Translated from Spanish by George Ygarza. Leer este artículo en español.
This is the second installment in a multi-part web series on solidarity movements between Latin America and Palestine. Read the first article in the installment here.
If we let ourselves be guided by the mainstream media, we might be led to believe that in Latin America there are no movements in solidarity with Palestine comparable to the huge demonstrations in European and American cities. In fact, with some notable exceptions, we have not seen major encampments nor the massive marches of hundreds of thousands that have taken to the streets in the countries of the Global North against the ongoing genocide.
However, this would only provide us with a superficial view that leaves aside the fundamental issues: the nations and societies of Latin America share a colonial history with others in the Global South. They suffer similar problems such as domination by the powerful nations of the North, and they maintain extensive relations with Palestine in addition to the thousands of Palestinian migrants who have come to the region.
If we let the maps speak for themselves, we can see what countries have diplomatic relations with Palestine. In the Global South, with few exceptions, all countries have relations with the embattled territory. In the Global North, with some exceptions, they do not. in Latin America and Africa, only Panama and Cameroon, respectively, refuse to engage with Palestine. Meanwhile, in the Global North, Iceland and Sweden have established relations, and now Spain, Slovenia, Ireland, and Malta are preparing to do so.
Most Eastern European countries also recognize Palestine. These countries never belonged to the Global North; they are the populations with the lowest income level on the European continent and they continue to hold asymmetrical relations with powerful countries such as Germany, France, and England, as well as the United States.
On the other hand, Latin American countries are among the most critical of Israel's offensive in Gaza, to the point that three of them broke off relations in recent months. The most recent case is that of Colombia, when in early May President Gustavo Petro announced the rupture of diplomatic relations. "Colombia cannot be indifferent to the enormous and indescribable human suffering," the Ministry of Foreign Relations said in a statement.
Months earlier, Bolivia had broken off diplomatic relations citing the "crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people," according to Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani, and shortly after Belize did the same. Venezuela had already taken that step in 2009, in response to the 2008-2009 Israeli military attack on Gaza. Additionally, several Latin American countries have recalled their ambassadors to Israel since October 7th, including Chile, Brazil, and Honduras, a measure that is considered a first step before rupturing diplomatic relations. In total, 11 countries in the region have spoken out against Israel's aggression in Gaza. Brazil, Mexico, and Peru have demanded a ceasefire.
The current panorama presented by the region is that of very powerful critical and prestigious voices, such as that of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has not stopped calling out Israel for its refusal to agree to a ceasefire, and recently described what is occurring as a genocide. "What is happening in the Gaza Strip and with the Palestinian people does not exist at any other historical moment. In fact, it existed: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews," Lula said in Ethiopia in February, at the African Union summit in February.
Multiple Solidarities
Most Latin American countries have large communities of Arab and Palestinian migrants. In Brazil there are about 10 million people of Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Palestinian descent, among others. Chile has the largest Palestinian community in the region and of any country outside of the Middle East, with 500,000 people, many of whom arrived after the Nakba. In Honduras, there are 280,000 Palestinians and in Colombia there are 100,000, as well as smaller but significant numbers in other countries.
It is impossible for such an extensive population to be politically homogeneous. Not only are there a diversity of perspectives but also political positions among Latin America’s Palestinian population. Just as there are populations among the diaspora that stand in solidarity with Gaza, there are others who form part of Latin America’s elite sector and support the right wing, such as the case in Honduras where some among the Palestinian diaspora supported the 2009 coup. An elite Palestinian-Arab sector was part of a conglomerate of families who financed Zelaya’s removal.
These migrants are well organized with some maintaining connections through their embassies. In Chile, a collective called "Palestinian Community in Chile" disseminates daily news of Israeli aggression. Similarly, all embassies disseminate news and combat disinformation from the mainstream media. Information networks throughout the region show the reality of what has been happening in Gaza, something that does not usually happen in the Global North, at least to this extent. In many countries there are permanent solidarity committees with Palestine, many of which have called for a multitude of demonstrations, rallies, and sit-ins since October 7.
Encampments have emerged throughout the region, such as the "Long Live Free Palestine Anti-Zionist Camp" at the Central University of Ecuador (UCE); another at the University of São Paulo, the most prestigious in Latin America, calling for the rupture of relations with Israel; and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where an assembly of hundreds of students, academics, and workers voted to start the camp on May 2.
"It gave us great hope to see our colleagues in the United States occupy dozens and dozens of universities, and when we saw the violent repression against them, we felt the urgency to follow their example," said a student of literature at the University of São Paulo encampment in May.
In Latin America there is a different political climate than in the North, and pro-Palestinian sensibilities are found in both societies and institutions. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended the "freedom" of students camping out at the UNAM campus to protest the attacks of the Israel army in the Gaza Strip and in solidarity with Palestine. "This is freedom, it is happening in all countries, especially in the United States,” said the president, “but here we do not repress," drawing a clear contrast with the governments of the North.
In Chile, President Gabriel Boric's decision to exclude Israeli companies from the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE)—the leading aerospace and defense exhibition fair in Latin America and one of the most important in the world—generated a diplomatic conflict with Israel.
In many countries, numerous coordination groups in support of Palestine have been created, such as the Coordinator for Palestine in Chile, a collective formed on October 19, 2023 and made up of some 70 groups with a long history of collaboration with the Palestinian cause. In Montevideo, dozens of social and political groups recently converged in large mobilizations.
For their part, academics from the region sent two public messages in January of this year. One was directed to university authorities, and the other was the "Letter from Academics for Palestine to Progressive Governments," calling for a firmer, more concerted stance at the regional level. Among the recipients were the presidents of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Honduras, and Venezuela.
Pueblos to Pueblos
Several Indigenous peoples of the region, from the Mapuche to the Zapatistas, have also expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people. This should come as no surprise, as these communities have common histories of colonialism and they now suffer similar aggressions from hegemonic states. Daily, they resist imperialism and neoliberalism. These shared experiences, which go far beyond native peoples, converge in their denunciation of U.S. imperialism. The weapons that murder the peoples of Chile and Colombia come largely from Israel, a country that has played a prominent role in wars against different peoples by advising authoritarian regimes and dictatorships throughout Latin America’s darkest periods.
The case of Guatemala reveals Israel's participation in the genocide and massacre of our people. In 1982, the number of Israeli advisers in Guatemala was estimated to be around 300, a number that included specialists in intelligence, security, and communications, as well as military training personnel, according to an extensive report in the newspaper El Salto.
Under the dictatorship of General José Efraín Ríos Montt—responsible for the murder of 200,000 people, the disappearance of 45,000, and the razing of 500 villages—Israel was the main supplier of arms and the "number one friend of Guatemala in the world." Beginning in 1977 until the signing of the peace accords in 1996, Israel provided Guatemala with 50,000 Galil rifles, one million rounds of ammunition, 15 Arava planes, five helicopters, and a thousand machine guns that were used during the height of the Mayan genocide, in agreement with the United States.
According to the report by El Salto:
Israeli advisers collaborated with Guatemalan security agents to hunt down clandestine rebel groups… they actually trained the elite troops known as kaibiles, who from the second half of 1981 began to systematically massacre the population that supported or sympathized with the insurgency. Between 1981 and 1983 thousands of people were killed or displaced by the Kaibiles, who committed rape, torture, mutilation, beat babies against stones, and razed hundreds of villages to the ground.
A 1990 book by Milton Jamail and Margo Gutiérrez records the words of Israeli military advisors to Guatemalan trainees: “Treat the Indians as we treat the Palestinians: don't trust any of them”.
Through these examples, one can understand the reasons why Latin American sensibilities have connected so strongly with the Palestinian people. On the one hand, they have shared similar historical experiences of colonialism and imperialism. On the other hand, it is due to the fact that in recent internal conflicts the state of Israel actively took the side of brutal dictatorships that massacred the people. This is something the pueblos of Latin America refuse to forget.
The gravity of the situation in Gaza, which threatens to destabilize the entire region, contributes to the consolidation of popular sectors of the Palestinian diaspora in Latin America, becoming a nucleus that extends to other social movements throughout Latin America and beyond.
Raúl Zibechi is a writer, popular educator, and journalist. He has published 20 books on social movements and writes for several Latin American media outlets including, among others, La Jornada, Desinformémonos, Rebelión, and Correo da Cidadania.
