Washington Networks and Disaster Diplomacy: How Israel Regained Influence in Colombia

About two weeks after taking office, Colombian President Abelardo de la Esperia began reversing some of his predecessor Gustavo Petro’s key policies toward Israel. On August 22, Bogotá announced the resumption of coal exports to Israel, ending a ban imposed by the Petro government in protest of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. The new president described the ban as “ideological.”

The shift was not limited to trade. On August 10, three days after his inauguration, the de la Esperia government recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, while Bogotá had previously announced in July that it would restore diplomatic and economic relations with Israel and move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

On the same day that Bogotá took its position on the Golan Heights, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, according to the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, before an Israeli rescue delegation arrived in Cali days later. While Israel presented the mission as a humanitarian response, the operation came at a time when political, economic and security ties between the two countries were being reshaped.

The Misbar team at Alaraby TV traces the threads of this shift, from the network of relationships the Colombian president built in Washington and his contacts with pro-Israel Republican figures to the use of humanitarian aid to present Israel as a new security and humanitarian partner for Colombia.

From the Break in Relations to Realignment

Colombian-Israeli relations did not emerge from the recent shift. They had been built over decades of close military and trade cooperation. Colombia, particularly in the security and defense sectors, relied on Israeli equipment, including Kfir fighter jets and intelligence and military systems and equipment, before the government of Gustavo Petro gradually began dismantling the partnership.

In February 2024, Petro announced a halt to new purchases of weapons and military equipment from Israel in protest of the war in Gaza. In May, his government announced that it was severing diplomatic relations with Israel and expelling the Israeli ambassador, accusing the Israeli government of committing serious violations of international humanitarian law. However, the move did not amount to a complete break across all areas, as some trade and consular channels remained open.

The escalation also extended beyond the diplomatic sphere. In 2025, Petro issued a decision suspending Colombian coal exports to Israel, then threatened to alter the concessions held by Glencore and ordered the navy to intercept any shipments bound for Israeli ports. However, Reuters quoted the company as saying that it had halted shipments before the suspension order took effect.

On the legal front, Bogotá went beyond politically condemning Israel and sought to intervene in the case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice. Petro also used international forums, including the United Nations, to call for sanctions against Israel and an end to arms supplies to it. Colombia thus became, during his presidency, one of the Latin American governments most critical of Israel.

The Washington Network

Abelardo de la Esperia’s rapprochement with Israel did not begin in Bogotá but through a political network he built in the United States. During his time living and working in Florida, he developed ties with Republican figures and conservative circles, including Rep. María Elvira Salazar, who is known for her public support for Israel and her ties to pro-Israel lobbying committees.

This rapprochement took on a clearer political dimension in March 2026, when de la Esperia met Salazar and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau in Miami. The meeting was presented as bringing together two figures who play influential roles in shaping U.S. policy toward Colombia and Israel, reflecting the shift in the candidate’s relationships from political affinity to direct channels of communication with decision-making circles in Washington.

Records from the U.S. Federal Election Commission provide financial evidence of this political overlap. According to a review of records dating back to 2018, de la Esperia’s actual contributions, excluding earmarked contributions that redistribute the same donation among political committees, amounted to about $16,229. Of that amount, $14,300 went to committees associated with Salazar, including $2,700 for her 2018 campaign and $11,600 to the Salazar Victory Committee in 2023.

When the review is expanded to include contributions from his wife, Ana Lucía Pineda, the couple’s total contributions to Republican campaigns since 2018 rise to about $95,000, with roughly $92,000 going to María Elvira Salazar’s campaigns and committees associated with her, according to a review of Federal Election Commission data by La Silla Vacía.

Meanwhile, Salazar’s campaign finance records also show that she received support from pro-Israel political committees, including AIPAC PAC and other committees. This reveals an intersection between the pro-Israel U.S. political network and de la Esperia’s political trajectory.

Salazar’s role in de la Esperia’s relationship with pro-Israel Republican circles was not limited to financial ties but extended to public political support during the presidential election. The U.S. representative said she knew him well and that he had supported her previous campaigns. She also congratulated him after his victory, describing him as a friend of democracy and an ally of the United States.

De la Esperia, for his part, has expressed a clear pro-Israel position. In an interview with Colombian newspaper Publimetro in August 2025, when asked about allegations that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, he said, “The State of Israel, and its Prime Minister Netanyahu, are doing what is necessary to defend their people, and I will do the same to defend Colombia, whatever the cost.”

Salazar thus emerges in his political trajectory as a link connecting financial support, Republican relationships in Washington and a pro-Israel position.

From Statements to Coordination

Before winning the presidency, de la Esperia met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in November 2025 and said afterward that he had conveyed the need to strengthen friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries. He also pledged to move Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem and linked rapprochement with Israel to cooperation on security and crime-fighting issues.

The campaign’s outreach to the Jewish community also extended to direct meetings with its leadership. On March 25, 2026, de la Esperia and his running mate for vice president, José Manuel Restrepo, took part in a meeting with the Federation of Jewish Communities of Colombia, attended by its executive director, Marcos Bikel. According to his official biography published on the World Jewish Congress website, Bikel also serves as commissioner for combating antisemitism at the Latin American Jewish Congress and has been a member of the World Jewish Congress Executive Committee since 2013.

During the meeting, de la Esperia renewed his commitment to standing with the Jewish community, while Restrepo said, “I will never hesitate to defend our Jewish people; they are our brothers and God’s people.” These statements reveal a clear use of symbolic and religious dimensions in the campaign’s rhetoric.

On April 1, 2026, de la Esperia posted a message to Colombia’s Jewish community on X, expressing his gratitude to it, in a move that reflected his campaign’s effort to solidify its relationship with local Jewish institutions as part of its new political image.

In a parallel development, the campaign reached out to Kehilat Yovel, a group that describes itself as a Messianic Jewish congregation in Bogotá led by Pastor Raúl Rubio. The group presents itself as supportive of Israel, while the Anti-Defamation Movement says it has worked with the group to organize pro-Israel events in Colombia.

The direct connection to the Israeli Embassy appears primarily in an investigation published by Colombian magazine Raya, which said the embassy and leaders of organizations close to the Israeli government had established a network of contacts with de la Esperia and several figures serving in his administration.

Religious tourism appears as another avenue within this network. The Colombian company Sedecol promotes trips to Israel in partnership with The Land Tours, which offers biblical, historical and cultural tourism programs.

In Colombia, William Téo Sánchez Camargo’s professional profile provides information about his connection to the company’s representation, while his public posts include material supporting de la Esperia’s campaign.

Following the announcement of de la Esperia’s victory on June 21, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated him on X. De la Esperia also said that he had received a call from Sa’ar congratulating him and seeking to strengthen relations between the two countries.

Disaster Diplomacy

After the earthquake struck Colombia on August 10, Israel began incorporating the disaster into its diplomatic and media messaging, presenting its assistance as an expression of the Israeli state’s solidarity with the Colombian people.

In its August 14 bulletin, the Israeli Embassy did not merely mention the dispatch of a rescue team to Colombia. It also compared the operation with what happened in Venezuela after a previous earthquake. The bulletin presented the Israeli account that assistance provided to Venezuela had helped rebuild relations between the two countries after years of diplomatic rupture and paved the way for the resumption of consular relations.

The bulletin placed the Colombian and Venezuelan cases within a broader initiative that it said the Israeli Foreign Ministry had launched to strengthen relations with Latin American countries. Thus, humanitarian assistance did not appear in Israel’s messaging solely as an emergency response but as part of a diplomatic effort that uses natural disasters to open new political channels or repair existing ones.

On August 14, the “Alliance of Brothers” delegation arrived in the city of Cali aboard an Israeli Air Force aircraft. The delegation included personnel from the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command, the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry.

The delegation consisted of about 80 officers, soldiers and specialists who took part in assessing damage sites, search-and-rescue operations and the provision of humanitarian assistance, according to the Israeli military.

The delegation was headed by Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Pinto, commander of the National Search and Rescue Unit of the Home Front Command. It also included Col. Ehud Moyal, the deputy head of the delegation, who later spoke about assessing buildings and identifying structures that could be reused and those that needed to be evacuated or demolished.

The delegation also included Lt. Col. (res.) Uri Zitiati, the commander of the rescue team, who had previously taken part in Israeli missions to Turkey and Brazil, and reservist officer Ranan Ben Sinai, who had also participated in the Israeli rescue mission to Venezuela. Capt. Roni Kaplan, an Israeli military spokesperson, handled media communications from the disaster site, according to his X account.

According to Minuto60, the team’s work focused on three sites in Cali: Valle University Hospital, the Vanessa building in the south of the city, and another site where a building had collapsed.

On August 22, Israel announced that it was sending an additional five-ton shipment of medical equipment as part of cooperation between the Israeli Foreign and Health ministries to respond to the medical emergency.

The Rescue Narrative

Roni Kaplan’s posts show that the delegation’s media messaging went beyond announcing the arrival of the rescue team and identifying its areas of operation. The posts presented the operation as an official Israeli effort on behalf of the Colombian people and authorities and linked the team’s presence on the ground to continued cooperation between the two governments.

On August 25, Kaplan posted a photo with Colombian Vice President José Manuel Restrepo while Israeli medical equipment was being handed over to Colombian authorities. The operation was presented in the post as an extension of the assistance Israel had provided after the earthquake, rather than merely a limited logistical contribution to rescue efforts.

Kaplan also appeared in videos from the disaster site explaining that the Israeli delegation had come “to help the people and authorities” and that its work was being coordinated with local rescue teams. His posts documented members of the delegation working among the rubble and at building assessment sites, as seen in one of the field videos.

Kaplan maintained a strong presence at the operation sites. He posted several videos in which he appeared wearing an Israeli military uniform, but inside rescue sites, surrounded by local teams and speaking Spanish to the Colombian public. This imagery shifted the Israeli soldier from his usual military context into a humanitarian scene associated with rescue and solidarity.

In one video, Kaplan said the team had come from Israel to Colombia “to help,” adding that its priorities included schools and hospitals, according to another post.

This messaging shows Israel presenting itself as a state that provides protection and expertise to civilian institutions at a time when it faces international accusations of war crimes and genocide in Gaza, as well as accusations of targeting health and educational facilities there.

Israel’s ambassador to Colombia, Vivian Eizen, adopted an even more explicitly diplomatic tone. Her posts did not focus solely on the details of the rescue operations but linked the delegation to relations between the two countries. Eizen thanked the delegation members for leaving their families and traveling to Colombia, presenting the continuation of aid as an expression of Israel’s commitment to the Colombian people, as reflected in her posts on X.

Through this messaging, the rescue delegation evolved from a limited field mission into an instrument of public diplomacy. The aid, the soldiers’ appearances at disaster sites, their use of Spanish in communications and the handover of equipment in the presence of Colombian officials combined into a single narrative presenting Israel as a security and humanitarian partner in Colombia, after relations between the two countries had entered a period of diplomatic rupture under the previous president.

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