Petro wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday that coal exports would only resume with the end of “the genocide” in Gaza. Petro also posted a draft decree saying that coal exports would only resume if Israel were to comply with a recent order by the International Court of Justice that said Israel should withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip.
According to Colombia’s National Statistics Department, coal exports to Israel were worth more than US$320 million in the first eight months of last year. That is a small fraction of the nation’s overall coal exports, which were worth more than US$9 billion in 2023.
Israel imports more than 50 per cent of its coal from Colombia, according to the American Journal for Transportation, and uses much of it to feed its power plants.
Both governments have continued to keep consulates in each other’s territories and conduct trade.
Colombia has long depended on Israel for military hardware that includes assault rifles and intelligence equipment. The South American nation has also bought more than 30 fighter jets from Israel over the past three decades and depends on Israeli companies for their maintenance.
New military purchases have been halted, however, as relations between both countries deteriorate. Critics of Petro have said that the president’s decision to cut ties with Israel jeopardises Colombia’s security capabilities as its military fights drug cartels and rebel groups in rural parts of the country.
On Thursday, the Colombian Mining Association expressed concern over the possibility of exports being suspended, noting a trade treaty between the two nations in place since 2020.
“Israel is a key destination for Colombia’s thermal coal exports,” the organisation said in a statement, adding that banning shipments “jeopardises confidence in markets and foreign investment”.
But others applauded Petro’s latest move against Israel. The Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, an advocacy group that has been trying to convince nations around the world to stop coal and oil exports to Israel, said in a statement on Saturday that Colombia’s decision could put pressure on Israel to change its policies in the Gaza Strip.
Unlike previous Colombian presidents, who kept strong ties with Israel, Petro has been an outspoken critic of the Middle Eastern nation and initially refused to condemn the Hamas attack that preceded Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse