New Conservative Boss In South America Obliterates Previous Socialist Foreign Policy

Talk about a foreign policy U-turn.

Colombia’s Right-wing president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, is pulling off a massive diplomatic pivot: completely scrapping plans for an embassy in Ramallah and instead opening one in Jerusalem this August.

The fiery conservative lawyer, nicknamed “El Tigre,” won the presidency in a razor-thin June runoff after promising to smash drug cartels and restore law and order. Now, he’s tearing up the radical anti-Israel playbook written by outgoing leftist Gustavo Petro, who accused Israel of genocide in May 2024.

Petro had kicked out Israel’s ambassador in 2024 and lauded the idea of a new Palestinian mission. But de la Espriella officially killed those plans, agreeing with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to re-establish deep ties with the Jewish state.

For roughly 20 years prior to Petro’s denunciation of Israel, Israel had supported Colombia’s security operations with military technology and training of its special forces as it confronted Marxist guerrilla movements like the FARC and ELN as well as the drug cartels.

By placing its flag in Jerusalem, Bogotá joins an exclusive club that includes the U.S., Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Fiji, and Somaliland. It’s a huge win for Jerusalem, regaining a crucial ally of 50 million people which is also a U.N. Security Council member and has had deep military ties to Israel dating back decades.

Colombia’s diplomatic 180 isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s the latest domino to fall in a massive conservative wave sweeping Latin America, as voters fed up with soaring crime, bad economies, and far-Left policies kick socialists out.

In Argentina, libertarian Javier Milei came to power in 2023 and slashed government spending; in Chile, José Antonio Kast crushed the Left in late 2025 on a strict border-security platform; in Ecuador and Peru, tough-on-crime leaders like Daniel Noboa and Keiko Fujimori won power to smash transnational drug gangs; in Bolivia, conservative Rodrigo Paz was elected in 2025 after 20 years of socialist rule.

Colombia recognized the State of Israel in February 1949. Official diplomatic relations were established in 1957, with full embassies opened in Bogotá and Tel Aviv.