The United States announced it was revoking the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro’s, visa after he gave a speech urging U.S. soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump’s orders. President Petro was in New York City visiting the U.N. and gave a speech on the Street on Friday while he was at a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
The Department of State said that the President’s statements were ‘reckless and incendiary’ resulting in his visa being revoked.
“Disobey Trump’s order! Obey the order of humanity! As happened in the First World War, I want the young people, sons and daughters of workers and farmers, of both Israel and the United States, to point their rifles not toward humanity, but toward the tyrants and toward the fascists.”
President Gustavo Petro dismisses the US decision to revoke his visa and accused Washington of violating international law over his criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“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,” he said.
“Revoking it for denouncing genocide shows the US no longer respects international law,” he adds on a post on X.
The two presidents have been in a social media tiff since almost immediately after Trump took office. In February they were in a Twitter back and forth threatening each other with tariffs over Trump’s treatment of migrants.
Earlier this week on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly President Petro called for a criminal investigation against U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials involved in the month’s deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the White House has said were transporting drugs for Venezuela, according to AP News which quoted him as saying:
“Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials, who are from the U.S., even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: President Trump…the men were not drug traffickers; they were simply poor young people from Latin America who had no other option.”
President Gustavo Petro posted this longer message on Twitter Responding to the visa revocation:
Llegué a Bogotá y me encuentro que ya no tengo Visaa EEUU. Para ir a Ibagué a la gran conventración tolimense por la democracia no necesito Visa.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 27, 2025
Separar a EEUU de Colombia es lo que necesitan las mafias.
Lo que hace el gobierno de EEUU conmigo, rompe todas las normas de…
His message translated to English reads:
I arrived in Bogotá and found out that I no longer have a U.S. visa. To go to Ibagué for the great Tolima convention for democracy, I don’t need a visa. Separating the U.S. from Colombia is what the mafias need. What the U.S. government is doing to me breaks all the norms of immunity on which the functioning of the United Nations and its General Assembly is based. There is total immunity for presidents attending the Assembly, and the U.S. government cannot condition the opinion of the U.S.
The fact that the Palestinian Authority was not allowed entry and that my visa was revoked for asking the U.S. and Israeli armies not to support a genocide, which is a crime against all of humanity, demonstrates that the U.S. government no longer complies with international law. The United Nations headquarters cannot continue to be in New York.
UPDATE
After returning to Colombia and learning of what the State Department had said, the President posted this to twitter, which indicates that he was voluntarily surrendering his visa.
Translated to English
Bogotá, Sep. 27/2025
DIGNITY YES, VISA NO
In my capacity as Legal Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, I have decided to voluntarily RENOUNCE my United States visa.
I do so in solidarity with President Gustavo Petro and because I am convinced that the DIGNITY of Colombia is above any personal privilege. The sovereignty of our Nation is not conditioned or subordinated.
Colombia IS TO BE RESPECTED.
Augusto Ocampo
Legal Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic