Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro claimed on Thursday that “pressure” from Colombia and other countries led to a peace deal between Israel and Hamas brokered by President Donald Trump, detracting from Trump’s direct efforts in the situation.
Petro further claimed that it was the alleged “pressure from humanity” that caused Trump to “learn despite his arrogance” to “say no to Israel.”
The far-left president levied his wild assertions in remarks given on the sidelines of the Global Gateway Forum 2025, an event hosted by the European Union in Brussels. Petro represented the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) regional bloc as the current chair of the group’s rotating pro-tempore presidency.
“There is a war, there is genocide, and what must be stopped is the genocide. And we knew that many countries around the world, including Colombia, which was one of the first, understood that only pressure from humanity could stop this genocide,” Petro said.
“Only the large demonstrations we have just seen in Europe, the diplomatic pressure from Latin America, which never voted against a ceasefire, the pressure from Africa, which never voted against a ceasefire, plus the positions taken by Asia, would ensure that countries, more than half of the countries, including the United States, would be isolated in their support for Israel,” he continued.
Petro then claimed that he thinks President Trump “has learned, let’s say, despite his arrogance and the blows he has dealt, he has learned that it is global pressure that is leading him to say no to Israel and to impose, together with other mediators such as Qatar and Egypt, the need for a truce.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro (C) speaks during the swearing-in of the new National Police Director, General Carlos Triana, at the General Santander Police School in Bogota on February 18, 2025. (LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images)
“The truce, or whatever, continues with the exchange of hostages, thousands on the Israeli side, Palestinians, dozens on the Palestinian side in the hands of Hamas,” he said. “and continues towards and that will be a goal for humanity to achieve, to ensure that two states respect each other in the same region.”
Petro has repeatedly accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza through its self-defense operations against Hamas. The president has widely condemned Israel for its measures and compared them to the actions of Nazi Germany during World War II. Days after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel and the start of the self-defense operations, Petro claimed that Israel sought to turn Gaza into a concentration camp to the likes of Auschwitz. Months later, in May 2024, Petro unilaterally cut Colombia’s ties with Israel after both countries maintained decades-long friendly ties.
The far-left president extended his Gaza “genocide” accusations towards President Trump in September during his wild, unhinged speech in September at the United Nations General Assembly. Petro, among other equally unhinged assertions, accused President Trump of being an “accomplice” of the “genocide” and called for the United States to create a multi-national army to fight in Gaza and “free Palestine.”
Hours later, Petro participated in a public pro-Palestine demonstration in New York, in which he called upon members of the U.S. military to disobey President Trump as commander-in-chief and to join his proposed army while also demanding Trump be arrested for his alleged “genocide” role.
“This [the proposed army] must be greater than that of the United States. That is why, from here in New York, I ask all soldiers in the U.S. Army not to point their guns at humanity. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity,” Petro said in the company of anti-U.S. and anti-Israel Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and others.
Petro is a former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist group and Colombia’s first leftist president ever. He claimed during the New York demonstration that he “doesn’t have anything against” Jewish people and Israel because “some of them are my friends.” He also recounted both his past as an M19 member and the Marxist’s group’s alleged training and ties with pro-Palestinian terrorist groups in the past.
The U.S. State Department revoked Petro’s U.S. visa in response to his remarks. Petro responded by doubling down on his “genocide accomplice” accusations against Trump, called for Trump’s imprisonment, and once again demanded that the U.S. Military disobey their commander-in-chief.
“If Mr. Trump continues to be complicit in genocide, as he has been to date, he deserves nothing more than prison, and his army should not obey him,” Petro said during a late September ministerial meeting broadcast. In July, Petro claimed that “whites, descendants of slave owners” betrayed his orders to ban Colombian coal exports to Israel, accusing Israel of allegedly using the mineral to “make bombs to kill Palestinian children.” The accusations were refuted by Colombian coal sector representatives, who clarified to local outlets at the time that the exported coal was bituminous and was used by Israel for power generation, including providing power to the Gaza Strip.
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