The US has said it will revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa, after he urged US soldiers to disobey his American counterpart Donald Trump during remarks at a rally in New York.
The State Department described Petro's comments at a pro-Palestinian street protest on Friday as 'reckless and incendiary'.
The Colombian leader was in the US for the UN General Assembly, where earlier this week he called for a criminal inquiry into the Trump administration's airstrikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean.
He was already on his way back to Bogota when the US announced it would cancel his visa, Colombian media reports.
Petro shared a video on social media of him addressing a large crowd through a megaphone in Spanish on Friday.
He called for the formation of a 'world salvation army, whose first task is to liberate Palestine'.
'That is why, from here in New York, I ask all soldiers in the United States Army not to point their rifles at humanity,' he said. 'Disobey Trump's order! Obey the order of humanity!'
Petro added: '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.'
The US State Department strongly criticised the remarks, saying he had 'urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence'.
It wrote on social media that the revocation of his visa was 'due to his reckless and incendiary actions'.
Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti wrote on X that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visa should have been annulled rather than Petro's, arguing that the empire protects Netanyahu but punishes Petro for speaking truth to power.
Relations between Petro - who leads Colombia's first ever left-wing government - and the Trump administration have worsened in recent months following Petro's critiques of US military actions in Latin America.
During his address at the UN, Petro denounced US airstrikes, asserting that they serve only to exert violence in order to dominate Colombia and Latin America, rather than effectively combatting drug trafficking.
Petro accused the US of possibly harming innocent Colombian citizens in such strikes and highlighted the drug trafficking connections between US officials and drug gangs.
The US government has maintained that these military operations are necessary as part of their anti-drug strategy in the region.
Additionally, the US has denied entry to other international leaders, including denying visas for Mahmoud Abbas and 80 Palestinian officials ahead of the UN General Assembly, a move that has drawn international criticism.
