{"id":248423,"date":"2026-08-14T04:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T04:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/248423\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T04:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T04:22:12","slug":"in-latin-america-the-road-to-trumps-heart-goes-through-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/248423\/","title":{"rendered":"In Latin America, the road to Trump’s heart goes through Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early months following Israel\u2019s brutal war on Gaza, Latin American leaders emerged<\/a> as some of the world\u2019s sharpest critics of the military campaign. <\/p>\n

Then-Colombian President Gustavo Petro was among the first<\/a> world leaders to call Israel\u2019s actions a \u201cgenocide.\u201d Chile and Honduras recalled<\/a> their ambassadors from Tel Aviv, and Belize and Bolivia severed diplomatic ties with Israel<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But just two years later, across the region, governments that had distanced themselves from Israel are now moving quickly to repair ties. Not surprisingly they are the same leaders who have rushed to ingratiate themselves with the Donald Trump administration<\/a> in Washington. <\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s foreign minister announced Monday that it would restore<\/a> consular services with Israel for the first time since 2009, marking a sharp foreign policy shift in the wake of Trump\u2019s military ouster of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in January.<\/p>\n

Colombia\u2019s new right-wing president, Abelardo de la Espriella, declared<\/a> just days after his inauguration that the country would recognize Israel\u2019s claim of sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. Colombia is one of two nations in the world to offer such a recognition, following the United States, which did so during President Trump\u2019s first term. Then, earlier this month, Chile and Honduras restored<\/a> their ambassadors to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, respectively, for the first time since November 2023. <\/p>\n

Latin America<\/a> analysts tell Responsible Statecraft that while there may be ideological, economic, or security motivations peculiar to each nation, this pivot functions primarily as a way for regional leaders to curry favor with theTrump administration. It \u201cIn the end, the main interest for all of these countries is the United States,\u201d Marta Tawil Kuri, a professor at College of Mexico who researches the foreign policy of Latin American countries towards the Middle East<\/a>, told Responsible Statecraft. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a new generation of the right [in Latin America] (…) using rapprochement with Israel as a way of signaling alignment with Washington,\u201d she said, adding that each government filters this relationship through their domestic political factors. <\/p>\n

One cannot count Israel\u2019s own deliberate diplomatic push to shore up ties with friendly governments at a moment when global public opinion is turning against it. For some of these countries, this isn\u2019t a stretch.<\/p>\n

Colombia, for example, had a long-standing security relationship with Israel until the left-wing Petro took office in 2022. The former president was able to mostly end that relationship, says Tawil Kuri, but did so under opposition from the military.<\/p>\n

Israel helped train<\/a> Colombian armed forces during their fight against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and later against transnational drug traffickers. <\/p>\n

Now de la Espriella has spoken about ramping up efforts to combat \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d and will likely seek out Israeli, and especially American, backing for it. \u201cI think you have to show that you’re aligned with the broader security agenda of your patron in order to secure that support,\u201d Mike LaSusa, a journalist who writes about organized crime in Latin America, told RS.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, while de la Espriella\u2019s recognition of the Golan Heights was significant, she says, it marked \u201cmore a return to a decades long baseline\u201d of support than a departure. <\/p>\n

For states like Colombia, Chile, or Argentina \u2014 which in 2023 elected the self-proclaimed<\/a> \u201cmost Zionist president in the world\u201d \u2014 the shift toward Israel is largely a function of right-wing governments taking over. Venezuela\u2019s shift, meanwhile, is more surprising on its face. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israel-Palestine conflict is a central theme in anti-imperialist movements. If there’s anything that has lasted in Chavismo through the years it\u2019s anti-imperialism,\u201d said David Smilde, a professor at Tulane University, referring to the political ideology of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president from 1999 to 2013. \u201cAnd so, it\u2019s quite significant that Venezuela<\/a> would re-establish consular relations with Israel, precisely at the time that Israel is more deeply questioned across the world than it’s ever been in its history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smilde pointed to Israel’s assistance following a recent earthquake as the immediate catalyst, calling it a case of “disaster diplomacy,” in which humanitarian aid opens space to strengthen or repair a damaged relationship.<\/p>\n

But experts agreed that the more important driver is Caracas\u2019 overwhelming dependence on Washington since Maduro\u2019s removal. \u201cThis is a very different leadership which operates under constant tension of collaboration with Washington, of course, but inwardly, (feels) the need to sustain this Chavista narrative,\u201d said Tawil Kuri.<\/p>\n

LaSusa called the move a \u201clow-cost, high-reward situation,\u201d in which interim President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez can reestablish relations with Israel and \u201cin return you smooth your relationship with the United States when it comes to all the other issues that are more important to you,\u201d including strengthening its negotiating position with domestic political opposition.<\/p>\n

The rise of evangelical Christianity across Latin America is another factor. In Central American countries Honduras and Guatemala, Evangelical Christians \u2014 many of whom embrace Christian Zionism \u2014 make up roughly 40%<\/a> of the population. Both nations moved their embassies<\/a> from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the past decade. <\/p>\n

Christian Zionist discourse has also become increasingly common in Latin American political rhetoric, particularly among the conservative leaders that have emerged over the past decade in countries such as Argentinian President Javier Milei or Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil<\/a>. One of the largest voting blocs <\/a>in the Brazilian National Congress is the Evangelical Parliamentary Front, which largely supported Bolsonaro and opposed<\/a> his successor\u2019s decision to join the case in front of International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. <\/p>\n

Many of the sources who spoke with RS attributed the speed and depth of the region’s ideological swings to Latin America’s strong presidential systems. Unlike in the United States, where support for Israel has remained largely stable across administrations, foreign policy in much of Latin America shifts sharply from one election to the next. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a presidential system and at the same time you have very weak institutions or you don’t have a bureaucratic diplomatic body, it’s very easy for personal or individual preferences (…) to be confused for national interests,\u201d said Tawil Kuri. <\/p>\n

But Lee Schlenker, a research associate with the Global South program at the Quincy Institute who focuses on Latin America, cautioned against reading this trend as simply a byproduct of individual leaders\u2019 desires.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s a more robust and multi-faceted,\u201d he said, pointing to coordinated, organized advocacy by pro-Israel groups that has helped establish<\/a> pro-Israel caucuses in national legislatures across the region. Beyond legislatures, Schlenker adds \u201cit’s a lot of public diplomacy work. They’re working with influencers, journalists, the health sector, innovation, those sorts of things.\u201d <\/p>\n

That organizing work shows how Israel, increasingly isolated by international opinion, has identified Latin America as fertile ground to rebuild diplomatic standing. Regional governments, in turn, have pinpointed Israel as a good route to Trump’s Washington.<\/p>\n

But some warn that this gambit could backfire, leading only to increased demands from the U.S. in the future with little tangible benefits. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very wrongheaded bet,\u201d Jorge Heine, a Chilean former cabinet minister and ambassador, told RS. \u201cBecause the way it works in international politics, the moment you align yourself with one of the great powers in competition you become a subordinate. And then you are treated as such.\u201d<\/p>\n

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