The U.S. State Department announced Friday it will revoke the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, citing his “reckless and incendiary actions” during a pro-Palestinian protest in New York.
In a statement posted on X, the State Department accused Petro of urging U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and inciting violence during a street protest.
A video shared by Petro showed him addressing a crowd through a megaphone, calling on “nations of the world” to form an army “larger than that of the United States” and urging U.S. soldiers to “disobey Trump’s order” and “obey the order of humanity.”
Petro, who was in New York for the UN General Assembly, claimed he holds Italian citizenship and does not require a U.S. visa.
A source from his office confirmed he was returning to Bogotá on Friday night.During his UN address, Petro sharply criticized the Trump administration and demanded a criminal probe into recent U.S. strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, which he said killed over a dozen unarmed “poor young people,” some possibly Colombian.
The U.S. maintains the strikes targeted drug operations off Venezuela’s coast, amid heightened tensions and a significant U.S. naval deployment in the region, raising invasion fears in Venezuela.
Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producer, was recently decertified by the Trump administration as a partner in the fight against drugs, though sanctions were not imposed.
Relations between the U.S. and Colombia, traditional allies, have deteriorated under Petro, the country’s first leftist president.
Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti defended Petro on X, arguing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visa should have been revoked instead, accusing the U.S. of protecting him while targeting Petro for “telling the truth.”
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