When Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced on October 8 that Colombia would be moving its embassy to Jerusalem, he made sure to point out how important the development was for his country’s diplomatic narrative, and that it heralded warming relations with Latin American governments.
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it → announce → governments
“We will work hard because this is the diplomatic battle over the truth,” Saar said.
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Saar → work → truth
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list of 3 items- list 1 of 3Colombia inaugurates embassy to Israel in Jerusalem
- list 2 of 3Venezuela and Israel restore consular ties as relations warm
- list 3 of 3Why Latin America’s ‘pink tide’ is taking a stand against Israel
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tide → inaugurate → Israel
Brazil, Saar went on to say, might soon join Colombia and the growing list of Latin American countries that had moved their embassies to Jerusalem, the disputed city claimed by Israelis and Palestinians as their capital.
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that → go → capital
Latin America’s relationship with Israel is shifting, as right-wing parties come into power in the region and pro-Israel politicians use their support for the country to rally voters.
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politicians → shift → voters
Brazil, the largest country in the region, is in the midst of a presidential election campaign in which the relationship with Israel has become a key talking point.
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relationship → become → Israel
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a left-wing ardent supporter of Palestine, is locked in a close contest with right-wing rival Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.
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Silva → lock → Bolsonaro
He has sported Israeli flags at campaign rallies and played up his friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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He → sport → Netanyahu
The pair are scheduled to take part in a run-off election after Bolsonaro performed surprisingly strongly in the first -round, apparently raising hopes for a detente with Israeli officials like the foreign minister.
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Bolsonaro → schedule → minister
Last month, for instance, Colombia and Israel began allowing their citizens to travel visa-free between their countries, yet another signal the newly inaugurated government of Abelardo de la Espriella wants to restore ties that were cut in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza.
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that → begin → Gaza
Experts say the realignment with Israel is driven, in part, by new leaders trying to signal they have joined a regional alignment with United States President Donald Trump.
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they → say → Trump
But it’s also being fuelled by a massive lobbying effort in which Evangelical Christian groups and Israeli-government-backed organisations in the region have pushed Latin American countries to support Israel.
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groups → fuel → Israel
“It’s not one factor or the other, but a convergence,” said Marta Tawil Kuri, Research Professor at the Center for International Studies at the College of Mexico.
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Kuri → ’ → Mexico
“Right-wing leaderships seeking validation from Washington, evangelical bases giving them electoral and ideological grounding, and an Israeli diplomatic offensive that finds fertile ground in Latin America precisely as its image deteriorates elsewhere.”
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image → seek → America
“The most Zionist president in the world”
Colombia’s last leader, Gustavo Petro, severed ties with Israel over what he said was the genocidal war on Gaza.
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he → sever → Gaza
He stopped exporting Colombian coal to Israel, cut military and security cooperation and planned to open a Colombian embassy to Palestine.
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He → stop → Palestine
The former left-wing fighter seemed to take every public opportunity to criticise Israel, even using a trip to New York City for a United Nations summit to take part in a protest against Trump and the war on Gaza.
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fighter → seem → Gaza
His successor, de la Espriella, has rapidly reversed Bogota’s stance on Israel since coming to power in August, announcing plans to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, re-appoint ambassadors and even recognising Israeli control over the occupied Syrian territory of the Golan Heights.
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successor → reverse → Heights
Strong presidential systems and weak, unprofessional diplomatic corps allow new heads of state to quickly pivot on issues such as ties with Israel, said Kuri.
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Kuri → allow → Israel
“Unlike the US, where support for Israel has stayed relatively stable across administrations thanks to more consolidated institutions and bipartisan consensus, in much of Latin America foreign policy can swing sharply from one election to the next because that institutional buffer doesn’t exist,” Kuri said.
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Kuri → stay → next
In 2023, Argentina elected right-wing populist Javier Milei as president, who pledged to move the embassy to Jerusalem, refused to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN and said he was “proud to be the most Zionist president in the world.”
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he → elect → world
In Bolivia, the leftist administration of Evo Morales, who was president from 2006 to 2019, had refused to have full diplomatic ties with Israel.
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who → refuse → Israel
This continued under the presidency of Luis Arce, who joined other regional left-wing leaders in recalling their ambassadors from Israel after October 7, 2023.
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who → continue → October
When Arce was voted out last year, his replacement Rodrigo Paz promptly reversed that policy.
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replacement → vote → policy
Soon after coming to office this August, Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast undid his leftist predecessor’s actions against Israel as well, appointing an ambassador to Israel who describes himself as a “proud Zionist”.
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who → come → Zionist
Over in Honduras, the left-wing government was replaced by a right-wing leader this January.
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government → replace → leader
New President Nasry Asfura, the grandson of Palestinian immigrants from Bethlehem, similarly reappointed an ambassador to Israel this year.
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Asfura → reappointe → Israel
In August, Venezuela announced it would restore consular relations with Israel, undoing nearly two decades of an antagonistic stance towards Israel under previous leaders Nicolas Maduro and Hugo Chavez.
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it → announce → leaders
Besides deciding where to put their embassies, Latin American governments have also sometimes lent support to legal efforts against Israel over the Gaza war.
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governments → decide → war
Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Belize, Cuba and Nicaragua are among governments that at one point backed
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that → back → point
Signalling in the Trump era
When Flavio Bolsonaro launched his Brazilian presidential campaign last July, he did so standing beside Argentinian President Milei.
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he → signal → Milei
Some in the crowd waved Israeli flags and watched as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a video message calling Bolsonaro a friend and a “great champion of the friendship between our peoples”.
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Netanyahu → wave → peoples
Giving foreign leaders such a prominent role in an election campaign is “unheard of in Latin America,” said Alexander Main, Director of International Policy at the Washington-DC-based Center for Economic and Policy Research.
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Main → give → Research
“This did not happen before, at least not so overtly.”
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This → happen → ?
Bolsonaro’s campaign, experts say, is seeking to make itself part of a larger political camp that is led in the hemisphere by Trump and internationally includes Israel.
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that → say → Israel
Some received direct endorsements from Trump, such as Colombia’s de la Espriella and Honduras’s Asfura.
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Some → receive → Espriella
They’ve joined new right-wing umbrella groups led by the US, such as the Shield of the Americas, a counter-narcotics security alliance bringing together Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago.
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They → join → Argentina
The effort is part of Trump’s policy for the Western Hemisphere that seeks to keep out the influence of other global powers like China.
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that → seek → China
Members of this Trump-led bloc have helped facilitate controversial US policies to deter migration, such as El Salvador, which is housing third-country deportees for the US.
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which → lead → US
They’ve also chosen to frame their war on narcotics as a new kind of war on terrorism, a zero-sum conflict that is inspired by Israel’s war on the Palestinians, according to Main.
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that → choose → Main
…and 21 more, not listed.
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