Polls open in Colombian election, with 2 pro-Israel contenders competing against anti-Israel leftist

By AFP and ToI Staff 31 May 2026, 4:30 pm

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Soldiers patrol as voters arrive at a polling station during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombians begin voting in a presidential election that will determine the nation’s future relations with Israel — either maintaining its halting of ties with the Jewish state, or restoring them.

It will also determine Bogota’s response to rising violence by drug-running guerrillas, either staying left and opting for dialogue or tacking right towards all-out war.

Pre-election polls showed left-wing senator Ivan Cepeda riding high on strong support for outgoing leftist President Gustavo Petro, but Cepeda faces a strong challenge from hard-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and conservative senator Paloma Valencia.

Cepeda has promised to stick to Petro’s stance on Israel, with which the current president severed ties in 2024 over the war in Gaza, which he cast as a genocide — a charge vehemently denied by Israel. Petro’s four-year term ends on August 7; the constitution prohibits a second successive presidential term.

Last year, Cepeda filed a police complaint against former president Ivan Duque for “apology of genocide” over Duque’s trip to Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Last month, De la Espriella promised to “renew a strategic alliance with the State of Israel” and “defend the Judeo-Christian principles that form the foundation of Western civilization.”

In a post on X hailing the Jewish community, De La Espriella added: “In my government, Colombia will take a clear step in its foreign policy: we will establish our embassy in Jerusalem and strengthen a direct, firm and strategic relationship with Israel.”

Valencia chairs a congressional caucus advocating strong political, economic and cultural ties with Israel, has spearheaded condemnations of Petro’s remarks and steps taken against Israel, has called the severing of ties “irresponsibility and fanaticism,” and has stressed the “need to work with Israel in cooperation on security, defense and trade.” She has also fostered close ties with Colombian Jews.

However, her running mate Juan Daniel Oviedo takes a different view and has accused Israel of genocide in the war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’s terror onslaught of October 7, 2023.