La Paz, Bolivia – On October 31, the Bolivian Government announced the breaking of diplomatic relations with Israel “in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive being carried out in the Gaza Strip.” Bolivia is the only Latin American country that has broken relations with Israel amid the current escalation in the Middle East, although countries such as Chile and Colombia have called their foreign ministers for consultations as a form of protest. The Bolivian position has raised criticism internally, but is in line with the complicated history between both nations.
The Government of Luis Arce is the first in Latin America to cut ties with Israel since the conflict that left thousands of dead broke out.
Bolivia made “the determination to break diplomatic relations with the State of Israel in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive being carried out in the Gaza Strip,” said the vice chancellor, Freddy Mamani, last Tuesday, October 31.
Since the fatal Hamas attack on October 7, which left more than 1,400 dead, Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip has left more than 9,000 Palestinians dead, many of them children, according to health authorities in the enclave.
The Government of Israel questioned Bolivia’s decision, calling it “a surrender to terrorism and the Ayatollah regime in Iran” and considering that his rejection of military operations means that “The Bolivian Government is aligning itself with the terrorist organization Hamas” and that there would be “Bolivia’s support for terrorism and its submission to the Iranian regime.”
However, Bolivia rejected the questions of the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, considering them “inadmissible and unsustainable” and defended that, by its own Constitution and consistent with the Charter of the United Nations and International Law, “it recognizes the right to peace of all peoples of the world.”
“Consequently, it rejects all war as an instrument for solving disputes between states and condemns terrorism in all its forms, regardless of nationality or the place where they occur,” according to a statement released on the night of Thursday, November 2.
Likewise, Bolivia insisted on its request for a ceasefire because “life is the most precious asset that humanity has and the lives of Palestinians and Israelis have the same value” and made requests to Israel to take measures “far from attempting to stigmatize to sovereign states.”
He demanded, among other points, that Israel respect “the right to life, human rights and peace of the Palestinian people as well as that of all peoples” and “allow the immediate entry of international organizations and countries that intend to deliver humanitarian aid.” .
#Bolivia will not remain indifferent to the serious humanitarian crisis that the people of #Palestine. Through DS 5053 we authorize the sending of 73 tons of aid consisting of food and medicine to the thousands of families who endure the disproportionate…
— Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) November 3, 2023
“The Plurinational State of Bolivia will not silence its voice in the face of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which are committed in Gaza under the false justification of legitimate defense by the government of Israel,” reads part of the statement.
The complex bilateral relationship Bolivia – Israel
The breakdown of relations is in line with the complex history of bilateral relations.
It occurred a day after a meeting between President Luis Arce and the ambassador of the Palestinian Territories in La Paz, Mahmoud Elalwani, and a few hours after former President Evo Morales, who is facing Arce for the next presidential candidacy of his party, questioned the Government on network X for not having made such a decision until that moment.
And it is that Morales, who has maintained an anti-American and anti-Israeli position, broke relations with Israel for the first time in 2009.also regarding a conflict escalation in the Gaza Strip, and repealed in 2014 the immigration agreement on visa exemption for Israeli citizens, considering that Israel should be treated as a “terrorist” nation.
After the decision made by Arce, the former president even considered it insufficient and said on social networks that “Bolivia must declare the State of Israel as a terrorist State and file a complaint with the International Criminal Court.”
Finally, and under pressure from the people, the government has decided to break diplomatic relations with Israel. He does so after being in power for three years and after the Israeli regime murdered more than 8,500 people, almost half of them boys and girls.
This is not enough, Bolivia…— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) October 31, 2023
Morales resigned from power in 2019 amid a serious social and political crisis and his successor Jeanine Añez resumed relations with Israel that same year.
According to former Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric, this resumption reflected the tradition of Bolivian foreign policy “which consisted of having good relations with Israel and also recognizing the Palestinian Authority.”
“Despite Bolivia’s little weight in international politics, Bolivia always advocated for a two-state solution: the existence of Israel and Palestine,” maintains the former chancellor.
With its latest position, Bolivia is, for the moment, the only Latin American country to break relations with Israel, while Chile and Colombia have called their ambassadors for consultations.
Internal criticism of the position of the Arce Government
The breaking of diplomatic relations between Bolivia and Israel has been described by some sectors as a “radical determination” that confronts the Israeli Government, but also the United States, and that would put the South American country “closer to Iran and Hamas,” the armed group that unleashed the new escalation of the conflict with the October 7 attack that left more than 1,400 Israelis dead.
Former Foreign Minister Longaric, who in 2019 resumed relations with Israel after ten years of being broken, and the international relations expert Andrés Guzmán Escobari agreed, in statements to France 24, on these questions and that the decision of the Government of Luis Arce represents a risk of political and economic costs for the Andean country.
“This radical determination by Bolivia to break relations with Israel has been an empty gesture, but with a tremendous cost because it places us among that group of countries with regimes that do not respect International Law, that violate all the principles of International Law and that “It is supporting terrorist movements,” said Longaric, who lives in Germany.
Read alsoWhat is the position of Latin American countries on the conflict between Israel and Hamas?
Longaric, who served as chancellor in the transitional government of Jeanine Añez (2019-2020), added that Bolivia not only antagonizes Israel, but also against “the United States and most Western countries that think that States have the right to self-defense against terrorist attacks.”
In his opinion, instead of a drastic decision, the most logical way was for the Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations to express his concern to his Israeli colleague, asking “that in all cases International Humanitarian Law be respected.” Both countries had diplomatic relations, but they did not have accredited ambassadors in Bolivia or Israel.
For Longaric, Bolivia has aligned itself “without any benefit” with the “questioned government” of the Palestinian Authority, with Hamas and with Iran, a country he accused of “sponsoring terrorism.”
Last July, Bolivia and Iran signed a security and defense cooperation agreement.
“It can make us lose markets and business opportunities”
For analyst Guzmán Escobari, the determination can have negative effects because Bolivia is giving “a signal of being very close to Iran and Hamas.”
“This side of the actors in the conflict is highly questioned, mainly by Western countries. “That can make us lose markets and business opportunities,” he added.
In principle, one of the affected sectors may be tourism since sector operators have highlighted several times the flow of young Israelis visiting the Bolivian Amazon.
“So on that side it seems to me that this decision is not very intelligent, it is not pragmatic, it is political, totally ideological and it also has, obviously, an intention to show itself to the world as a country that takes the side of the weak” to favor, as he added, the leftist image of the Arce Government.
In his opinion, the breakup “has no turning back” until there is a change of government.
In the last few hours, Arce also announced on network
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