Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced last week that his country would break diplomatic relations with Israel effective the next day. Both countries share a history of strong ties and significant collaboration, particularly in trade and security. Experts anticipate that even with diplomatic ties being severed, the current trade and security cooperation agreements are expected to remain unaffected for the time being.
“Here in front of you, the government of change, of the president of the republic announces that tomorrow we will break diplomatic relations with the State of Israel … for having a government, for having a president who is genocidal,” Petro said at a Workers’ Day rally, an occasion observed on May 1 in Colombia and numerous other nations.
Dr. Marcos Peckel, director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia and a member of the Executive Committee of the World Jewish Congress, told The Media Line that while the future of ties is still uncertain, Colombia has decided to keep consular relations, meaning that both countries will keep the presence of each other’s consul general in their territories. In addition, he added, trade and security cooperation between both countries should not be affected.
“We should wait to see if there would be real, concrete changes,” Dr. Daniel Wajner, an expert in Israel-Latin relations and Latin American populism and an assistant professor at the Department of International Relations and European Forum at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Citing previous instances of Petro’s criticism of Israel, he told The Media Line, “It seems much more rhetoric for his domestic public and like-minded regional audiences and less real policy shifts.”
Colombia and Israel signed a free trade agreement that went into effect in August 2020. Peckel explained that the agreement does not depend on the countries’ diplomatic relations, adding that Bogotá has not mentioned trade in any of its statements. He noted that trade between the two countries is about $1.2 billion annually, of which Colombia has a surplus of around $900 million.
“Colombia exports to Israel mostly coal for electric plants, and President Petro’s announcement should not have a major effect on that,” Peckel said.
Colombia-Israel security and trade
Aside from trade, there exists a substantial level of security cooperation between the two nations. A large part of Colombia’s air force consists of Israeli-made Kfir fighter jets, which need constant maintenance done by Israeli companies. Colombia’s military also employs Galil rifles, originally crafted in Israel, for which Colombia holds the rights to manufacture and distribute. Additionally, there are agreements on cybersecurity, intelligence, and military equipment for border protection.
“Security cooperation, trade cooperation, and other fields such as tourism should not be affected,” said Peckel, noting that thousands of Colombians visit Israel every year just as thousands of Israelis travel to Colombia.
Regarding Colombia’s Jewish community, which comprises approximately 5,000 people, Peckel said that it deeply regrets Petro’s decision. “Every Jewish community in the world that has no Israeli Embassy feels like an orphan,” he added.
“We are a very Zionist community that keeps very close ties with the Embassy of Israel. The ambassador is invited to our celebrations, and to attend our prayers, so we feel sad, we feel a bit worried, and we feel that it was not fair for the president to break relations in the way they did,” he noted.
Peckel stressed that Petro has not condemned the massacre committed by Hamas on October 7 against Israeli civilians. He also added that the president’s comparison of Gaza to Auschwitz, Gaza to concentration camps, and Israel as a Nazi state, has received strong condemnation from governments other than Israel. “The American and the German governments have rejected these comparisons,” he said.
Peckel believes that severing relations with Israel will not benefit Petro. “His goal is to try to be a global leader. He hoped many countries would follow, but we don’t see that, not even in left-wing governments in Latin America like Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. None of them has hinted that they would break relations,” he said, adding that among the president’s goals is appealing to his base in Colombia.
“But he will be in very bad company with other countries that have no relations with Israel, such as Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. It is not the company you want to be with,” Peckel asserted.
Colombia and Israel have increasingly strengthened their relations since the 1980s and until Petro came to power.
According to Wajner, to understand the current shift in the relations, “We need to understand the domestic background of the Colombian government.” He noted that Petro, who was elected in 2022, is a left-wing populist who, during his youth, participated in the M-19 urban guerrilla movement. Wajner added that Petro has a history of declarations against Israel that some argue are antisemitic.
“Therefore, the stances that President Petro took in these last months are not surprising,” he said.
Wajner, who studies populism in regions such as Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, noted that when it comes to foreign policy, populist leaders often tend to, “bark but not bite.” He explained that though these leaders use harsh rhetoric, in practice, after receiving political gains, they face strategic considerations, including geopolitical and economic interests. Ultimately, they act according to their national interests, asserted Wajner. “However, time will tell, and nothing is sure at the moment,” he said.
“I think it’s key to understand that this is not only about Colombia and Israel now,” he added, claiming that Colombia’s action follows the pattern seen over the last two decades in Israel-Latin American relations.
“When left-wing populist leaders are in power, particularly in times of crisis, they are increasingly prone to express their transnational solidarity with the Palestinian groups and deteriorate the relations with Israel,” Wajner said, citing the cases of authoritarian populists in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, among others.
“According to the pattern, Petro tries to take some distance not only from Israel as a country but also from what Israel represents in the international system. For instance, in its alliance with the United States and other Western countries in Europe and beyond,” he concluded.