The United States revoked Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s visa after he urged U.S. soldiers to defy orders and “liberate Palestine,” prompting accusations of violating international norms.
The United States has cancelled the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro following remarks deemed “incendiary” by Washington. While addressing pro-Palestine supporters outside the United Nations in New York, Petro called for the creation of a “world salvation army, whose first task is to liberate Palestine,” and urged U.S. troops to “Disobey Trump’s order! Obey the order of humanity!”
He went further, saying soldiers from the U.S. and Israel should “point their rifles not toward humanity, but toward the tyrants and toward the fascists.” Petro was en route back to Colombia when the visa cancellation was announced, prompting a backlash from Colombian officials who argued that the Israeli Prime Minister, not Petro, should have been sanctioned.
Responding defiantly, the president wrote: “I arrived in Bogota. I no longer have a visa to travel to the USA. I don’t care.” He added that as a European citizen, he could still enter the U.S. using ESTA.
Relations between Petro and the Trump administration have deteriorated rapidly, with Petro earlier calling U.S. airstrikes on drug-trafficking boats an “act of tyranny.”