Colombia’s Interior Minister, Armando Benedetti, has strongly criticized the United States for revoking the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, calling the move unjust and politically motivated.
The U.S government recently revoked President Petro’s visa following what it described as “incendiary remarks” made during a pro-Palestinian rally outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Petro had used the opportunity to call for the formation of a “world salvation army” with the goal of liberating Palestine.
“From here in New York, I call on U.S soldiers, do not turn your rifles on humanity. Disobey Trump’s order ! Obey the order of humanity !” Petro declared.
He further likened the struggle to past global conflicts, urging young soldiers from both Israel and the U.S to reject authoritarianism.
Petro had already left the U.S for Bogotá when the visa cancellation was announced. Upon arrival in Colombia, he dismissed the decision, saying:
“I have returned to Bogotá. I no longer have a U.S visa and I don’t care. I’m a free person in the world,” Petro posted on social media, adding that as a dual Colombian and European citizen, he can still travel to the U.S under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
In a fiery response to the visa revocation, Minister Benedetti questioned the U.S decision and suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not Petro, should have been the real target of such sanctions.
“But since the empire protects Trump, it punishes the only president who had the courage to speak the truth to his face,” Benedetti said.
The controversy has deepened an already tense relationship between Colombia’s first leftist government and the Trump administration.
At the UN General Assembly, President Petro condemned recent U.S airstrikes on boats suspected of transporting drugs in the Caribbean, accusing Washington of using violence to control Latin America rather than curb drug trafficking.
He suggested that innocent Colombians may have been among the victims and alleged U.S complicity with drug cartels, while defending his administration’s approach of persuading farmers to abandon coca farming voluntarily.
In an interview with the BBC, Petro went further, describing the U.S strikes as an “act of tyranny.”
