President Donald Trump reportedly squashed a potential meeting between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, even though Petro is not regarded as a persona non grata by the US government.
“New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was planning to hold his first meeting with a foreign leader this week, but the Trump administration effectively nixed it in a behind-the-scenes effort that marks a new flashpoint between the mayor and President Donald Trump, said four people familiar with the matter,” reported The Washington Post’s John Hudson and Isaac Arnsdorf on Wednesday.
Mamdani planned on meeting with Petro to discuss the state of democracy in the Western hemisphere and Mamdani’s growing popularity as a leader of the global left-wing. Yet the State Department reportedly informed Colombian officials in Bogotá that the meeting was unacceptable and implied Petro could be arrested if he attempted to meet with Mamdani. They based this on the fact that Petro criticized America’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as his urging US soldiers to disobey unlawful presidential orders to commit murder.
“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” the State Department official said. “Any individual’s U.S. visa is at risk of revocation if they visit America and outrageously implore U.S. soldiers to disobey orders of the duly elected president of the United States.”
“He’s not a dictator — his term ends in two months,“ Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, told the Post about President Petro. “It appears that he’s being punished for the crime of criticizing the Trump administration.” Although Trump has personally gotten along with Petro, he also criticized Trump’s military for lethal boat strikes in Latin America.
“I ask all the soldiers of the army of the U.S. not to point their rifles at humanity,” Petro said at the time. “Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.” In response to this, Trump ordered sanctions against Petro under “counternarcotics-related authorities” despite failing to produce credible evidence of wrongdoing on Petro’s part.
“Following the discussion between U.S. and Colombian officials, Bogotá informed Mamdani’s office that Petro’s trip was being shortened, ‘which would exclude the possibility for a conversation,’ said a person familiar with the conversations,” according to The Post. “The restrictions placed on Petro’s movements while in New York are unusual for a world leader not considered an international pariah.”
Speaking to the United Nations last year, Petro claimed Trump had killed "poor young people,” some of whom might have been Colombian citizens, and argued that these were "young people who simply wanted to escape poverty."
Petro added, "A criminal process must be initiated against those officials who are from the United States. This includes the senior official who gave the order, President Trump.”
