Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro announced last Wednesday that effective May 2, Columbia would break diplomatic relations with Israel over his far-left government’s opposition to the war against Hamas and Israel’s so-called “genocidal president.”
The president’s announcement came during the May Day march in the capital of Bogata to commemorate the Communist’s International Workers’ Day.
The socialist Petro claimed that humanity would die “if Palestine dies” and vowed that Colombia would not let Palestine die.
In response to Petro’s announcement, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on X that history would remember that the Colombian president chose to “side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind.”
Katz noted that relations between his country and Colombia “have always been warm” and insisted that a “hate-filled, anti-Semitic president” like Gustavo Petro would not change that. He vowed that Israel would “continue to protect its citizens fearlessly.”
While Colombia once was Israel’s closest Latin American ally, following the 2022 election of the socialist Petro, relations between the two countries quickly cooled.
The Colombian military relies on Israel for the weapons and warplanes it uses to combat rebel groups and drug cartels in the country. In 2020, the two countries signed a free trade agreement.
Petro’s decision to break diplomatic relations was not unexpected. After Israel declared war on Hamas following the October 7 terrorist attacks, the Colombian president recalled his ambassador to Israel. At the time, Petro compared Israel’s bombardment of Gaza to Nazi Germany and suspended Colombia’s purchase of Israeli weapons.
Colombia’s military ties with Israel were deepened in the late 1980s when it purchased the Kfir fighter jets its air force used to launch attacks on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s remote guerrilla camps. The attacks eventually pushed the rebel group into peace talks with the country that in 2016 resulted in its disarmament.
