The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention 6(01): 5218-5220, 2019 DOI: 10.18535/ijsshi/v6i1.02 ICV 2015: 45.28 ISSN: 2349-2031 © 2018, THEIJSSHI 5218 The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention, vol. 6, Issue 01, January, 2019 Research Note Stack of Dominos Upended: Colombia, Paraguay and Palestine Sanford R. Silverburg 1 , Angélica Alba Cuéllar 2 1 Ph.D, Professor Emeritus, Department of History and Politics, Catawba College, Salisbury, NC 2 MA, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Universidad de Bogota Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogota, Colombia In an article published by us (Alba and Silverburg, 2016), we discussed the geographical extent of South American states’ recognition of the State of Palestine. The gravamen of our presentation was to note that Colombia was an outlier in this regard. The situation was dramatically reversed on August 3, 2018 when the then Colombian Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín sent a letter to her Palestinian counterpart, Riad al-Maliki, and to the United Nations Secretary-General, António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, indicating that her government had altered its position and was now recognizing “the free, independent and sovereign” State of Palestine (Colombia, 2018). The action was taken merely 3 days before the end of the term of then President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, thereby demanding it would seem an examination of the timing and reason for the alteration of the former policy to be in order. Our goal here is to describe the abrupt reversal in foreign policy decision-making by Colombia and introduce a similar alteration by Paraguay regarding its embassy in Israel. We follow the discussion, based upon available materials, with a conscious evaluation of the aforementioned conditions. Gil (2018) argues that the President Santos was concerned that the new government would not back the decision. The elected president, she affirms, asked Santos not to include a reference to the 1967 Israel-Jordan border. Interestingly, in the letter offered by Colombia to the Palestinian diplomatic representatives, it was cautiously and strongly recommended that the matter be held in secret until the inauguration of the new Colombian president, on August 7. On the following day, the Palestinian mission in Colombia released the announcement, unleashing controversy and a heated reaction from Israel government and its Jewish community. It appears that it was clearly recognized that this action could have serious repercussions. Indeed, once the new president, Iván Duque Márquez, was installed, the new Foreign Minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo Garcia, seemed to indicate that the decision, made so late in the tenancy of President Santos, would be reviewed to wit: In view of possible omissions that could arise from the way in which this decision was made by the outgoing president, the government will carefully examine the implications and will act in accordance with international law (Semana, 2018a). But the new president, Duque, indicated in an interview on Colombian radio Caracol, that he would not reverse his predecessor’s decision regarding the recognition of a Palestinian state. Accordingly, he held that: Damage was done by the fact that there was not more institutionalized discussion [with the Foreign Affairs Advisory Committee]. [Former] president [Juan Manuel] Santos told me that he had made that decision, but it is irreversible, first of all, because the president of the republic is the person designed by the constitution to manage foreign relations, and cannot be altered after t he fact…We would have benefited from more analysis, but we should be part of the solution, not the problem (YouTube,2018). Then according to ambassador al-Maliki, this move was clearly within the scope of international law pursuant to a policy move to the creation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Semana, 2018b), something American President Donald Trump suggested in a somewhat oblique reference in an address to the UN’s General Assembly in New York (White House, 2018). Colombia has thus positioned itself in a triangular vortex between Israel, the United States and itself. To be sure, Duque has sought to establish Colombia as a political leader on the continent, contending the leftist orientation of neighboring Venezuela and distancing the country from the traditional influence of the United States. 1 But there is little doubt that Colombia’s recognition of the State of Palestine will have serious repercussions in its diplomatic relations with Israel. This condition is certainly represented by the fact that the remainder of South American states who acted in a similar manner nearly nine years prior, except for Venezuela and Bolivia, have maintained their diplomatic contacts with Israel unnecessarily without repair. This is also evident in the case of the clear majority of countries that has made the same decision. The most credible factor to the motivation of President Santos is, perhaps, related to his nomination and award of a Nobel 1 Duque rejected the chairmanship of UNASUR (Unión de Naciones Suramericanas) when it was given to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and withdrew from the organization entirely. UNAUR was reportedly a source of American hegemony (CNN, 2018; El Nacional, 2018; Aziz, 2018).