LatinNews Daily - 02 October 2025

*Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has announced the termination of Colombia’s free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel, and the expulsion of Israel’s entire diplomatic delegation from Colombia. His announcement was in response to reports that two Colombian citizens, who were part of an international crew carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, had been detained in international waters by Israel. President Petro, who announced back in May 2024 that he was severing diplomatic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza and has since introduced a ban on coal exports to Israel, already announced the decision regarding the FTA, which took effect in 2020, on 29 September during a cabinet meeting on media reports. According to an August 2025 report by Colombia’s national association of foreign trade (Analdex), Colombia’s goods exports to Israel were worth US$273m in 2024, down 45.30% on 2023, while Israel’s exports to Colombia were worth US$102m, up from US$95.3m in 2023. According to the same report, Israeli foreign direct investment (FDI) in Colombia reached US$1.2m in 2024, down 25% on 2023. Petro’s announcement comes amid tensions with Washington after the US Department of State recently announced it would revoke his visa after he called for the international community to form a military force to protect the Palestinian people from Israeli attacks and asked “all soldiers in the US Army not to point their rifles at humanity” and to “disobey [President Donald] Trump’s orders”. 

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