Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Monday doubled down on his call for the U.S. military to disobey President Donald Trump as commander-in-chief, and called for Trump to be imprisoned for allegedly aiding “genocide” in Gaza.
Petro, fresh from getting his U.S. visa revoked by the State Department after he publicly incited the U.S. military to revolt against Trump, reiterated the accusations levied during his visit to New York last week at his most recent meeting with his cabinet of ministers. The Colombian president also announced that he will unilaterally rescind Colombia’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) deal with Israel and modify the terms of Colombia’s trade deal with the United States.
“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 the meeting’s broadcast.
Petro reportedly condemned the United States for “not recognizing international law” on the grounds that U.S. authorities did not arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he traveled to New York to deliver his speech at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last week.
According to local outlets, the Colombian president claimed that Netayahu should have been arrested in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which, Petro said, “describes what constitutes crimes against humanity or war crimes.” The United States is not among the 125 countries that are state parties of the Rome Statute.
“Anyone, of any nationality, tried in those courts can be arrested by any country if they pass through it. So Netanyahu can be arrested in the United States,” Petro said, and added that this did not happen to Netanyahu “because they [the U.S.] disobey international law treaties and Trump becomes an accomplice in this.”
Petro visited New York last week to participate in the U.N. General Assembly. On Tuesday, he delivered an unhinged 40-minute speech highly critical of President Trump, accusing him of being an “accomplice” of Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
At another point of his speech, he called on the U.N. to create a multi-national army “for the salvation of humanity” to fight in Gaza and “free Palestine.” Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever, is a former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist group and has repeatedly claimed that M19 members allegedly had ties and trained with pro-Palestinian terrorist groups in the past.
Petro co-hosted and participated in other U.N.-related events in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly throughout that week. On Friday, he participated in an anti-Israel demonstration in New York in which he publicly called on the U.S. military to disobey Trump as commander in chief and join his proposed multi-national army to “free Palestine.”
“This 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 using a megaphone.
Hours later, the U.S. State Department announced that it would revoke Gustavo Petro’s U.S. visa over his “reckless and incendiary actions” in New York. Petro appears to have been greatly infuriated by the decision and spent much of the weekend ranting against Trump and complaining about his revoked visa on social media. The Colombian Foreign Ministry formally responded to the State Department’s decision in an official statement condemning the decision as a “diplomatic weapon” and as a “violation” of Petro’s free speech rights.
Petro once again ranted about his revoked visa during the Monday evening broadcast and claimed that it was a “political” decision.
“He is violating international law and has no right to revoke the visa of anyone who goes to speak at the United Nations or on issues that are under discussion at the United Nations. That is international law (…) If Trump forgets that or is not told about it or does not read it, then someone should read it to him,” Petro reportedly said.
Petro also announced that he will rescind Colombia’s FTA deal with Israel, which went into effect in 2020 and will issue changes to the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), which has been in force since May 2012.
“We are not the kind of business that bows down to greed, and that means we are also reforming the FTA and that there will no longer be an FTA with Israel,” Petro said. “Coal exporters must sell their concessions, because I fear there is more value in infrastructure than in coal.”
Members of Petro’s leftist administration have “voluntarily resigned” their corresponding U.S. visas in solidarity with Petro, such as Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio, who described her personal decision as an “act of dignity.” Villavicencio reportedly claimed that the U.S. revoked Petro’s visa in “retaliation” for denouncing the “genocide” in Gaza.
Interior Minister Armando Benedetti also called upon his fellow cabinet members and government officials “who are committed” to Petro to also renounce their U.S. visas in solidarity. On Monday, he told the Colombian magazine Semana that he does not have a valid U.S. visa since 2023.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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