The United States said it would revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa after he took to New York's streets on Friday in a pro-Palestinian demonstration and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump's orders.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro addresses pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside U.N. headquarters during the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, U.S., September 26, 2025. Reuters/Bing Guan
The United States said it would revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa after he took to New York's streets on Friday in a pro-Palestinian demonstration and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump's orders.
"We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions," the State Department posted on X.
Petro, addressing a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters outside the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, called for a global armed force with the priority to liberate Palestinians, adding, "This force has to be bigger than that of the United States."
"That's why from here, from New York, I ask all the soldiers of the army of the United States not to point their guns at people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity," Petro said in Spanish.
Petro, Colombia's first leftist president and a vocal opponent of Israel's war in Gaza, hit out at Trump in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, saying the U.S. leader was "complicit in genocide" in Gaza and calling for "criminal proceedings" over U.S. missile attacks on suspected drug-running boats in Caribbean waters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the assembly on Friday, denounced Western countries for embracing Palestinian statehood, accusing them of sending the message that "murdering Jews pays off."
The United States is Colombia's main trading partner and its greatest ally in the fight against drug trafficking, but U.S.-Colombia relations got off to a bad start shortly after Trump returned to office in January, when Petro refused to accept military flights carrying deportees in Trump's immigration crackdown.
Petro said his country's citizens were being treated like criminals. But he quickly reversed course, agreeing to accept the migrants, after both countries threatened tariffs on each other and after the U.S. canceled visa appointments for Colombians.
Trump this month put Colombia on a list of countries that Washington says have failed to uphold their counter-narcotics agreements, blaming Colombia's political leadership.
Petro came to office in 2022 promising agreements with armed groups but pivoted last year, pledging to tame coca-growing regions with massive social and military intervention. The strategy has brought little success.
By Ismail Shakil and Brendan O'Boyle
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had instructed the military to further expand the existing security buffer zone in southern Lebanon, vowing to fundamentally change the security situation there.
Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from marking Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre "for the first time in centuries," the Patriarchate said, with police citing security concerns linked to the Iran war.
French authorities have arrested two more suspects over a foiled attack on Bank of America’s Paris offices, the country’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.