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The Trump administration on Friday revoked left-wing Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s visa after he spoke to crowds of protesters in New York City, urging US soldiers not to point their guns at innocent civilians and to disobey the orders of US President Donald Trump.
The US State Department wrote on social media on Friday that Petro had “urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence” and that it would revoked Petro’s visa “due to his reckless and incendiary actions.”
“Mr. Trump has violated the founding principles of the UN,” Petro wrote on social media Saturday in response to the news.
Petro, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), criticized Trump in a speech before the UN on Tuesday, in which he called him “complicit in genocide” for backing Israel’s war on Gaza and urged the UN to open criminal proceedings against Trump’s air strikes on boats in the Caribbean alleged to be transporting drugs.
While the Colombian leader had returned to his home country by the time he learned his visa had been revoked, he condemned the move as a major breach of international law.
“What the US 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,” Petro wrote on social media on Saturday.
He pointed out that heads of state attending UN proceedings are supposed to receive total immunity.
“The fact that the Palestinian Authority was not allowed entry and that my visa was revoked for asking the US and Israeli armies not to support a genocide, which is a crime against all of humanity, demonstrates that the US government no longer complies with international law,” Petro continued. “The United Nations headquarters cannot continue to be in New York.”
Petro was not the only one to question whether the UN could continue to meet in the US after the Trump administration’s actions.
“This is the first time the US revokes a head of state’s visa for comments made during a UNGA visit,” Center for Economic and Policy Research senior research fellow Francisco Rodríguez pointed out on social media. “Both [Fidel] Castro and [Hugo] Chávez gave fiery off-site speeches in NY without retaliation. The action undermines the UN’s viability as a global forum and risks violating the 1947 HQ Agreement.”
The agreement states in part that those granted immunity to attend UN gatherings “shall not be required to leave the United States otherwise than in accordance with the customary procedure” applied to all diplomats.
Craig Mokhiber, a human rights lawyer and former UN official, wrote: “This is just the latest breach of the obligations of the US to the UN. Member states must get serious about moving the UN to a safer host country. And the US-Israel axis must be held accountable.”
Israel’s nearly two-year assault on the Gaza Strip, which several human rights experts and bodies including a UN commission have named a genocide, was a key point of contention during the 80th session of the UNGA.
Petro emerged as a major voice in defense of the Palestinians in Gaza, calling for the creation of an international armed force to enter Gaza and end the genocide.
He repeated that call when he spoke to protesters outside the UN on Friday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak.
“It is necessary to configure a more powerful army than that of the United States and Israel combined,” Petro told the crowd.
It was also during this speech that he urged US soldiers to “disobey the orders of Trump” and “obey the orders of humanity,” according to Reuters.
Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti wrote on social media that Netanyahu’s visa should have been revoked instead.
“But since the empire protects him, they go after the only president who was capable of telling him the truth to his face,” Benedetti said.
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