US to revoke visa of Colombia’s president after pro-Palestine rally in New York
The US State Department says it will revoke the visa of Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, who is in New York to take part in the 80th United Nations General Assembly.
The State Department said on Friday that its decision was due to the Colombian leader’s “reckless and incendiary actions” during a pro-Palestinian street protest in New York City.
“Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence,” it said in a post on X.
“We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions,” it added.
Petro shared a video on X showing him holding a megaphone in the company of a translator, as he talked to pro-Palestinian protesters in Spanish.
During his speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Petro strongly criticized the Trump administration for US military strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea.
Petro, a strong critic of the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, also delivered the keynote speech at an event on Friday hosted by The Hague Group at the New York Society for Ethical Culture’s meeting house.
Before his speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Petro had called for armed intervention in Palestine, emphasizing the need to build an international army to “liberate Palestine” and stand up to “tyranny and totalitarianism” propagated by the United States and NATO.
Petro urged world leaders opposed to the Israeli regime’s genocidal war on Gaza to join him and form a united front in the shape of an international coalition of armies to protect the lives of the defenseless Palestinian people.
The US State Department claimed Petro urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by international courts for war crimes, used the UN podium to criticize Western leaders recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti wrote on X on Friday night that Netanyahu’s visa should have been revoked rather than Petro’s. “But since the empire protects him, it’s taking it out on the only president who was capable enough to tell him the truth to his face.”
Petro, the 65-year-old former fighter of the now demobilized M-19 rebel group, says both Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump should face “criminal proceedings” over numerous charges.
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