Petro Announces Another “New” Measure Against Israel

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Substack on 2-June-2025.

Image from Colombian Foreign Office.

Petro’s government announced another measure against Israel, or to be more precise the foreign minister Laura Sarabia, who despite all the criticisms we made of her seems more trustworthy than the erratic Petro, made the announcement. Colombia will require an entry visa for Israeli citizens.

Before celebrating another blow to Zionism and a gesture of solidarity with the suffering people of Palestine, we have to read the reasons behind it. It is not a response to the genocide, but rather because Israel unilaterally imposed a visa on Colombians from May 14th of this year.[1] When Colombia broke off diplomatic relations with Israel last year, at the very least it should have required a visa from Israelis travelling to the country. But Petro learnt very well the lesson of the nuns in the schools that it more important to appear to be than to be. And he and his government appears to be the most progressive on the planet and an adversary of the Zionist state. But it is not true. It is not the case in migratory issues nor on economic issues and despite Colombia announcing it would no longer export coal to Israel, it continues to do so.

What is the point of requiring a visa from Israelis when many have double nationality and can enter with another passport? We have to be more radical. Firstly, Colombia should state that those who have Israeli nationality automatically lose their Colombian citizenship. There are many countries in the world that do this, amongst them Nepal and India. There are others that do not accept double nationality, you can only have one passport, though the loss of citizenship is not automatic. And further still there are countries, such as Ireland, that accept triple nationality. Colombia should not recognise double nationality when the second nationality is Israeli. It could go even further. Some countries, especially the USA, restrict visitors who have travelled to countries such as Iran or Cuba. Colombia could deny entry to anyone who has an Israeli passport, regardless of whether they enter with that document. There are certain difficulties when it comes to implementing this, but there are legal implications for the person that uses another passport to enter Colombia if they are an Israeli citizen. With that they would close the brothels in Taganga and the sex tourism of Israeli soldiers in Colombia. But neither Petro, nor Sarabia, when she stands in for the drunkard, aim to do anything like that. What they are about is appearances and this is to be seen in the economic measures taken against the genocidal state of Israel.

With great showmanship they announced the end of coal exports to Israel. But a recent communiqué from a group of trade unions and social organisations, amongst them the oil workers union, USO and the coal workers union, Sintracarbon, that show that they continue to export coal to Israel. According to the communiqué, based on data from Colombian Customs and Tax Office (DIAN) they exported 905.666 tonnes of coal to the tune of US $90 million since August 2024 when Petro issued his decree. It is worth pointing out that Petro’s statement gained him fans in many parts, the Progressive International that includes personalities such as Walden Bello and Jeremy Corbyn reproduced an article from the US social democratic magazine Jacobin that pointed to Colombia as a model to copy and that 60% of Israeli coal came from Colombia and:

… the Israeli power grid depends on coal for 22 percent of its output. The same grid supplies electricity to Israel’s illegal settlements and arms factories as well as the infrastructure used by the Israeli military in perpetrating genocide…

… this decision is not only a victory in symbolic terms but shows the enormous impact that a wider energy embargo could have in ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza.[2]

In fact, according to data from the DIAN, between January and April 2024, i.e. before Petro’s decree US $101,658.000 worth of products were exported to Israel and in 2025 for the same period US $ 75,247,000 was exported, representing a reduction but it is clear that Colombia not only continues to export coal but many other products to the Zionist genocidaires.

So, what does it matter if Israelis are required to have a visa? What the government says is that it is going to impose a visa on Israelis because they did it first. But the Zionist soldiers can come on other passports or even on an Israeli passport, providing they have a visa, i.e. the response to the genocidaires is a bureaucratic inconvenience when what we really need is to ban the entry of all Israelis to Colombian territory and close all the brothels in Taganga and other places that function as places for the “rest and recreation” of the murderers after their “exploits” in Gaza.

References

[1] El Tiempo (05/06/2025) Colombia exigirá visa a nacionales de Israel por principio de reciprocidad: será para ingresos de corta estancia. Juan Pablo Penagos Ramírez.

[2] Progressive International (10/07/2024) Colombia’s Coal Embargo on Israel Is a Model to Follow.

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.