- Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella met Tuesday at Barranquilla's Batallón Paraíso, in a session both governments branded the "Bilateral Prosperity Dialogue" — their first face-to-face since De la Espriella's August 7 inauguration.
- The two sides signed memoranda of understanding on civil nuclear energy and critical minerals, which Colombian officials describe as a possible opening toward lower tariffs rather than confirmation of one.
- De la Espriella's central ask — suspending the 12.5% tariff Washington imposed on Colombian exports in July — remained unanswered as the two delegations wrapped up Tuesday's talks, a request he has now raised four separate times since mid-August.
- The visit drew immediate domestic pushback: opposition Sen. Iván Cepeda called it a giveaway of Colombian sovereignty, while government allies hailed it as the start of a new era with Washington.
For Colombian-American communities in Florida, New York and New Jersey, Tuesday's meeting is more than diplomatic theater. It's an early signal of how a security-focused government in Bogotá will handle regions like Catatumbo, where relatives are living through one of the country's deadliest internal conflicts in recent memory.
A One-Month-Old Alliance Gets Its First Face-to-Face
Rubio landed in Barranquilla just before 2 p.m. local time on September 8 for his first meeting with De la Espriella since the Colombian leader took office, opening a Latin America swing that continues on to Ecuador and Peru through September 10. He and his delegation met De la Espriella and Foreign Minister Omar Bula at the Batallón Paraíso, Colombia's alternate presidential headquarters in the Caribbean coastal city, for a session both governments called the "Bilateral Prosperity Dialogue," with trade, regional security and counter-narcotics cooperation topping the agenda. Bula described the day as "the start of rebuilding a strategic alliance" with Washington.
De la Espriella, a lawyer-turned-outsider candidate who campaigned as "El Tigre," was sworn in on August 7 after edging out leftist senator Iván Cepeda in one of the closest runoffs in Colombian history, ending two years of friction between Bogotá and Washington under predecessor Gustavo Petro. President Trump has taken a public interest in the new alliance: at a White House event on September 2, he described having "backed a gentleman: El Tigre" during the campaign, adding that he liked the nickname because it suggested a tough leader.
Tariffs Top De la Espriella's Wish List — and Still Don't Have an Answer
Suspending the tariff Washington placed on Colombian goods in July is the single item De la Espriella has raised most consistently with U.S. officials. He first brought it up in an August 15 call with Trump, repeated the request seven days later to Rubio directly, and dispatched his trade minister to Washington to push the case in person. Colombian officials frame the tariff relief as urgent given the strain the earthquake has placed on export-dependent industries. By the time Tuesday's meeting wrapped, Washington still had not confirmed a suspension; officials on both sides instead pointed to the newly signed minerals and nuclear memoranda as a possible opening toward eventual tariff relief, not a resolution of it.
The Earthquake Recovery Still Frames Everything
Rubio's stop doubles as a check-in on disaster recovery. A magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on August 10, three days after De la Espriella's inauguration, with an epicenter near San José del Palmar in Chocó. The government's most recent disaster-agency tally puts the toll at 331 dead and 111 still missing, with damage now reported across 16 departments and nearly 500 municipalities. A United Nations humanitarian review found that roughly 1.2 million people now need assistance, with aid groups still struggling to reach some rural communities more than two weeks after the quake.
Bogotá has stood up a reconstruction vehicle it calls the "Fondo Milagro," targeting at least 30 trillion pesos for housing, hospitals, schools and roads. The U.S. State Department's most recently confirmed total stands at $26.5 million in humanitarian assistance, delivered through partners including Catholic Relief Services, the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme — a sliver of the reconstruction bill. No new U.S. aid figure was announced as part of Tuesday's meeting.
Military Cooperation Is Already Ahead of the Paperwork
The security relationship has moved faster than the earthquake response. On August 12 in Panama City, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that Colombia had become the 19th member of the U.S.-led Coalition Against the Cartels of the Americas and that De la Espriella had authorized joint operations against armed groups, saying the goal was "joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terrorist networks." Neither government has detailed which regions, how many personnel or when operations would begin.
The announcement drew criticism at home: Colombia's constitution assigns the Senate, not the president alone, the power to authorize foreign troops transiting national territory, and opposition lawmakers say that step has not been completed. Separately, U.S. Southern Command chief Gen. Francis Donovan met Colombian and Ecuadorian defense officials in Tumaco and the Ecuadorian border town of San Lorenzo on August 27 to discuss intelligence-sharing and a possible binational base targeting trafficking routes that straddle the two countries — part of the regional build-out Rubio's stops in Ecuador and Peru are expected to extend. Washington's broader pledge, a $1 billion security package announced around De la Espriella's inauguration, still awaits U.S. congressional approval.
What This Means for Catatumbo — and for Families Watching From the U.S.
The security cooperation under discussion in Barranquilla isn't abstract for Colombian-American communities. Roughly 1.4 million people of Colombian origin live in the United States, concentrated in Florida, New York and New Jersey, and many trace family ties to regions that could see more joint operations under the new security posture.
Catatumbo, on the border with Venezuela, is the starkest example. Fighting between the ELN and a dissident faction of the former FARC has displaced roughly 100,000 people and killed well over 100 since escalating in January 2025, with armed groups increasingly relying on explosive-laden drones. Separately, the U.S. Embassy issued a security alert in early September warning of elevated risk from armed groups, including the ELN, in Colombia's neighboring Cesar department. Whether an expanded U.S.-Colombia security partnership eases that violence or intensifies it in the near term is an open question, one that matters as much in Jackson Heights or Doral as it does in Barranquilla.
What Actually Happened in Barranquilla — and What Didn't
Rubio and De la Espriella did sign the two memoranda of understanding previewed ahead of the visit, on civil nuclear energy and on critical minerals, and Colombia's Foreign Ministry cast the day as the formal launch of the Bilateral Prosperity Dialogue, aimed at steering U.S. private investment toward Colombian energy, logistics and transport projects. Colombia's membership in the counter-cartel coalition and the pledged $1 billion security package remain exactly where they stood before the visit: announced in August, still awaiting U.S. congressional funding, with the scope of any joint operations undisclosed.
What didn't happen, at least by the time the two delegations wrapped up their talks: confirmation of the tariff suspension De la Espriella has now requested four times since mid-August, and a scheduled joint appearance before reporters that Colombian outlets reported was planned for 3 p.m. but had not been confirmed to go forward as the visit unfolded.
The visit also drew swift domestic pushback. Opposition Sen. Iván Cepeda argued on social media that any binding commitments De la Espriella makes with Washington — including on minerals, energy and security — require approval from Colombia's Congress and Constitutional Court, and accused the government of ceding strategic sovereignty without consultation. Government allies pushed back: former senator María Fernanda Cabal said the visit opens a new stage of cooperation with Washington after what she called an ideologically driven rupture under the previous administration. Rubio was expected to stay overnight in Barranquilla before continuing his tour to Ecuador and Peru.
