Colombia’s tourism trade associations have ratified that the sector’s impact will be measured on indicators beyond visitor volume, following a meeting between Vice Minister of Tourism Julián Franco Restrepo and representatives of the industry guilds, the Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, MinCIT) announced on September 1, 2026.

According to the ministry, the guilds ratified that the sector’s performance will be judged on effective visitor spending, socioeconomic opportunities in the regions, sustainability, the positioning of Colombian gastronomy, and tourist security, rather than on visitor volume alone. Among the strategic themes discussed, the ministry highlighted the goal of establishing tourism as a cross-cutting policy for regional growth and formal job creation.

The meeting was convened on the instruction of Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Mauricio Gómez Amín, a Barranquilla attorney and former senator who, according to El Tiempo, was named to the portfolio in July by then President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella. The ministry described the session as a first-hand review of what is working in each segment of the industry, the priority needs identified, and the route the government intends to follow for the sector. It did not publish a list of the associations that attended.

“We want tourism to be the great engine of economic and social development for the country. This listening exercise allows us to chart a clear, shared route toward building a stronger, more coordinated industry with a real vision of the future,” said Franco Restrepo.

The Fondo Nacional de Turismo (National Tourism Fund, Fontur), the ministry’s financing and promotion arm, committed at the meeting to put its technical, promotional, and infrastructure-investment capacity behind the priorities the guilds identified. The ministry said Fontur will prioritize the recovery of the departments affected by the August 10 earthquake while continuing development projects and investment in the rest of the country. The ministry did not announce specific measures, funding amounts, or a timeline.

The magnitude 7.4 earthquake, with its epicenter near San José del Palmar in Chocó, struck western and southwestern Colombia on August 10, 2026, and initial assessments reported 472 municipalities affected. According to an August 18 report from the Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, UNGRD) cited by Infobae Colombia, the earthquake left 304 dead, 4,548 injured, 426 missing, and 292,043 people affected, figures the UNGRD said could change as field verification continued. Infobae, citing the Asociación Colombiana de Ciudades Capitales (Colombian Association of Capital Cities, Asocapitales), reported that Cali and Pereira recorded the heaviest loss of life and infrastructure collapses among the capital cities.

Pereira’s Matecaña International Airport, which Infobae reported was operating under restrictions at the time, has since reopened gradually. According to MinCIT, the airport received approval from the Aeronáutica Civil (Civil Aeronautics, Aerocivil) on August 22 and was handling an average of 18 flights a day with four airlines as of August 29, with full capacity expected within an estimated two months.

In an interview with Valora Analitik published August 28, María Isabel Campo, general manager of Fontur, said the fund will concentrate over the coming months on reconstruction in five departments hit by the earthquake: Quindío, Risaralda, Valle del Cauca, Chocó, and Caldas. She said Fontur has an emergency line but that it was not set up in anticipation of a tragedy like the earthquake, and that the fund is reviewing its competitiveness and infrastructure lines to finance the reconstruction of damaged tourism infrastructure. Campo also said the fund would work with the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (National Learning Service, SENA) and the private sector on tourism training, and would help smaller municipalities structure projects.

At least one guild has already put specific requests to the government. At the 30th National Congress of Travel and Tourism Agencies in Barranquilla, which closed on August 28, the Asociación Colombiana de Agencias de Viajes y Turismo (Colombian Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies, Anato) presented proposals based on an assessment of its member agencies and other operators in Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Quindío, and Caldas. According to El Espectador, the proposals include subsidies to preserve jobs, a reduction of the value-added tax on air tickets, lodging, and tour packages, special credit lines, tax relief, and more flexible commercial penalties.

Speaking at the same congress on August 27, Franco Restrepo outlined what he called four engines for the sector: confidence, covering security, confidence in service, fair pricing, and institutional trust; experiences, built around tourism corridors and product design; a tourism intelligence center to support data-based decisions; and scale in both infrastructure and promotion. According to El País of Cali, the vice minister told the congress that the main indicators for travel agencies fell in the first half of 2026, and that the country’s roughly 18,000 agencies represent 15% of registered tourism providers and more than 30,000 jobs.

Franco Restrepo served for nine years as secretary of tourism for the department of Valle del Cauca before his appointment to the vice ministry, according to El País. The ministry said the joint work among MinCIT, Fontur, and the guilds is meant to lead to concrete actions to strengthen the sector’s development.

Headline photo: Tourism guild representatives and MinCIT officials after the September 1, 2026 meeting. (Photo courtesy MinCIT / Lincoln Acevedo)

LATAM Airlines Colombia and Avianca are both resuming flights to Pereira’s Aeropuerto Internacional Matecaña (Matecaña International Airport) on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, after the Aeronáutica Civil (Civil Aviation Authority), commonly known as Aerocivil, certified the terminal’s reopening following the magnitude-7.4 earthquake that struck western Colombia on August 10. Both carriers said service will restart below pre-earthquake levels and expand gradually as repairs to the terminal continue, just over two weeks after the quake forced the airport shut.

The earthquake, centered near San José del Palmar in the department of Chocó, had killed 329 people and left 234 missing as of August 24, according to Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (National Disaster Risk Management Unit, UNGRD) figures reported that day by El Tiempo. According to El Espectador, three people died at Matecaña itself when the quake struck, and cracked ceiling panels in the terminal’s waiting areas forced the suspension of commercial operations; the runway and control tower were undamaged, which let the airport keep functioning as a staging point for humanitarian aid and rescue personnel even while commercial flights were suspended. Aerocivil has authorized 20 daily flights for the restart, and with the terminal’s second and third floors still closed, passengers will use two of the airport’s normal six waiting lounges, airport manager Luis Fernando Collazos told Caracol Radio, per El Espectador.

LATAM Airlines Colombia said it will operate two daily flights from Bogotá and one from Medellín to Pereira, for 21 weekly frequencies, with a return to its pre-earthquake schedule of five daily flights tied to the airport’s full recovery. The carrier is also adding two daily flights to Armenia, for three total, while Pereira’s capacity stays limited. LATAM has capped fares at $228,000 COP per segment to Pereira and $234,000 COP to Armenia, plus taxes and fees, and is offering fee-free date, route or cancellation changes, with no fare difference, to passengers with flights booked between August 10 and 31 to or from Pereira, Cali and Armenia; those passengers can rebook trips up to a year out. “With the reopening of Matecaña Airport, we are not only restoring Pereira’s connectivity to our network, but also regaining the ability to put our operation at the service of the region,” said Erika Zarante, chief executive of LATAM Airlines Colombia since January 2025 and a 23-year veteran of the aviation sector. LATAM said it is using the resumed route, along with its Avión Solidario (Solidarity Plane) cargo program, to help move aid and supplies into the Eje Cafetero (Coffee Region).

Avianca is restarting Bogotá service the same day as LATAM, August 26, with Medellín service following on August 27; its initial schedule totals four daily flights, three from Bogotá and one from Medellín. The airline said it plans to expand to 10 daily flights, eight from Bogotá and two from Medellín, as the airport’s infrastructure recovers. Avianca’s rebooking flexibility covers passengers with flights booked between August 10 and 30 to or from Pereira, Armenia, Cali and Quibdó, which the airline named as the four cities affected by the earthquake. “The safety of our passengers and staff is the condition that guides every step of this reactivation, and that is why we are resuming service gradually and in full coordination with the aeronautical authority,” said Ángela María Orozco, Avianca’s senior vice president of corporate affairs and a former Colombian minister of transport. She said the airline would keep expanding capacity toward Pereira “to keep connecting the Coffee Region with the rest of the country and contribute to the recovery of mobility, tourism and economic activity” there.

Avianca is privately held under Abra Group, the Bogotá-based holding company that also owns Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aéreas and holds a stake in Chile’s Sky Airline; Abra has said it intends to list shares in the United States in 2026 but had not done so as of this writing. LATAM Airlines Colombia is a unit of Santiago-based LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (NYSE: LTM; Bolsa de Santiago: LTM), which also operates in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador.

Pereira was not the only city affected: Avianca’s flexibility measures also cover Armenia, Cali and Quibdó, which it listed among the areas hit by the earthquake, and LATAM’s flexibility measures cover Pereira, Cali and Armenia. Matecaña — Risaralda’s main gateway and a hub for the wider Coffee Region — was among the hardest-hit facilities, with its commercial terminal closed for more than two weeks. Both airlines are urging affected passengers to check flight status through their apps or websites, Avianca’s mobile app and LATAM’s Mis Viajes tool, before heading to the airport.

The decision that kept foreign rescue teams out of Colombia in the first days after the August 10 earthquake did not originate with the government that has spent the past week defending it. It originated with Javier Pava Sánchez, the acting director of the country’s disaster-risk agency, an appointee of former President Gustavo Petro who was still holding the post four days into Abelardo de la Espriella’s administration, and it is set out over two pages under his own digital signature.

The letter, reviewed by Finance Colombia and filed under radicado (case reference) UNGRD 2026EE14740, tells Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar that Colombia’s own accredited capacity is sufficient and that “at this stage of the emergency, it is not necessary to request or activate the deployment of specialized international search-and-rescue teams (USAR).” The document’s embedded digital signature records a signing time of 1:45:08 p.m. on Tuesday, August 11. Pava has since said publicly that it went out at 1:20 p.m.

What the Letter Says

The earthquake struck at 7:34 a.m. on Monday, August 10, with a magnitude of 7.4 and an epicenter in the municipality of San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó, according to the Servicio Geológico Colombiano (Colombian Geological Survey, or SGC), as reported by Pulzo. De la Espriella had been sworn in the previous Friday and had named little more than his cabinet and a handful of front-line officials; the rest of the state was still staffed by Petro appointees or by lower-ranked officials serving on an interim basis, Madrid’s El País reported in the August 12 interview in which Pava gave his account.

Addressed to Bula at the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and signed by Pava as acting director general of the Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, or UNGRD), the letter states that the country has more than 25 groups with search-and-rescue capabilities and that Chocó, Valle del Cauca and Risaralda had been prioritized. The figure is broader than the 23 UNGRD-accredited USAR teams that Pava, El Tiempo and La Silla Vacía all cite; the letter counts groups with search-and-rescue capability rather than accredited USAR units. Its finding is conditional: should the emergency outgrow national capacity, Colombia would request support, though only from teams holding a valid classification from INSARAG, the United Nations’ International Search and Rescue Advisory Group. It thanks the international community for its offers. No country is named in it.

Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara, of the Ministerio del Interior (Interior Ministry), has described that document as the trigger under Colombian procedure. He set out the mechanism on Blu Radio on August 14. “Requesting international rescuers is not something the foreign minister does motu proprio; it is not the foreign minister’s initiative. The foreign minister is the vehicle for doing it,” he told Néstor Morales. The determination is made by the Puesto de Mando Unificado (Unified Command Post), the interagency body the UNGRD directs. “If the man at the UNGRD, who was Pava, tells the foreign minister no, then the foreign minister cannot go and request any international assistance on his own initiative. That is to say, the initiative belongs to the director of the UNGRD.” Madrid’s El País reported the same sequence from the other direction: once Pava had specified what was needed, the Foreign Ministry went to multilateral bodies and individual governments and asked for precisely that.

Four Offers, and How Pava Weighed Them

Pava told Madrid’s El País by telephone that Bula had informed him before he wrote the letter of four countries offering rescue personnel: El Salvador, Peru, Israel and the United States. His own accounts differ on when that conversation happened: he told Infobae that he met Bula at around 2 p.m. to review the offers, which would place the meeting after the letter was signed. “In Colombia we have an enormous capacity of rescue teams, we have 23 USAR groups, so I looked carefully at what they offered us,” he said. Two he rejected on certification grounds: “In the case of El Salvador, they were not certified teams, they did not have experience in these types of situations. I also told the foreign minister that Peru’s are not certified either.”

His reasoning on the other two was different. “I told him, ‘Ugh, it seems complicated to me,’ because those have a political strategy,” he said of the Israeli and US offers — the director, Madrid’s El País noted, comes from the left. He qualified it in the same breath: “Of course it is good to have help from whoever, no matter where it comes from, but you have to see what we need most and what we already have capacity covered in. Things may change in the coming days, but at that moment we had capacity covered in rescuers.” He then chose between them. “Between Israel and the United States, I prefer the United States. But not the rescuers, because we have a good team here. It seemed better to me that they send their disaster coordination experts, who have very good technology for organizing satellite information in real time.”

To Blu Radio on August 12 and to the news agency Colprensa three days later, he set out the same four decisions in technical terms, without repeating the political characterization. “There was the offer from El Salvador, from Peru, in which, let’s say, their capacity is, on the one hand, they are not certified under INSARAG rules, and on the other hand, they are medium USAR teams, an area in which we have capacity,” he told Blu Radio. On Israel: “Israel has the response team and I said: no, that is not the one that is needed at this moment, and we stayed with that first requirement.” On the United States: “It was said that we would indeed need something related to specialized groups for the technological handling of information, and that is what the United States offers.”

The Letters That Followed

Pava’s defense is that the letter was a snapshot and that he accepted foreign help the same afternoon. In a video posted to his social media accounts on August 14 and in the Colprensa interview, he said he sent two more letters that day: one at about 3 p.m. accepting the US offer of technological and coordination support, and one at 5:20 p.m. asking that offers of humanitarian aid be accepted. “That letter was issued that day at one twenty in the afternoon and corresponds to the requirement conditions at that moment,” he said in the video, according to Infobae. “It is so that toward three in the afternoon I send a new letter to the Foreign Ministry accepting the help of the United States for those activities.”

Neither of the two follow-up letters has been released, but their contents have been described consistently. Madrid’s El País reported that in a later document Pava made explicit that three field hospitals and several thousand kits of food, household goods and cookware were required, including pet food. Infobae and Colprensa describe the 5:20 p.m. letter in the same terms — hygiene and food kits, and field hospitals to reinforce care in Chocó and Pereira.

He also framed the first letter as a technical instrument rather than a refusal. “There has at no point been any intention to limit access for those groups that can help and contribute assertively,” he said in the video. “When one speaks of authorizing USAR groups or search-and-rescue groups, one is speaking of specialized groups that have been accredited by the country sending them and that are accepted in Colombia.” He said the “disinformation” around the letter carried a “perverse intention: to justify the arrival of the Israeli Army’s USAR teams in Cali,” according to La Silla Vacía.

The México Question

México’s absence from the rescue effort became a story of its own, and Pava has described it two ways four days apart. To Madrid’s El País, on the night he announced he would resign, he said Bula had not initially wanted to receive support from México, which has a left-leaning government. To Colprensa on August 15, he said he had raised México himself and been told there was nothing on the table. “What I knew on Tuesday was the offer from only those four countries,” he said. “I asked whether there were any from México or from Chile, which we have had good experiences with, and they told me there were no offers. By Wednesday I found out that there were indeed offers from other countries, but by then those were other decisions the foreign minister had made.” Asked whether political interests shaped which aid was received, he told Colprensa: “Indeed, they are political decisions taken by the Foreign Ministry. Conflict was generated because aid from some countries was prioritized over others because they are political allies. I was left with many doubts about the México matter, because the foreign minister did not speak of further offers… I was lost.”

México’s public position on August 11 was that it was waiting on Bogotá. President Claudia Sheinbaum said that day that a humanitarian package and a specialized Mexican earthquake-rescue team were ready to go but that Colombia had to approve the deployment. “We are awaiting the formal request from the Government of Colombia, but we are ready for the moment they tell us we can go and help,” she said, according to El País. Chile’s President José Antonio Kast made a similar offer. Bula has said Colombia works with countries “without any ideological or political consideration,” a remark he made at a news conference on August 12, according to Chile’s Emol, citing AFP.

Three separate Mexican groups have figured in the argument. Sheinbaum said on August 13 — by which point Pava had been out of the job for a day — that Colombia had not approved entry for the Mexican Army’s rescue brigade, and that the obstacle was documentary: “They asked for certification from Colombia. They are certified, but now they are asking for another certification,” she said, adding that the brigade “is ready to leave at any moment,” La Opinión reported. The civilian Brigada de Rescate Topos Tlatelolco separately announced it would not travel, citing Colombia’s protocols for coordinating incoming teams. A third group, the independent Topos Aztecas, was already working in Cali, La Silla Vacía reported, noting that neither Topos brigade is México’s official state rescue capability. Pava’s own comment to Madrid’s El País about the Mexican volunteers already on the ground: “The Mexican topos (moles) seem to have come without authorization, and now they have to formalize their entry in order to operate.” Sheinbaum said Colombia had requested food parcels, water and medicine. La Opinión reported that México began an operation on August 12 contemplating 58.5 tons of aid, carried by Mexican Air Force C-130 aircraft, through August 14.

The Transition That Was Called Off

Pava spent 48 hours running the earthquake response for an administration that regarded him as the previous president’s man, and he has described the relationship in those terms. “They distrusted me, and I distrusted them,” he told Madrid’s El País. “In the meetings I was a fly in the milk, because they understand that I am from Petro’s very close circle of friends, not a second-tier official.”

The institutional gap was real on both sides. De la Espriella had ordered the customary transition process with the outgoing Petro administration suspended on July 7, Infobae reported at the time, and the incoming UNGRD director had not been named when the earthquake hit. The agency had no permanent director general and none of the three subdirectors who run its core areas — risk knowledge, risk reduction and disaster management — according to El País of Cali. “The UNGRD has 130 employees on provisional appointments and more than 1,000 contractors; with that team there were only some, because others ended their contracts with the end of the government,” he said. “What I did not count on was that there was no official from the other government, that there was no replacement in the post, and that I would arrive on Monday and this earthquake would occur.” He said the agency had more than $35 billion COP available for the first hours of response. Pava had himself replaced members of the UNGRD’s management team during his two months in the post, and defended those changes when Blu Radio put the criticism to him: “At no point was any sub-directorate left abandoned; it was taken on by career staff with experience and capacity.”

What the New Director Did Next

geologist David Santiago Tamayo Roldán, De la Espriella’s own pick, was sworn in as UNGRD director on the morning of Wednesday, August 12, and the government’s position changed the same day, on Lara’s account: “As soon as the new UNGRD director, Doctor Tamayo, arrived, the first thing he did in the morning with the foreign minister was to certify that international aid would be received, and international rescuers arrived.”

That Wednesday morning the Foreign Ministry welcomed a team of 22 US experts specialized not in carrying out rescue work but in coordinating those who do — the support Pava had recommended requesting from Washington. Hours later Tamayo announced Colombia would accept international rescue teams to relieve Colombian crews as needed. More than 54 hours had passed since the earthquake, Madrid’s El País reported.

The published country lists have not matched. Emol, citing AFP, reported on August 12 that Tamayo named four countries: the United States, Israel, El Salvador and Ecuador. México’s La Jornada carried the same four. La Silla Vacía reported three — Israel, the United States and El Salvador — and Lara also said three: “Rescuers were requested from three countries because no more are needed.” He went on: “Because we also cannot receive 4,000 rescuers, because receiving them, the 4,000 rescuers, becomes an additional problem for us.”

Tamayo’s own list changed again four days later. Presenting the national balance on the evening of August 15, he said the emergency had not exceeded the country’s response capacity, while noting that Colombia had accepted specialized international support to reinforce operations. He said three UN-accredited groups were in the country — from the United States, Ecuador and Israel, a trio that drops El Salvador from the list La Silla Vacía and Lara had given; warned local officials not to authorize groups not properly certified for search and rescue; and questioned that many such groups arrive requesting large quantities of resources without the capacity to operate autonomously, El País of Cali reported. Four days after Pava’s letter, the certification threshold and the capacity finding were the new government’s position as well.

What the Capacity Numbers Show

Colombia has 23 UNGRD-accredited USAR teams and roughly 1,000 trained rescuers drawn from the Colombian Red Cross, the Defensa Civil Colombiana (Colombian Civil Defense), fire departments, the armed forces and the national police‘s specialized Ponalsar search-and-rescue unit, according to El Tiempo, which interviewed Silvia Ballén, head of the UNGRD’s national search-and-rescue program. Colombia’s USAR COL-1 team obtained its international INSARAG classification in 2018, making the country one of four in the hemisphere with a UN-certified search-and-rescue team, El Tiempo reported; a team at the heavy classification averages 64 personnel and can sustain field work for seven to 10 days.

Lara said the constraint in some regions was demand, not supply. “In Quibdó 160 rescuers were left idle, with their arms crossed, because there was nothing left to search for or rescue,” he said, adding that they could be moved to Pereira, Dosquebradas or Cali but that local officials were reporting sufficient coverage: “Both the governor and the mayor, the mayors of these cities, tell us that there are enough rescuers.” La Silla Vacía reported that from Wednesday night several regions began closing the rescue phase, with Quibdó moving to reconstruction, Buenaventura expected to follow, and towns such as Quimbaya, in Quindío, requiring no rescue operations because there were no missing persons.

The View From Outside

Foreign governments spent August 11 asking whom to talk to. China’s ambassador to Colombia, Zhu Jingyang, asked the government to name an official and an official liaison for coordinating international assistance. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed publicly that Colombia had declined rescue personnel: “The Government of Colombia has requested humanitarian aid only in the form of supplies to assist the families affected by the earthquake,” he wrote on his social media accounts. “We have been informed that its rescue teams, medical teams and other emergency bodies are deployed and attending to the situation, so that at this moment they do not require personnel support.” El Salvador said it would send two cargo planes with 100 tons of supplies instead; Emol reported the shipment arrived. Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, made a similar request for a clear and organized response to the offers on the table, Madrid’s El País reported. Laerke also confirmed that the United Nations had received no formal request for assistance from Colombia, while saying the UN system stood ready to provide all the support within its reach, according to Infobae.

The United States was the exception. Washington announced $15.5 million USD in aid for emergency shelter, food, protection and damage assessment, and the State Department said it had activated a Disaster Assistance Response Team on Monday that would arrive in Colombia on Tuesday. Colombia issued a diplomatic note on Tuesday requesting specific support from the international community, short of a formal international appeal. UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote that day that “the United Nations remains in close contact with the Colombian authorities and supports the government-led response, as requested.” Infobae reported that Pacto Histórico (Historic Pact) politicians including former Senator María José Pizarro and Representative Mafe Carrascal were pressing De la Espriella to request UN help. On August 12, Israel’s government said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered an aid delegation dispatched “following a request from Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella,” according to Semana.

Where It Stands

Lara has been summoned to Congress to account for the government’s handling of the emergency. “On Tuesday we were summoned to Congress, we have been summoned, I was summoned to Congress so that we explain this situation,” he said, adding: “Watching how they make politics out of this tragedy — that is scavenger politics, frankly. Let’s drop it now.”

The UNGRD’s latest national balance, with a cutoff of 6:30 p.m. on August 15, records 289 people dead, 3,937 injured, 143 missing and 353 rescued across 15 departments and 448 municipalities, with 117,222 people affected. The death toll was revised down from 294 reported that morning and the missing figure from 320, after the agency cross-checked municipal reports against records held by the Fiscalía General de la Nación (Attorney General’s Office), the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses (National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences) and relief agencies to remove duplicates. Pava has pointed to that volatility in his own defense, telling Colprensa that on the Monday “I had an assessment far below what exists today,” and that at the time of his meeting with Bula the assessment showed the main sites requiring rescue were covered and that what was missing was coordination support and some technological capability.ungrd-carta-a-minexterior.

Full Translation: The UNGRD Letter to Colombia’s Foreign Ministry

The following is Finance Colombia’s translation of the original Spanish-language letter (radicado UNGRD 2026EE14740, dated August 11, 2026, digitally signed at 1:45 p.m.), sent by the UNGRD to Colombia’s Foreign Ministry:

Bogotá D.C.,
Doctor
Omar Bula Escobar
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Calle 10 No. 5 – 51. Palacio de San Carlos

Subject: Update on national search-and-response capacity in light of the earthquake that occurred in Colombia on August 10, 2026.

Dear Minister:

As part of the response to the emergency caused by the 7.4 Mw-magnitude earthquake recorded on August 10, 2026, with its epicenter in the municipality of San José del Palmar, department of Chocó, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) wishes to report on the current status of the response and the capabilities available within national territory.

According to information consolidated by the UNGRD’s National Crisis Room, the coordinating entity for risk management in Colombia, and taking into account that the assessment of damages and needs continues to be updated, different territories have been prioritized, particularly the departments of Chocó, Valle del Cauca and Risaralda, according to the needs identified in each of them.

With regard to search and rescue in collapsed structures, Colombia is carrying out response actions through its specialized national capabilities, with search-and-rescue groups accredited by the Government of Colombia, deployed and coordinated through the National Disaster Risk Management System.

At this hour, the country has more than 25 groups with search-and-rescue capabilities, which are sufficient to meet the operational needs identified in the affected areas. Based on the assessment carried out so far and on the national capabilities available, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, through its Search and Rescue Program, considers that, at this stage of the emergency, it is not necessary to request or activate the deployment of specialized international search-and-rescue teams (USAR).

This determination corresponds to the current state of the emergency and is subject to ongoing monitoring of conditions on the ground. Should the emergency evolve, or should the identification of new needs exceed available national capabilities, the Government of Colombia will promptly communicate, through established official channels, its specific requirements for international assistance and, if necessary, may request support solely from international search-and-rescue teams holding the corresponding INSARAG classification.

In this regard, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management expresses its deep gratitude to the international community for its expressions of solidarity and for the offers of technical, operational and humanitarian support in search and rescue received through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UNGRD.

Colombia maintains active mechanisms of coordination and information exchange with the international community and, in particular, is reporting on the evolution of the response and available capabilities through the corresponding international coordination mechanisms, including the Virtual OSOCC (Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre) platform, within the framework of United Nations mechanisms for coordinating search-and-rescue operations.

Sincerely,

Javier Pava Sánchez
Director General (Acting)

Prepared by: Laura Manuela Bermúdez Caro, contractor, International Cooperation Group – UNGRD
Reviewed by: Nicolás Fernández de Soto, International Cooperation Liaison to the Director General’s Office – UNGRD
Reviewed by: Antonio José López Reales, Coordinator, International Cooperation Group – UNGRD
Reviewed by: Silvia Carolina Ballén Sánchez, Specialized Professional, Management Sub-Directorate – UNGRD
Reviewed by: Johana Andrea Rangel Franco, Specialized Professional, Management Sub-Directorate – UNGRD

Who Is Javier Pava Sánchez?

Javier Pava Sánchez is a geological engineer, a specialist in risk evaluation and disaster prevention and a master’s graduate in territorial planning and population dynamics, according to El Tiempo. Petro appointed him to lead the UNGRD in 2022, and returned him to the agency as acting director through Decree 0611 of June 16, 2026, after the Procuraduría General de la Nación (Inspector General’s Office) suspended director Carlos Carrillo over alleged improper political activity. Carrillo said the measure surprised him and rejected it, telling reporters, according to Infobae: “At no time did I campaign, I never promoted any candidate nor did I request electoral support for any campaign.”

Pava was still the UNGRD’s acting director when he signed the August 11 letter, announced that night that he would step down, and was replaced by Tamayo on the morning of August 12. He remains acting manager of the Fondo Adaptación (Adaptation Fund), another agency in the sector for which the new government has not named a replacement, Madrid’s El País reported. Two days after leaving the UNGRD, in the video responding to Lara, he said: “I want to state to Colombia that I have acted responsibly in the exercise of my functions and consistently with the government I represent, which is the government of President Petro.”

Above image: Javier Pava Sánchez speaks during a meeting at UNGRD headquarters in Bogotá. (Photo: UNGRD handout)

Colombia’s Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (Financial Superintendency of Colombia, or SFC) has published for public comment a draft external circular that would give banks, insurers and other supervised financial institutions temporary instructions to assist consumers affected by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country on August 10, 2026. The comment period, open since August 12, closes at 11:59 p.m. on August 14, 2026, giving industry and the public a two-business-day window to respond, according to the draft text and the SFC’s own consultation record.

The earthquake, with an epicenter in the municipality of San José del Palmar in Chocó department and a depth of 96 kilometers, triggered 991 additional seismic events within a 900-kilometer radius, according to figures cited in the SFC’s draft circular, including 115 in the magnitude 5.0-to-5.9 range, 18 between magnitude 6.0 and 6.9, and three exceeding magnitude 7.0. The national government declared a state of national disaster the following day, August 11, through Decree 1171, covering Antioquia, Caldas, Cauca, Chocó, Quindío, Cundinamarca, Risaralda, Huila, Valle del Cauca, Tolima, Putumayo, Norte de Santander and other affected territories for an initial 12 months, renewable for an equal term, as Finance Colombia reported at the time.

Death toll still climbing

As of the evening of August 12, Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella cited a balance from the Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, or UNGRD) showing a toll that had continued to climb since the quake struck two days earlier.

“We have 25,872 affected families, 53,816 people, sadly 265 dead, 3,494 injured, and the number of missing has risen alarmingly to 496.”— Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella, citing the UNGRD balance, August 12, 2026

The same balance reported 11,347 homes destroyed and 53,526 damaged, 140 buildings collapsed, and 1,819 schools and 631 community centers affected. Earlier counts from the same day had put the toll lower, underscoring that the figures remained provisional; international search-and-rescue teams, coordinated by UNGRD, were still arriving as of August 13 to assist Colombian personnel, and officials have cautioned the toll is likely to keep rising.

Colombia’s disaster management law, Ley 1523 de 2012, activates a special legal regime once a national disaster is declared, including articles 86 and 87, which allow affected debtors to seek refinancing of existing obligations. The SFC’s draft circular says it is exercising its instruction authority under the Estatuto Orgánico del Sistema Financiero (Organic Statute of the Financial System) and Decree 2555 of 2010 to translate that legal framework into binding instructions for the institutions it supervises.

Refinancing terms for affected borrowers

Under the draft measures, lending institutions would be required to adopt refinancing programs for borrowers affected by the disaster, subject to conditions drawn directly from the 2012 law: refinancing would apply only to obligations contracted before August 10, 2026, with payments due on or after that date; the new loan term could not exceed double the remaining term or 20 years, whichever is shorter; refinanced terms could not be more burdensome than the original ones; and borrowers would have to apply while the disaster declaration remains in force. No interest or late fees would accrue between the disaster declaration and the completion of the renegotiation, a period the draft caps at 90 days. Lenders could also offer additional voluntary relief, such as grace periods or special interest rates, provided the terms are no more burdensome for the consumer and the measures are not applied as a blanket restructuring practice rather than case-by-case review.

Credits refinanced under the program would keep the risk rating they carried before the disaster was declared, with credit-bureau reporting frozen for up to 12 months after the refinancing is completed, and the draft specifies the refinancing would not count as a modification or restructuring for prudential reporting purposes. Lenders would also be permitted to use alternative data sources to assess a borrower’s future repayment capacity, accounting for the likely economic recovery of the borrower’s sector.

Insurers, fund managers and severance withdrawals

Insurance companies would be required to establish expedited claims and payment channels for policyholders in affected areas, prioritize payment of healthcare providers’ invoices tied to the disaster, and adopt policies to facilitate premium payments, including for policies unrelated to credit operations. Trust companies and brokerage firms would be asked to evaluate mechanisms to speed redemptions from open-end investment funds without a minimum holding period, and to consider waiving early-redemption penalties for funds that carry one, for consumers affected by the disaster. Severance-fund administrators would be instructed to expedite housing-related severance withdrawals for affected members, within the bounds of Colombia’s existing severance-withdrawal rules.

The draft also directs supervised entities more broadly to maintain continuity of financial services where security conditions allow, disclose any changes to branch hours or closures, strengthen digital channels, and activate business-continuity plans in affected zones; to clearly publicize the terms of any relief programs; and to set up priority service channels for complaints and claims tied to the disaster. The SFC said it would establish its own priority contact channel to help affected consumers navigate complaints against supervised entities.

In its internal cost-benefit review, the SFC’s research and analysis unit found no reason to delay the proposal, concluding that reduced default risk, faster insurance payouts and improved liquidity access for affected consumers would outweigh the compliance costs institutions face in adapting systems, training staff and expanding service channels. The regulator said the draft requires no new budget appropriations and can be implemented with existing staff and technology. It also said a competition-impact questionnaire it completed under Colombia’s competition-advocacy rules returned entirely negative responses, meaning no referral to the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (Superintendency of Industry and Commerce) was required.

A two-day window, and a toll still being counted

The SFC set the unusually short two-business-day comment window under an exception in Colombian regulatory procedure that allows shortened public consultation periods when a rule responds to urgent, unforeseeable circumstances. The regulator said the scale of the disaster and the need for a prompt, uniform response from the financial sector justified the shortened timeline. Comments can be submitted using a standard form referencing filing number 2026182440, by email to normativa@superfinanciera.gov.co or in writing to the SFC’s deputy director of regulation. If adopted, the circular would take effect upon publication and would remain in force for as long as the national disaster declaration stands, though any relief already granted to consumers would continue on its own terms after the circular expires.

Colombia has also drawn $1.3 billion USD in international pledges since the earthquake struck. The comment window closes before search-and-rescue operations are expected to conclude, and the casualty figures the SFC cites as justification for the rule are themselves preliminary and likely to keep changing.

Above photo – Damage in Pereira, Colombia (Photo: Vance Campbell)

Colombia concluded the quarter with over 49.1 million mobile internet accesses, a figure that covers 92% of the population. The data shows that 4G technology remains the dominant mobile network, accounting for 83% of connections. However, 5G technology experienced notable growth, representing 9.6% of total accesses and adding more than 2.5 million new users over the past year.

The adoption of 5G networks saw a quarter-over-quarter increase of 23.7% between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. This growth is attributed to the expansion of 5G infrastructure and the increasing availability of compatible devices. The report highlights that mobile telephony lines reached 92.5 million, a penetration rate of nearly 174%.

Fixed internet also demonstrated growth, with access reaching 9.34 million. This represents an increase of 235,000 connections compared to the same period in the previous year.

Regionally, Bogotá maintained its position as the area with the highest connectivity penetration, with 29 accesses per 100 inhabitants. Antioquia followed with 24 accesses per 100, and Risaralda with 23. Nationwide, the average download speed increased to 236 megabits per second (Mbps), an increase of 10 Mbps over the last year.

For detailed statistics and information, the full Quarterly ICT Bulletin is available on the ICT Sector Statistics Portal.

Mobile internet access. Photo credit: Claudid from Pixabay.

According to data from Migración Colombia, the main destination departments for international visitors were: Bogotá, 34.84%; Antioquia, 25.65%; Bolívar, 20.56%; Valle del Cauca, 4.71%; and San Andrés and Providencia, 3.35%.

Other departments such as Atlántico, Magdalena, Norte de Santander, Risaralda and Santander also showed a prominent participation in the flow of travelers.

Connectivity and hotel occupancy rate

In terms of air connectivity, during April 2025, 4.36 million passengers were mobilized on scheduled flights, which represents a growth of 3.1% compared to April 2024 and 27% more than in April 2023. In the same month, the number of arrivals on international flights increased by 10.6% compared to the previous year.

In the cumulative period from January to April 2025, 17.98 million passengers were mobilized, registering an increase of 3.4% compared to 2024 and 21.4% compared to 2023. International arrivals in that period also grew by 8.8%.

According to Colombian statistics agency DANE figures, the occupancy rate in tourist accommodation for April 2025 was 46.8%, a behavior similar to that recorded in the same month of the previous year, which reflects a sustained recovery of the sector.

The Colombian government, through the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, states that it has prioritized the strengthening of tourism as an engine of economic development, social inclusion and international projection. Through ProColombia, MinCIT has approved international promotion actions worth more than $188.376 million USD, aimed at consolidating Colombia’s image as a reliable and attractive destination.

Plaza Bolivar in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo credit: Makalu from Pixabay.

Among the foods that reported falls in their prices are black and creole potatoes (more than 10%), arracacha, plantains, and pork, whose different cuts fell without exceeding 5%. Some cuts of chicken, such as wings, legs, and breast, also decreased, as did fruit such as mango, passion fruit, tangerine, lemon, orange, and papaya. In the vegetable group, products such as junca onions, broccoli, green beans in pods, and paprika became cheaper.

In contrast, the largest price increases were recorded in vegetables such as white and red onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peas in pods, and carrots, with variations of more than 10%. Products such as beans, pumpkins, and some lettuce also rose. The rise in green peas, for example, was explained by lower availability from regions such as Nariño, Cundinamarca, and Antioquia, while cucumber was affected by harvest pauses in Norte de Santander, Risaralda, and Boyacá.

“Technical monitoring of price behavior is key to understanding the dynamics of the agri-food system. With this data, we can anticipate risks that affect food safety. Productive planning requires reliable information to make timely decisions in public policy,” said Dora Inés Rey, director of the UPRA.

In the group of grains and cereals, decreases were observed in imported products such as dry peas, threshed yellow corn, and lentils, while some varieties of domestic beans, prime rice, and imported husk corn became more expensive. As for processed foods, the prices of refined sugar, wheat flour, vegetable oil, and ground coffee rose, while products such as sunflower oil, cornstarch, and some pasta decreased.

The behavior of prices during May reflects, in several cases, the effect of weather conditions and harvest closures, as well as normal market adjustments. These data allow us to better understand the relationship between production, supply, and prices, which is key to guiding national agri-food policy.

Eggs. Photo credit: akirEVarga from Pixabay.

Several products contributed to this uptick. In the industrial sector, electric transformers saw a 61.5% increase in exports. Insecticides experienced a 7.1% rise, beauty preparations grew by 17.6%, and chloride polymer exports went up by 9.1%. Agricultural products also played a significant role. Coffee exports increased by 18.4%, flowers by 9.9%, and bananas by 30.4%. Additionally, exports of pineapples, avocados, guavas, and mangos collectively grew by 46.3%.

Regionally, eight of the top ten non-mining export areas reported positive results. Bogotá’s exports increased by 10.3%, Antioquia by 6.9%, Cundinamarca by 9.8%, Bolívar by 7.8%, Caldas by 6.4%, Huila by 33.4%, Risaralda by 50.6%, and Magdalena by 12.9%.

The Ministry attributes these gains to government policies aimed at diversifying and enhancing the value of Colombia’s export offerings. Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism, Luis Carlos Reyes Hernández, stated that the focus is on positioning Colombian products with added value in various markets, emphasizing the promotion of exports.

These figures underscore Colombia’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its non-mining export sectors and reduce reliance on traditional commodities.

Headline Image: Coffee from Colombia. Photo credit: Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism (MinCIT)

Demand for Colombian non-mining products has fluctuated across international markets, but exports to key partners like the United States, Mexico, and Venezuela have shown notable increases. Exports to the United States rose by 8.6%, while Mexico and Venezuela saw increases of 22.5% and 47.4%, respectively. Other markets also saw growth, with exports to Belgium increasing by 33.7% and the Netherlands by 3.9%.

Industrial and Agricultural Sectors Drive Export Growth

Industrial products, which account for about 62% of Colombia’s non-mining exports, grew by 4.1% year-over-year. Key industrial exports included electrical machinery and equipment, which rose by 30.3%, and cosmetics and beauty preparations, up by 26.4%. Exports of plastics and related products grew by 10.6%, while sales of insecticides and fungicides increased by 4.1%.

Agricultural products, comprising 37.8% of Colombia’s non-mining export basket, grew by 16% through September. Significant increases were observed in exports of Tahiti lime (69%), bananas (48.6%), Hass avocado (42.4%), and passion fruit (20.2%). Coffee exports rose by 11.6%, while cut flower exports increased by 12%. Tilapia fillets saw a modest increase of 7.6%.

Regional Contributions to Export Growth

Several Colombian regions played a prominent role in the export growth of non-mining goods. Risaralda saw the largest percentage increase, with exports reaching $639.9 million, up 58.9% year-over-year. Huila exported $677.1 million worth of non-mining goods, representing a 35.3% increase, while Santander reported $253.6 million in exports, marking a 12% rise.

Bolívar contributed $1.38 billion in exports, showing a 10.1% growth, and Antioquia led with $3.02 billion in non-mining exports, a 9.1% increase. Other regions also contributed, reflecting a broad geographic distribution of Colombia’s non-mining export growth.

Government’s Strategy and Export Support

According to Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism Luis Carlos Reyes Hernández, the government is focused on sustaining export growth by supporting regional businesses. The Ministry is working with local entrepreneurs to help them access new markets, providing various resources and support tools to boost Colombia’s international presence in non-traditional sectors.

The rise in Colombia’s non-mining exports reflects ongoing efforts to diversify the country’s export base, moving away from traditional reliance on mining and energy products. This trend underscores Colombia’s strategic push to leverage its agricultural and industrial sectors to enhance trade resilience and support economic growth.

Out of the 39 industrial activities surveyed, 22 reported positive growth in real production. The strongest increases were seen in the basic iron and steel industries (41.5%), rubber products manufacturing (39.7%), and the production of other types of transportation equipment (30.4%).

Lorenzo Castillo Barvo, acting Vice Minister of Business Development, attributed these results to the national government’s economic recovery program, which emphasizes reindustrialization. Castillo stated that manufacturing is a key sector in the transition to a more sustainable economy driven by science, technology, and knowledge.

Despite these improvements, year-to-date manufacturing production remains down by 2.9%. However, July’s 2% growth marks the most significant recovery in the past 12 months. Industrial sales also grew by 0.7% in July, the second-highest monthly gain over the past year. Employment in the sector, while down 0.9% from last year, saw its smallest decline in 12 months.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism says that it has continued to invest in initiatives aimed at strengthening the country’s business landscape to foster greater economic opportunities, particularly for the manufacturing sector.

Regional Performance

Of the 14 departments included in the survey, 10 recorded positive production growth. Córdoba led with a 36.5% increase in production and a 9.6% rise in sales in July. Risaralda and Valle del Cauca also showed notable growth, with production increases of 10.1% and 4.3%, respectively.

Among metropolitan areas, Valle de Aburrá (Metropolitan Medellín) contributed the most to the annual increase in real production, registering a 1.7% rise.

The manufacturing sector’s July gains reflect ongoing efforts to stabilize and stimulate industrial production across regions, though the overall year-to-date results remain mixed.