U.S. to revoke Colombian president's visa over 'incendiary actions'
The United States said it would revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa after he took to New York's streets on Friday in a pro-Palestinian demonstration and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump's orders.
"We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions," the State Department posted on X.
Petro, addressing a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters outside the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, called for a global armed force with the priority to liberate Palestinians, adding, "This force has to be bigger than that of the United States."
"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. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity," Petro said in Spanish.
. . .
Petro, Colombia's first leftist president and a vocal opponent of Israel's war in Gaza, hit out at Trump in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, saying the U.S. leader was "complicit in genocide" in Gaza and calling for "criminal proceedings" over U.S. missile attacks on suspected drug-running boats in Caribbean waters.
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https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/27/world/politics/us-colombia-president-visa/
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Every year, tons of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs flow around the world, an underground river that crisscrosses borders and continents and spills over into violence, addiction and suffering.
Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press
2 days ago
Updated 2 days ago
President of Colombia Gustavo Petro Urrego addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Every year, tons of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs flow around the world, an underground river that crisscrosses borders and continents and spills over into violence, addiction and suffering. Yet when nations' leaders give the U.N. their annual take on big issues, drugs don't usually get much of the spotlight. But this was no usual year.
First, U.S. President Donald Trump touted his aggressive approach to drug enforcement, including decisions to designate some Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and to carry out deadly military strikes on speedboats that he says said were carrying drugs in the southern Caribbean.
“To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America: Please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he boasted at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
Hours later, his Colombian counterpart fired back that Trump should face criminal charges for allowing an attack on unarmed "young people who were simply trying to escape poverty.”
The U.S. “anti-drug policy is not aimed at the public health of a society, but rather to prop up a policy of domination,” Colombia's Gustavo Petro bristled, accusing Washington of ignoring domestic drug dealing and production while demonizing his own country. The U.S. recently listed Colombia, for the first time in decades, as a nation falling short of its international drug control obligations.
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https://www.prpeak.com/health/the-issue-of-drugs-doesnt-usually-get-showcased-at-the-un-general-assembly-this-year-is-different-11261477
