“We’re here to denounce the holes in Petro’s decree, generate pressure, and demand a complete embargo of coal to Israel.” Speaking at an event on July 18 focused on advancing a military and energy embargo on Israel, Nassim Mohamad, a member of Colombia’s Palestinian community, cut to the heart of the matter. While Colombian President Gustavo Petro has emerged as one of the world’s most fearless champions of the Palestinian cause, his policies have so far fallen short of achieving their aim of ending material support for Israel’s genocide.
Days earlier, at the “Emergency Conference to End the Genocide in Gaza” organized by the Hague Group in Bogotá, Petro touted his own actions as a model to follow. Addressing delegates from over thirty countries convened to challenge Israeli impunity and uphold international law, Petro cited Decree 1047, an order his administration issued in August 2024 that sought to halt the export of Colombian coal to Israel.
While Petro has been praised for the decree, in the year since its issuance, it has fallen upon activists affiliated with Colombia’s BDS movement to pressure the government to enforce its own law. What they have found, as Nassim’s interjection makes clear, has been disappointing: since the decree, at least 30 boats carrying more than 1 million tons of Colombian coal have arrived at Israeli ports.
In recent weeks, Petro has taken a much harder stance, even going so far as to order the navy to ensure that “not a single ton” of Colombian coal makes its way to Israel. Yet his administration’s capacity to follow through may be limited. Indeed, the gaps between Petro’s declarations and their efficacy are about more than the usual tensions between government rhetoric and action. As with the Hague Group Conference writ large, the issue reveals the limited power of countries in the Global South to pursue independent foreign policies and exercise control over their own resources. Still, Colombia’s potent BDS movement is demanding their president do more by exposing the decree’s shortcomings, pushing for stronger legislation, and launching new campaigns to hold the government accountable.
A Conference in Bogotá
Formed in January 2025 under the auspices of the Progressive International, the Hague Group convened its “Emergency Conference” as the death toll in Gaza—60,000—continues to rise. Co-chaired by Colombia and South Africa, the Hague Group has emerged as a forum for Global South multilateral leadership amid the inability of the international community to halt the genocide and ongoing Western complicity in Israel’s military campaign.
In the lead up to the gathering in Bogotá, Petro called upon countries to act as “protagonists together” rather than “supplicants apart.” Echoing a warning he had issued nearly two years ago, he framed Israel’s violence as a preview of what rich nations can do to those who dare to rebel.
The two-day conference held from July 15-16 in Bogotá resulted in a six-point action plan signed by 12 participating governments.
The two-day conference held from July 15-16 in Bogotá resulted in a six-point action plan signed by 12 participating governments. It includes commitments to block the transfer of weapons to Israel, deny ports access to ships suspected of carrying weapons, and prevent the use of vessels bearing their own flags to transfer arms. They also pledged to review public contracts to ensure no state funds support Israel’s illegal occupation, “ensure accountability” for the most serious crimes under international law, and support “universal jurisdiction mandates” that would allow Israeli officials to be prosecuted for their crimes outside of Israel. While the level of coordination marked diplomatic progress, the signatories represented fewer than half of the 32 participating countries, as well as some of the summit’s less powerful economies.
A Struggle for Sovereignty
Outside of the halls of power, Colombian BDS activists held a week of parallel events in bars and union halls that, while supportive of the Hague Group’s efforts, returned repeatedly to the same message: much more needs to be done. At an event titled “Military and Energy Embargo for Israel,” panelists emphasized that the Hague Group’s declarations would only have an impact if fully enforced, a tall order given the recent experience with the loopholes in Petro’s coal ban. Maren Mantovani, a member of the International Secretariat of the Palestinian National BDS Committee who specializes in Latin America, stressed that these efforts are a part of a larger struggle. “Colombia, as a state, is having to fight for sovereignty over its own resources, and where they do and do not go,” she said, placing the coal ban in the context of economic and political autonomy.
One recurring theme was the power of multinational corporations like Glencore and Drummond, two mining companies that Petro has singled out for defying his ban. Both companies have continued to export coal to Israel since the ban was issued but claim they are doing so legally and with the government’s knowledge, citing exceptions written into the decree. In order to address these gaps, the government announced a modification to Decree 1047 on July 29, which seeks to ensure that the ban on coal exports is implemented “without exception.”
Petro’s government has in part been hamstrung due to the country’s free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel, which went into effect in 2020. The deal, which led to a huge boom in trade between the two countries, has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent weeks as Petro ordered the Navy to block coal shipments to Israel and threatened to unilaterally modify the country’s concessions to these corporations. Critics of Petro’s move have raised the specter of legal retaliation, arguing that his actions violate the FTA.
Mantovani dismissed that argument. “The excuse that we can’t stop exporting coal because of the trade agreement with Israel is BS,” she said at the event. “There are international laws that make clear that there are obligations in the face of genocide. Given that, these agreements are not valid.” Petro has echoed that position in recent weeks. During a speech at a conference dedicated to financing the region’s energy transition, he argued that the World Trade Organization’s founding accords contained language that invalidates “all treaties made with a country that infringes upon international law.”
Dismantling Military Ties with Israel
All of these questions were intensely discussed at the week’s culminating event, the BDS Assembly hosted at the headquarters of the District Association of Education Workers (ADE) . Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the global BDS movement, the event brought together union members and Palestine solidarity organizers to discuss the status of the movement’s campaigns and strategize future directions in small-group sessions. Current targets include the American tech company Hewitt-Packard, which supplies digital infrastructure to the Israeli occupation, and Drummond and Glencore, whose coal mining operations in northern Colombia continue to supply Israel with fuel for the war despite the embargo.
In addition to exposing the shortcomings of the coal embargo, the Colombian BDS movement has called on the government to completely sever military ties with Israeli companies
In addition to exposing the shortcomings of the coal embargo, the Colombian BDS movement has called on the government to completely sever military ties with Israeli companies. On March 1, 2024 Petro announced that Colombia was suspending all arms purchases from Israel. But untangling the longstanding military relationship between the two countries has proven to be more complex than issuing a decree and sourcing new suppliers.
Colombia’s Armed Forces rely on Israeli equipment ranging from service weapons to fighter jets and drones, which require maintenance and spare parts from Israeli firms. In December 2024, Colombia signed a $7 million deal with Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. for the maintenance of its fleet of Kfir aircraft. The anti-militarism group Tadamun Antimili has called for the cancellation of this contract, along with a $131 million agreement signed in 2022 for the Barak MX air defense system, which is set to be delivered in 2026.
Colombia also maintains contracts with the Israeli military technology company Elbit Systems, a long-standing target of international BDS campaigns. A month after Petro’s arms suspension announcement, the Colombian National Police’s Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DIJIN) renewed a $200 million contract with Elbit for the maintenance of the Target 360 surveillance system. Meanwhile, the government has an outstanding order for 18 ATMOS howitzers purchased from Elbit for $102 million in April 2023, scheduled to be delivered over the next eight years.
As with Petro’s attempted coal ban, the status of these weapons contracts with Israeli firms underscores the competing imperatives of international and commercial law. While states are obligated by international law to cease support for genocidal regimes— a principle echoed in the Hague Group’s pledge to review public contracts—taking more comprehensive measures to sever commercial ties with Israel could leave countries like Colombia vulnerable to lawsuits in international investment courts.
Resisting Genocide in Colombia and Palestine
Throughout the week, panelists emphasized that the vital role of trade unions in holding Israel accountable for its genocide. Fittingly, many of the week’s events were held in the halls of Colombia’s powerful labor unions.
The connection between labor and Israel’s genocide was felt intimately by attendees. “In the halls of one of the country’s oldest unions, let’s talk about the genocide against unionists as well,” said a member of Colombia’s influential oil workers’ union, which hosted one of the panels. Violence against Colombian unionists, as attendees mentioned frequently, was facilitated by Israeli mercenaries in the 1980s and 1990s. “This space will always be open to events like this,” he added.
At the BDS Assembly, representatives from the ADE, the teachers’ union that hosted the event, announced their declaration of the union as an “Apartheid Free Zone”—a key campaign of the BDS movement—and spoke of how their own work as educators as in compelling them to oppose the genocide in Palestine.
“We, as teachers, do not accept neutrality,” said a representative of the union’s governing board. Another teacher recalled how their union had received a phone call from Palestinian unions expressing solidarity with Colombia’s massive 2017 teachers’ strike.
Colombian trade unions have played a key role in mobilizing solidarity with Palestine from the outset of the war. As early as November 2023, Colombia’s coal workers’ union, SINTRACARBÓN, called for an end to coal exports to Israel in response to appeals from Palestinian trade unions. Colombia’s largest labor federation, the Central Union of Workers (CUT), has been steadfast in its expression of Palestinian solidarity, calling for the education of its workers on the issue and encouraging its members to carry Palestinian flags at union rallies. In recent weeks, coal workers have once again stepped forward, warning the government that the ban on coal exports is being defied.
Solidarity with Palestine has also resonated deeply with Colombia’s Indigenous and Afro-Colombian movements. That’s because the coal extracted from their territories—the same coal that fuels Israel’s war effort—has devoured their forests, poisoned their waters, and threatened their survival. In their own campaigns against Glencore, the Swiss company that owns Colombia’s Cerrejón mine and other extraction sites, Indigenous communities have argued that the destruction of their lands constitutes a genocide. In 2009, a Colombian Court came close to affirming this view, arguing that an Indigenous group living near coal mining operations was at risk of extinction due to the pollution of their lands.
Colombia at the Vanguard
The unwavering commitment of Colombia’s Indigenous communities and labor unions to the Palestinian cause has begun to receive the attention it deserves from the president. As Petro has fought to ensure that “not a single ton” of Colombian coal reaches Israel, he has turned to Colombian civil society for support. When coal workers in La Guajira alerted authorities that a ship carrying coal was headed to Israel, Petro responded by convening meetings with coal unions and Indigenous groups in the region to monitor and enforce the ban. He even went one step further: he urged the Wayuu to block the Cerrejón mine’s operations if exports to Israel persist.
This collaboration between labor unions, Indigenous groups, and progressive social movements in Colombia is offering the world a compelling example of how a country in the Global South might attempt to hold a more powerful country accountable for its crimes. At the same time, the limits of that struggle are equally instructive, laying bare how imperial hierarchies and institutional inertia are baked into international legal frameworks, commercial agreements, and even humanitarian law.
Petro’s principled stance on this issue has positioned him as a leading defender of the Palestinian cause, the sovereignty of the Global South, and the survival of multilateralism itself.
Still, there is a long way to go to ensure that, in the words of Mantovani, Israel does not have “fuel for its killing machines.”
Abigail Kret is an artist and writer living in Colombia whose work focuses on the history of left-wing movements in the late 20th century.
Gabe Levine-Drizin is NACLA’s Web Editor and a PhD student in History at New York University focusing on Colombian agrarian reform and land occupations in the 1960s and 70s.