The U.S. State Department announced it would rescind the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro after he urged American soldiers to defy orders from President Donald Trump and compared Israel’s military actions in Gaza to the Holocaust during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City.
The State Department said on Friday: “Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence. We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.”
Petro, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration earlier in the day. Addressing the crowd in Spanish, Petro declared, “We must set up an army more powerful than that of the United States and Israel,” and stated he would introduce a U.N. resolution calling for such a force to establish a Palestinian state.
Petro compared what he characterized as Israel’s genocide in Gaza to the Holocaust. In the same speech, he told American soldiers, “I ask all the soldiers of the United States Army not to point their guns at humanity. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.”
The comments came just a day after Petro joined fellow leftist leaders from Latin America and Spain at a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly titled “In Defense of Democracy, Combating Extremism.” Moderated by Chilean President Gabriel Boric, the event was organized to address what the leaders described as the “risks” of growing conservative movements worldwide and notably did not invite President Trump to attend. During the gathering, Petro criticized Trump’s U.N. speech, accusing him of spreading “lies” and fueling “fears” on issues such as the climate crisis, women’s rights, and migration.
Petro’s latest appearance follows a series of unhinged statements at the U.N. General Assembly earlier this week. On Tuesday, he charged Trump with “murder” over U.S. military strikes on drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and claimed most drug dealers were “blond and blue-eyed.” He also pressed for international criminal proceedings against Trump.
Petro, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election in Colombia’s 2026 presidential contest, has long been an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding Israel and narcotics enforcement. He severed Colombia’s relations with Israel in 2024, contended that the U.S. was using counternarcotics operations to dominate Latin America, and has openly aligned himself with fugitive Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
In recent weeks, Petro has warned that “the bombs falling in Gaza will also fall here” in Colombia and reinstated Equality Minister Juan Carlos Florián, a former gay pornographic actor whose appointment was temporarily blocked by a Colombian court under the country’s gender parity law.
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