Israel and Latin America’s amnesia
Two weeks ago, Colombia hosted the first Hague Group Summit in Bogotá—where President Gustavo Petro and his allies, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, pledged to enforce ICC arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. They called it “the end of impunity.” In reality, it was the latest chapter in a long-standing pattern: revolutionary regimes demanding that the Jewish state do what they never would—surrender to terror.
There is something deeply incoherent, even farcical, about watching Latin America’s leftist governments demand that Israel lay down its arms in the face of genocidal assault. From Petro to Daniel Ortega and Claudia Sheinbaum, we are witnessing a generation of leaders who glorify armed struggle in their own national histories—yet call for restraint when Jews defend themselves.
It is hypocrisy—but not only that. It is a betrayal of historical memory.
Mexico did not win independence from Spain through peaceful petitions. Hidalgo and Morelos led uprisings, not peace talks. Juárez defended the Republic with force against foreign occupation. In Nicaragua, Sandino didn’t politely ask the US Marines to leave—he took up arms. In Cuba, Castro didn’t organize protests—he launched an insurgency. Across Latin America, revolution is sanctified. Armed resistance is romanticized. Military struggle against foreign domination is national mythology.
But when it comes to Israel—when Jewish farmers are slaughtered, when children are kidnapped, when Hamas terrorists invade, rape, and burn civilians alive—the script suddenly changes. The same voices who lionize Bolívar demand that Israel show “restraint.” The heirs of anti-colonial movements suddenly speak the language of “ceasefires” and “de-escalation”—but only when it’s the Jewish state defending itself.
They forget—or deliberately ignore—that Israel, like Latin America, is a product of anti-colonial struggle. Zionism is not imperialism; it is decolonization. The Jews did not arrive in tanks and tricolor sashes. They returned to the land from which they were exiled. They built cities where there were none. They made the desert bloom. They fought to free themselves from British rule, just as Latin Americans fought the Spanish. David Ben-Gurion was no Viceroy—he was a Semitic Simón Bolívar.
Zionism is, fundamentally, a de-colonial project. The Jews didn’t come to Palestine as foreign conquerors. They returned to the land that birthed their language, faith, and history. They revived Hebrew. They cultivated soil. They fought empires, not natives. And they offered peace—repeatedly—to those willing to live alongside them.
And yet, today, Latin American leaders accuse Israel of colonialism while embracing Hamas—a death cult backed by Iran, sworn to the eradication of Jews. These same leaders say nothing when women are silenced or when children are turned into martyrs. They ignore that Palestinian leadership glorifies bloodshed, indoctrinates youth with hate, and rejects every offer of coexistence.
Worse, they pretend that condemning Israel is somehow consistent with their own legacy. It is not.
Would you have told Hidalgo to stand down after the first battle? Would you have asked Bolívar to negotiate with the viceroys? Would you have urged Sandino to make peace with the Marines? Of course not. Because Latin America knows that freedom is not granted—it is taken. Sovereignty is not begged for—it is fought for.
And now, Latin America lectures Israel—the one democracy in the Middle East, the only country in the region with freedom of speech, religion, and press—for doing what every Latin American hero did: defend its people, its land, and its right to exist.
They ignore that Israel, for all its flaws, is the only country in the region where Christians, women, and minorities live with full legal protections. They close their eyes to the fact that Hamas and its allies suppress dissent, criminalize basic freedoms, and promote a theocratic ideology that stands in stark contrast to the progressive values the Latin American left claims to uphold. If justice, decolonization, and human dignity are your banners, then why side with those who trample them?
To those in Latin America who still believe in justice, ask yourselves: would you demand that your ancestors had laid down their arms in the face of conquest? Would you ask Bolívar to sign a ceasefire with the Spanish crown? Would you have told Sandino to wait for a League of Nations resolution?
Then why ask it of Israel?
History honors those who refuse to bow when the world tells them to kneel. Latin America should remember its own history—and stop condemning others for doing exactly what it once had the courage to do.
