How Colombia votes at the UN

How did Colombia's votes change under Petro?

Before President Gustavo Petro took office in August 2022, Colombia agreed with the United States on 25% to 36% of recorded votes from 2016 to 2021. From 2023 to 2025 Colombia voted yes on every Gaza and Palestine text, the Cuba embargo and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On Iran's human rights resolution it voted yes with the West. On Ukraine it voted yes in 2022 and 2023 but abstained on all four 2025 texts. Petro said: "I decided, with most Latin American governments, to be neutral in the Russia/Ukraine war" (translated).

The United States voted no on 174 of 192 recorded votes in 2025, so most members' agreement with it fell. Petro announced the break in relations with Israel in May 2024. Israel's then foreign minister, Israel Katz, said Petro "decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind." The United States revoked his visa and sanctioned him in 2025.

Abelardo de la Espriella won the June 2026 runoff. Since taking office he restored relations with Israel, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and withdrew Colombia's intervention in South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. As president-elect he announced the closure of Colombia's embassies in Cuba and Nicaragua. None of these changes are in the 2025 data.

How did Colombia's vote on the Cuba embargo change?

Colombia abstained in 2019, its first abstention since the resolution began in 1992. It abstained again in 2021. The foreign ministry called the 2019 vote "a political expression of rejection of Cuba's hostile attitude toward Colombia" (translated). It cited Cuba's "refuge of confessed Colombian terrorists" (translated). After a car bombing by the ELN (National Liberation Army) guerrillas at the Bogota police academy on January 17, 2019, then President Iván Duque asked Cuba to hand over ELN negotiators who were in Havana for peace talks hosted by Cuba. Cuba refused, citing the protocols of those talks.

Under Petro, Colombia voted yes in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Colombia's then UN ambassador Leonor Zalabata said in the October 28, 2025 debate that Cuba "has been a key actor for peace in our country" (translated, as reported by Cuban state media Prensa Latina). Zalabata, a member of the Arhuaco people, was the first indigenous woman to be Colombia's UN ambassador. The new government has announced the closure of Colombia's embassy in Cuba, so the next Cuba vote may change.