Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday announced that his government would break diplomatic relations with Israel in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war.
Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide.”
He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.
Photo: Reuters
“Tomorrow [yesterday], diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken ... for having a genocidal president,” Petro said during a Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital. “If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz rebuked Petro’s comments.
“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians,” Katz wrote on X.
Weeks after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year that sparked the current war in Gaza and killed about 1,200 people, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive.
Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America, but ties have cooled since Petro was elected president in 2022.
Colombia uses Israeli-built warplanes and machine guns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and the countries signed a free-trade agreement in 2020.
“Relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm and no antisemitic and hate-filled president will succeed in changing that,” Katz wrote. “The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens without worry and without fear.”
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