The delicate rope that sustained the diplomatic relationship between Colombia and Israel was finally cut. President Gustavo Petro, in one of the first impactful sentences of his fervent speech on May 1, announced to the country that the next day relations with the Israeli State would be broken due to its military onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
(You can see: ‘No one is protected here. An official who comes to steal, an official who leaves’: Petro)
“Here, before you, the ‘Government of Change’, the President of the Republic informs that Tomorrow diplomatic relations will be broken with the State of Israel for having a government, for having a genocidal president.”said the head of state in front of a crowd of followers who waved, among others, the flag of Palestine.
As ordered by the president, the next day, that is, last Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs He officially delivered the note verbale about the decision of the National Government to the Israeli ambassador in Colombia, Gali Dagan.
Likewise, the Foreign Ministry informed the ambassador that through the entity’s Protocol Directorate the procedure and times for the departure of diplomatic personnel will be coordinated, andconfirmed the intention to maintain consular activityboth in the Tel Aviv and Bogotá sections.
Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo assured that this is not an improvised measure, but rather an evaluation that has been made for months, in the expectation that Israel would respect the ceasefire in Gaza.
“It has taken some by surprise. The President, since October 2023, proposed this route if there was no change in Israel’s behavior in Gaza (…) as a Government we awaited the results of the ceasefire negotiations,” Murillo asserted.
Petro even compared the offensive led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to what the Jewish people suffered during the Holocaust. ANDAt that time, the World Jewish Congress described the president’s statements as “shameful” and from Israel they questioned the lack of condemnation of Hamas’s actions.
The situation became more tense when the President followed the path of other Latin American leaders, such as Chilean President Gabriel Boric, calling the Colombian ambassador to Israel, Margarita Eliana Manjarrez Herrera, for consultations in November.
The Government, through the President’s favorite social network, X, has been warning over the last 7 months of the possibility of suspending relations. On March 25, Petro proposed, after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, that the nations of the world
“break diplomatic relations with Israel if that country breaks this ceasefire.”(Also: Why the UNGRD scandal beheaded two senior Casa de Nariño officials)
Well, since last Thursday the Colombian president’s warnings became facts and the country decided, as Bolivia and Venezuela had done before – the latter since 2009 -, to break with the Jewish country.
While the Palestinian Embassy in Colombia thanked the “gesture of humanity” of the Government of Gustavo Petro, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Yisrael Katz stated that what the president did “is a shame for the Colombian people.”
The repercussions
Although the experts consulted by this newspaper affirm that President Gustavo Petro’s decision is essentially symbolic, This draws a slight change in the location of Colombia on the geopolitical map.
“Israel and Colombia share a role in their regions and that is that they are the main allies of the United States. In that sense, President Petro’s decision does not go down very well with Washington because it would mean weakening that bond and the narrative that the United States has that there are groups that threaten its national security and, therefore, that of its allies,” he explains. Manuel Camilo González, professor of International Relations at the University of Javeriana.
As expected, Republican legislators who have been criticizing Petro for months for his stance on this issue and others, firmly condemned the Colombian president’s new move. Marco Rubio, senator from Florida, classified it as “shameful” and while María Elvira Salazar called it “despicable.”
That is to say that the statement, in a certain sense, marks a change compared to the criticisms previously expressed when it cataloged
the president’s actions as anti-Semitic and counterproductive to the resolution of the conflict.It is likely that Washington measured his words so as not to aggravate the situation. President Biden, who is facing crises on several levels – the war in the Middle East, the border crisis, the student protests – is also not interested in picking up new fights that do nothing for him.
Biden, in fact, has gone from offering unconditional support to Israel to criticizing human rights violations and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
However, for Carlos Alberto Murgueitio Manrique, political scientist at the University of the Andes (Bogotá), master in Contemporary American History at the Central University of Venezuela, the long-term consequences of breaking relations could be “terrible,” since it will necessarily cause an increasingly sharp rift with the US, taking into account that there will soon be elections.
“This fact would further complicate binational relations if Donald Trump’s eventual return to the White House occurs (…) By Petro siding with “Palestine”, he is exposing himself as an ally of Hamas, Iran and Russia,” comments.
González adds that Colombia is then exposed to a deterioration in cooperation with the US and the aid package that must be approved by that country’s Congress. “It will generate much more distrust.”
The economic and military
Sources from the Foreign Ministry told this newspaper that, like the consular service that Colombians will continue to be able to access, the roadmap is being built so that the economic and military dimensions with Israel, two of the fronts, are not affected. What causes the greatest concern in the midst of this situation.
The impact on military order sIt would mean for the Colombian State the impossibility of acquiring spare parts and ammunition for the Galil rifles and the Kfir planes.the weapons that make up a good part of the weapons used by the Colombian Armed Forces and that come from Israel.
“This fact would cause the Colombian government to have to turn to other partners to provide military material, leaving open the opportunity for the Russians and Iranians, who manufacture weapons in Venezuela, “They will replace our traditional allies in the business,” says analyst Murgueitio.
(Also: Sandra Ortiz publishes the ‘complete’ chats with Olmedo López, former director of the UNGRD)
On an economic and commercial level, the consequences would not be so great, but they would hit. The internationalist Manuel Alejandro Rayran assures that, since there is no deep development in the FTA, important areas of cooperation such as science and agriculture could be affected.
Despite everything described above, Erika Rodríguez, analyst and professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, states that diplomatic relations must be above the political position in the face of a conflict: “We can disagree deeply and establish our distance from the outrage towards the Palestinian population – which is evidently bloody – but that does not mean that the relationship has to be broken. “A diplomatic relationship is much more than a posture.”
