Within its first days in office, Colombia’s newly inaugurated far-right government has triggered international backlash by upending years of prior regional diplomacy, taking a sharp pro-Washington and pro-Israel turn that reverses the foreign policy legacy of former progressive president Gustavo Petro. The shift was first cemented last week, when Vice President Jose Manuel Restrepo and Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar formally announced the policy reversal following closed-door talks with senior Moroccan government representatives. In an official post on the social platform X, Escobar confirmed that Colombia now “recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara,” abandoning the previous administration’s diplomatic support for an independent Sahrawi state. Alongside this announcement, Bogota revoked its formal recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and froze all diplomatic ties with the Polisario Front, the Western Saharan independence movement—undoing Petro’s 2022 decision to restore diplomatic relations with the SADR. The Western Sahara dispute has stretched across five decades: after Spain withdrew from the territory in 1975, Morocco annexed and has since maintained control over roughly 80% of the region. The United Nations has repeatedly classified Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory, upholding the international legal principle that the Sahrawi people hold an inalienable right to self-determination through a UN-supervised referendum. The first formal international recognition of Morocco’s claim came in 2020, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged recognition for Rabat agreeing to normalize formal diplomatic relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords. Colombia’s decision to adopt the terms of the 2020 U.S.-brokered deal marks the most dramatic break yet from the Petro administration’s foreign policy, which positioned Colombia as a vocal critic of Israeli policy in Gaza. During his term, Petro drew global attention for describing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as “genocide” and a “crime against humanity”; in May 2024, his administration severed full diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv and backed international criminal court efforts to hold Israeli leadership accountable for alleged war crimes. In stark contrast, new Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella framed his incoming administration’s priorities around conservative Christian values ahead of his inauguration, gathering his cabinet for a religious retreat where he emphasized, “To build a great nation, we must put God at the centre of every decision.” Observers have already noted that his government’s first foreign policy actions have centered the strategic interests of the U.S. and Israel instead. Controversially, the new government made these high-stakes diplomatic announcements on the same day that Colombian emergency responders were working through the aftermath of the country’s deadliest earthquake in over a decade. The 7.4 magnitude quake, which struck central Colombia on Monday, has killed at least 250 people, injured more than 2,500, and left thousands of residents unaccounted for as rescuers comb through collapsed infrastructure. Even amid this domestic crisis, the Colombian foreign ministry released a second announcement: it recognized Israel’s 1981 annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, arguing that Israeli control of the territory is critical to Israel’s national security. With this decision, Colombia joined the United States as the only two United Nations member states to formally recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Israel seized the majority of the strategic plateau from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, and unilaterally extended Israeli law and civil administration to the territory in 1981. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 497 immediately after the annexation, which formally declared Israel’s decision “null and void and without international legal effect” and has been reaffirmed by the global body repeatedly in the decades since. In response to Bogota’s dual announcements, Syria has already filed formal protest letters with both the UN Secretary-General and the UN Security Council, delivered this Wednesday. A coalition of regional states including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Palestine and Oman have also publicly condemned Colombia’s decisions, joining widespread international pushback against the policy reversal. This report was produced by Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent, in-depth coverage of the Middle East, North Africa, and global affairs. For information on republishing this content and associated fees, interested parties can submit a query via MEE’s official contact form, and more details about the organization’s work is available on its website.
Colombia sides with Morocco over Western Sahara as it aligns with Israeli foreign policy
