Colombian Complicity In The Genocide In Gaza

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Substack on 09-July-2025.

Photo: GOL, Colombian coal train.

The Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, published a report From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide.[1] The report aims to explain how the corporate sector is complicit in the current genocide in Gaza and names the companies involved.

The document kicks off with a simple true statement, one which is now very controversial following decades of propaganda from the companies themselves, sterile academic debates, many of them supposedly on the left and also the NGOs that work around the issues of Corporate Social Responsibility, and it is that the colonial efforts and the genocides that accompanied them were driven and enabled by the corporate sector. This was uncontroversial until a few decades ago. We all knew and in a small number of cases were taught at school of the role of the greed and avarice of European and US companies in the conquest of the world and the disappearance of entire peoples. Then came the companies, the NGOs and some well-paid academics to talk to us about Corporate Social Responsibility and how the companies weren’t that bad, or at least not all of them. It was and remains a slightly more sophisticated version of Trump’s declaration on the Nazi marches in the US, that there were good people on both sides. According to this discourse there are also good companies everywhere.

Albanese did us a favour by reminding us of the role of the corporate sector and how key aspects of the sector such as the ruthless pursuit of profits at all costs continues to be relevant in this case, not just of Israel in general but rather in the case of the genocide itself. Whereas the German Nazis had their companies such as IG Farben (manufacturer of the gas), Porsche and Siemens etc. The Nazi Zionists of Israel have their companies and whilst the German Nazis received support from foreign companies such as IBM, well the Nazis in Tel Aviv also have the support of foreign companies that just like IBM profited from the Holocaust they profit from the current genocide in Gaza.

IBM played a decisive role in Nazi Germany through its technology that helped Hitler register and round up the Jews and other persecuted groups. In Israel it plays a similar role in the registry and control of the Palestinian people.

As Albanese points out, IBM has had a presence in Israel since 1972, training soldiers and intelligence operatives and just like in Nazi Germany uses its technology to gather, store and access biometric data on the Palestinian population, a system used by the Tel Aviv Nazis to control the movements of the Palestinian people.[2]

But it is not just the companies that are complicit in the genocide but the states also, including the Colombian state. The report details the role played by Colombia. As Albanese points out the Zionist state imports 60% of its coal from Colombia. Colombia supposedly banned the sale of its coal to Israel through Decree 1047 with President Petro arguing that with Colombian coal they make bombs to kill Palestinian children,[3] as 16.2% of the energy produced in Israel relies on Colombian coal, energy that meets the needs of both its civilian and military industries.[4] Petro is 100% right. But there were sufficient reasons to impose an embargo on Israel from day one of his government. He took his time. Ten months went by from the beginning of the genocide to his decree. However, Israel has been murdering Palestinians for a long time or as Petro put it, for a long time Colombia’s coal has been used to make bombs to kill Palestinian children.

Photo: GOL. Colombian worker with coal pieces in hands.

Now Albanese’s report points out that there were six further shipments of Colombian coal following the ban on exporting it to Israel.[5] Is there an embargo or not? Or, is this just another one of Petro’s meaningless announcements made with great fanfare? Well, it can be seen that the contradiction between what was stated and reality does not just apply to coal alone. Colombia also announced the suspension of military purchase and sales contracts with Israel. But it was Petro and Francia Márquez who revived the arms purchases in their government in 2023, before the genocide. They purchased aerial defence system Barax MX from Israel at a cost of US $131.2 million.[6] They also bought Howitzers from Israel to the tune of US $101.7 million. It should be remembered that the Colombian military preferred the Caesar made by the French company Nexter, but it was Petro who opted for the Israeli made weapon.[7]

The Howitzers they bought were from the Elbit company. It is one of the largest Israeli weapons manufacturers and is the original maker of the Galil assault rifle, the preferred weapon of the Colombian military. In 2024 it reported revenues for US $1.9 billion and has 20,000 employees in the world. It may surprise Petro’s fans, but it won’t be one bit surprising to those of us who pay attention to what is happening in the world that Elbit is one of the companies invited to the International Aeronautical and Space Fair – Colombia 2025.[8] Two questions arise. Why is the type of event being held in Colombia, if Petro’s policy is for peace? Or peaccccce as the peaceniks pronounce it. It would seem the emphasis is on the fashionable way of pronouncing it and not the reality of peace. To Petro, announcing an embargo is more important than implementing one and he allows the companies that make the weapons used in the genocide to come to Colombia to make sales and participate in fairs to profit further still from death. More bombs, more dead children in Gaza, whilst the companies’ functionaries, the champions of death strut around all of Colombia, smiling, profiting each time to a greater degree from the twisted bodies in the rubble of Gaza and with the permission and blessing of the Government for Change.

The boycott of Israel only exists in Petro’s head and mouth. In reality the government has done little or nothing to take real and effective measures against the Zionists. It won’t even close their recreational brothels they have on the Colombian coast to relax in after murdering Palestinian children. He is a charlatan, a good orator, convincing even, but at the end of the day he is cynically wedded to the powers that be. Colombia is complicit in the genocide.

References

[1] UN (2025) From economy of occupation to economy of genocide: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. Francesca Albanese.

[2] UN (2025) Op. Cit. Para 38

[3] Presidencia (18/08/2024) Gobierno de Colombia prohíbe exportación de carbón a Israel a partir de la próxima semana.

[4] El Turbión (22/06/2025) El embargo de carbón a Israel que nunca fue.

[5] UN (2025) Op. Cit. Para 57

[6] Defense News (05/01/2023) Colombia buys Israel-made Barak MX air defense system. José Higuera.

[7] Defence News (06/01/2023) Colombia picks Elbit’s Atmos howitzer over Nexter’s Caesar. José Higuera.

[8] See.

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