How Israel Conquered the Latin American Right
The American Conservative · R · trust 48/100
From Bukele to Bolsonaro, the region’s conservatives have learned to love Zionism.
Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player... Among the first acts of Colombia’s new president Abelardo de la Espriella was to formally recognize Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights. Months earlier, Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro—who is currently locked in a tight race with the incumbent Lula da Silva—had met with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, for whom he expressed his “full support.” (Bolsonaro the younger also stated that as president, his first international visit would be to what he and Israeli supremacists call “Judea and Samaria.”)
From Santiago to Tegucigalpa, Latin America’s latest wave of right-wing governments have deepened relations with Israel—even as most of the region’s residents remain skeptical.
Outside of a few Central American countries, public perceptions of Israel are overwhelmingly negative in Latin America. In 2026, Pew found that 60 percent of Chileans, 56 percent of Colombians, 55 percent of Argentines, 54 percent of Brazilians, and 50 percent of Peruvians had an unfavorable view of Israel (favorable views ranged between just 21 and 29 percent). In the same countries, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they had “no confidence” in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What, then, explains the stark discrepancy between public opinion and the positions of right-wing governments?
There are basically three factors at play. As I argued in the last edition of this magazine, the first centers on the self-hatred of Latin American elites, and the related worship of purportedly more developed countries—most notably, the United States and its allies. From the perspective of highly educated, right-wing businessmen and politicians, support for Israel is a low-cost, high-visibility way of signaling fealty to Washington and especially the Trump administration. The second finds its motive force from evangelical pulpits, Pentecostal megachurches, and the Zionist outreach that has quietly built a religious infrastructure for pro-Israel politics. In many states in the region, Israel’s multinational lobby has cultivated an evangelical electorate with considerable political sway. Finally, security ties with Israel have helped some of the region’s governments to accomplish their own strategic goals (including, in some cases, the surveillance of political opponents).
Of all of the region’s right-wing leaders, Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella is arguably the emphatically and cynically pro-Israel. For years, de la Espriella—a millionaire lawyer for drug traffickers—was a self-described atheist, until he converted to Catholicism prior to launching a presidential bid. In tandem with his newfound religiosity, he also acquired a fervent Zionism, mediated by an elite network of diplomats, Jewish community leaders, and evangelical pastors. In 2025, the then-candidate met privately with the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who later thanked de la Espriella for his recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And by June 2026, de la Espriella was saying he believed that Netanyahu had done what was necessary in Gaza to defend Israelis and that Colombia would “restore and strengthen its relationship with the State of Israel like never before.”
An investigation by the Colombian publication Revista Raya found that during the election, Colombia’s Evangelical Confederation, Cedecol, organized prayer vigils in favor of the now president. Cedecol’s vice president, the pastor Rodrigo Barreto, also met personally with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog during the World Cup. (Notably, the confederation also promotes pilgrimage packages to the Holy Land through a partnership with the Land Tours, an international travel agency whose Colombian representative campaigned openly for de la Espriella.)
Evangelical pastors such as Raúl Rubio, who has worked with the Israeli land development organization Keren Kayemeth, have played prominent roles in the new president’s campaign and government. Last November, Rubio addressed a de la Espriella rally at Bogotá’s Movistar Arena, promising the crowd that the candidate would restore ties with Israel. Days later, de la Espriella pledged to relocate Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem, a move that now appears to be in motion.
Unsurprisingly, the former Israeli consul in Colombia, Kobi Valer, spent years cultivating relationships with conservative politicians, including arranging trips to Israel for Colombian journalists and influencers during the Gaza offensive. In the wake of de la Espriella’s victory, Israel’s Diaspora and Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli celebrated the result on X as marking not just the “collapse of populist socialist ideologies” but “the strengthening of Israel’s position on the continent.”
On security, five decades of arms deals and cooperation with Israel have brought arguably as much harm as good to Colombia. In the 1980s, an Israeli mercenary firm headed by former IDF colonel Yair Klein trained the death squads that later coalesced into the infamous, far-right paramilitary United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC); the group’s founder, Carlos Castaño spent part of the ’80s training in Israeli military schools before returning home to Colombia. A Colombian court later sentenced Klein in absentia to more than a decade in prison for his role in creating the AUC; he served time in a Russian prison, but ultimately avoided extradition to Colombia. Decades later, Klein said that the landowner and future right-wing President Álvaro Uribe was among those who helped finance his activities, a claim Uribe has denied.
Since 1994, moreover, Colombia’s state arms manufacturer, Indumil, has produced the Galil rifle using Israeli components. In 2024, former president Gustavo Petro revealed that Colombia's police intelligence directorate, DIPOL paid Israeli spyware firm NSO Group $11 million in…
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