on X<\/a>. <\/p>\n\u201cColombia will restore and strengthen its relationship with the State of Israel like never before,\u201d De la Espriella wrote. \u201cIsrael can count on Colombia as a loyal friend and steadfast ally. May God bless our two nations.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his campaign, De la Espriella, who identified as a former atheist who converted to Catholicism, connected with pastors from megachurches and had the backing of Christian-right political parties. <\/p>\n
Colombia recognized Israel\u2019s statehood in 1949 and opened an embassy in Tel Aviv in 1957. A free trade agreement between the two countries went into effect in 2020. President Gustavo Petro changed that. <\/p>\n
During the Israel-Hamas war, Petro accused Israel of genocide, recalled Colombia\u2019s diplomatic delegation in 2024, and announced the end of the free trade agreement earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, the left-wing candidate who had Petro\u2019s support and endorsement, conceded to De la Espriella, who defeated him by 1 percentage point, or about 251,000 votes.<\/p>\n
De la Espriella, who has U.S. and Colombian citizenship, had celebrated his victory as \u201cEl Tigre\u201d on Sunday night in Barranquilla. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will exercise a democratic, vigilant, and constructive opposition,\u201d Cepeda, 63, a Colombian senator, said during his concession speech. <\/p>\n
De la Espriella plans to have Colombia join Trump\u2019s \u201cShield of the Americas\u201d after he is sworn in as Colombia\u2019s 48th president on Aug. 7 in Bogot\u00e1. <\/p>\n
Related reports <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Colombian President-elect Abelardo De la Espriella plans to restore the South American country\u2019s relations with Israel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[48251,48250,2982,48252,37,48254,48253,2576,48256,48255,39171,48231,48257],"class_list":["post-176034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-canada2026","tag-canada26","tag-fifa","tag-futbol","tag-israel","tag-mexico2026","tag-mexico26","tag-soccer","tag-usa2026","tag-usa26","tag-worldcup","tag-worldcup2026","tag-worldcup26"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116806759443316994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}