Colombia declares mourning after earthquake kills 216 as new president navigates disaster and security commitments

Colombia declared three days of national mourning on Wednesday after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the west of the country on Monday, killing at least 216 people and demolishing scores of buildings in and around the cities of Pereira and Cali, according to France 24. The disaster struck days after President Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in on Friday, with the new government declaring a state of emergency and visiting affected areas.

According to France 24, the government ordered flags lowered to half-staff on official buildings and at Colombian embassies abroad in honour of the dead. The quake is described by France 24 as the strongest to hit Colombia this century.

Emergency crews in Pereira and Cali worked through the night using cranes, dogs, heavy machinery and human chains to search for survivors, according to France 24. Rescuers pulled 32-year-old Daniela Largo alive from the rubble of a Pereira hotel after she had been trapped for 35 hours. Her mother, Sandra Milena Perez, told AFP that a local resident heard cries for help and began removing debris alongside neighbours before professional rescuers arrived.

According to France 24, aerial views showed entire blocks of homes and apartment buildings reduced to rubble in Cali, and part of the Hospital Universitario del Valle collapsed during the quake, forcing doctors to treat patients in a parking lot and in the open air. Many survivors spent the night outdoors due to damaged homes or fear of aftershocks, with at least one park in Pereira converted into a makeshift shelter.

France 24 reports that the United States announced $15.5 million in emergency aid for earthquake relief, and that messages of support and offers of assistance arrived from around the world.

De La Espriella promised rent subsidies for affected families during a visit to Pereira on Tuesday, according to France 24. The Straits Times, which reported on a separate security meeting in Panama the same week, noted that the Trump administration had announced plans to provide $1 billion in U.S. security assistance to De La Espriella's government, and that Colombia had joined a U.S.-led counter-narcotics coalition.

According to The Straits Times, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed Colombia into the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition at a meeting in Panama City on Wednesday, citing Colombia's authorisation of joint military operations against what he described as terror networks. De La Espriella had, at his inauguration, vowed to eradicate illicit crops and join the Shield of the Americas programme founded by President Donald Trump.

The Straits Times reported that Hegseth invoked what he called the 'Donroe Doctrine' — a play on Trump's name applied to the Monroe Doctrine — asserting U.S. primacy across the hemisphere against narco-traffickers and foreign influence. Panama President Jose Raul Mulino, speaking at the same meeting, called drug trafficking the biggest threat facing the region and dismissed concerns that the coalition could infringe on member nations' sovereignty.

• None of the sources establishes the precise number of people still missing or trapped beneath rubble following the earthquake.
• The sources do not report on the Colombian government's or military's independent assessment of the earthquake's full scale of destruction.
• The sources do not clarify whether the $15.5 million in U.S. emergency aid and the $1 billion in U.S. security assistance are separate or overlapping commitments.
• The sources do not report any response from former President Gustavo Petro regarding De La Espriella's security policies or the earthquake response.
• The sources do not detail the specific terms or membership obligations of the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition.
• The sources do not report on whether Colombia's new government has addressed any tension between managing the earthquake disaster and simultaneously engaging in new international security commitments.
• The long-term outlook for survivors and the projected timeline for search-and-rescue operations are not established by any source.

1. The Straits Times — original — by The Straits Times
2. France 24 — by FRANCE 24

Read the original at The Straits Times

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