The numbers are still climbing.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Colombia on Monday, leaving at least 181 people dead and more than 2,500 injured, according to President Abelardo de la Espriella. Authorities are still searching for survivors trapped under debris, and the full scale of the disaster remains unclear.
The figures come directly from de la Espriella's office. The president has been the public face of the emergency response — a visible contrast to the paralysis that has defined so much of the Petro era's handling of crises.
Elsewhere in the hemisphere, the news cycle moved fast. In the Red Sea, four crew members were killed by a suspected Houthi strike on an Egyptian-owned cargo ship. Separately, a U.S. missile struck a second vessel bearing the Panamanian flag near the Gulf of Oman as it attempted to evade the region's American blockade — a sign that the Trump administration's posture in Middle Eastern waterways remains active and unambiguous.
In a notable diplomatic development, Russia released U.S. Marine Robert Gilman, who had been imprisoned since 2022. His health had badly deteriorated in custody, according to reports. Russia made no public demands in exchange for his release, though Russian state media reported he had been arrested for drunkenly kicking a police officer. President Trump had requested the release.
On the domestic front, the judge overseeing the trial of Luigi Mangione — the suspected shooter of a UnitedHealthcare CEO — ruled that jurors will remain anonymous. The judge cited prosecutors' documented concerns about intimidation from Mangione's supporters, noting 'threats, harassment, and exposure of personal information directed at individuals perceived as connected to the case, including witnesses and others.'
And in a detail that will not appear in most diplomatic histories: Donald Trump reportedly escaped Turkey during last month's NATO summit by hiding in an airline catering container, after intelligence officials learned of an Iranian threat to his life. Two senior U.S. officials confirmed the operation involved using Air Force One as a decoy while Trump was moved to a separate aircraft.
Back to Colombia. The earthquake is a humanitarian emergency first. But it is also a political moment. De la Espriella's government now faces the test that defines administrations in the region: whether the state can actually deliver when the ground gives way. Early signals — the president's direct communication of casualty figures, the visible coordination of search efforts — suggest an executive willing to be accountable to the record in real time.
That accountability matters. Colombia has spent years watching a government more interested in ideological performance than institutional function. A president who shows up to a disaster, names the numbers, and organizes the response is not doing something extraordinary. He is doing the minimum. But in the current Latin American context, the minimum is worth noting — and worth holding him to.
