The front-runner in the Colombian presidential election is a strong supporter of Israel who has pledged to establish an embassy in Jerusalem.
Abelardo de la Espriella, the right-wing Colombian presidential candidate, topped the vote in Sunday’s election with 43.7% of the vote and will face off against Iván Cepeda (40.9%), a senator from the left-wing party of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, in a June 21 runoff.
Petro severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 2024 over the Gaza war triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack and expelled Israeli diplomats from the South American country.
De la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and political outsider nicknamed “El Tigre,” or “The Tiger” who secured the backing of conservative and evangelical groups, pledged during the election campaign to open an embassy in Jerusalem and renew a strategic alliance with Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday congratulated de la Espriella, whom he met in Argentina last year, on his victory in the first round of the elections and wished him good luck in the next round.
“Firme por la patria,” Sa’ar wrote on X.
“Firme por la Patria” (“Firm for the Homeland” or “Stand Firm for the Homeland”) is one of the central slogans and rallying cries of de la Espriella’s political movement, Defensores de la Patria.
The vote could herald another gain for the right-wing wave sweeping across Latin America, whose leaders share U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough approach in dealing with drug traffickers, and offer a marked shift in foreign policy alliances.
“Abelardo de la Espriella’s first-round victory sends an unambiguous message: Colombia wants to turn the page on the former leftist government of Gustavo Petro and its ideological alliance with Israel’s enemies,” David Rosenthal, a Colombian political analyst, told JNS from Bogota. “If the June runoff confirms this vote, Bogotá will have the opportunity to restore a bilateral relationship grounded in decency and international law, not in the rhetoric of hatred.”
