Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has ignited a global diplomatic firestorm after the United States revoked his visa, citing his vocal opposition to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and his calls for American soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump. The controversy, which erupted at the close of September 2025, has not only strained relations between Bogotá and Washington but has also triggered renewed debate about the location and principles of the United Nations itself.
Petro’s visa was revoked shortly after he participated in a pro-Palestinian rally in New York, steps from the United Nations headquarters, where world leaders had gathered for the annual General Assembly. According to The New York Times, the U.S. State Department announced on September 27 that it would revoke Petro’s visa due to what it described as his "reckless and incendiary actions." The department stated on social media that Petro had "urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence."
During the demonstration, Petro delivered a fiery speech in Spanish, which was later posted on his office’s official YouTube page. He called for the creation of "an army more powerful than that of the United States and Israel" with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state. Addressing American soldiers directly, he said, "I ask all the soldiers of the United States Army not to point their guns at humanity. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity." Petro also compared what he called genocide in Gaza to the Holocaust, drawing a direct line between recent events and some of history’s darkest chapters.
Petro’s actions and words have not gone unnoticed in Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the administration’s hard line, stating that visas and legal status would be revoked for individuals "who perform activities that are counter to the national interest and oppose American policies." The U.S. has in recent months also revoked the visas of other Latin American leaders and political figures for what it termed "hostile attitudes" toward the United States, The New York Times reported.
Petro, for his part, appeared undaunted by the U.S. move. On social media, he declared, "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 went further, arguing that "revoking it for denouncing genocide shows the U.S. no longer respects international law." According to Al Jazeera, Petro added, "There is total immunity for presidents who attend the United Nations General Assembly."
The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly entered the fray, denouncing the U.S. decision and warning that "weaponizing visas undermines the United Nations’ principles of neutrality and freedom of expression." The ministry pointed to the 1947 Headquarters Agreement, which obliges the United States to guarantee entry for state delegations attending UN meetings. "The U.N. should find a completely neutral host country … that would allow the Organization itself to issue authorization to enter the territory of that new host State," the ministry said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.
Petro himself called for the relocation of the United Nations headquarters from New York to Doha, Qatar, arguing that the U.S. could no longer be trusted as a neutral host. "The United Nations headquarters cannot remain in New York," he wrote on social media, proposing Doha as a suitable alternative.
This diplomatic spat comes amid a broader context of deteriorating relations between Colombia and the United States since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Earlier this year, Petro blocked U.S. deportation flights, prompting tariff threats from Washington before a deal was eventually reached. In July, both nations recalled their ambassadors after Petro accused U.S. officials of plotting a coup, a claim which the U.S. government dismissed as baseless, according to Reuters.
Petro has also taken a hard line against Israel, severing diplomatic ties in 2024 by closing Colombia’s embassy in Tel Aviv and banning coal exports to the country. These moves followed his increasingly vocal criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which he has repeatedly described as genocide. Israel, for its part, has consistently denied such accusations, insisting that its military operations are acts of self-defense in response to the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in over 250 hostages, as reported by Reuters.
The humanitarian toll in Gaza remains staggering. According to Gaza authorities, the conflict has killed 65,000 people and displaced the entire population of the enclave. Images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage and condemnation. Multiple rights experts, scholars, and a U.N. inquiry have characterized the assault as genocide, although Israel firmly rejects this label.
Petro’s rhetoric at the New York rally was not limited to criticism of Israel and the U.S. administration. He also proposed a dramatic restructuring of the international order, suggesting that the United Nations itself must take on a more active role in ending the conflict and establishing Palestinian statehood. "We must set up an army more powerful than that of the United States and Israel," he declared, adding that he would present a resolution for the United Nations to create such a force.
The U.S. government’s response has been unequivocal. The State Department said on X that it would "revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions." The move was not without precedent: in 1996, then-Colombian President Ernesto Samper’s visa was cancelled following allegations of cartel financing in his campaign, as noted by Reuters.
This year, the Trump administration has also revoked visas for other Latin American leaders and political figures, including Nobel laureate and former Costa Rican president Óscar Arias Sánchez, and former Panamanian president Martín Torrijos. According to testimony from a senior State Department official, the administration has even begun vetting foreign students’ social media posts for criticism of Israel, revoking visas where such content is found.
The controversy has also reignited debate over the United Nations’ dependence on its American host. The Colombian Foreign Ministry’s warning that "weaponizing visas undermines the United Nations’ principles of neutrality and freedom of expression" has found some resonance among diplomats and observers who argue that the U.S. should not be able to bar foreign leaders from participating in international forums on its soil.
As the dust settles, the diplomatic fallout from Petro’s visa revocation continues to reverberate across continents. The episode has exposed deep fissures in the international order and raised urgent questions about the future of multilateral diplomacy, the principles of neutrality, and the global response to humanitarian crises.
For now, the world watches as the United Nations, its host nation, and its critics grapple with the consequences of a decision that has laid bare the complex intersection of politics, law, and human rights on the global stage.
