Outgoing Marxist President of Colombia Gustavo Petro will visit Cuba over the weekend, marking his last official trip as president of the South American nation.
The outgoing president will begin the last week of his presidency with a visit to Havana that will run from Friday, July 31, to Saturday, August 1. He is expected to meet with the communist Castro regime’s figurehead “President” Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Petro, a proud former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist group and Colombia’s first leftist president ever, will conclude his four-year presidential term next week on August 7. On that day, he will be succeeded by conservative President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella.
The outgoing Colombian president — known for his long, unhinged social media rants — published a tirade on Thursday in which he confirmed his trip to Cuba. According to Petro, his last official presidential trip was originally scheduled for the United States to participate in a United Nations event organized by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which currently holds the U.N. Security Council’s rotating presidency for the month of July 2026. Petro affirmed that he cancelled his trip to the U.S. after Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi had to cancel his attendance at the U.N. event.
In light of that, Petro said, he replaced his U.S. trip with “a place I consider vital for national sovereignty and the struggle for life in the Caribbean: assaulted Cuba.”
The Cuban Foreign Ministry confirmed Petro’s visit in an official statement, affirming that the outgoing president is answering an invitation extended by Díaz-Canel.
“Cuba and Colombia maintain close ties of friendship based on mutual respect and cooperation in various areas, with the aim of strengthening bilateral relations for the benefit of both countries and their peoples,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said.
“The official visit will provide an opportunity to reaffirm the shared commitment to Latin American and Caribbean integration, peace, multilateralism, and sustainable development,” the text continued.
President Petro is one of the most outspoken supporters of the Cuban communist regime amid President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against the rogue state sponsor of terrorism. In contrast, President-elect de la Espriella has expressed his plan to cut Colombia’s diplomatic ties with Cuba and with other authoritarian regimes.
At the same time, de la Espriella plans to restore Colombia’s diplomatic ties with Israel on the first day of his presidency. For decades, Colombia maintained historically friendly ties with Israel until Petro unilaterally cut all ties in 2024 as part of his broader antagonistic campaign against the country. Both announcements are part of a shift in Colombia’s foreign policy and a realignment of the international diplomatic presence that will see the shutdown of 14 different Colombian embassies — including the embassies in Cuba and Nicaragua, a Central American nation ruled by the communist regime of dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo.
Petro appeared to reference de la Espriella’s new foreign policy plans for Colombia in his Thursday rant — claiming that the diplomatic agenda of the country will be reduced to the “dictates of Tel Aviv that decide with whom we have diplomatic relations according to the conveniences of the genocides.” Petro further alleged in his rant that said foreign policy “will isolate Colombia in the small circle of friends of genocide, because humanity is against the human holocaust in Gaza.”
Petro’s weekend trip will mark the third — and final — time he visits Havana as Colombia’s head of state. Petro previously traveled to Cuba in June 2023 to participate in a round of “peace negotiations” between the Colombian government and the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN) terrorist group. Petro also visited Cuba in September 2023 to participate in that year’s G77+China Summit hosted by the Castro regime.
President Petro, who is days away from leaving office, has repeatedly refused to acknowledge Abelardo de la Espriella’s victory. De la Espriella became the next president of Colombia after winning the June 21 presidential runoff, in which he defeated Petro’s chosen successor, far-left Senator Ivan Cepeda. Petro has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that “algorithmic fraud” was committed during the election in favor of De la Espriella.
Petro revealed this month that a lawsuit was filed seeking to nullify De la Espriella’s victory. Colombia’s Council of State, the nation’s highest administrative tribunal, has not issued a ruling on the lawsuit at press time. Lawmakers from the Historic Pact coalition publicly announced this week that they will boycott De la Espriella’s election and will not attend the August 7 ceremony.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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