Why Latin America Is Moving Closer to Israel

On October 8, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced that Colombia will move its embassy to Jerusalem, stressing the importance of the step for Israel's diplomatic ties with Latin American governments. Saar said Brazil could soon follow Colombia onto the list of Latin American countries moving their embassies to Jerusalem — a city both Israel and the Palestinians claim as their capital.

Relations between Latin America and Israel are shifting as right-wing parties take power across the region, with pro-Israel politicians using that stance to court voters. In Brazil, the region's largest country, ties with Israel have become one of the main debate topics in the presidential campaign.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist who supports Palestine, is heading into a tight contest with right-wing rival Senator Flavio Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro has appeared with the Israeli flag at rallies and stressed his close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two candidates are expected to face a decisive runoff after Bolsonaro beat expectations in the first round.

In September, Colombia and Israel began allowing citizens to travel between the two countries without visas — another sign that the new government of President Abelardo de la Espriella wants to restore relations that were severed after the Gaza war.

According to analysts, the rapprochement with Israel stems partly from new leaders' efforts to show they have joined a regional axis aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump. A large-scale lobbying campaign by evangelical groups and organizations backed by the Israeli government in the region is also driving the trend.

"This is not a single factor but a convergence," said Marta Tawil Kuri, a research professor at the Center for International Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. According to her, right-wing leaders are seeking recognition from Washington, evangelical communities provide an electoral and ideological base, and an Israeli diplomatic campaign is finding fertile ground in Latin America just as the country's image deteriorates elsewhere.

Policy reversals after government changes

De la Espriella's predecessor in Colombia was Gustavo Petro, a leftist former guerrilla who cut ties with Israel and accused the Gaza war of being genocidal. Petro halted Colombian coal exports to Israel, ended military and security cooperation, and planned to open a Colombian embassy in Palestine.

Since taking office in August, de la Espriella has quickly reversed Bogota's stance: announcing plans to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, reappointing an ambassador and even recognizing Israeli control over the Golan Heights — occupied Syrian territory.

According to Kuri, strong presidential systems combined with weak and unprofessional diplomatic corps allow new heads of state to rapidly pivot on issues such as relations with Israel. "Unlike the United States, where support for Israel is relatively stable across administrations thanks to solid institutions and bipartisan consensus, in most of Latin America foreign policy can swing sharply from one election to the next because that institutional buffer is missing," she said.

In 2023, Argentina elected Javier Milei, a right-wing populist, as president. He pledged to move the embassy to Jerusalem, refused to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations and described himself as "the most pro-Zionist president in the world."

In Bolivia, the leftist administration of Evo Morales (2006-2019) refused to maintain full diplomatic relations with Israel. That policy continued under President Luis Arce, who joined other leftist regional leaders in recalling ambassadors from Israel after October 7, 2023. When Arce lost last year's election, his successor Rodrigo Paz quickly reversed the policy.

Shortly after taking office in August, Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast also scrapped measures his leftist predecessor had imposed on Israel, appointing an ambassador who describes himself as a "proud Zionist."

In Honduras, a leftist administration was replaced by a right-wing leader in January. New President Nasry Asfura, the grandson of Palestinian immigrants from Bethlehem, also reappointed an ambassador to Israel this year. In August, Venezuela announced it was restoring consular relations with Israel, reversing nearly two decades of confrontational stance under leaders Nicolas Maduro and Hugo Chavez.

Beyond embassy decisions, Latin American governments have sometimes backed legal efforts against Israel over the Gaza war. Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Belize, Cuba and Nicaragua are among the governments that have supported South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Signals in the Trump era

When Flavio Bolsonaro launched his presidential campaign in July, he stood alongside Argentine President Milei. Some in the crowd waved Israeli flags and watched a video of Netanyahu calling Bolsonaro a friend and "a great champion of friendship between the peoples of our two countries."

According to Alexander Main, director of international policy at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, giving a foreign leader such a prominent role in a campaign is "unprecedented in Latin America" and "hadn't happened before, at least not so openly."

According to experts, Bolsonaro's campaign is seeking to align itself with a broader political camp led by Trump in the hemisphere, with Israel participating on the international stage. Some politicians have received direct support from Trump, such as de la Espriella in Colombia and Asfura in Honduras.

They have joined new U.S.-led right-wing groupings such as the "Shield of the Americas," an anti-drug 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. The initiative is part of Trump's Western Hemisphere policy aimed at blocking the influence of other powers such as China.

Members of the Trump-led bloc have helped implement controversial U.S. policies to deter migration, such as El Salvador accepting deportees from third countries on behalf of the United States. According to Main, they have also chosen to frame the drug war as a new kind of counterterrorism war — a total conflict inspired by Israel's war with the Palestinians.

"They find common ground with Israel on many such issues," Main said. According to him, leftist politicians in the region once called what happened in Gaza war crimes and human rights violations; now some factions view it as an existential war against an entrenched enemy, worth framing as counterterrorism.

Main argued that good relations with Israel can bring access to important military and security resources, including sophisticated spyware such as Pegasus — developed by an Israeli software company — as well as the purchase of fighter jets or force training.

The Isaac Accords and evangelical lobbying

The August rally in Brazil featuring a video address by Netanyahu was also an effort to court the support of a large and influential bloc of voters who see defending Israel as part of their religious worldview.

The Evangelical Parliamentary Front, a group of pro-Israel evangelical lawmakers, holds more than 40% of Brazil's lower house and more than a quarter of the Senate. If combined into a party, this loose alliance would be the country's third-largest party.

"Those voters have become increasingly politicized in recent years, to the point that courting them benefits politicians, and one of the ways to do that is to support Israel," Main said.

According to Kuri, Brazil is not the only country seeing an evangelical wave driving ties with Israel. "Evangelicalism — especially Christian Zionism — is a real and growing factor in countries like Honduras and Guatemala," she said. About 40% of the population in both countries is evangelical, and both governments have moved their embassies to Jerusalem.

Groups from the United States also lobby on Israel's behalf. The Latino Coalition for Israel, led by Florida-based evangelical pastor Mario Bramnick, sends delegations across Latin America and has met leaders in Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Panama, Chile and Costa Rica. On its website, the group cites biblical grounds for its pro-Israel stance. Bramnick's spokesperson declined to comment.

In 2025, the Genesis Prize — an Israeli nonprofit founded with a $100 million endowment and backed by the Israeli government — awarded $1 million to Argentine President Milei for "his unwavering support for Israel at one of the most difficult moments since the birth of the Jewish state."

Milei accepted the money and established the Isaac Accords, modeled on the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords aimed at restoring diplomatic and economic ties between Israel and the Arab world. The initiative funds civil society groups that support Israel in Latin America and has closely tracked signaling moves by right-wing governments in recent months, from embassy relocations to Jerusalem to voting patterns on Israel-related resolutions at the United Nations.

In late September, after Netanyahu attended the UN General Assembly session — where much of the audience walked out to protest his speech — the Israeli leader held a separate meeting with the leaders of Bolivia, Panama and Paraguay. He urged them to join the Isaac Accords, writing on X that he wanted "to expand the circle of friendship and partnership with Israel."