Palestine's Latin American Outreach

As part of a global tour to promote Palestinian recognition, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas traveled to Latin America this week, meeting with the heads of state of Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Venezuela. In Colombia, his most anticipated destination, he fell short of convincing Bogota to support Palestine’s admission as the one-hundred-ninety-fourth state of the United Nations. After meeting with Abbas on Tuesday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reasserted his country’s commitment to abstain from the vote—as they did in the 1947 vote creating Israel—stating that the creation of a Palestinian state must come through negotiations with Israel. However, despite failing to change Santos’ mind, Abbas’ Latin American outreach appears to fit into a global strategy to build up diplomatic recognition.

UN recognition of Palestine has been a major objective for Abbas. In order for Palestine to gain UN admission, Abbas needs supporting votes from at least nine of the 15 UN Security Council (UNSC) members, and a majority of votes in the UN General Assembly. Writing before Abbas’ journey, analysts such as Professor Erik Voeten of Georgetown estimated that Palestine could count on the support of eight UNSC members. The search for that crucial ninth vote prompted Abbas’ outreach to Colombia, a current non-permanent member of the UNSC. However, hopes of persuading Colombia were dashed; Santos restated his position given at this year’s UN General Assembly that while his country “wants a Palestinian state to exist… it must be the product of negotiations [between Israelis and Palestinians] because this is the only way to achieve peace.” In any case, the United States, a permanent member of the UNSC with veto power, assures it will veto any measure on the matter, which will render the vote largely symbolic.

But Abbas likely feels it was worth a shot, given recent success gaining Latin American support for Palestine. His 2009 tour of the region prompted Brazil and Argentina’s recognition of Palestine in December 2010—a move echoed by seven other South American countries over the next three months. Five Central American and Caribbean nations recognized Palestine since then, boosting the number of supporters in the hemisphere from six to 20 in the course of one year and leaving Colombia as the only country in South America that does not. Considering Colombia’s close ties with the United States and its increasingly important relationship with Israel—Colombia’s top supplier of arms—its position came as little surprise. However, Sebastian Castaneda argues for Al Jazeera: “Colombia occupies the UNSC seat in representation of Latin America and the Caribbean, hence there is a certain expectation that the vote reflect the region’s views, rather than Bogota’s position.”

Abbas’ success at more than tripling Palestine’s support in the hemisphere in the past year underlines the kind of regional outreach he undertook this week. Of the 66 UN members who do not recognize Palestine, roughly one quarter are in the Americas. The importance of Latin America in bodies like the UN—where every country gets one vote—is shown by other international tugs of war over recognition, such as China’s efforts to win over the remaining Central American and Caribbean countries that still back Taiwan.
Latin America’s backing also matters for Palestine’s claims of global support. As Joshua Keating writes for Foreign Policy’s Passport blog, even if Abbas gets his nine votes and Washington vetoes a motion before the UNSC, “lining up the vast majority of three continents and almost the entirety of the developing world certainly makes a statement.”

Learn more:

• AS/COA analysis of Abbas' 2009 trip to Latin America.
• Read a Bloomberg piece on where Colombia stands on Palestine.
• Read about Abbas’ 2009 Latin American tour.
• Read a speech by Colombia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Néstor Osorio on Colombia’s position on Palestine.
• Image gallery of Abbas’ visit to Colombia.
• A Q&A from Reuters on what the Palestinians want from the UN.