occurring less than 2 kilometers beneath the volcano’s crater, in the shallow magmatic and hydrothermal system that feeds it. The two processes sit within the same broad tectonic framework but are not, on current evidence, mechanically linked events.

This is a developing story. Casualty and damage figures are preliminary and likely to change as search-and-rescue operations continue.

USGS’s ShakeMap system, which models expected shaking intensity using the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale, estimated that roughly 1.6 million people experienced “very strong” shaking (MMI VII), nearly 8.9 million experienced “strong” shaking (MMI VI), and another 17 million experienced “moderate” shaking (MMI V) across Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama.