How Israel Conquered the Latin American Right

Amongst the very first acts of Colombia’s brand-new president Abelardo de la Espriella was to officially acknowledge Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights. Months previously, Brazilian governmental prospect Flávio Bolsonaro– who is presently secured a tight race with the incumbent Lula da Silva– had actually consulted with Israeli inhabitants in the occupied West Bank, for whom he revealed his “complete assistance.” (Bolsonaro the more youthful likewise specified that as president, his very first global go to would be to what he and Israeli supremacists call “Judea and Samaria.”)

From Santiago to Tegucigalpa, Latin America’s newest wave of conservative federal governments have actually deepened relations with Israel– even as the majority of the area’s homeowners stay doubtful.

Beyond a couple of Central American nations, public understandings of Israel are extremely unfavorable in Latin America. In 2026, Pew discovered that 60 percent of Chileans, 56 percent of Colombians, 55 percent of Argentines, 54 percent of Brazilians, and 50 percent of Peruvians had an undesirable view of Israel (beneficial views varied in between simply 21 and 29 percent). In the exact same nations, almost two-thirds of participants stated they had “no self-confidence” in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What, then, discusses the plain inconsistency in between popular opinion and the positions of conservative federal governments?

There are generally 3 aspects at play. As I argued in the last edition of this publication, the very first centers on the self-hatred of Latin American elites, and the associated praise of supposedly more industrialized nations– most especially, the United States and its allies. From the viewpoint of extremely informed, conservative business owners and political leaders, assistance for Israel is an inexpensive, high-visibility method of signaling fealty to Washington and particularly the Trump administration. The 2nd discovers its intention force from evangelical pulpits, Pentecostal megachurches, and the Zionist outreach that has actually silently developed a spiritual facilities for pro-Israel politics. In numerous states in the area, Israel’s international lobby has actually cultivated an evangelical electorate with substantial political sway. Security ties with Israel have actually assisted some of the area’s federal governments to achieve their own tactical objectives (consisting of, in some cases, the monitoring of political challengers).

***

Of all of the area’s conservative leaders, Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella is probably the absolutely and cynically pro-Israel. For many years, de la Espriella– a millionaire legal representative for drug traffickers– was a self-described atheist, till he transformed to Catholicism prior to introducing a governmental quote. In tandem with his newly found piousness, he likewise obtained an impassioned Zionism, moderated by an elite network of diplomats, Jewish neighborhood leaders, and evangelical pastors. In 2025, the then-candidate satisfied independently with the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who later on thanked de la Espriella for his acknowledgment of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And by June 2026, de la Espriella was stating he thought that Netanyahu had actually done what was required in Gaza to protect Israelis which Colombia would “bring back and reinforce its relationship with the State of Israel like never ever in the past.”

An examination by the Colombian publication Revista Raya discovered that throughout the election, Colombia’s Evangelical Confederation, Cedecol, arranged prayer vigils in favor of the now president. Cedecol’s vice president, the pastor Rodrigo Barreto, likewise fulfilled personally with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog throughout the World Cup. (Notably, the confederation likewise promotes trip plans to the Holy Land through a collaboration with the Land Tours, a global travel bureau whose Colombian representative campaigned freely for de la Espriella.)

Evangelical pastors such as Raúl Rubio, who has actually dealt with the Israeli land advancement company Keren Kayemeth, have actually played popular functions in the brand-new president’s project and federal government. Last November, Rubio resolved a de la Espriella rally at Bogotá’s Movistar Arena, assuring the crowd that the prospect would bring back ties with Israel. Days later on, de la Espriella vowed to move Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem, a relocation that now seems in movement.

Unsurprisingly, the previous Israeli consul in Colombia, Kobi Valer, invested years cultivating relationships with conservative political leaders, consisting of organizing journeys to Israel for Colombian reporters and influencers throughout the Gaza offensive. In the wake of de la Espriella’s success, Israel’s Diaspora and Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli commemorated the outcome on X as marking not simply the “collapse of populist socialist ideologies” however “the conditioning of Israel’s position on the continent.”

On security, 5 years of arms offers and cooperation with Israel have actually brought perhaps as much damage as great to Colombia. In the 1980s, an Israeli mercenary company headed by previous IDF colonel Yair Klein trained the death teams that later coalesced into the notorious, reactionary paramilitary United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC); the group’s creator, Carlos Castaño invested part of the ’80s training in Israeli military schools before returning home to Colombia. A Colombian court later on sentenced Klein in absentia to more than a years in jail for his function in developing the AUC; he served time in a Russian jail, however eventually prevented extradition to Colombia. Years later on, Klein stated that the landowner and future conservative President Álvaro Uribe was amongst those who assisted fund his activities, a claim Uribe has actually rejected.

Given that 1994, additionally, Colombia’s state arms producer, Indumil, has actually produced the Galil rifle utilizing Israeli parts. In 2024, previous president Gustavo Petro exposed that Colombia’s authorities intelligence directorate, DIPOL paid Israeli spyware company NSO Group $ 11 million in money for Pegasus software application throughout the preceding Duque administration. The purchase was partially funded by Washington and presumably utilized to obstruct the interactions of reporters and opposition figures (supposedly consisting of Petro himself).

In contrast to de la Espriella, the Zionism of Chile’s José Antonio Kast appears relatively ingrained, if still an item of elite viewpoint on the. A member of the conservative Catholic Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement, Kast knocked his progressive predecessor Gabriel Boric for severing ties with Israel. Amongst his very first serve as president-elect was a telephone call with Netanyahu– a striking gesture in a nation home to the biggest Palestinian diaspora outside the Middle East and least favorable mindsets in the area towards the Jewish state. Unlike in Colombia, furthermore, it’s difficult to argue that Kast’s Israel overtures have actually served any significant tactical interest.

In narcoterror-stricken Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa has actually been amongst Israel’s most active protectors. In May 2025 he visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, informing Netanyahu that Israel and Ecuador ” have the exact same opponents,” whom he vowed to “battle to the end.” Days later on, Noboa condemned the expected danger postured by the Muslim Brotherhood inside Ecuador. In a relocation plainly targeted at toadying to Jerusalem and Washington, the banana tycoon-turned-president formally designated the group as a terrorist company December 2025. For context, the variety of Muslims in Ecuador is believed to remain in the area of 500-2,000, or approximately 0.01 percent of the population. If there is undoubtedly an Ecuadorian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, its subscription most likely numbers in the single digits.

More consequentially, Noboa’s welcome of Zionism has actually included Israeli hardware connected. In 2022, the Ecuadorian federal government signed a $65 million agreement with Israeli company Elbit Systems for more than 130 armored carswhich have actually given that been released in the nation’s continuous drug war. Throughout a 2025 journey to Jerusalem, Noboa informed press reporters he had actually talked about cooperation on security at Ecuadoran ports and border crossings with Israeli and Emirati authorities.

Perhaps the most strange protector of Israel in the Americas is Argentina’s self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist president, Javier Milei. Because taking workplace in December of 2023, Milei has actually gone to the Holy Land 3 times, and in 2015 ended up being the very first Argentine president to attend to the Israeli Knesset. Milei is likewise the engineer of the so-called “Isaac Accords(a play on Trump’s Abraham Accords), which intend to deepen ties in between Israel and Latin America. Netanyahu has actually called Milei “a fantastic pal of Israel”; throughout the summertime World Cup, the prime minister personally communicated his well-wishes to “Javier”, using the phonetic resemblance in between Milei’s given name and the Hebrew word for buddy–chaver

For his part, Milei has actually explained the U.S.-Israel battle project versus Iran as” the ideal thing to do,” framing Argentina and Israel as” siblings in suffering. “In 2024, the Milei administration signed a multi-year defense cooperation arrangement with Israel, developing agreements for cyber abilities, drones, munitions, and interactions devices. The list below year, the Argentine president was granted the Genesis Prize– otherwise referred to as the “Jewish Nobel”– for his undeviating assistance of Israel. Milei consequently contributed the$ 1 million prize money to the freshly developed American Friends of the Isaac Accords.

The Argentine president has actually even revealed an objective to transform to Orthodox Judaism after leaving the presidency– a sensational declaration thinking about that, till 1994, Argentine presidents were constitutionally bound to proclaim the Catholic faith.

Beyond Central America, Brazil presents the clearest illustration of the spiritual roots of assistance for Israel. Considering that 1990, self-described evangelicals have actually grown from under 9 percent of the Brazilian population to almost 30 percent, ending up being while doing so an essential conservative ballot base. In 2016, the previous President Jair Bolsonaro( 2019– 23 )was baptized in the Jordan River, a relocation that assisted combine his assistance amongst evangelicals. At the time, the effective evangelical caucus in congress– a group that presently consists of around 40 percent of the Chamber of Deputies and 25 percent of the Senate– was requiring the moving of Brazil’s embassy to Jerusalem. Cautious of endangering halal meat exports to Arab markets, Bolsonaro stopped brief on the embassy relocation, though he did provide on other top priorities such as designating the evangelical pastor André Mendonça to the Supreme Court.

Jair’s kids Eduardo and Flávio– the latter of whom remains in the middle of his own governmental project– have actually made duplicated expeditions to Israel, conference with Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. In February, Eduardo mentioned together with his sibling that” it’s difficult to discover a point where we disagree with Israel. “On the project path, Flávio has actually consistently described Brazil’s so-called Judeo-Christian heritage with eyes on evangelical citizens.

Surprisingly enough, the criminal underworld of the Bolsonaros’ political base of Rio de Janeiro provides a troubling coda to the impact of evangelical Zionism. Among the city’s most effective drug gangs is the evangelical Terceiro Comando Puro( TCP), which utilizes the Israeli flag on its drug product packaging and calls a cluster of favelas it manages the” Complexo de Israel.” The TCP’s leader, Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa, alias “Peixão,” has actually framed his activists in clearly Pentecostal terms, providing himself as running by divine willAnother popular evangelical gang, the Povo de Israelcame from inside Rio’s jail system, growing to approximately 18,000 put behind bars members, or 42 percent of Rio’s jail population.

Of the area’s numerous Zionists, without a doubt the most genuine are the conservative leaders of Central America’s significantly evangelical republics. Evangelicals represent around 40 percent of the population in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, making them the biggest spiritual group in numerous locations. Unsurprisingly, this has actually associated with a significant shift towards Israel on the part of the area’s federal governments. In 2018, Guatemala moved its embassy to Jerusalem, and Honduras did the same in 2021

When it comes to Honduras’s reactionary National Party, commitment to the Jewish state has actually apparently paid outsized benefits. Under autocratic president Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH)– who was sentenced to 45 years in an American jail for trafficking 500 lots of drug– Honduras’s relationship with Israel went far beyond simply spiritual compassions. In December 2016, Hernández took a trip to Jerusalem for the 2nd time in simply over a year to complete a$ 209 million military cooperation contract with Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman– the biggest in Honduras’ history, consisting of upgrades to the nation’s aging F-5 and A-37 fighter jets, a brand-new overseas patrol vessel, Skylark drones, and, tellingly, countless dollars ‘worth of cybersecurity and security systems

With the Nationals out of power following the 2021 election of the left-wing Xiomara Castro, Israel nevertheless stayed a consider Honduran politics. A cache of dripped audios released previously this year by Spain’s Canal Red– called Hondurasgate– supposed to reveal that Israeli authorities working together with the Trump administration assisted engineer JOH’s pardon As a disinformation project in favor of now-President Nasry Asfura.” The prime minister of Israel is going to support us,” a voice declared to be that of JOH is heard stating in one recording, crediting Israeli authorities with protecting his release and pardon. The recordings likewise explain Asfura’s own 2025 election– won after Trump threatened to cut off U.S. help unless the National Party dominated– as a placeholder plan ahead of JOH’s prepared go back to the presidency. The set even more in-depth prepare for a brand-new U.S. military base in Honduras and legislation beneficial to Israeli and American AI financial investment.

Without a doubt the most curious and distinctively negative case in Central America is that of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. A descendent of Muslim and Christian Palestinian immigrants, Bukele’s dad transformed from Christianity to Islam in the 1980s, ended up being an imam, and established 4 mosques in El Salvador. The Salvadoran strongman developed much of his profession by courting evangelical citizens. In the middle of concerns over his faith, Bukele stated himself together with allied pastors as a devout disciple of Jesus Christ. In spite of his Palestinian origins, the millennial president has actually been an ardent protector of Israel’s project in Gaza, drawing a specific parallel in between Hamas and the notorious MS-13 street gang.( Nevertheless, El Salvador has yet to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem. )

Maybe the most uncertain circumstances of Israel’s outreach in Latin America is its participation in Mexico. Prior to the 2018 election of the previous President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of the judgment left-wing Morena celebration, Israel kept a close diplomatic and business relationship with centrist and conservative federal governments in Mexico, based in part on the sale of Israeli arms and security innovation. Parts of this relationship have actually made it through under Morena, primarily thanks to Mexico’s established federalism.

Throughout the administrations of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto in the late 2000s and 2010s, Mexico deepened security ties with Israel, ending up being the very first foreign customer of Pegasus spyware in 2011 (the offer was apparently struck at a strip club in between NSO agents and Mexican authorities). Mexico likewise got Israeli monitoring drones, consisting of the Hermes 450 and Dominator XPPeña Nieto’s federal government released Pegasus not a lot versus the nation’s notorious cartels however presumably versus reporters, human rights attorneys and AMLO’s 2018 project

Simply months after going to previous Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres’s funeral in Jerusalem, Peña Nieto consulted with Netanyahu in Mexico City where he accepted an Israeli deal to assist Mexico “establishCentral America. Critics checked out the declaration as providing cover for enhancing Israeli arms sales with Mexico’s southern next-door neighbors. By the time AMLO took workplace in 2018, Mexico was called the “most respected user” of Pegasus, a practice that has actually obviously continued under Morena.

Just like the management of the Democratic Party in the United States, some left-wing celebrations in Latin America have actually preserved fairly great relations with Israel. When it comes to Morena, a unexpected minority of its members– mainly at the state level– has actually maintained relations with Israeli equivalents. In keeping with Mexico’s historical policy of nonintervention, both AMLO and the present President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, have actually usually prevented discussing occasions in the Middle East, consisting of whether Israel’s offensive in Gaza was a genocide up until 2025

In September of 2024, Morena guv Salomón Jara commanded a handover event for attack rifles bought from Israel Weapon Industries for Oaxaca’s state cops. Under Mexican law, just the military-run Department of Defense, Sedena, might lawfully purchase or offer arms. Sedena, nevertheless, is bound to acquire orders made by specific state federal governments, implying that Mexico’s 32 guvs (regardless of celebration) can efficiently set their own procurement policies. Oaxaca authorities, for example, declared that the attack rifle offer went through Sedena; AMLO later on firmly insisted that the agreements had actually been signed straight by the state. Whether at the state or nationwide levels, Mexico has actually bought a minimum of $50 million in devices and services from Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, consisting of Elbit’s Hermes 900 drones.

Conservative Zionism in Latin America eventually comes down to 3 interrelated aspects. On one level, assistance for Netanyahu functions as a credential to be flashed at Washington and possibly moneyed in for benefits: security help, bailouts, tariff relief, diplomatic cover, or pardons. On another level, especially in Brazil and Central America, assistance for Israel taps an authentic and quickly broadening spiritual constituency, one with considerable political influence. There are nations– most significantly Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico– for which Zionism serves a more tactical function, by protecting access to munitions, defense devices, and intelligence abilities. (Of course, security ties with Israel have simply as typically caused public damage, especially when utilized by incumbents to maltreat challengers.)

Outdoors Central America, the cold electoral reality is that the current victories of Latin American conservatives have actually happened in spite of their Zionism, not since of it. Right-wingers in the area would succeed to remember a previous generation of conservatives– and yes, a lot of their leftist peers– who have actually abided by a more practical diplomacy. They might likewise indicate longstanding assistance from the Catholic Church in favor of a two-state service and Palestinian Christians. For the minute, nevertheless, it appears that the Latin American right is persevering in its assistance for Israel. Time will inform if this pattern sustains.