US Revokes Colombian President Petro's Visa Following Controversial New York Protest Speech

US To Revoke Colombian President's Visa Over 'Reckless, Incendiary Actions'

Colombian President Gustavo Petro addresses pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside UN headquarters.

The United States State Department announced Friday its decision to revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa following what they described as "incendiary actions" during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City.

In a statement posted on X, the State Department declared, "Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence. We will revoke Petro's visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions."

Video footage shared by Petro on his social media account shows the Colombian leader addressing a large crowd in Spanish through a megaphone. His translator conveyed his message calling for "nations of the world" to contribute soldiers to form an army "larger than that of the United States."

Petro's controversial remarks included direct appeals to American military personnel: "That is why, from here in New York, I ask all soldiers in the United States Army not to point their rifles at humanity. Disobey Trump's order! Obey the order of humanity!"

According to a source from the president's office who spoke to AFP, Petro was returning to Bogota on Friday night. The Colombian leader has previously stated he holds Italian citizenship and would not require a visa for entry into the United States.

Petro was in New York attending the UN General Assembly, where he delivered a speech on Tuesday that strongly criticized the Trump administration and called for a criminal investigation into recent US strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean.

The Colombian president claimed that "poor young people" who were unarmed died in these strikes, which totaled more than a dozen. Washington maintains these actions were part of a US anti-drug operation off Venezuela's coast, whose president the US accuses of operating a drug cartel.

The Trump administration has deployed eight warships and a submarine to the southern Caribbean, representing the largest US military presence in the region in years. This substantial deployment has raised invasion concerns in Venezuela.

Petro, who leads the world's largest cocaine-producing nation, has suggested that some individuals killed in the US boat strikes were Colombian citizens.

Last week, the Trump administration revoked Colombia's certification as an ally in anti-drug efforts, though it refrained from imposing economic sanctions.

While the United States and Colombia have historically maintained strong alliance, relations have deteriorated under Petro, who is Colombia's first-ever leftist president.

Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti responded to the visa revocation on X Friday night, suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visa should have been revoked instead of Petro's. "But since the empire protects him, it's taking it out on the only president who was capable enough to tell him the truth to his face," Benedetti wrote.