*Colombia’s government led by President Gustavo Petro has followed through on its promise to ban coal exports to Israel in protest at the war in Gaza. A government decree, signed by Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla, Foreign Trade Minister Luis Carlos Reyes Hernández, and the acting mining & energy minister, Kelly Johana Rocha Gómez, “prohibits thermal coal exports to Israel”. In a social media post announcing the decree, Petro wrote that Israel is using “Colombian coal to make bombs that kill Palestinian children”. Tensions between Colombia and Israel have soared since the 7 October attacks on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. Petro announced in May that his government was severing diplomatic ties with Israel, which in turn has threatened to ban military exports to Colombia.
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