Colombian President Gustavo Petro at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Sep. 26, 2025. (Credit: Bing Guan/Reuters)
The United States will revoke the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the State Department announced Friday, accusing him of “reckless and inflammatory actions” during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York.
“Earlier today, Colombian President @petrogustavo stood in a New York street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence. We are revoking Petro’s visa due to his reckless and inflammatory actions,” the State Department wrote on X.
Petro, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, participated Friday in a pro-Palestinian protest alongside British musician Roger Waters. Videos shared by the media showed the left-leaning president using a loudspeaker to call for the creation of a “world rescue army whose first mission will be to liberate Palestine.”
“The nations of the world will then bring trained and armed men and women to form this great army. It must be larger than that of the United States,” Petro said. Colombia severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 2024 to protest the war in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking to the crowd, Petro added, “Here in New York, I ask all U.S. Army soldiers not to target humanity with their rifles. Disobey Trump’s orders! Obey the orders of humanity!” He also criticized the U.S. veto at the U.N. Security Council last week of a text calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access in Gaza, declaring that “diplomacy is over.”
‘Next phase of the struggle’
“The history of humanity has shown us for millennia that, when diplomacy is exhausted, we must move to another phase of the struggle,” Petro added.
According to the Colombian presidency, Petro had left the United States and was on a flight back to Bogota Friday evening. He noted that he also holds Italian citizenship, which normally exempts him from requiring a U.S. visa.
Colombia’s Interior Minister, Armando Benedetti, wrote on X Friday evening that it should have been Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visa that was revoked, not Petro’s. “But since the empire protects him, it goes after the only president brave enough to tell it the truth to its face,” Benedetti said.
Relations between Colombia and the United States have deteriorated sharply since Donald Trump returned to power in January. On Tuesday, Petro called at the U.N. for a “criminal procedure” to be launched against his U.S. counterpart following deadly military strikes that destroyed boats in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs, according to Washington.
Even though the U.N. headquarters in New York enjoys extraterritorial status, heads of state and government must transit through U.S. territory to attend the annual General Assembly, and therefore require a U.S. visa. In the past, the United States has granted visas to many hostile leaders, including Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Venezuelan presidents Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. This year, Washington allowed Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian to attend but denied a visa to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who had to speak via videoconference.
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