Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s far-left president recently sanctioned by the United States, celebrated the election of socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City — sharing pictures of his September encounter with Mamdani in New York.
Petro, who had his U.S. visa revoked for calling the U.S. military to disobey President Donald Trump as its commander in chief, said that he hopes to see New York again “someday.”
Gustavo Petro is Colombia’s first leftist President ever and a proud former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist guerrilla who, in recent months, has adopted an increasingly antagonistic stance against the United States and President Donald Trump, issuing increasingly unhinged accusations against Trump such as accusing him of “murdering” drug traffickers and calling for his arrest and “removal.”
The Colombian president spent the morning hours of Wednesday gloating over Mamdani’s electoral victory in New York in a series of brief social media posts and sharing photos of his September private encounter with Mamdani on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In one such brief post, Petro wrote, “The people of New York deserve their Statue of Liberty,” a message that appears to refer to his bizarre proposal in July to relocate the statue from New York to the Colombian City of Cartagena in response to President Trump’s policies against illegal immigration. Petro justified relocating the statue to Colombia by questioning the legitimacy of America’s fight for freedom, asserting that “those who did fight for freedom were the black people who founded the first free territory in all of America, located near Cartagena [a city in Colombia].”
“Very good, New York, I’ll see you again someday,” Petro wrote in another post alongside a short clip of his meeting with Mandami, originally published in late September by the Colombian Presidency’s official Twitter account.
In October the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Gustavo Petro for or having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, “activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.”
Under Petro’s administration, cocaine production in Colombia has skyrocketed, according to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Petro is an avid supporter of the legalization of cocaine — which he claims is “less harmful” than sugar — and as president has been accused by former members of his administration of allegedly suffering from drug addiction problems.
OFAC also imposed sanctions on Petro’s son Nicolas Petro Burgos, who is presently undergoing a trial on allegations that he funneled money received from drug traffickers into his father’s election campaign. Colombian First Lady Veronica Alcocer and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti were also sanctioned by OFAC alongside Petro.
Prior to the OFAC sanctions, the U.S. Department of State revoked Gustavo Petro’s U.S. visa in September after Petro, during a pro-Palestine demonstration in New York, called for the U.S. military to disobey President Trump as commander in chief. The Colombian government denounced the United States’ decision as a “diplomatic weapon” against Petro and as a “violation” of the Colombian President’s free speech rights.
Days before the pro-Palestine demonstration, Petro delivered an extremely unhinged speech at the U.N. General Assembly in which he accused Trump of being an “accomplice” in the “genocide” in Gaza, further accusing the U.S. President of “murder” over the U.S. military strikes against drug-trafficking vessels in Caribbean international waters. Hours after arriving from the United States, Petro called for Trump’s arrest for his alleged role in the “genocide” in Gaza.
The Colombian president has since then doubled down on his animosity towards President Trump and, at the end of an unhinged October interview with Univisión, urged Trump’s “removal.” According to Petro, Trump’s presence at the White House is an “obstacle to democracy, science, and truth.”
“Humanity has a first off-ramp, and it is to change Trump. In various ways. Perhaps the easiest way may be through Trump himself. If not,” Petro said during the interview, and snapped his fingers, “get rid of Trump.”
Colombia will occupy a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council from January 1, 2026 until December 31, 2027. Despite having had his U.S. visa revoked and now under OFAC sanctions, Gustavo Petro claimed on a recent weekend interview with Al Jazeera that he will “return” to New York to speak at the U.N. on January, but failed to explain how he intends to successfully travel to the United States, “even if the federal government does not want to receive me there.” Petro also expressed to Al Jazeera his plans to offer Colombia’s non-permanent Security Council seat “to the Palestinian people so that they can express themselves there.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Read the full article here