Abelardo de la Espriella aims to restore diplomatic ties, pursue an embassy in Jerusalem and reverse Colombia’s position at the International Court of Justice

Colombia’s incoming president, Abelardo de la Espriella, is preparing to reverse nearly every major element of Gustavo Petro’s Israel policy after taking office on August 7.

His government says it will restore full diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, exchange ambassadors, lift visa requirements, pursue a Colombian embassy in Jerusalem and withdraw Colombia’s intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Security could provide the most substantial area of renewed cooperation. Before the diplomatic break, Israel supplied Colombia with military equipment and security technology. De la Espriella has said he wants access to new weapons, drones and artificial intelligence from Israel and the United States.

Alberto Spektorowski, a lecturer in political science at Tel Aviv University, said Israeli technology could assist Colombia in addressing narcotics trafficking, organized crime and armed groups operating in parts of the country. He predicted close cooperation but stopped short of describing it as a formal strategic alliance. “Everything connected to state security will involve extensive collaboration with Israel,” he said. “Colombia will request it, Israel will provide it, and that relationship will become stronger.”

Everything connected to state security will involve extensive collaboration with Israel

The planned reset, outlined after a mid-July meeting in Washington between Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Colombia’s incoming foreign minister, Omar Bula Escobar, would end more than two years of diplomatic rupture. It would also move Colombia from one of Latin America’s sharpest critics of Israel’s Gaza war toward a government that frames renewed ties as a strategic and ideological priority.

Petro broke diplomatic relations in May 2024, restricted defense ties, and ultimately imposed a complete ban on Colombian coal exports to Israel. The incoming government is presenting the reversal as the recovery of a longstanding alliance. Its critics see an ideologically driven swing from one pole to the other, particularly in the decision to relocate Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem.

“The historic relationship that the Petro government unilaterally broke will be strengthened again,” the incoming president’s office said. Colombia, it added, would recover its allies and its standing as a dependable international partner. The precise scope of the proposed visa changes has not yet been published.

Israel moved first on diplomatic representation, with government approval for the appointment of veteran diplomat Vivian Aisen as ambassador to Colombia. Aisen previously served as ambassador to North Macedonia and has held posts in Chile, London and Brussels. Colombia has not publicly named an ambassador it will send to Israel.

Marcos Peckel, executive director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia and commissioner to combat antisemitism at the Latin American Jewish Congress, expects the restoration of relations to be announced during, or immediately after, De la Espriella’s inauguration.

The Israeli mission in Bogotá continued operating as a consulate after relations were severed, Peckel told The Media Line. Restoring it to embassy status can therefore be accomplished more quickly than establishing an entirely new mission. He said the next steps would likely include naming Colombia’s ambassador, restoring military and police attachés, and expanding security cooperation that had deteriorated under Petro but had never disappeared entirely.

De la Espriella is proposing more than a return to the relationship that existed before the rupture. Rather than reopen Colombia’s former embassy in Tel Aviv, he has promised to establish it in Jerusalem. “It was a campaign promise by the president, and he is going to fulfill it,” Peckel said. “Is it going to generate polarization? Yes. Is it going to generate debate? Yes.”

Petro called the Jerusalem proposal a grave offense to Muslim countries. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation also condemned it, warning that the move could harm Colombia’s relations with its 57 member states and describing it as contrary to United Nations resolutions governing Jerusalem’s status. The organization urged the incoming administration to reverse course and maintain support for a two-state solution.

The embassy announcement remains a political commitment rather than a completed transfer. The location, budget, and opening date have not been disclosed. Nor has the incoming government announced that it will reverse Colombia’s 2018 recognition of a Palestinian state.

De la Espriella has, however, said he will halt the opening of a Colombian diplomatic mission in Palestine, arguing that the planned representation never became operational. The decision was part of a broader reorganization of Colombia’s foreign service that also calls for the closure of 14 embassies and about 15 consulates. Closing the proposed mission would not, by itself, withdraw Colombia’s recognition of Palestinian statehood.

The planned break with Petro’s policy also extends to The Hague. Colombia filed a declaration in April 2024 to intervene under Article 63 in South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. It did not file the original lawsuit, and it is not a plaintiff in the case. De la Espriella’s government has said it intends to withdraw Colombia’s intervention after taking office.

The incoming administration has also announced a change in Colombia’s conduct at the United Nations, saying it will adopt what it describes as a more neutral and consultative position. It has not identified specific resolutions that Colombia would oppose, support or abstain from under the new policy.

Spektorowsk said the first phase should be understood as a diplomatic reversal. A strategic alliance may follow, he said, particularly in areas such as security and efforts to limit Iranian influence in Latin America, but that outcome is not yet assured. “The first step is the diplomatic question,” Spektorowski told The Media Line. “It is to completely change the attitude toward Israel that existed under Petro.”

He sees Israel and Palestine as symbols in a larger political contest. Parts of the Latin American left have embraced the Palestinian cause, he said, while rising conservative movements have responded by making support for Israel part of their political identity.

That symbolism should not be confused with the reasons most Colombians vote, he added. Economic performance, corruption and domestic security remain far more consequential than Middle Eastern affairs for the electorate. “The challenges for Colombia’s president will be how to rebuild Colombia and how to establish the basis of its economy,” Spektorowski said. “That is what will define him.”

Janiel Melamed, director of Barranquilla’s Citizen Security Observatory and a professor and researcher at Universidad del Norte’s Department of Political Science and International Relations, made a similar distinction. Most Colombian voters are concerned with their household finances and daily security rather than events in the Middle East, he said. Foreign policy becomes politically relevant when its consequences reach local industries or public budgets.

Melamed pointed to the coal restrictions as one example. Petro’s government initially restricted exports under Decree 1047, issued in August 2024. A later decree, Decree 0949 of Aug. 28, 2025, removed the remaining exceptions and prohibited all thermal-coal exports to Israel.

He argued that the prohibition did little to constrain Israel, which could seek other suppliers, while reducing royalty income in Colombia’s coal-producing areas. Those revenues, he said, help finance infrastructure, education and sanitation. “It was a kind of shot in the foot,” Melamed said. “The measure ended up being counterproductive to Colombia’s own national interests.”

Although the incoming government has emphasized commercial restoration, it has not yet issued a decree to repeal the coal ban. Peckel said he expects its removal to be among the first concrete measures after Aug. 7. Colombia and Israel’s free-trade agreement, in effect since 2020, was not automatically terminated when diplomatic relations were broken, but the rupture and related restrictions impeded the institutions that support trade.

For Colombia’s Jewish community, the diplomatic rupture created practical and emotional strain without stopping communal life. Synagogues, schools and other institutions continued to operate normally, Peckel said, and no wave of serious attacks followed the government’s policy.

The community nonetheless faced what Peckel called “antisemitism from the state,” citing Petro’s comparisons between Gaza and Auschwitz, references to Nazism and repeated statements about Jews. The frequency of the president’s remarks made responding to each one impractical, he said. “We did not have to interrupt any activities, prayers or schools,” Peckel said. “But it generated concern and discomfort.”

Peckel also warned that an intensely pro-Israel government could expose the community to a different form of political pressure. Colombian Jews, he said, could again be treated as stand-ins for a foreign government, this time by opponents of De la Espriella. “An excessively pro-Israel president can generate antisemitism and hostile declarations against us,” Peckel said. “That is something we are watching very closely.”

An excessively pro-Israel president can generate antisemitism and hostile declarations against us. That is something we are watching very closely

The next test comes on August 7. De la Espriella can restore diplomatic relations as soon as he assumes office, and Aisen is expected to arrive in Bogotá later that month. Colombia has yet to name its ambassador; the scope of the visa agreement and the timetable for opening an embassy in Jerusalem remain unsettled.

Reopening diplomatic channels may prove to be the easiest part of the reset. Withdrawing Colombia’s intervention at the International Court of Justice, repealing the coal decree and establishing an embassy in Jerusalem will each require separate legal or administrative action. The first announcement could come on inauguration day. Whether the two countries can build a relationship that survives Colombia’s next political shift will take much longer to determine.