Colombia’s New President-Elect Turns Toward Israel: De La Espriella’s First Foreign Policy Shock
Colombia’s president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella has pledged to restore ties with Israel after years of rupture under Gustavo Petro. Is this pragmatic diplomacy or a hard-right realignment?
Colombia’s foreign policy may be about to swing hard. President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella has spoken with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and pledged to restore and strengthen relations with Israel “like never before.” For Israel, it is a major diplomatic win. For Colombia, it signals one of the sharpest foreign policy reversals in Latin America.
Under outgoing President Gustavo Petro, Colombia became one of Israel’s harshest critics in the region, breaking relations over the war in Gaza and accusing Israel of grave abuses. Petro’s position placed Colombia closer to the pro-Palestinian camp and in open tension with Washington and Tel Aviv. De la Espriella’s victory changes that trajectory almost overnight.
The president-elect, a far-right lawyer and political outsider backed by Trump, has promised a hardline security agenda, a closer relationship with the United States and a dramatic repositioning of Colombia in global politics. Restoring ties with Israel fits that profile. It tells Washington that Bogotá is back inside the U.S.-Israel security orbit. It tells Israel that Latin America’s anti-Israel wave is not irreversible. It tells Colombia’s right that the Petro era is ending not only domestically but diplomatically.
Supporters will call this realism. Israel remains a major military technology supplier, intelligence partner and cybersecurity actor. Colombia’s armed forces have long used Israeli equipment and training. A government focused on crime, narco-terrorism and border security may see Israel as a useful partner. De la Espriella can argue that ideology should not block security cooperation.
Critics will call it moral surrender. They will argue that restoring warm ties while Gaza remains devastated ignores human rights and places Colombia on the wrong side of international law. Petro’s supporters will say De la Espriella is not restoring balance but replacing one ideological posture with another, subordinating Colombian diplomacy to Trump and Netanyahu.
Both arguments contain part of the truth. Petro’s diplomacy often became confrontational and symbolic. De la Espriella’s diplomacy risks becoming equally symbolic in the opposite direction. The real test will be whether Colombia can defend its interests without becoming a platform for someone else’s geopolitical project.
The domestic implications are serious. Colombia’s election was extremely tight. Iván Cepeda conceded, but the country remains polarized. A rapid embrace of Israel may energize De la Espriella’s base while alienating left-wing voters, Muslim and Arab communities, human rights groups and younger Colombians who identify strongly with Palestine.
Regional politics will also shift. Colombia may align more closely with Argentina under Milei, El Salvador under Bukele-style security politics, and Trump’s broader hemispheric agenda. That could isolate left-wing governments and further divide Latin America into competing ideological blocs.
Israel will welcome the opening. After diplomatic isolation in several capitals, a strong statement from Colombia’s president-elect gives Tel Aviv evidence that it still has friends in the Global South. Sa’ar’s public celebration is therefore not just courtesy. It is messaging.
The headline says Colombia and Israel are back. The deeper question is what Colombia gets in return.
Security cooperation? Trade? Weapons? Intelligence? U.S. favor? Or merely applause from a camp whose priorities may not always match Colombia’s own?
De la Espriella has made his first global signal. Now Colombians will learn whether it was strategy — or identity politics wearing a diplomatic suit.