On Monday, Colombia was rocked by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake — the strongest quake to hit the country this century. As of writing, at least 281 people have died across western Colombia, while rescue missions are still working to find missing people and fish survivors out of the rubble. This would be a complex and daunting challenge for any government, let alone for one that’s only been in power for a week, but that is exactly what’s happening. New Colombian president Abelardo De La Espriella just took office on Friday of last week and is already facing a situation that could make or break his presidency.
De La Espriella eked out a victory in the country’s federal elections in June, beating his opponent, Senator Iván Cepeda, by around 250,000 votes. A political outsider — he worked as a lawyer who handled several high-profile cases before founding his own party in 2025 — De La Espriella ran on a hard-right law-and-order platform, promising to flatten armed rebel groups. He also vowed to bring economic reform that would reduce the size of the state and boost the oil and gas industry. Now, the earthquake response is suddenly at the top of his agenda.
Response has been complicated by the fact that many of the areas that were hit the hardest are some of the poorest, least developed, and most isolated in the country. It is these same areas where the aforementioned armed rebel groups, along with independent paramilitaries and criminal gangs, exercise outsized control, which has complicated the delivery of aid. Likewise, looting in the region that has broken out after the disaster has forced some cities to enact strict curfews, which means that rescue crews need to obtain special permits in order to continue their efforts deep into the night.
If handled correctly, the earthquake presents an opportunity for De La Espriella to make his name on the global stage. In this time of crisis, he should face little resistance even from rival parties and be able to pass measures to address the situation. This presents him an early opportunity to forge lasting coalitions and promote himself as a stabilizing force in Latin America. As analyst James Bosworth puts succinctly in Latin America Risk Report, “the earthquake will generate domestic sympathy and support, a rally-around-the-flag moment.”
However, there is also a lot of room for error. One of the chief knocks against De La Espriella is that he has no experience holding elected office; a botched long-term response could reinforce the narrative that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. In turn, opposition could quickly capitalize. Aside from Cepeda, there is also previous president Gustavo Petro, who purposefully derailed the transition process and has been flinging accusations of electoral interference against De La Espriella. If the public quickly turns on him, it could delegitimize his leadership, potentially destabilizing the country further, and causing geopolitical ripple effects across the entire region.
Thus far, De La Espriella’s nascent government has declared an economic emergency, giving it temporary powers to enact new taxes and economic measures. It plans to use them to establish a fund for hospitals, schools, and highway reconstruction, as well as offering housing and public service subsidies for those affected by the quake. That’s still in the future though; what matters most right now is managing the complicated rescue response — which involves coordinating a complex web of foreign aid — and keeping the death toll from rising further.
