US TO REVOKE COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT’S VISA FOLLOWING REMARKS AT PRO-PALESTINIAN EVENT. (PHOTO).

 US to revoke Colombian president’s visa following remarks at pro-Palestinian event

The United States announced it will revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s visa after he participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and called on U.S. soldiers to defy President Donald Trump’s orders. “We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions,” the State Department said on X.

Petro addressed protesters outside the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, advocating for a global armed force to prioritize the liberation of Palestinians, saying, “This force has to be bigger than that of the United States.” Speaking in Spanish, he urged U.S. military personnel not to follow Trump’s directives, saying, “Obey the orders of humanity.” It was unclear whether Petro remained in New York following the protest, and neither his office nor Colombia’s foreign ministry immediately responded to requests for comment.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president and a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, has previously accused Trump of being “complicit in genocide” and called for criminal proceedings over U.S. missile strikes on suspected drug-running vessels in the Caribbean. His comments come amid heightened tensions at the U.N. over Gaza, where Israeli military operations have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians following an October 2023 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel maintains its campaign is in self-defense, while multiple human rights groups have labeled it as genocidal.

The visa revocation follows a tense period in U.S.-Colombia relations. Colombia is a key U.S. trading partner and ally in counter-narcotics efforts, but relations have been rocky since Petro took office in 2022. Early disagreements included Petro initially refusing U.S. military flights carrying deportees, a stance he later reversed amid threats of tariffs and canceled visa appointments. The Trump administration has also criticized Colombia for failing to meet counter-narcotics agreements, and Petro’s efforts to curb coca cultivation with social and military programs have had limited success.