Colombia

Sept. 8, 2026 7:54 AM PT

MIAMI — Secretary of State Marco Rubio begins a three-nation tour of Latin America on Tuesday, visiting U.S.-aligned conservative leaders as the Trump administration steps up military operations to combat drug trafficking and seeks further inroads in the Western Hemisphere aimed at improving America’s energy standing and combating illegal migration.

Just a week after sealing a massive oil deal with Venezuelan leaders after a U.S. military operation in January deposed then-leader Nicolás Maduro, Rubio was traveling to neighboring Colombia to meet President Abelardo de la Espriella. Colombia’s new leader has embraced President Trump’s policies on issues ranging from drugs to immigration and energy.

De la Espriella is one of a new generation of right-wing conservatives to win election and show support for Trump’s muscular approach to a region that had tilted leftward in recent decades.

In announcing the trip last week, which also will take Rubio to Ecuador and Peru, the State Department said Rubio and all three leaders would be discussing “enhanced cooperation in the shared fight against narcoterrorism, which threatens our hemisphere.”

Rubio visits as Latin American allies help expanded efforts to fight drug trafficking

The trip comes a day after U.S. forces intercepted and sank another Ecuadorian vessel that Washington accuses of links to the criminal group Los Choneros.

It was the latest action by the U.S. against boats and vessels in Latin America that it says are involved in drug trafficking. Expanded operations in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean began a year ago, coinciding with an extreme crackdown on migrants in the U.S. illegally, many of them from Latin America.

The vessel sunk Monday was the fifth targeted by U.S. forces in the region in less than two weeks — in most cases with the cooperation or at least tacit support of the conservative leaders with whom Rubio will meet.

But unlike strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in Latin American waters that began in September 2025, those on board the vessel were removed and transferred to Ecuadorian authorities. It appears to be a shift after a series of strikes on boats over the year have killed at least 227 people, which the Trump administration accuses of being “narcoterrorists” but without providing evidence.

The U.S. military carried out at least two of those deadly strikes last month before starting to intercept floating refueling stations that it says support illicit drug trafficking operations at sea.

Colombia’s president vows to crack down on drug trafficking and immigration

Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula said in a video released Tuesday that Rubio’s visit marks the beginning of “rebuilding a strategic alliance with the United States, our main partner in the region.” He affirmed that Colombia will focus on discussing security, which includes combating drug trafficking, trade, and the defense of “shared values.”

De la Espriella has promised to take a hard line against drug traffickers and pledges to deport thousands of migrants who are in Colombia without residence permits, mainly Venezuelans, as he tries to make significant changes to the nation’s immigration policies that he says will reduce crime.

After taking office last month, De la Espriella brought Colombia into the Americas Counter Cartels Coalition and strengthened long-standing security cooperation with the United States, following strained relations during the 2022-2026 administration of progressive Gustavo Petro.

In just a month in office, De la Espriella has carried out at least three bombings against illegal armed groups and increased military operations. However, several minors have died during the bombings, which has drawn criticism from opposition leaders.

As part of his security strategy, he has focused his efforts on showcasing the results of military operations. However, there was criticism from the opposition and the state-run Ombudsman’s Office after De la Espriella displayed the bodies of alleged criminals wrapped in white bags on the ground alongside seized ammunition.

After winning the election, De la Espriella identified several leaders of Colombia’s illegal armed groups as “military targets.” Last week, he announced that the first of these, Naín Andrés Pérez Toncel, alias “Bendito Menor,” one of the leaders of the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada, an illegal armed group in the north of the country, had been killed by police.

Nicknamed “El Tigre,” or The Tiger, the president has shifted the country’s security policy, closing the peace negotiations initiated by Petro during his administration, which he considers a failed effort that only increased violence in Colombia.

Colombia grapples with illegal armed groups vying for control of territories strategically important for drug trafficking and illegal mining, despite the fact that a decade ago the state signed a historic peace agreement with the FARC rebel group.

After meeting De la Espriella in Barranquilla on the Caribbean, where he will sign a civil nuclear cooperation deal and a critical minerals agreement, Rubio will make a brief stop in Quito.

He will meet Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa whose government has steadily increased counternarcotics operations conducted with the U.S. military.

Rubio will round out the visit with a stop in Lima, Peru, where he will meet new President Keiko Fujimori — the daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori — as the government also has taken a rightward turn.

Lee and Suárez write for the Associated Press. Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia.

Rightward shift in Latin America comes as Washington pledges to grow influence, take militaristic approach to cartels.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio is travelling to three South American countries whose recently elected leaders have closely aligned with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Rubio will travel to Colombia on Tuesday to meet with newly elected President Abelardo de la Espriella. He will then visit Ecuador to meet with President Daniel Noboa before going to Peru, where he will meet with another newly elected leader, Keiko Fujimori.

The State Department has not yet released a more in-depth agenda for the trip, saying only that Rubio will discuss “US support for Colombia’s earthquake response; enhanced cooperation in the shared fight against narcoterrorism, which threatens our hemisphere; and the benefits of deeper commercial relationships between our countries”.

The trip comes amid a rightward shift in Latin America that has seen several Trump-aligned leaders take office. Beyond the three countries, Trump also backed Honduran President Nasry Asfura, who won the presidency in November, and Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz, who won in October.

Beyond the new leaders, Trump has also closely aligned with Argentina’s Javier Milei, who took office in 2023, and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, who became the leader in 2019.

US influence over Western Hemisphere

Rubio’s visit comes as the Trump administration has pledged to assert more influence over the Western Hemisphere in what Trump has referred to as the “Donroe Doctrine”, a reference to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine that opposed European interference in the Americas.

It has shifted to a militaristic approach to security in Latin American countries, while broadly reframing efforts to combat drug trafficking as a war against “narco-terrorists”.

In August, Colombia’s de la Espriella upped cooperation with the US by joining the Trump administration’s so-called “Shield of the Americas”.

The 19 members of the group have jointly pledged a “commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks”.

Unlike his predecessor, leftist Gustavo Petro, de la Espriella has also praised US military strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. At least 227 people have been killed in those strikes, in what rights groups have condemned as extrajudicial killings.

Family members of those killed have charged that the targets were fishermen, not drug smugglers.

The US has proven a major supporter for de la Espriella in the wake of a devastating earthquake in Colombia last month in which at least 330 people were killed and thousands left homeless.

In March, the US military announced it was collaborating with Ecuador, under Noboa’s leadership, to target drug trafficking groups in the country.

Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg defended the US strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs in an interview with broadcaster Teleamazonas last week.

Peru’s Fujimori, the daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori, who notoriously dissolved the country’s Congress and Supreme Court to consolidate power during his government from 1990 to 2000, has also pledged closer ties with the US and a military crackdown on criminal groups.

Conservative shift

Rubio’s visit comes after the US announced a controversial agreement with Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez. The deal, struck in the wake of the January 3 US abduction of Venezuela’s ex-President Nicolas Maduro, grants US companies access to 65 billion barrels of crude oil reserves over the next 100 years.

It also comes as Washington has continued to up its pressure campaign against Cuba, with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Monday rejecting any talks with the US despite its ongoing fuel blockade of the island.

Brazil and Mexico remain the only regional powers with leftist leaders. Rubio has called the region’s conservative lurch an “extraordinary achievement”.

The shift has accompanied the strengthening of ties between Israel and several Latin American countries since Trump took office.

Brazilians will go to the polls in October, when Flavio Bolsonaro, a son of former right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro, seeks to unseat Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Trump has remained a staunch ally of the elder Bolsonaro, who has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading a conspiracy to hold onto power.

The US president has also shown strong support for the younger Bolsonaro, including inviting him to the White House in May.

Colombian authorities blame ELN rebel group for attack that reportedly included drones dropping explosives on compound.

Colombian authorities have said that at least three soldiers have been killed and several more injured after an attack on a military compound by an armed group that included drones used to drop explosives.

The Colombian army said on Saturday that the attack had been carried out by the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN) the night before in the municipality of Ocana, which is in the area bordering Venezuela. Two soldiers were killed in the clashes, along with a third who died after receiving medical attention. Four were injured.

“To the ELN I say with absolute clarity: for every police officer or soldier you kill, I will bring down on you the full weight and legitimate force of the State,” President Abelardo de la Espriella said in a statement on social media condemning the attack.

Authorities said that drones dropped explosives onto the compound in the department of Norte de Santander before fighting took place within the facility. The news service AFP reported that at least 20 drones loaded with explosives were utilised in the attack, citing an unnamed security official.

De la Espriella won office pledging to return Colombia to militarised confrontation with armed groups and criminal organisations that have jostled for influence across the country, despite concerns that it could lead to surging violence and possible rights abuses.

Deadly attacks by armed groups have continued to rattle the country since his inauguration.

The attack on Friday took place in the northeastern Catatumbo region, where the ELN is based and where the government has carried out military raids against armed groups.

De la Espriella has also promised closer ties with the United States, which has sought to expand its military involvement in the region under the so-called “Shield of the Americas” initiative.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet with de la Espriella, a former lawyer who previously represented leaders of paramilitaries, in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla next week.

Rights groups warn that armed groups are increasingly recruiting children to their ranks through social media.

Three minors were among those killed in a Colombian military air strike on cocaine-trafficking rebels last week, authorities said, as President Abelardo de la Espriella intensifies operations against armed groups.

The August 27 bombing in the southern Guaviare department was the deadliest military operation since de la Espriella took office earlier this month. The National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences said that 10 people in total were killed in the operation. The Ministry of National Defence reported that two of the victims were 15 and another was 16.

The victims allegedly belonged to a dissident faction of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, that rejected a 2016 peace agreement with the government.

De la Espriella, a right-wing leader and ally of United States President Donald Trump, said on Monday that another bombing in the same area killed eight members of a FARC dissident group led by commander Ivan Mordisco. It is not known whether any minors were among the dead.

“The bandits, who for decades have recruited minors to turn them into combatants or human shields, must pay for these crimes that violate International Humanitarian Law,” he wrote on X.

The Defence Ministry said on Monday that 24 suspected rebels have been killed in military operations since de la Espriella took office.

The strikes come as child recruitment by armed groups is again rising in Colombia, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published last week.

At least 1,500 children have been recruited by armed groups since 2021, with 625 cases reported in 2024, according to the report.

The watchdog said that criminal and rebel groups are using social media to recruit children, including to carry out increasingly dangerous tasks, such as operating drones loaded with explosives. They also reported that algorithms on platforms including Meta and TikTok “appear to have actively promoted” content encouraging children to join rebel groups.

“Armed groups in Colombia are recruiting children with impunity,” said Juanita Goebertus, HRW’s Americas director. “Protection systems are failing, and social media platforms have become a more effective recruiting ground.”

Meta and TikTok told HRW that they prohibit content promoting violence and had removed accounts flagged by the organisation.

Bogota, Colombia – Opposition politicians and migrant communities in Colombia have decried President Abelardo de la Espriella’s plan to launch a deportation campaign against foreign nationals living irregularly in the country.

De la Espriella unveiled the crackdown during a security council meeting on Sunday, ordering police to begin operations as soon as this week.

The policy is expected to primarily affect Venezuelans, by far the largest migrant population in Colombia.

It marks a stark departure from measures under previous administrations, which largely sought to create legal immigration pathways for those fleeing hardship in neighbouring Venezuela.

“I will not accept any illegal immigrants, wherever they come from,” said de la Espriella in a video shared on the social media platform X on Sunday evening. “They will have to leave and be deported. It is a political decision I am taking responsibility for.”

The far-right president – who was inaugurated earlier this month – said his government will first target those “committing crimes” and then those whose “status has not been regularised”.

While de la Espriella did not address any specific nationalities, some 95 percent of Colombia’s migrant population are Venezuelan, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental group.

Approximately 2.8 million Venezuelans reside in Colombia, making it home to the largest Venezuelan migrant community in the world.

While nearly 2 million have a Temporary Protection Permit (PPT) authorising them to live in the country, an estimated 500,000 lack permission to be in Colombia, according to migration authorities. Many of them were granted temporary permits that have since expired.

De la Espriella, a political outsider, pledged to tackle illegal immigration during his presidential campaign, his first bid for elected office.

The former lawyer has aligned himself with right-wing leaders such as US President Donald Trump, who initiated his own deportation campaign in the United States.

De la Espriella’s declaration on Sunday triggered uproar among opposition leaders, including leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda, who narrowly lost the presidency in a June run-off. He leads the Historic Pact, the largest party in Colombia’s Congress.

“Today, de la Espriella has added xenophobia to all the authoritarian, despotic and discriminatory traits of his policies,” Cepeda wrote on X.

Cepeda then accused de la Espriella of failing to protect Colombian deportees from the United States.

“De la Espriella is bold enough to target migrants from Latin American countries in Colombia, yet cowardly when it comes to protecting our fellow migrants in the United States,” he said.

Maria del Mar Pizarro, a Historic Pact congresswoman, also denounced de la Espriella’s plans in an interview with Al Jazeera. She questioned whether the deportation campaign was about security or discrimination.

“Foreign nationals who commit crimes must be prosecuted,” she said. “But persecuting and deporting someone — simply because their immigration status is not in order — is populism, not security.”

Given the porous nature of the roughly 2,200-kilometre (1,370-mile) land border between the two countries, Pizarro added that there is little to stop deported Venezuelans from returning to Colombia.

“Without border control, legalisation and intelligence efforts against criminal gangs, the government pays for the deportation, and the problem returns,” she said.

Venezuelan diaspora fears policy implications

De la Espriella has announced that the deportation operation will begin with a pilot programme in the coastal city of Barranquilla, which is home to an estimated 182,000 Venezuelans.

Members of the Venezuelan diaspora in the city, however, fear that the crackdown will feed into stereotypes about their community.

“We must not confuse irregular immigration status with criminality. They are two completely different things,” said Juan Carlos Viloria Doria, the vice president of Venezuelans in Barranquilla, a migrant advocacy organisation.

While he backed the need to prosecute those who commit crimes, he said the law should apply to everyone “independent of nationality”.

Viloria also noted that many migrants could face political persecution if deported back to Venezuela.

Experts at the United Nations and other human rights watchdogs have accused the Venezuelan government of “repressive” activities, including the arbitrary detention and torture of political dissidents.

“We have people who left because they believed their lives, their freedom, or their safety were at risk,” Viloria explained. “Added to that are the economic, social and humanitarian conditions that Venezuela still faces.”

Despite being home to the world’s largest petroleum reserves, Venezuela has suffered from a plummeting gross domestic product (GDP) and rampant hyperinflation in the past decade.

Critics of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) say it has presided over chronic economic mismanagement, funnelling oil profits to a small elite while underfunding public services.

The Venezuelan government, however, argues it has been constrained by US sanctions, which have affected oil revenue, trade and foreign investment.

Faced with Venezuela’s economic crisis and threats of political persecution, some 7.6 million citizens have left the country since 2014, according to the UN.

Ronald Vergara moved to Colombia in 2016 and founded Fundacion Hermanos Caminantes, a nongovernmental organisation that supports recently arrived migrants. He fears how de la Espriella’s crackdown may harm an already struggling community.

“It would truly be inhumane to deport people who came here to survive and to work – decent people, who account for the majority of us,” he told Al Jazeera.

Despite living in Colombia for 10 years, Vergara was only granted a Temporary Protection Permit a few months ago, due to delays in the system. He said that residing in Colombia without papers limited his opportunities.

“I always felt excluded. I was never able to get a job that paid a decent wage,” he explained.

Vergara also said he has seen cases where those who had a Temporary Protection Permit lost their legal status because their identity card was lost or stolen. Thousands of others are still waiting to be granted their papers, including his son.

“He’s 17 and about to graduate from high school, but he can’t graduate without the PPT,” said Vergara.

A departure from political tradition

De la Espriella’s announcement heralds a new era of anti-immigrant politics in Colombia, according to experts.

Since the Venezuelan migration crisis began, successive administrations in Bogota have responded by offering new arrivals assistance and opportunities for integration.

In 2017, for instance, then-President Juan Manuel Santos introduced a two-year temporary permit for Venezuelans called the Special Permit of Permanence and bolstered humanitarian assistance on the border.

His successor, right-wing leader Ivan Duque, severed relations with Caracas in 2019, closing the land border to vehicular traffic and suspending air travel. But he still offered migrants the chance to remain in Colombia by rolling out the PPT in 2021.

Most recently, Colombia’s first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, presided over a thaw in bilateral relations with Venezuela and adopted a pro-migrant stance. His presidency ended this year, with de la Espriella’s victory.

Ronal Rodriguez, a spokesperson at the Venezuela Observatory, a research centre at Bogota’s Rosario University, said de la Espriella’s policies interrupt a years-long trend.

“Everyone had a favourable stance toward migration and, in particular, used language that promoted integration,” Rodriguez explained.

“Unfortunately, I believe that this ends – for the moment – with what President Abelardo de la Espriella is now saying.”

While the president has pledged a crackdown on irregular migrants, the full details of his deportation platform have yet to be revealed.

For Rodriguez, de la Espriella may yet back down from his bold declarations.

He hopes that the president will “reconsider and return to the Colombian government’s policy of integration”.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — Colombian authorities captured an alleged senior Tren de Aragua leader in Bogotá who was wanted by the United States for crimes that include international arms trafficking and drug trafficking, President Abelardo de la Espriella announced Thursday.

Luis Saúl Pérez Nieto, also known as “Páez” or “Nairobi,” was arrested in Fontibón, a district in western Bogotá. De la Espriella identified him as the gang’s top leader in Peru and a trusted associate of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of the Venezuelan criminal organization.

Tren de Aragua began as a prison gang in Tocorón and expanded across South America and into the United States. It has been involved in murder, extortion, drug trafficking, human trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping and other violent acts.

“Nairobi” allegedly coordinated extortion, international arms trafficking, targeted killings and drug trafficking along strategic routes in South and Central America, according to the president’s announcement.

De la Espriella said U.S. authorities wanted Pérez Nieto in connection with those crimes. Colombian and U.S. officials have not publicly disclosed the jurisdiction handling the case, the specific charges against him or whether Washington has submitted an extradition request.

“Colombia will not be a refuge or sanctuary for any criminal,” De la Espriella said. “We will pursue them, capture them and bring them to justice, no matter where they come from.”

The operation involved Colombia’s National Police and Attorney General’s Office, along with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to Colombian outlets.

Police sources told Semana that Pérez Nieto was allegedly involved in trafficking ketamine, cocaine and weapons from Bogotá. Authorities had been tracking his movements in the Colombian capital before carrying out the arrest.

Peruvian media also reported the detention, but authorities in Peru had not announced whether Pérez Nieto faces charges or an extradition request there.

Aug. 25 (UPI) — Colombian President Abelardo De la Espriella ordered police and immigration authorities to begin to identify and deport migrants without legal status, starting in Barranquilla, the president’s office said.

De la Espriella issued the order during a security council meeting in the Caribbean city, where he announced measures to combat homicide, extortion, drug trafficking and other crimes, according to an official statement.

“The order to Migration is clear: coordinated operations with the police must begin in Barranquilla to find illegal immigrants,” De la Espriella said.

The president said authorities would first target foreign nationals committing crimes and then those who have not regularized their immigration status in Colombia.

“This is a presidential order that must begin to be carried out this week,” he said. “I will not accept illegal immigrants, regardless of where they come from, who are committing crimes in Colombia. They will leave, and we will deport them.”

De la Espriella said the measure was a political and administrative decision by his government. However, the announcement did not include a decree, an enforcement protocol or a deportation target.

The government also has not explained whether the order changes existing legal standards or seeks to intensify enforcement already carried out by Colombia’s immigration authority.

Deportations and expulsions were already part of Colombia’s immigration policy. Between August 2022 and June, Migration Colombia documented 3,389 deportations and 2,576 expulsions — a total of 5,965 people.

The leading reasons for deportation during that period were remaining in the country without legal status, with 1,380 cases, and entering or leaving the country illegally, with 1,315, according to Migration Colombia.

Other cases involved fraudulent documents, false statements, unauthorized activities, court orders and threats to national security or public order. The immigration authority said deportations and expulsions require individual administrative proceedings.

The decision fulfills a campaign promise. In June, when he was still a candidate, De la Espriella said foreign nationals who entered Colombia legally would receive guarantees, while those who violated immigration rules would be returned to their home countries, El Colombiano reported.

Colombia is home to more than 2.8 million Venezuelans, the country’s largest foreign population. Migration Colombia had registered 2,831,561 Venezuelan nationals intending to settle in Colombia as of Aug. 31, 2025, according to an official report.

The Association of Venezuelans in Barranquilla called on authorities to respect due process and the right to a defense during the new operations.

“Anyone who commits a crime must answer to the justice system, regardless of whether they are Colombian, Venezuelan or any other nationality,” the organization said. However, it warned that “irregular immigration status is not synonymous with criminality,” according to Caracol Radio.

US Southern Command says that Sunday’s strike targeted a vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.

The United States military said it struck a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people.

In a Monday post on X, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said Sunday’s strike targeted a vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.

“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” SOUTHCOM added.

“This operation is a clear and decisive reminder that SOUTHCOM is taking the fight directly to the cartels.”

Grainy, black-and-white video accompanying the post appeared to show a boat moving through the water immediately before a large explosion.

The post stated that under the direction of SOUTHCOM Commander General Francis L. Donovan, the Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere executed a lethal kinetic strike on the low-profile vessel.

“We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” Donovan was quoted as saying.

“Let me be clear, we will not permit narco-terrorists to operate with impunity in the Western Hemisphere, nor will we allow their deadly poison to reach American communities. This operation is a powerful demonstration of our lethal precision, overwhelming capability, and absolute resolve to protect the U.S. homeland.”

The US military launched Operation Southern Spear in early September, with President Donald Trump arguing that Washington is effectively at war with Latin American drug cartels.

Since then, more than 200 people have been killed in strikes across the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, according to a tally by the AFP news agency.

However, the Trump administration has not provided definitive evidence that the targeted vessels were involved in drug trafficking.

Legal experts and rights groups warn that the attacks could amount to extrajudicial killings.

The Pentagon’s inspector general said in May that it would review whether the military followed standard targeting procedures, though the evaluation will not examine the legal authority behind the strikes.

Bogota, Colombia – One week after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake rocked western Colombia, rescue efforts continue despite the razor-thin chances of survival.

The disaster response, however, is entering a new phase as rescue teams wind down operations and aid organisations begin focusing on housing those made homeless by the earthquake and providing basic necessities.

While official data reveals vast destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses, the full scale of the devastation continues to be assessed.

Fifteen of Colombia’s 32 provinces were affected by the earthquake, which killed at least 289 people and injured 4,187.

The earthquake struck San Jose del Palmar, a rural town in Colombia’s Pacific region, and devastated swaths of nearby cities like Pereira, Quibdo, and Cali.

In total, 127,557 homes were damaged, and were 26,945 destroyed. The disaster also devastated other institutions, including 285 health centres and 2,838 educational facilities.

Economic infrastructure sustained significant damage, with 407 roads, 92 water supply systems, 44 vehicular bridges, and five airports affected.

In the past week, emergency response teams have carried out an unrelenting rescue effort that has saved 354 lives.

As of Sunday night, 143 people remain unaccounted for, according to government figures, though an unofficial online database called Colombia Te Busca (Colombia is looking for you) puts the number of missing at more than 3,000.

“It has been a gruelling week, with little time to rest, as we’ve been focused on searching for, locating, and rescuing potential victims,” said Sergeant Joel Bustamente, who is leading the Bogota Fire Department’s deployment in Cali.

He added that the chances of finding life under the rubble have dropped significantly, and response teams’ priorities are shifting towards a medium-term emergency.

“Certain search-and-rescue operations are no longer necessary, and we have now moved on to a phase in which reconstruction, demolition, and other types of operations… will begin,” said Bustamente.

In some places, such as the seven-storey Vanessa Building in Cali, efforts to find survivors have been paused altogether.

“Search and rescue operations have been suspended since Friday. They are now in the phase of recovering bodies,” said Enrique Zapata, head of logistics at Cali-based health NGO SARES, who has been helping with the emergency response at the Vanessa Building.

While the chances of finding life under the rubble drop sharply after the first 72 hours following an earthquake, others still hope.

“We never lose hope,” said Maximiliano Herrera, a volunteer rescuer in Cali, who added that the teams in charge had said the window for survival could be as long as 15 days.

In recent days, he said, local rescue efforts have been boosted by international teams from countries like Israel, the United States, and Mexico.

Housing the homeless

With more than 120,000 families affected by the earthquake, authorities are under pressure to shelter the homeless.

“In terms of long-term continuity or a medium-term response, the priority right now is clearly shelter and refuge,” said Egido Sanz, country director for Colombia at ActionAid, a UK-based anti-poverty NGO.

In cities like Cali and Pereira, local authorities have converted spaces such as sports stadiums and community centres into temporary shelters.

Veronica Echeverry, who oversees a shelter at a community hall in Cali, said that they have received help from citizens, hospitals, and local authorities.

The refuge doubles as an aid collection point, receiving and distributing donations of food, water, hygiene supplies and clothes.

“This support network has allowed us to respond immediately to some of the most urgent needs of the affected families,” said Echeverry.

But she also noted that few of those who have lost their homes have needed to go to shelters, largely because they come from wealthier areas and can depend on family and friends for housing.

Today, only two people are staying at the shelter, which has 11 beds.

Neglected regions

While demand for shelter is limited in major cities like Cali and Pereira, Echeverry said other areas desperately need assistance.

In places like Choco – Colombia’s poorest department – the earthquake has hit especially hard due to existing challenges.

“It is a crisis that comes on top of another major crisis that already existed,” said ActionAid’s Sanz.

Choco was not only the epicentre of the earthquake; it is also a hotbed for armed conflict, drug trafficking and illegal gold mining.

Cities like Quibdo, the provincial capital, are a hub for people displaced by violence. In the city of roughly 130,000 people, some 2,723 homes were damaged, 1,337 of which are now uninhabitable.

But residents say the government has been slow to act.

“There has been no institutional response at the national level regarding the construction of temporary or permanent shelters,” said Yilson Marmolejo, a Quibdo local.

Meanwhile, the situation in the wider province, much of which is only accessible by river, remains unclear.

“There are places where, even today, the true situation has not yet been fully understood,” said Sanz.

Economic and political fallout

The earthquake has also unleashed vast economic destruction in Colombia.

Sixty-five-year-old Nestor Martinez has owned a bicycle shop in Buenaventura for 25 years. But the earthquake ravaged his store, wrecking its awning, toppling walls, and crushing merchandise.

Martinez has spent the last week cleaning up the debris and conducting an audit of the damage.

He estimates that the cost of the disaster for him is approximately 350 million pesos ($111,000). But, like many Colombians, he does not have business insurance.

“You have to scrape together money wherever you can to get back on your feet,” he said.

Martinez is one of hundreds of thousands who will need support from the government to rebuild their lives.

Donations have poured in from around the world, including a 2 million euro ($2.3m) pledge from the European Union and $15.5m from the US.

President Abelardo de la Espriella, meanwhile, has pledged a reconstruction fund to repair the damage, which his finance minister estimated to be at least $6.4bn.

The president also declared an economic emergency, granting him powers to raise funds through new taxes, but the right-wing statesman has instead opted to increase borrowing, primarily through a $450m credit line from the World Bank.

The earthquake represents the first major test for the leader, who was inaugurated just three days before it struck. He has faced criticism for abstaining from a handover process with the previous government, muddying the disaster response, and for politicising aid by saying he would only accept rescue teams from Israel, El Salvador, and the US – countries ideologically aligned with his government.

Although the country is beginning to turn to the long-term consequences of the disaster, emergency responders continue the arduous labour of digging through the rubble.

“The search for survivors continues; there’s always the possibility of miracles,” said Sergeant Bustamente.