Colombia’s earthquake is déjà vu for Venezuelans. The government response is anything but

Two powerful earthquakes less than two months apart have exposed stark differences in how neighboring Venezuela and Colombia respond to catastrophe

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- For the second time in two months, the ground was shaking in South America. Once again, families flooded social media with pleas for help finding missing loved ones under flattened buildings. Once again, governments across political divides and continents pledged aid .

But in many ways, the contrast between Colombia’s 7.4-magnitude earthquake on Monday and Venezuela’s back-to-back temblors on June 24 could not have been more stark.

In Venezuela, acting President Delcy Rodríguez waited nearly four hours before addressing the nation. In Colombia, newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella announced an emergency command post to oversee rescue efforts barely an hour after the earthquake struck. For weeks, Venezuelan civilians were clawing through rubble by hand. Hours after the earthquake in Colombia, rescue teams were searching for survivors with cranes and excavators.

In Venezuela, Rodríguez relied on rescuers from around the world to fill critical gaps in the state’s response. Colombia has so far declined foreign crews except for those from the United States, saying it has enough personnel and has requested humanitarian supplies instead.

The contrast is a reminder of the differences between the neighboring nations — their political systems, resources and the strength of their institutions — and a demonstration of how those can take on life-or-death importance in catastrophes.

“The differences between an authoritarian regime and a democratic system can be seen clearly in the institutions and in their capacity to respond to an emergency,” said Ronal Rodríguez, a Venezuela specialist at Colombia's Rosario University. “Crises are also political opportunities.”

De la Espriella, a conservative former criminal defense lawyer with no previous political experience, was sworn in as president in Colombia's third-largest city, Cali, less than 72 hours before the earthquake toppled buildings there and across the country's far-flung provinces — the very regions he’d pledged to prioritize on the campaign trail.

Even before the earthquake, the political novice was navigating a fraught transition from predecessor Gustavo Petro , Colombia’s first leftist president, who at first refused to recognize de la Espriella's narrow victory and alleged electoral fraud.

Their feud derailed Colombia’s formal handover process, leaving key agencies — including the national disaster management agency — in the hands of officials de la Espriella attacked as a candidate.

But humanitarian workers say the government's earthquake response has transcended those tensions, reflecting the resilience of Colombia’s democracy.

“All the institutions have worked,” said María José Torres Macho, the United Nations' top official in Colombia. “Our ability to be working with them has not been affected by the change of government.”

Just an hour after the quake, de la Espriella posted a video saying he would “personally assume leadership” of the disaster response.