Colombia: Petro announces that it will break relations with Israel for being a “genocidal” government

Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Wednesday that he will break diplomatic relations with Israel for his war actions in the Gaza Strip and reiterated that he considers them a “genocide“, as he has warned since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas.

“Tomorrow diplomatic relations will be broken with the State of Israelfor having a government, for having a genocidal president… If Palestine dies, humanity dies and we are not going to let it die“said Petro during his speech at the traditional International Workers’ Day march, which he attended to promote from the streets and with sectors related to his government the social reforms.

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, reproached from X, formerly Twitter, the decision of the colombian president and indicated that history will remember that he decided “siding with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians”.

The most recent warning Petro to Israel It was in March, when he anticipated taking the measure in case that country did not comply with a resolution of the United Nations Security Council that requested a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Israel He responded that he will not give in to any pressure or threat.

Colombia It thus became the third country in Latin America to break relations with Israel after the start of the war. Bolivia decided it in October, ensuring that Israel was committing “crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people” while Belize did so in November after questioning Isarel for his “incessant indiscriminate bombings in Loop who have killed 11,000 innocent civilians”. Other countries such as Chile and Nicaragua have raised the tone, but without breaking relations.

As a protest against Israel, Colombia announced in February that it would suspend the purchase of weapons from that country, a measure that came after, in the midst of the diplomatic dispute, Israel said it would suspend exports of security materials.

Colombia uses Israeli-made warplanes and machine guns to fight against the drug cartels and insurgent groups and both countries signed a free trade agreement in 2020.

The day before, the Colombian Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, explained before Congress that there are current contracts with Israel that will be fulfilled, such as the Barak missile systems and others to provide maintenance and logistical support for the Kfir aircraft.

Since the war began, Colombia has repatriated more than 300 of its citizens on humanitarian flights. She has also exceptionally given nationality to a Palestinian woman who was in Loopas well as an Israeli, husband of a Colombian woman, who was kidnapped by Hamasaccording to the Colombian government.