As Christians rally and pray, some political leaders break ties with the Jewish state over Gaza violence.
During the last weekend in October, hundreds of Honduran Christians gathered in their country’s major cities to pray for Israel.
Attendees performed Jewish folk dances and waved Honduran and Israeli flags. Some knelt in the middle of Parque Central in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, asking God for peace after Hamas’ October 7 attacks spurred war in the region.
These gatherings in Honduras were just one of many ways Latin American evangelicals have rallied in support of Israel. Earlier this month, more than 10,000 people marched in support of Israel in Guatemala City in an event featuring local televangelist Cash Luna, a Palestinian bishop, a Sierra Leonean imam, as well as Jewish and evangelical leaders.
While all Latin American countries have at one point diplomatically recognized Israel, nine nations—Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil—also recognize the State of Palestine. (In 1973, Cuba terminated its relationship with Israel, and in 2009, Venezuela and Bolivia broke ties with Israel over what the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs called “the gravity of the atrocities against the Palestinian people.”)
Yet as the evangelical community in Latin America grew from 4 percent in 1970 to nearly 20 percent today, their countries’ affinity for Israel has manifested in religious and political ways. Still, on the whole, Latin American countries and their citizens hold a range of views on the current conflict.
In the wake of the October 7 attacks, evangelical leaders from countries including Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, and Argentina “organized acts of prayer, demonstrations, and campaigns in favor of Israel, as well ...
