Abelardo de la Espriella’s narrow victory in Colombia’s June 21, 2026, presidential runoff reverses eight years of deliberate Colombian hostility toward Israel. The President Donald Trump-backed outsider, known as “El Tigre,” has vowed to restore full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, pledged to move Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem, and has committed to leveraging Israel’s security sector in support of his “iron fist” crime policies at home. These commitments parallel the reforms pursued by Argentina’s Javier Milei, marking a clear ideological and political realignment in Latin America.
Throughout his campaign, de la Espriella made clear that his government would be willing to acquire Israeli military technology, state-of-the-art weaponry, drones, and advanced artificial intelligence tools to combat cartel and guerrilla structures inside Colombia. In a nation of 53.9 million people—Latin America’s third-most-populous state—these commitments create an immediate, concrete opening for Jerusalem.
[Abelardo de la Espriella’s] commitments parallel the reforms pursued by Argentina’s Javier Milei, marking a clear ideological and political realignment in Latin America.
Outgoing President Gustavo Petro—a former member of the left-wing Colombian terrorist organization M-19 and co-founder of the political branch of this group—severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 2024. He expelled Israeli diplomats over the Gaza war, scrapped the free trade agreement between Bogotá and Jerusalem, repeatedly attacked Israel with extreme rhetoric (including a “Heil Hitler” social media post in response to an op-ed supporting de la Espriella), and has compared Israel to Nazi Germany. European Union observers rejected Petro’s recent claims that the first round of the presidential vote was a “fraud” and described the electoral process as transparent and orderly. Unquestionably, Petro’s actions isolated Colombia from a longstanding security partner and opened additional space for Iranian proxy operations across the hemisphere.
Colombia occupies a pivotal position. Its stability directly affects drug-trafficking routes that dominate the global cocaine supply, northward migration flows, and efforts to contain Iranian influence. Under Petro, who deprioritized eradication in favor of interdiction, coca cultivation reached 262,000 hectares last year, even as he claims a coming drop to 253,000 hectares by the end of 2026.
Hezbollah operatives have exploited these criminal networks for financing. In one documented case, a Colombian network paid Hezbollah a 12 percent tax on cocaine shipments. Iranian-linked actors have used Venezuela as a forward hub for gold smuggling and cryptocurrency transfers to evade sanctions, with established connections extending into Colombia. The National Liberation Army of Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia dissidents, and the Gulf Clan continue to control significant territory and trafficking corridors.
For Israel, de la Espriella’s platform demonstrates the enduring value of alliances with governments that treat security threats as non-negotiable. It extends the logic of previous diplomatic gains by adding a major Latin American state prepared to confront Iranian proxy networks, transnational crime syndicates, and ideological radicalism. Tehran has spent years cultivating influence in Latin America precisely to open new fronts and divert Israeli resources and attention. A partner in Bogotá prepared to modernize its forces with Israeli systems while pushing back against those same networks offers a tangible strategic advantage.
De la Espriella has framed his support for Israel as a duty to defend the Judeo-Christian principles that form the foundation of Western civilization. That framing adds an ideological dimension to the security partnership. His threat to withdraw Colombia from what he considers “leftist” international bodies such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States would further distance the country from global forums used by pro-Palestinian advocates to question and threaten Israeli policies.
Three concrete initiatives deserve immediate priority.
The Jewish state should forge a Colombia alliance so valuable that no successor government dismantles it without steep political and security costs.
A joint security-and-technology initiative, anchored in Bogotá or Cartagena, should serve as the central hub. This would allow Israeli intelligence and advanced systems to fuse with Colombian ground-level knowledge to target Hezbollah logistics, Iranian sanctions-evasion routes, and major drug corridors in the Colombian-Venezuelan border in real time. This same framework would directly support de la Espriella’s domestic “iron fist” agenda by delivering the drones, artificial intelligence tools, and weaponry his political platform has promised to acquire. The result would be the degradation of Iranian proxy infrastructure inside Colombia, while strengthening the new government’s ability to impose order on cartel and guerrilla zones.
Second, Israel and Colombia should co-develop advanced border and Amazon surveillance architecture. Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles, ground sensors, and data analytics, integrated with Colombian operational capacity, would secure remote frontiers against infiltration by terrorists, traffickers, and foreign agents like the ones exploiting the “Tri-Border” area. The model is replicable across the hemisphere and directly addresses the hybrid threats that have long plagued Colombia’s periphery. Successful implementation would provide a visible demonstration of what sustained Israeli-Colombian cooperation can achieve.
Third, both nations must build institutional depth that survives electoral cycles. Guatemala has long been one of Israel’s closest allies in Latin America. It relocated its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 and has maintained a consistent pro-Israel policy across multiple governments—even under its current pragmatic center-left president, who lived in Israel for ten years, speaks Hebrew, and holds a degree from an Israeli academic institution—through military cooperation, economic ties, and strong evangelical backing. Colombia possesses a sizable evangelical population and a professional security elite with prior experience operating Israeli Kfir jets and Galil rifles. Embedding the relationship in military training programs, intelligence exchanges, parliamentary friendship groups, agricultural technology transfers, and expanded trade would create cross-partisan stakeholders on both sides.
The Jewish state should forge a Colombia alliance so valuable that no successor government dismantles it without steep political and security costs. Expanding the Isaac Accords’ reach through security ties, technology transfers, and Judeo-Christian principles, while avoiding hostile forums, will build constituencies that defend the partnership on national-interest grounds.
