Latin America analysts tell Responsible Statecraft that while there may be ideological, economic, or security motivations peculiar to each nation, this pivot functions primarily as a way for regional leaders to curry favor with the Trump administration. “In the end, the main interest for all of these countries is the United States,” Marta Tawil Kuri, a professor at College of Mexico who researches the foreign policy of Latin American countries towards the Middle East, told Responsible Statecraft.

“There is a new generation of the right [in Latin America] (…) using rapprochement with Israel as a way of signaling alignment with Washington,” she said, adding that each government filters this relationship through their domestic political factors.

One cannot discount Israel’s own deliberate diplomatic push to shore up ties with friendly governments at a moment when global public opinion is turning against it. For some of these countries, this isn’t a stretch.