US revokes Colombian president's visa over comments made at pro-Palestinian protest
The U.S. government revoked Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s visa over comments he made at a pro-Palestine protest on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Friday.
“Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence,” the State Department announced on Friday. "We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions."
Petro called for the liberation of Palestinians during his address to the pro-Palestine protesters outside the UN's headquarters.
"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,” Petro said in Spanish, according to Reuters. “Disobey the orders of [President] Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.”
The South American president stood alongside Roger Waters, the founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd, at the Friday protest.
On Saturday, Petro said that he arrived back in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, to find out that he no longer had a visa. He slammed the decision by the State Department, saying it “breaks all the immunity rules on which” the United Nations and the General Assembly “are based.”
He argued that his visa was revoked over his assertion that Israel's war in Gaza is a "genocide," which he said shows the U.S. is not complying with international law.
Petro also noted the U.S.'s barring of the Palestinian Authority from attending this week's events in New York. In late August, the State Department said it would revoke U.S. visas for some members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, a decision made ahead of the UN General Assembly.
Colombia’s Minister of Interior, Armando Benedetti, rebuked the U.S. Friday night over Petro's visa revocation, saying the Colombian president is one of the leaders who “dared to denounce the genocide against Palestine” at the UN.