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The (Attempted) Israelisation of Latin America

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“We hope and believe that 2026 will be the year of Latin America,… one in which we see a positive change in the relations of the continent’s countries with Israel.”  

When it comes to Latin America right now, most of the attention is focused, understandably, on recently couped (or semi-couped) Venezuela, as well as all the other countries in the region trapped in Trump’s sights (Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua…). Yet amid all the noise, a quieter trend is playing out: the (attempted) Israelisation of Latin America.

Following the US’ abduction of Nicolás Maduro, Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “the support of [his] entire government” for the decision and action taken by the US to “restore freedom and justice” in this region.* “Latin America,” he said, “is experiencing a transformation,” in apparent allusion to the recent rapprochement of certain countries in the region to the US-Israel axis.

Big Moves in the Lithium Triangle

As readers may recall, Bolivia was one of the first countries to break off relations with Israel over the Netanyahu regime’s genocide in Gaza, in late 2023. But in the Andean nation’s recent presidential elections, a divided left meant that a right-wing candidate, Rodrigo Paz, was able to win for the first time in over two decades. One of Paz’s first acts in office was to restore relations with Israel.

In December, the country’s new Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo met with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, in Washington. That meeting spawned an agreement not only to reinstate ambassadors but also to boost cooperation in areas such as security, tourism and, crucially, lithium mining. From Forbes:

The restoration of relations between the two countries means that Bolivia, the country possessing the world’s largest proven reserves of lithium, which are indispensable to manufacturing modern batteries, now has a partnership with one of the world’s most dynamic and technologically innovative societies. Although the concepts of “Net Zero” and “human induced climate change” are being questioned lately even more than in the last few years, there is little doubt that renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, will continue to play an increasing role in future energy development on a world-wide basis.

That being the case, each of Israel and Bolivia now has a valuable (and viable) strategic partner, something that neither country really had in the past. In 2023, for example, the prior leftist government of Bolivia struck a deal with China to give that nation, which already produces over 75% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries, the right to develop Bolivia’s prodigious lithium reserves, which mostly are in the Andes Mountains near the borders with Chile and Argentina. (Bolivia Gives China The Whip Hand On Renewable Energy). However, that partnership did not work from the Bolivian’s perspective, and in June of 2025, a Bolivian Court ordered suspension of all Bolivian lithium deals with both China and Russia.

Bolivia, together with Argentina and Chile, hosts the so-called “lithium triangle”, a vast expanse of salt flats in the Andean highlands that accounts for an estimated 60% of the world’s known lithium reserves. It is not the only one of the three to have signed a strategic agreement with Israel, or Israeli companies.

In May last year, the Israeli mining company XtraLit forged a partnership with Argentina’s state-owned oil and gas company YPF and Y-TEC, an Argentine company that provides tech solutions for the energy industry, to apply state of the art technology for lithium extraction in northern Argentina.

Argentina boasts the third largest known reserves of lithium on the planet and is the fourth largest producer of the white metal. In 2022, the Argentine newspaper Página 12 exposed how then-US Ambassador to Argentina Marc Stanley had expressed the “strategic interest of the United States in Argentine lithium” in its race with China for the region’s resources”:

“The United States wants to have a relationship with Argentina so that it is a leader in Latin America, its intention is to help with infrastructure, food, energy, lithium,” he said. And he then said: “We don’t need it, but we want to help the world and partner with you.”

Now, both US and Israeli companies are looking to benefit from the rightward shift taking place in many Latin American countries. They include Chile, the third member of the lithium triangle, which recently voted in far-right politician José Antonio Kast as the new president. The son of a literal Nazi who escaped to Chile after the Second World War, Kast is the first president in Chile’s democratic era to have openly supported Augustin Pinochet’s military regime.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Chile is home to the largest Palestinian diaspora outside the Middle East, numbering as many as 500,000 people. That diaspora has been very vocal in its support for Gaza since Israel’s began its genocide, and Chile’s Boric government was quite vocal in its criticism of Israel’s war crimes. However, under Kast Chile is likely to align the country much more closely with Tel Aviv.

Kast’s appointment of Eitan Bloch as an international advisor to his government has already set off alarm bells. Bloch is a member of openly pro-Israel and Zionist organisations, and has maintained strong political and institutional ties with the State of Israel and its diplomatic apparatus, including as an advisor to the former Israeli ambassador to Chile.

“South American Israel”

If, as expected, Kast shifts Chile’s allegiances towards Israel, it will mean that a long strip of nations in South America, from Ecuador in the north to Argentina and Chile in the south, will be fully aligned with Israel — and fully on board with its genocide in Gaza. As the map below, by Yousef Ibrahim, a member of the US Anti-Zionist Political Action Committee (Azapac), makes clear, “South American Israel” is already taking shape.

The Netanyahu government is also hopeful that upcoming elections in Brazil and Colombia could also bring friendlier leaders. As regular readers are well aware, Latin America is one of the regions of the world that has most stridently opposed Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Tel Aviv is determined to change that.

Two of the US’ axis of evil countries in Latin America, Cuba and Venezuela, already had non-existent relations with Israel when the genocide began. Cuba has had no formal relations with Israel since 1973. Venezuela cut its ties with Tel Aviv in 2009. The other axis of evil country, Nicaragua, did the same in November 2024.

While Netanyahu may have celebrated the removal of Maduro, he must also know that little on the ground has actually changed. The Chavista government is still in control, Israel’s favourite candidate, Maria Corrina Machado, has no hope of governing the country, and public support for both Chavismo and Maduro remains fairly strong, as even the New York Times is admitting.

Under the left-leaning government of Gustavo Petro, Colombia, a country with deep ties to the Israeli state, security forces and companies, has not only spoken out against Israel’s naked criminality in Gaza from the very start; it has consistently turned those words into actions, including by imposing unilateral sanctions on the country.

Of the 36 countries that have joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, eight are in Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela). That’s twice the number of European countries that have joined the case.

The Isaac Accords

“More than any region beyond the Middle East, Latin America stands at the forefront of international opposition to Israel’s campaign of annihilation in Gaza”, notes Jack McGrath for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Israel is determined to change that by launching a massive diplomatic campaign in the region.

At the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s ambassadors conference, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that 2026 would be the year of Latin America, and that the ministry would prioritise advancing ties with the continent, reports Ynet News:

Saar has already visited Paraguay and Argentina, two of Israel’s closest friends in the region. ‘We have very strong friendships on the continent today,’ [Amir Ofek, deputy director general for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Foreign Ministry, told Ynet].

He added, “Just yesterday we signed a free trade agreement with Costa Rica, and they announced their intention to open a branch of their embassy in Jerusalem in 2026 with diplomatic status. That is another step up in our good relationship with Costa Rica. Ecuador’s president has visited Israel once and its foreign minister twice, and Quito has designated Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as terrorist organizations. Ecuador also opened an innovation office at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which also has diplomatic status.”

The Ecuadorian and Costa Rican offices in Jerusalem will join three Latin American embassies already based in the capital: Guatemala, Paraguay and Honduras. In spring 2026, Argentine President Javier Milei announced about two weeks ago, Argentina will open an embassy in Jerusalem, becoming the fourth country from the continent to inaugurate an embassy in the capital.

“We hope and believe that 2026 will be the year of Latin America, a year that will look different diplomatically, one in which we see a positive change in the relations of the continent’s countries with Israel,” Amir Ofek, deputy director general for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Foreign Ministry, told Ynet.

Spearheading Israeli efforts to win back the fealty of Latin American governments is Javier Milei, Argentina’s faux libertarian president. Milei is the perfect man for the job: not only does he want to convert to Judaism on leaving office, he also has close ties to the powerful Jewish sect, Chabad Lubavitch, and has been one of the world’s most vocal, unabashed supporters of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.

In November, Milei announced the “Isaac Accords” between Israel, Argentina and other Latin-American countries during Gideon Sa’ar’s visit to Buenos Aires. This new diplomatic initiative, aimed at strengthening cooperation between Israel and Latin American nations, is modelled after the Abraham Accords, the US-brokered agreements that normalised diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.

As readers may recall, Milei recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding that sets the stage for unprecedented cooperation against terrorism, cybercrime investigations, establishing fast-track customs lanes, joint satellite launches and water technology centres on the Paraná River, Argentina’s most important trade and transport waterway.

Milei’s government has made official a long-standing proposal for a social security agreement with Israel that will enable the payment of welfare benefits to Israeli citizens with residency permits in Argentina. As we noted at the time, Milei’s chainsaw austerity will not apply to Israeli residents of Argentina.

Buenos Aires is also exploring a range of additional joint projects with Israel, including in the fields of technology, security, and economic development, reports The Cradle:

Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno is scheduled to travel to Israel in February for additional talks to advance the initiative.

Since coming to power, Milei has opened Argentina’s economy to exploitation by foreign investors, including by evicting Mapuche tribes from their lands in the southern Patagonia region.

Foreign corporations with major investments in the Argentine Patagonia include the Israeli firm Mekorot, the Italian firm Benetton, and investment companies from the UAE, among others.

Israel’s state-owned water company Mekorot has operations not just in Patagonia but throughout Argentina and Latin America, including Mexico, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Colombia, Chile and the Dominican Republic. Those operations tend to follow a similar pattern, reports TRT World’s Spanish edition (machine translated):

First, the company is usually invited in by governments that, under the guise of “modernising” water networks, adopt technocratic and privatizing approaches. In this initial phase, cooperation agreements or framework contracts are signed without prior citizen consultations.

Second, the processes are developed without competitive bidding or transparency about the terms of the agreement. This facilitates the entry of the company as a “strategic partner” without needing to submit its proposals for public evaluation.

Third, projects are implemented without rigorous socio-environmental studies or with incomplete evaluations, making it much more difficult to assess the risks to communities and the ecosystem.

The negative impact of this model was evident in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, where Mekorot designed a sewage reuse plant for the local Petrochemical Complex. The project was approved without citizen participation or prior environmental studies, prioritizing the provision of water for industry rather than the needs of the local population.

Organizations such as the Assembly of Andalgalá (Catamarca) have repeatedly warned about this pattern:

“Companies come with promises of progress, but what they leave behind is pollution, inequality and imposed silence. They even deny us the right to decide about our own water.”

Mekorot controls 80% of the water in Palestine and has been denounced by human rights organizations such as B’Tselem for using it as a tool of domination and control — most recently, of course, in Israel’s systematic starvation of Gaza.

In Argentina, Mekorot already has strategic partnerships with 10 (out of 23) provinces, many of them run by Peronist administrations. The company could further expand its presence in the country if it chooses to buy up parts of Argentina’s soon-to-be-privatised state-owned water company, Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos S.A, on which it will presumably have first dibs.

But it is in the areas of technology and security that Israel will be making the biggest moves — these are, after all, Israel’s biggest areas of business and strategic influence. But if history is prologue, the re-Israelisation of Latin America is not going to end well for the region’s people. As Al Jazeera documented in an excellent 2003 report, Israel played a leading role arming and training the most unsavoury right-wing groups and regimes during the region’s dirty wars:

Israel’s military relations with right-wing groups and regimes spans Latin America from Mexico to the southernmost tip of Chile, starting just a few years after the Israeli state came into existence.

Since then, the list of countries Israel has supplied, trained and advised includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.

But it isn’t only the sales of planes, guns and weapons system deals that characterises the Israeli presence in Latin America.

Where Israel has excelled is in advising, training and running intelligence and counter-insurgency operations in the Latin American “dirty war” civil conflicts of Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and now Colombia.

In the 1980s, Rafi Eitan, a former Mossad chief who had courted fame for leading the operation to capture Adolf Eichmann, was hired by the Colombian President Virgilio Barco (1986-90) to help end the guerrilla conflict in the country. His involvement in Colombia’s civil war was kept secret for 36 years, for obvious reasons: one of Eitan’s recommendations, which was enthusiastically embraced by Barco, was to exterminate the political leaders of the Patriotic Union (UP), the left-wing party that emerged from a peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla.

What followed was a brutal years-long assassination campaign that took the lives of 3,122 members of UP, including two presidential candidates, five sitting congressmen, 11 deputies, 109 councilors, several former councilors, 8 current mayors, 8 former mayors and thousands of other activists. According to data presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the total number of victims is more than 6,000, including murders, disappearances, torture, forced displacements and other human rights violations.

As the Al Jazeera piece documents, Israel was the largest arms providers for El Salvador’s military during the country’s brutal decade-long civil war. It also supplied the antisemitic Argentine military government and death squads of the late 1970s and early 1980s as well as Nicaragua’s dictator Somoza. It would later help train up the Nicaraguan Contras in Honduran and Costa Rican camps to fight the Sandinista government.

Whenever the US had to pull back its support for these regimes and insurgency groups, Israel filled the void. But as the Al Jazeera article notes, by far the bloodiest case of Israeli involvement in Latin America was its role in Guatemala from the 1970s to the 1990s.

As in El Salvador, a civil war pitted a populist but, in this case, mainly Indian left against a mainly European oligarchy protected by a brutal Mestizo Army.

As Guatemalan President Carlos Arana said in 1971, “If it is necessary to turn the country into a cemetery in order to pacify it, I will not hesitate to do so.”

And the Israelis did not hesitate to fulfil Arana’s military with all the Galil rifles it needed to fulfil that task. It also built an ammunition factory for them and provided armoured personnel carriers and Arava planes:

Behind the scenes, they were actively involved in the bloodiest counter-insurgency campaign the hemisphere has known since the European conquest, in which at least 200,000 (mostly Indians) were killed.

Like Israel’s original occupation of Palestine, several entire Guatemalan Indian villages were razed and a million people displaced. “The guerrilla is the fish. The people are the sea. If you cannot catch the fish, you have to drain the sea,” said Guatemalan President Rios Montt in 1982.

Guatemalan army officers credit Israeli support with turning the tide against the uprising, not only in the countryside where Israeli counter-insurgency techniques and assistance set up strategic-hamlet-like “development poles” along the lines of the Israeli kibbutz, but also in the cities where “Israeli communication technicians and instructors” working through then-sophisticated computers were able to locate and then decimate guerrillas and their supporters in Guatemala City in 1981.

Now that Israel is seeking rapprochement with the region by taking advantage of the rightward shift taking place in many countries as well as Trump’s aggressive revamping of the Monroe Doctrine, or as Yves calls it, “smash and grab diplomacy”, the big fear is that history may once again rhyme, as Latin America falls prey to a new wave of US-Israeli-sponsored dirty wars and resource grabs.

* In her first speech after Maduro’s kidnapping, interim President Delcy Rodriguez said that the US attack on Venezuela had had “Zionist” overtones without providing any clarification of what she meant. As renowned Mexican-Lebanese geopolitical analyst Alfredo Jalife notes, “it was no secret that a Venezuela/Iran axis had been established during the 13 years of Maduro’s mandate.”

This probably explains why the US bombed the Venezuelan island of Margarita, which has a large Lebanese community. According to Jalife, while it is widely believed that the CIA infiltrated Maduro’s, his sources in Venezuela have told him that it was actually Mossad that had infiltrated the decapitated government much more than the CIA. There is, however, no clear evidence for this.

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2 comments

  1. Manuel

    Aren’t the Jews trying to colonize Latin America in case as a backup? It’s rumored that Israeli personnel are behind the Patagonia fires, and they want to inhabit these areas at the cost of the indigenous and argentinian people.

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