The United States Department has announced the revocation of the entrance visa to the Colombian president Gustavo Petro, accusing him of having incited the US soldiers to disobey orders and foment the violence during a rally in New York against the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. «This morning, the Colombian president Gustavo Petro turned to the US soldiers in a New York road, inviting them to disobey orders and to encourage violence. For these imprudent and provocative actions, we will revoke his visa, “said the State Department in a message spread on the X platform. During the event in favor of the Palestinian cause, Petro urged the American military to” do not aim the rifles against humanity “, supporting the creation of a future” salvation “in the support of the Palestinian people, who intend to propose to the general assembly. UN.
The president explained that this international force should be “larger than that of the United States” and said that Indonesia has already expressed its support for the initiative. Diplomatic sources have confirmed that Petro has already left the United States, as expected, to return to Bogota. Washington’s announcement has aroused a wave of reactions in the South American country, with appeals to a “responsible use” of the historical relationship with the United States. The first to intervene was the former president Ivàn Duque who accused Petro of “playing with the dignity of Colombia and with the 200 years of relations with the United States”, defining the revocation of the visa the proof of his “irrational conduct”. Former president Alvaro Uribes also commented that the measure “is addressed only against the figure of Petro and not against Colombia”, thanking Washington for “having directed the sanctions exclusively against those who declared themselves enemy of the country and the United States”.
The former mayor of Bogota and today independent candidate for the presidency, Claudia Lòpez, already an ally of Petro in the 2018 and 2022 countryside, defined his appearance in New York a “shaw as agitator”: “He caused Trump to obtain a reaction that he will now use to present himself as a victim and martyr, instead of thinking about governing Colombia”. The presidential candidate Juan Galàn has Petro accused of having “exceeded too many red lines”, arriving in New York to “call the US armed forces to the rebellion and a coupon against Donald Trump”.
The comment of the right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who called Petro “a national and international shame”, also hard. In defense of the Colombian President, the Minister of the Interior intervened, Armando Benedetti, who claimed that “the only one who was to be removed from the visa was the Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu”, accusing him for the war in Gaza: “But as the empire protects him, they take it with the only president who had the courage to tell him the truth in the face”.