Colombia's government has broken off diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The decision, dated 19 September 2026 and made public by the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (the foreign ministry) on the 24th, ends a formal tie established on 28 April 1975 that had survived, with interruptions, eleven Colombian governments.
In its statement, the ministry says the measure "responds to the pillars that guide foreign policy on national security and the fight against transnational crime", and that trust with the Iranian government has eroded.
The reasons the statement lists
The official text strings together six grounds:
- alleged links between the Iranian government and international terrorist groups and narco-terrorist organisations that, Bogotá says, threaten Colombian security;
- documented human rights violations attributed to Iranian authorities;
- verified attacks on countries outside the Middle East conflicts;
- the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the economic damage it caused;
- obstruction of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in verifying Iran's nuclear programme;
- the conduct of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Colombia blames for domestic repression and covert operations abroad.
What is not being cut
The rupture is diplomatic, not consular. The statement specifies that consular relations remain in force, invoking the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations — two treaties that treat the ties as separable.
In practice, that means visas, civil registry paperwork and assistance to each country's nationals are not suspended, even though political representation disappears. The Colombian ministry's protocol directorate was tasked with notifying Iranian authorities of the procedures that follow.
The statement sets no deadline for diplomats to leave.
A turn that had been building
The break fits the foreign policy realignment of Abelardo de la Espriella's government, which took office on 7 August 2026. As El Financiero and Vanguardia reported, the new Colombian executive has drawn closer to the United States and restored relations with Israel, which his predecessor, Gustavo Petro, had severed in May 2024.
Israel's ambassador in Bogotá, Vivian Aisén, welcomed the decision, saying it would strengthen "the security of the Colombian population", according to Colombian media.
Bilateral trade between Colombia and Iran was marginal, so the immediate effect of the rupture is political rather than economic: it removes one of Tehran's interlocutors in South America at a moment when its nuclear programme and the closure of Hormuz are drawing international attention.
With information from the statement of Colombia's Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, El Financiero and Vanguardia.
