BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Saturday dismissed the U.S. decision to revoke his visa and accused Washington of violating international law over his criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The U.S. said on Friday it would revoke Petro’s visa after he took to New York’s streets on Friday to join a pro-Palestinian demonstration and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump’s orders.
“I no longer have a visa to travel to the United States. I don’t care. I don’t need a visa … because I’m not only a Colombian citizen but a European citizen, and I truly consider myself a free person in the world,” Petro said on social media.
“Revoking it for denouncing genocide shows the U.S. no longer respects international law,” he added on a post on X.
Israel has repeatedly denied genocide charges over its actions in Gaza and says it is acting in self-defense.
Images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage against Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed 65,000 people, according to Gazan authorities, and internally displaced the entire population of the enclave. Multiple rights experts, scholars and a U.N. inquiry say this amounts to genocide.
Israel calls its actions self-defense after the October 2023 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and in which over 250 were taken hostage.
Petro, addressing a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters outside U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, called for a global armed force with the priority to liberate Palestinians and urged U.S. soldiers “not to point their guns at people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.”
The State Department posted on X that it would “revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.”
Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that using visa revocation as a diplomatic weapon goes against the spirit of the U.N., which protects freedom of expression and guarantees the independence of member states at U.N. events.
“The U.N. should find a completely neutral host country … that would allow the Organization itself to issue authorization to enter the territory of that new host State,” the ministry said.
Petro is not the first Colombian president to have his U.S. visa revoked. In 1996, then-President Ernesto Samper’s visa was canceled over a political scandal involving allegations that the Cali drug cartel had funded his presidential campaign.
Relations between Bogota and Washington have frayed since Trump returned to office. Earlier this year, Petro blocked deportation flights from the U.S., prompting threats of tariffs and sanctions. The two sides later reached a deal.
In July, both countries recalled their ambassadors after Petro accused U.S. officials of plotting a coup, a claim Washington called baseless.
Petro cut diplomatic ties with Israel in 2024 and banned Colombian coal exports to the country.
Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota and Natalia Siniawski in Mexico City; Editing by Bill Berkrot
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