Colombia is cutting ties with Israel in protest against its war in Gaza, said, Gustavo Petro, the South American nation’s president on Wednesday.
“Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be broken . . . for having a genocidal president,” Petro, Colombia’s first leftist leader, said at an International Workers’ Day march in the capital Bogotá. “If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”
Petro has often criticised Israel’s conduct in Gaza since Hamas launched its surprise attack on October 7, and last year suspended purchases of Israeli weapons.
Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz strongly rebuked Petro’s decision, writing on X that “relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm and no antisemitic and hate-filled president will succeed in changing that”.
Colombia is the third country in the western hemisphere to suspend ties with Israel over its war in Gaza, following the much smaller Bolivia and Belize.