Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Colombia
Colombia: its Zionist communal bodies, Israeli arms and mercenaries, Pegasus, and the 2024 rupture and 2026 restoration of relations
Colombia has a small Jewish community of about 5,000, represented by the Confederación de Comunidades Judías de Colombia. The World Jewish Congress calls Colombia "the strongest ally of Israel in Latin America".[1] Since the late 1980s "Israel" has sold Colombia Kfir fighter aircraft, missiles, drones and signals-intelligence systems,[2] and an Israeli former army officer, Yair Klein, was convicted in Colombia of training paramilitaries.[3] President Gustavo Petro broke off relations in May 2024 and banned coal exports to "Israel";[4][5] relations were restored on 11 August 2026 under President Abelardo de la Espriella.[6]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says the first Jews were "New Christians" who arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Spanish and Portuguese Jews came from Jamaica and Curaçao in the 18th century, and Judaism was recognised after independence in 1810. Polish and Romanian Jews founded the Israelite Center of Bogotá in 1929, German Jews founded the Israelite Montefiore Association in the early 1940s, and Jews mainly from Syria founded the Sephardic Hebrew Community of Bogotá in 1950. The community numbered 6,000–6,500 in the early 1990s, but many left in the following decade because of the economy and kidnappings, mostly for Miami, Costa Rica and "Israel".[1]
The community today
The WJC gives two figures: "around 2,100 Jews" according to "a recent census", and between 4,500 and 5,500 according to a census by the CCJC and the JOINT. Three-quarters live in Bogotá, with smaller communities in Cali, Barranquilla and Medellín. There are ten synagogues.[1]
- Confederación de Comunidades Judías de Colombia (CCJC): the WJC's Colombian affiliate. The WJC lists Jean Claude Bessudo as its president and Marcos Peckel as a member of the WJC executive, and carries Peckel's articles. The WJC says it represents the community to the government and the diplomatic corps, and lists "ambassadorship to the State of Israel" among its tasks. Its site carries items headed "Jewish Community in Colombia Condemns President's Remarks on October 7" and "Colombia's Jewish Community Condemns President's Antisemitic Remarks".[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Strongly. It represents the community to "Israel" as well as to Colombia, and defends "Israel" publicly against the Petro government.
- Youth and Zionist bodies: the WJC says the community runs "youth Zionist organizations such as Hanoar Hatzioni" and branches of WIZO and KKL (Jewish National Fund).[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Fully. The Jewish National Fund raises money for land in "Israel", and Hanoar Hatzioni is a Zionist youth movement.
- Schools: Bogotá, Barranquilla and Medellín have Jewish day schools.[1]
How far is it Zionist? The community's representative body, youth movements and fundraising branches are all part of the Zionist movement.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Colombia.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
- Colombia abstained on the 1947 partition plan, according to the WJC.[1] The Israeli foreign ministry dates recognition to January 1949,[7] and the Colombian foreign ministry dates diplomatic relations to 1 July 1957.[6] Both sources are given; they may refer to different stages.
- Colombia has served in the Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai since 1982. President Juan Manuel Santos made a state visit to "Israel" in 2013, and Benjamin Netanyahu visited Colombia in September 2017.[1] A free trade agreement was signed on 30 September 2013.[6]
- On 5 April 2024 Colombia filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa's genocide case against "Israel" at the International Court of Justice.[8]
- On 1 May 2024 the foreign ministry announced that Petro had decided to break off diplomatic relations from 2 May, saying Colombia could not keep relations with a government that "enfrenta tan graves acusaciones de la comisión de un genocidio" ("faces such serious accusations of committing genocide"). It said the decision was not directed "contra el pueblo israelí ni contra las comunidades judías" ("against the Israeli people or the Jewish communities"), and complained that Petro had received "acusaciones tergiversadas de antisemitismo" ("distorted accusations of antisemitism") from the Israeli government.[4]
- Relations were restored on 11 August 2026.[6]
Coal
Decree 1047 of 14 August 2024 banned exports of thermal coal to "Israel", and Decree 0949 of 28 August 2025 removed the exceptions for contracts already authorised. Coal had made up $225.2 million, or 82.5%, of Colombia's exports to "Israel" in 2024. On 14 October 2026 Infobae reported that the government of Abelardo de la Espriella had repealed both decrees with Decree 1514 of 2026.[5]
Arms
SIPRI records 29 Israeli arms deals with Colombia. They include 13 second-hand Kfir C-2 fighters modernised to the Kfir C-7 standard in a $220 million deal in 1988, whose offsets, according to SIPRI, included $100 million of Colombian coal for "Israel"; 13 more second-hand Kfirs in two 2007 deals worth $162 million (including modernisation of 11 Colombian Kfirs) and $160 million; Shafrir, Python and Derby air-to-air missiles; Griffin guided bombs; Spike-ER and Spike-NLOS missiles; Hermes-450 and Hermes-900 drones; SandCat armoured vehicles; and signals-intelligence systems for surveillance aircraft.[2]
Mercenaries and paramilitaries
- Yair Klein, a former Israeli army colonel, trained paramilitary commandos in the Magdalena Medio region in the early 1980s, at the time when the "autodefensas" that later became the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) were formed. According to investigations reported by El País, he worked for the Medellín cartel leaders Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar and for the AUC leaders Fidel and Carlos Castaño. In 2001 a Colombian court convicted him in his absence of terrorist military training and sentenced him to ten years and eight months.[3] He was arrested at a Moscow airport on 28 August 2007. The European Court of Human Rights blocked his extradition, and in November 2010 the Russian authorities freed him.[9]
Surveillance
In October 2024 the director of the financial intelligence unit UIAF, Luis Eduardo Llinás, said there was official documentation from "Israel" of an $11 million purchase of the NSO Group's Pegasus spyware in 2021 under President Iván Duque, paid in cash in two instalments.[10] El Universal noted that the government had not presented concrete proof of a purchase from the NSO Group, and that the prosecutor's office had examined judges' phones without finding signs of interception.[11]
Ehud Barak's emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[12]
- April 2012 visit. On 12 April 2012 the Israeli defence ministry's representative in Bogotá, Ariel Altallef, wrote in Hebrew about changes to Barak's programme in Colombia, since the defence minister Juan Carlos Pinzón had been summoned to Congress. The programme included a wreath-laying, a visit to the Tolemaida base with a meeting of the two ministries, a special forces display, a meeting with the president and a session in Congress. Pinzón insisted on accompanying Barak throughout, and Barak's wife was to visit the Jewish school and community leaders. The message was forwarded to Barak on 13 April 2012.[13]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Colombia separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $14.0 million from Colombia (2024: $14.9 million) and exported goods worth $104.4 million to it (2024: $105.9 million).[14]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics counts immigrants born in Colombia as follows:
- 415 in 1961–71;
- 552 in 1972–79;
- 475 in 1980s;
- 545 in 1990s;
- 1,868 in 2000–2020;
- 90 in 2021;
- 78 in 2022;
- 89 in 2023.[15]
Political interference
UN voting
In September 2025 Colombia voted for the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[16]
Jeffrey Epstein
El Tiempo reported a number of Colombian references in the documents released by the US Justice Department:[17][18]
- Photographs of Ghislaine Maxwell in a Colombian Air Force uniform with the former president Andrés Pastrana, and an "invitación del Presidente" from his time in office.[18]
- In August and September 2008 the FBI's Miami office and its legal attaché in Bogotá asked Colombia's DAS security agency to locate a woman identified as a victim of Epstein between 1998 and 2003. An FBI official met her in Bogotá on 8 October 2008.[18]
- In a deposition on 15 June 2010 the lawyer Bradley Edwards asked an accountant for Jean-Luc Brunel's modelling agencies about a Colombian girl of about 13; she said she knew nothing of the case.[18]
- In February 2026 Pastrana announced legal action against the columnist Ana Bejarano, whom he accused of taking out of context a trip he had made on Epstein's private plane. He said: "Nunca hubo niñas en esos vuelos" ("There were never any girls on those flights"). In testimony to the US Justice Department, Maxwell said of him, in la diaria's Spanish rendering: "Soy piloto de helicóptero y Andrés también. Nos hicimos amigos y piloteé un Blackhawk en Colombia" ("I am a helicopter pilot and so is Andrés. We became friends and I flew a Blackhawk in Colombia").[19]
- An email of 26 August 2020 to US prosecutors from a man who said his Colombian grandmother had worked as a maid in Epstein's Manhattan house between 2012 and 2017 and had taken memory cards and other material from it.[18]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Venezuela
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Mexico
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 World Jewish Congress, Community in Colombia worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Moscú autoriza la extradición a Colombia del mercenario israelí Yair Klein El País, 12 March 2008.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cancillería de Colombia, Comunicado de prensa: Colombia anuncia ruptura de relaciones diplomáticas con Israel cancilleria.gov.co, 1 May 2024.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Gobierno de Abelardo de la Espriella restableció las exportaciones de carbón a Israel tras dos años de prohibición Infobae, 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Cancillería de Colombia, Israel cancilleria.gov.co, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Cancillería de Colombia, Colombia presentó su intervención en el caso de Sudáfrica contra Israel ante la Corte Internacional de Justicia de La Haya cancilleria.gov.co, April 2024.
- ↑ Yair Klein quedó libre Verdad Abierta, 19 November 2010.
- ↑ Director de la UIAF dice que sí existió la transacción de la compra de Pegasus El Heraldo, 1 October 2024.
- ↑ UIAF confirma compra clandestina de Pegasus en el Gobierno Duque El Universal (Cartagena), 2 October 2024.
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Udi Shani to Ehud Barak, forwarding Ariel Altallef, Israeli defence ministry representative in Bogotá, 12–13 April 2012 (in Hebrew), file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!51/1 (189).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026. - ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024.
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ David Alejandro López Bermúdez and Jhon Torres, Una abuela empleada, una niña de 13 años y las colombianas víctimas mencionadas en los archivos Epstein (y las fotos de Ghislaine Maxwell en el país) El Tiempo, 20 February 2026.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 Caso Jeffrey Epstein: las menciones clave de Colombia en los documentos El Universal (Cartagena), 21 February 2026.
- ↑ Uruguay en los archivos de Epstein la diaria, 4 February 2026.