{"id":853489,"date":"2026-08-13T06:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853489\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T06:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:56:12","slug":"colombia-limits-foreign-rescue-teams-as-earthquake-survival-window-narrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853489\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia limits foreign rescue teams as earthquake survival window narrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Lee este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Colombia has begun receiving international aid and rescuers after initially refusing some offers in the crucial hours following Monday\u2019s devastating earthquake<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The delay is considered the first controversy of the country\u2019s new government, led by conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office on Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n News of the holdup comes as the clock nears the end of the critical 72-hour window for rescuing survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings, after which rescuers warn that the possibility of finding anyone alive drops dramatically.\n <\/p>\n

\n Leaders across the Americas had offered support right after the 7.4 magnitude quake struck this week \u2013 just as they had done with Venezuela when it was hit by two powerful tremors in June. The difference is that Venezuela immediately received dozens of international rescue groups without question, while Colombia either turned some of them down or limited how they would help.\n <\/p>\n

\n Political scientist Sandra Borda argued that the difficulties in aid management are related to the tense political transition between the current and previous administrations, which lacked a formal handover. Notably, it was only on Wednesday that David Tamayo Rold\u00e1n was appointed director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, the agency responsible for Colombia\u2019s disaster preparedness and response.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWithout a transition and with that kind of personnel change, it was perfectly normal for these short circuits to occur,\u201d said Borda, a professor at Universidad de los Andes.\n <\/p>\n

\n The outlook on Tuesday was uncertain as multiple countries and organizations, including the UN, said they had not received a request for aid from Colombian authorities.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf that happens, the United Nations system and humanitarian actors are prepared to provide all the support we can,\u201d said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mexico, which had prepared tons of supplies and a contingent of 255 military personnel, also it had not received a request from Colombia and that the deployment depended on it.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Chinese ambassador to Colombia Zhu Jingyang \u201curgently\u201d asked Colombia to establish an official channel to coordinate international assistance, saying, \u201cWe hope the Colombian Government will immediately announce the name of the official and their contact to coordinate international assistance for the earthquake victims.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n As the hours passed, coordination finally began.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced Tuesday afternoon that he was sending humanitarian aid to Colombia but noted that de la Espriella\u2019s government requested aid \u201conly in the form of supplies\u201d for those affected.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have been informed that their rescue teams, medical personnel, and other emergency bodies are deployed and attending to the situation, so at this time, they do not require personnel support,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, Peru confirmed Wednesday that it will dispatch volunteers to support search and rescue efforts.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Colombian Foreign Ministry later said it was preparing a list of \u201cspecific needs\u201d to request international aid and that it had asked the United Nations Development Programme to provide support.\n <\/p>\n

\n The new head of disaster management also said Wednesday that the government has requested rescue teams from only four countries \u2013 the US, El Salvador, Ecuador and Israel \u2013 because, in Colombia\u2019s view, their rescue teams have the international and national certifications required for the job.\n <\/p>\n

\n Foreign Minister Omar Bula insisted that the country has \u201cnot excluded absolutely any country in terms of the offers that have been made to us,\u201d adding, \u201cWe work with countries without any ideological or political consideration.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The US confirmed Wednesday that had mobilized search and rescue teams from Virginia and California to Colombia after receiving a request from its government.\n <\/p>\n

\n Borda commented that the new government showed \u201ca deep distrust of some parts of the international community,\u201d which she considered \u201cdifficult to understand.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She added that there was \u201cno clarity about the procedure that was to be followed\u201d regarding the arrival of rescuers, saying, \u201cI think this happened to us at a very difficult time. It is truly a regrettable situation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She also said that the subsequent acceptance of the arrival of experts undermined the argument that they were not needed.\n <\/p>\n

\"still_22887713_2680420_still.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Rescue attempt underway after Colombia earthquake\n <\/p>\n

\"still_22887713_2680420_still.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Rescue attempt underway after Colombia earthquake<\/p>\n

5:44<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere was a perception from the beginning that the rescue teams would be sufficient, although a technical assessment was never made public to confirm that they would indeed be enough to deal with all the damage and destruction caused by the earthquake,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n In any case, it is also unclear where international personnel are needed. The emergency chief of the fire department in Cali, one of the most affected cities, indicated that volunteers should not approach collapsed sites \u201cbecause there are already enough specialized personnel to carry out the rescue work without complications.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The Topos Tlatelolco Rescue Brigade, a Mexican group with extensive experience responding to natural disasters, said Wednesday that Colombian authorities \u201cwill not allow the entry of external rescue groups\u201d because the work is being handled by national rescuers.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, in Pereira, another severely affected city, the foreign ministry celebrated the arrival of 19.5 tons of aid from Mexico.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAdditional flights are expected in the coming days. Colombia is not alone! The international community is with us,\u201d the ministry said on X.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that her government had finally coordinated with its Colombian counterparts, who \u201crequested specific items\u201d and that the flight also included \u201cmembers of the Mexican Army to assist in the efforts.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol Colombia has begun receiving international aid and rescuers after initially refusing some offers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-853489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}