Difference between revisions of "Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Guatemala"
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{{short description|'''Guatemala: its small Zionist-affiliated Jewish community, Israeli arms, advisers and computers for the military regimes of the civil war, and the 2018 embassy move to Jerusalem'''}} | {{short description|'''Guatemala: its small Zionist-affiliated Jewish community, Israeli arms, advisers and computers for the military regimes of the civil war, and the 2018 embassy move to Jerusalem'''}} | ||
| − | '''Guatemala''' has a Jewish community of about 1,000.<ref name="WJCGT">World Jewish Congress, [https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/GT Community in Guatemala] ''worldjewishcongress.org'', accessed 21 October 2026.</ref> During the civil war, and especially after the United States cut off arms sales in 1977, "Israel" became a major supplier of weapons, advisers and intelligence technology to the military governments, including during the genocide of the early 1980s.<ref name="MERIP1986">Cheryl Rubenberg, [https://www.merip.org/1986/05/israel-and-guatemala/ Israel and Guatemala] ''Middle East Report'' (MERIP), May–June 1986 | + | '''Guatemala''' has a Jewish community of about 1,000.<ref name="WJCGT">World Jewish Congress, [https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/GT Community in Guatemala] ''worldjewishcongress.org'', accessed 21 October 2026.</ref> During the civil war, and especially after the United States cut off arms sales in 1977, "Israel" became a major supplier of weapons, advisers and intelligence technology to the military governments, including during the genocide of the early 1980s.<ref name="MERIP1986">Cheryl Rubenberg, [https://www.merip.org/1986/05/israel-and-guatemala/ Israel and Guatemala] ''Middle East Report'' (MERIP), May–June 1986.</ref><ref name="Hidalgo2025">Alberto Hidalgo Luna, [https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?pid=S1870-41152025000100114&script=sci_arttext Redes transnacionales en la Guerra Fría interamericana: el complejo militar israelí en Guatemala] ''Revista Pueblos y Fronteras Digital'', vol. 20, 2025, [https://doi.org/10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2025.v20.768 doi:10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2025.v20.768].</ref> On 16 May 2018 President [[Jimmy Morales]] moved Guatemala's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, two days after the United States.<ref name="PrensaLibre2018">[https://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/politica/guatemala-inaugura-su-embajada-en-jerusalen-israel-jimmy-morales-benjamin-netanyahu/ Guatemala abre oficialmente su embajada en Jerusalén] ''Prensa Libre'', 16 May 2018.</ref> |
==Jewish community and religious life== | ==Jewish community and religious life== | ||
| Line 20: | Line 21: | ||
===Chabad=== | ===Chabad=== | ||
:''Main article: [[Chabad-Lubavitch movement]]'' | :''Main article: [[Chabad-Lubavitch movement]]'' | ||
| − | + | Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Guatemala. | |
==Israeli state and commercial ties== | ==Israeli state and commercial ties== | ||
===Diplomacy=== | ===Diplomacy=== | ||
| − | *Guatemala's UN ambassador, [[Jorge García Granados]], lobbied for partition in 1947, and at the embassy opening in 2018 [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] praised his role.<ref name="MFAGuatemala">Embassy of Israel in Guatemala, [https://embassies.gov.il/guatemala/en/the-embassy/bilateral-relations Bilateral relations] ''embassies.gov.il'', accessed 21 October 2026 | + | *Guatemala's UN ambassador, [[Jorge García Granados]], lobbied for partition in 1947, and at the embassy opening in 2018 [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] praised his role.<ref name="MFAGuatemala">Embassy of Israel in Guatemala, [https://embassies.gov.il/guatemala/en/the-embassy/bilateral-relations Bilateral relations] ''embassies.gov.il'', accessed 21 October 2026.</ref><ref name="PrensaLibre2018" /> The [[World Jewish Congress|WJC]] says Guatemala was "the first Latin American country to recognize Israel" and has had full relations since 1948;<ref name="WJCGT" /> the Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list dates recognition to January 1950.<ref name="MFA2011">Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110805075305/http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/about%20the%20ministry/diplomatic%20missions/Israel-s%20Diplomatic%20Missions%20Abroad Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations] ''mfa.gov.il'', archived 5 August 2011.</ref> An Israeli diplomatic mission opened in Guatemala in 1956.<ref name="MFAGuatemala" /> |
*Guatemala had an embassy in Jerusalem until 1980.<ref name="DW2018">[https://www.dw.com/es/inaugur%C3%B3-guatemala-su-embajada-en-jerusal%C3%A9n/a-43801631 Inauguró Guatemala su embajada en Jerusalén] ''Deutsche Welle'', 16 May 2018.</ref> [[Jimmy Morales|Morales]] and Netanyahu opened the new embassy there on 16 May 2018, and Morales described Guatemala, the United States and "Israel" as three friends showing "valor y lealtad" ("courage and loyalty").<ref name="PrensaLibre2018" /> The Israeli embassy says a parliamentary friendship league has more than 80 deputies, and that a free trade agreement came into force in March 2024. The WJC says Congress has declared 14 May an annual day of friendship with "Israel".<ref name="MFAGuatemala" /><ref name="WJCGT" /> | *Guatemala had an embassy in Jerusalem until 1980.<ref name="DW2018">[https://www.dw.com/es/inaugur%C3%B3-guatemala-su-embajada-en-jerusal%C3%A9n/a-43801631 Inauguró Guatemala su embajada en Jerusalén] ''Deutsche Welle'', 16 May 2018.</ref> [[Jimmy Morales|Morales]] and Netanyahu opened the new embassy there on 16 May 2018, and Morales described Guatemala, the United States and "Israel" as three friends showing "valor y lealtad" ("courage and loyalty").<ref name="PrensaLibre2018" /> The Israeli embassy says a parliamentary friendship league has more than 80 deputies, and that a free trade agreement came into force in March 2024. The WJC says Congress has declared 14 May an annual day of friendship with "Israel".<ref name="MFAGuatemala" /><ref name="WJCGT" /> | ||
*President [[Bernardo Arévalo]], who studied and worked in "Israel" and speaks Hebrew, wrote in May 2022 that the embassy move "violó el derecho internacional" ("violated international law"). In May 2024 Guatemala voted at the UN to give Palestine more rights.<ref name="Republica2024">[https://republica.com/politica/arevalo-ratifica-su-posicion-de-un-estado-para-cada-pueblo-entre-israel-y-palestina-20245124520 Arévalo ratifica su posición de "un estado para cada pueblo" entre Israel y Palestina] ''República'', 14 May 2024.</ref> In September 2025 Guatemala abstained on the New York Declaration; Arévalo said Guatemala already recognised Palestine and that the abstention was for "razones de procedimiento" ("procedural reasons"), while analysts quoted by ''Prensa Libre'' linked it to tariff negotiations with the United States.<ref name="PrensaLibre2025">[https://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/politica/guatemala-suaviza-postura-en-la-onu-sobre-israel-y-palestina-en-medio-de-negociacion-arancelaria/ Guatemala suaviza postura en la ONU sobre Israel y Palestina en medio de negociación arancelaria] ''Prensa Libre'', 20 September 2025.</ref> Arévalo has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.<ref name="Republica2025">[https://republica.com/politica/arevalo-viaja-a-la-onu-con-postura-definida-sobre-el-conflicto-israel-palestina-20259235520 Arévalo viaja a la ONU con postura definida sobre el conflicto Israel-Palestina] ''República'', 23 September 2025.</ref> | *President [[Bernardo Arévalo]], who studied and worked in "Israel" and speaks Hebrew, wrote in May 2022 that the embassy move "violó el derecho internacional" ("violated international law"). In May 2024 Guatemala voted at the UN to give Palestine more rights.<ref name="Republica2024">[https://republica.com/politica/arevalo-ratifica-su-posicion-de-un-estado-para-cada-pueblo-entre-israel-y-palestina-20245124520 Arévalo ratifica su posición de "un estado para cada pueblo" entre Israel y Palestina] ''República'', 14 May 2024.</ref> In September 2025 Guatemala abstained on the New York Declaration; Arévalo said Guatemala already recognised Palestine and that the abstention was for "razones de procedimiento" ("procedural reasons"), while analysts quoted by ''Prensa Libre'' linked it to tariff negotiations with the United States.<ref name="PrensaLibre2025">[https://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/politica/guatemala-suaviza-postura-en-la-onu-sobre-israel-y-palestina-en-medio-de-negociacion-arancelaria/ Guatemala suaviza postura en la ONU sobre Israel y Palestina en medio de negociación arancelaria] ''Prensa Libre'', 20 September 2025.</ref> Arévalo has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.<ref name="Republica2025">[https://republica.com/politica/arevalo-viaja-a-la-onu-con-postura-definida-sobre-el-conflicto-israel-palestina-20259235520 Arévalo viaja a la ONU con postura definida sobre el conflicto Israel-Palestina] ''República'', 23 September 2025.</ref> | ||
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===Trade=== | ===Trade=== | ||
| − | The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Guatemala separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $3.6 million from Guatemala (2024: $2.1 million) and exported goods worth $37.8 million to it (2024: $32.6 million).<ref name="CBS">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2026/fr_trade12_2025/td1.pdf Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports] ''CBS'', December 2025 issue (library copy | + | The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Guatemala separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $3.6 million from Guatemala (2024: $2.1 million) and exported goods worth $37.8 million to it (2024: $32.6 million).<ref name="CBS">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2026/fr_trade12_2025/td1.pdf Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports] ''CBS'', December 2025 issue (library copy).</ref> |
==Migration and aliyah== | ==Migration and aliyah== | ||
| − | The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics includes Guatemala in a combined group with Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador and Puerto Rico, and does not list it separately.<ref name="CBSAliyah">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2024/2.ShnatonPopulation/st02_55.pdf Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence] ''CBS'', 2024 | + | The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics includes Guatemala in a combined group with Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador and Puerto Rico, and does not list it separately.<ref name="CBSAliyah">Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2024/2.ShnatonPopulation/st02_55.pdf Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence] ''CBS'', 2024.</ref> |
==Political interference== | ==Political interference== | ||
Latest revision as of 05:15, 23 October 2026
Guatemala: its small Zionist-affiliated Jewish community, Israeli arms, advisers and computers for the military regimes of the civil war, and the 2018 embassy move to Jerusalem
Guatemala has a Jewish community of about 1,000.[1] During the civil war, and especially after the United States cut off arms sales in 1977, "Israel" became a major supplier of weapons, advisers and intelligence technology to the military governments, including during the genocide of the early 1980s.[2][3] On 16 May 2018 President Jimmy Morales moved Guatemala's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, two days after the United States.[4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says the present community dates from German Jewish immigrants of the mid-19th century, followed by Jews from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In the 1930s the government outlawed peddling, a common Jewish trade, and restricted immigration. The community reached a peak of about 1,000 around 1981, when the statutes of the Comunidad Judía de Guatemala were approved. In 2014 members of the ultra-Orthodox sect Lev Tahor, who had left Canada amid child abuse and neglect charges, settled in San Juan La Laguna, until Tz'utujil elders ordered them to leave.[1]
The community today
The WJC cites the US religious freedom report's figure of about 1,000 Jews (2021), almost all in Guatemala City.[1]
- Comunidad Judía de Guatemala: the umbrella body for all Jewish groups. According to the WJC, these include B'nai B'rith, WIZO and the Organización Sionista de Guatemala. It runs the Gan Hillel kindergarten, the Tarbut school and kosher certification.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Strongly. Its affiliates include the Zionist Organisation and WIZO, and its youth go through a Zionist youth movement.
- Organización Sionista de Guatemala: listed by the WJC among the community's groups "of Israeli origin".[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Fully, by definition.
- Maccabi Hatzair: which the WJC describes as "a Zionist youth movement" that children attend until they finish secondary school; Guafty is a Reform youth movement.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Fully.
- Synagogues and others: the Orthodox Maguen David and Sharei Binyamin synagogues, the Reform Adat Israel, the welfare bodies Tzedaká and Bikur Jolim, the humanitarian organisation Cadena, and the Museo del Holocausto (2017).[1]
How far is it Zionist? The community's central body brings together Zionist organisations and a Zionist youth movement.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Guatemala.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
- Guatemala's UN ambassador, Jorge García Granados, lobbied for partition in 1947, and at the embassy opening in 2018 Benjamin Netanyahu praised his role.[5][4] The WJC says Guatemala was "the first Latin American country to recognize Israel" and has had full relations since 1948;[1] the Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list dates recognition to January 1950.[6] An Israeli diplomatic mission opened in Guatemala in 1956.[5]
- Guatemala had an embassy in Jerusalem until 1980.[7] Morales and Netanyahu opened the new embassy there on 16 May 2018, and Morales described Guatemala, the United States and "Israel" as three friends showing "valor y lealtad" ("courage and loyalty").[4] The Israeli embassy says a parliamentary friendship league has more than 80 deputies, and that a free trade agreement came into force in March 2024. The WJC says Congress has declared 14 May an annual day of friendship with "Israel".[5][1]
- President Bernardo Arévalo, who studied and worked in "Israel" and speaks Hebrew, wrote in May 2022 that the embassy move "violó el derecho internacional" ("violated international law"). In May 2024 Guatemala voted at the UN to give Palestine more rights.[8] In September 2025 Guatemala abstained on the New York Declaration; Arévalo said Guatemala already recognised Palestine and that the abstention was for "razones de procedimiento" ("procedural reasons"), while analysts quoted by Prensa Libre linked it to tariff negotiations with the United States.[9] Arévalo has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.[10]
Arms, advisers and the civil war
- SIPRI records only three Israeli arms transfers to Guatemala: ten Arava transport aircraft (1974), ten RBY-1 armoured personnel carriers (1976) and one second-hand Arava (1982). SIPRI's register does not cover small arms.[11]
- Writing in Middle East Report in 1986, Cheryl Rubenberg said Israeli assistance began in 1971 and grew after 1977, when the Guatemalan generals rejected US military aid tied to human rights conditions. Arava aircraft arrived in 1975, followed by armoured cars, artillery, Uzi submachine guns and the Galil assault rifle, which "became standard issue for the Guatemalan army". Technicians from Tadiran Israel Electronics Industries installed a computer centre in Guatemala City in 1979–80, whose data banks were believed to contain the names of at least 80% of the population; on 3 November 1981 the army opened an electronics school "built, funded and staffed by Israelis". She wrote that "by early 1982 there were at least 300 Israeli advisers in Guatemala", while noting the view of Edy Kaufman that claims of 300 Israeli advisers taking part in the coup of that year were a "gross exaggeration". Israeli advisers reportedly trained the elite Kaibiles, and the director of Efraín Ríos Montt's "Beans and Bullets" programme said "Israel" was the main inspiration for its rural counterinsurgency strategy.[2]
- In a 2025 academic study, Alberto Hidalgo Luna analyses the Israeli military-industrial complex as "un actor estratégico" ("a strategic actor") in counterinsurgency in Guatemala "durante el genocidio" ("during the genocide"), including arms sales, intelligence training and advice on the "aldeas modelo" ("model villages"). He cites the finding of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team that all the ballistic evidence from the Dos Erres massacre matched Galil rifles.[3]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Guatemala separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $3.6 million from Guatemala (2024: $2.1 million) and exported goods worth $37.8 million to it (2024: $32.6 million).[12]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics includes Guatemala in a combined group with Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador and Puerto Rico, and does not list it separately.[13]
Political interference
UN voting
Guatemala abstained on the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution in September 2025.[14]
Jeffrey Epstein
- Guatemala appears 126 times in the released files, mostly in connection with travel, purchases and social events.[15]
- A Federal Bureau of Investigation crisis intake form of 19 July 2019, filed under "Epstein, Jeffrey; Child Sex Trafficking", records a complainant's claim that a cache of about 10,000 videos of child sexual abuse included victims from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. The document does not verify the claim.[16][15]
- FBI emails of October 2019 discuss a possible visit by a Guatemalan woman to a victim resource briefing for Epstein victims in New York. It is not known whether it took place.[16]
- In May 2010 Epstein's assistant sent him emails and photographs from a trip to Tikal, and in 2012 she chased the delivery of a rug made in Guatemala for him.[16]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 World Jewish Congress, Community in Guatemala worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cheryl Rubenberg, Israel and Guatemala Middle East Report (MERIP), May–June 1986.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alberto Hidalgo Luna, Redes transnacionales en la Guerra Fría interamericana: el complejo militar israelí en Guatemala Revista Pueblos y Fronteras Digital, vol. 20, 2025, doi:10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2025.v20.768.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Guatemala abre oficialmente su embajada en Jerusalén Prensa Libre, 16 May 2018.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Embassy of Israel in Guatemala, Bilateral relations embassies.gov.il, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Inauguró Guatemala su embajada en Jerusalén Deutsche Welle, 16 May 2018.
- ↑ Arévalo ratifica su posición de "un estado para cada pueblo" entre Israel y Palestina República, 14 May 2024.
- ↑ Guatemala suaviza postura en la ONU sobre Israel y Palestina en medio de negociación arancelaria Prensa Libre, 20 September 2025.
- ↑ Arévalo viaja a la ONU con postura definida sobre el conflicto Israel-Palestina República, 23 September 2025.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 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).
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Guatemala es mencionada más de 100 veces en los archivos de Epstein ¿Qué fue lo que hicieron? Publinews, 7 February 2026.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Las menciones de Guatemala en los documentos del caso Epstein eP Investiga, 2026.