Trump admin revokes Colombian president’s visa over alleged ‘reckless and incendiary actions’
Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa was revoked by the Trump administration over what officials allege were "reckless and incendiary actions" in New York City.
The Trump administration announced late Friday it is revoking the U.S. visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro over alleged "reckless and incendiary actions" in New York City.
"Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence," read a post on the U.S. State Department's X account. "We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Colombian embassy but did not hear back before publication.
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The visa revocation comes on the heels of the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City this week.
Videos circulating online show the Colombian president addressing a crowd gathered at a demonstration against Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in New York City Friday to address the assembly.
In a fiery speech earlier this week, Petro called for a criminal investigation against President Donald Trump and other administration officials over deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the White House said were carrying drugs.
Petro repudiated the attacks, calling them an "act of tyranny," while also accusing Trump of criminalizing poverty and migration.
"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," Petro said of the strikes, adding that boat passengers were not members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang as the Trump administration claimed after the first attack.
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If the boats were carrying drugs as alleged by the U.S. government, Petro said, their passengers "were not drug traffickers; they were simply poor young people from Latin America who had no other option."
Petro, a former Marxist guerrilla and Colombia’s first leftist leader, has had a rocky relationship with Trump since the inauguration.
In January, Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on all imports from the Latin American country if it did not accept military planes full of deported Colombians as part of Trump’s deportation sweep. Petro threatened to retaliate with counter tariffs but later relented and agreed to lift his ban on the flights.
In April, Petro claimed that the Trump administration had revoked his travel visa to the U.S. During a cabinet meeting that month, Petro said he could not attend meetings with international organizations in Washington, D.C., because "they took away my visa."
"I didn’t need to have one, but anyway, I’ve already seen Donald Duck several times, so I’ll go see other things," Petro said.
Fox News Digital's Caitlin McFall, Anders Hagstrom and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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