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COLOMBIA TAKES A STAND AGAINST ISRAEL’S WAR  
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Jeff Abbott
August 30, 2024
The Progressive
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_ The country broke diplomatic relations with Israel earlier this
year. Now, it has increased the pressure by banning coal exports. _

A mural in Bogotá that reads "Free Palestine," 2014, SubVersión (CC
BY-NC-ND 2.0)

 

One of the strongest condemnations of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza
is coming from Latin America. 

Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, announced
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August 14 that his country would officially cease all coal exports to
Israel. Petro said
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stems from Israel’s use of Colombian coal for the ongoing genocide
in Gaza, which has left more than 40,000 people dead. 

Colombia’s mining industry condemned
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announcement, citing the embargo’s potential economic impacts on the
country. In the first eight months of 2024, Colombian coal exports to
Israel were worth $320 million. But this is a small fraction of the
total value of coal exports from Colombia: $9 billion
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2023. 

Analysts in Colombia are unsurprised at Petro’s announcement.  

“It is very consistent [with] his position on the issue since [the
war] began,” Carolina Cepeda Másmela, a Colombian political analyst
and professor of international relations at the Colombian Javeriana
University, tells _The Progressive._

Colombia’s progressive government has opposed Israel’s
concentrated assault on Gaza since it began in October 2023. At the
end of October, Petro recalled the Colombian ambassador to
Israel, posting
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“If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people, we
cannot be there.”

In February 2024, following the massacre
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Palestinians in Gaza seeking food aid, Colombia blocked the
exportation of military weapons to Israel. On May 1, Petro announced
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administration was severing direct diplomatic relations with Israel
over the war on Gaza, calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“genocidal.” 

But, Cepeda Másmela points out, Colombia maintains other economic and
diplomatic relations with Israel. An Israeli diplomatic official
remains in Colombia, while Colombia has upheld its free trade
agreement
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Israel, which went into effect in 2020. 

Colombia is not the only South American country that has condemned
Israel’s war on Gaza and the killing of civilians by Israeli forces.
Neighboring countries, including Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil,
have withdrawn their diplomats
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protest of the war on Gaza and the genocide against Palestinians. 

In May 2024, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced
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he was recalling Brazil’s ambassador to Israel. Israel has
since declared
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non grata_, meaning he is unwelcome in the country. 

The defense of Palestinians in Latin America in part stems from the
large Palestinian diaspora
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the region. The massive anti-imperialist solidarity movements in
developing countries have also contributed to these rejections of the
genocide. 

“One can perceive [the position of Latin America] as neutral,
because Latin American countries recognize both states,” Cepeda
Másmela explains. “But it is not a neutral position. They are
taking sides because in this particular case there is no neutral
position. [For the most part] the region has chosen to recognize
Palestine due to a coherence with its own history, the colonial
past.”

The complex relationships between Israel and Latin American nations go
back decades. Israel maintains free trade agreements with not only
Colombia, but also Mexico, Panama, and the Mercosur trade bloc, which
is made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. 

Israel’s primary exports include military weapons and ammunition.
The country exported $381 million
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military equipment to Latin America in 2022. Israel has also become a
major exporter of surveillance software, most prominently the
infamous Pegasus system
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These Israeli weapons have often been used to support authoritarian
regimes and repress protests. 

One of the darkest examples of Israeli weapons contributing to major
human rights violations comes from Guatemala
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During the country’s internal armed conflict
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the twentieth century, which left more than 200,000 people dead and
45,000 people missing, Israeli weapons and ammunition were used by the
Guatemalan military to decimate hundreds of Indigenous communities as
part of scorched earth counter insurgency operations against leftist
guerrillas. 

Most recently, authoritarian-leaning regimes in Central America have
used surveillance systems exported by Israel to spy on journalists
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academics. Pegasus technology was used
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Nayib Bukele’s administration in El Salvador to spy on critics and
journalists from the Salvadoran media outlet _El Faro_. 

Elsewhere in Central America, Guatemala has deep pride for
its relationship
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small country held a seat on the United Nations commission that led to
Israel’s formation in 1948. The president of Guatemala, Bernardo
Arévalo, has not condemned
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human rights violations Israel is committing in Gaza. 

There are seventeen countries in Latin America that recognize the
State of Palestine, including Guatemala, which has officially done so
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2013. Only Panama and Mexico do not recognize a Palestinian state, but
Mexico does provide monetary aid
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Palestine. 

While Latin America is somewhat split between throwing their support
behind Israel or Palestine, Colombia has chosen the side of ending the
genocide against Palestinians and working towards peace.

_Jeff Abbott is an independent journalist currently based out of
Guatemala. “The Other Americans” is a column created by Abbott
for The Progressive on human migration in North and Central
America._

_A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good! Since
1909, The Progressive magazine has aimed to amplify voices of
dissent and voices under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal
of championing grassroots progressive politics._

* Colombia
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* Gustavo Petro
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* Israel/Gaza
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* Sanctions
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* Guatemala
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* Latin America
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