US Revokes Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s Visa After Fiery Pro-Palestinian Protest in New York

The United States State Department announced Friday that it will revoke the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro following what it described as “reckless and incendiary actions” during a pro-Palestinian street protest in New York.

In a statement posted on X, the State Department accused Petro of urging US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence during his remarks outside the UN General Assembly.

“Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence,” the statement read. “We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.”

Videos shared by Petro on social media showed him addressing a large crowd through a megaphone in Spanish, with a translator relaying his call for “nations of the world” to contribute troops for an army “larger than that of the United States.”

“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!” Petro declared.

A source from his office confirmed to AFP that the Colombian leader departed New York Friday night for Bogotá. Petro, who also holds Italian citizenship, noted he would not require a US visa to enter the country in the future.

The Colombian president’s fiery remarks came days after his scathing UN General Assembly address, in which he denounced US military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean. He alleged the attacks killed more than a dozen unarmed young people, some of them Colombian. Washington defended the operations as part of its anti-drug campaign targeting vessels linked to Venezuela, whose government it accuses of running a cartel.

The Trump administration recently decertified Colombia as an ally in the fight against drugs, further straining ties with Bogotá, though it stopped short of imposing economic sanctions.

Reacting to Washington’s move, Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti criticized the decision, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visa should have been revoked instead.

“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 on X.

Relations between the US and Colombia — once strong allies — have sharply deteriorated under Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president.