COLOMBIA'S FOREIGN MINISTER RENOUNCES VISA AFTER US REVOKES PRESIDENT'S

BOGOTA (Colombia), Sept 30 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- Colombia's Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio announced she will voluntarily renounce her United States (US) visa in a show of solidarity with President Gustavo Petro, whose own visa was revoked, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.

"This is an act of dignity in the face of the unacceptable decision to revoke the visa of the President of Colombia," Villavicencio said. "Our sovereignty does not bow down. Colombia must be respected."

Villavicencio acknowledged that relations with the US were "tense" after the US State Department announced on Friday it would revoke Petro's visa due to his "incendiary actions" during a pro-Palestinian street protest in New York.

"Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence," the State Department wrote on US social media company X.

While in New York for the UN General Assembly, Petro had addressed a group of protesters, telling US soldiers to "disobey the orders of Trump!"

"I ask all soldiers in the United States army not to point their rifles at humanity. Disobey Trump’s order! Obey the order of humanity!” he said.

Petro, upon his return to Bogota, confirmed his visa revocation but dismissed the action.

"I no longer have a visa to travel to the U.S. I don't care," he said, citing his status as a European citizen as a reason he does not need a visa to enter the US. "I am free, and every human being must be free on earth," he added.

The visa revocation is the latest development in escalating tensions between the two nations.

Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti publicly sided with Petro, suggesting on X that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visa should have been revoked instead.

"But since the empire protects him, it's taking it out on the only president who was capable enough to tell him the truth to his face," Benedetti wrote.

This diplomatic friction follows a series of recent conflicts, including Colombia's move at the beginning of the year to block two US military planes carrying deported migrants from landing on its territory. In retaliation, the Trump administration revoked visas for Colombian officials, and threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Colombian goods.

Last week, the US decertified Colombia as an ally in the fight against drugs.

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU