Petro implodes U.S.-Colombia relations with his final U.N. speech

Colombian President Gustavo Petro used his final address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23 to deliver a blistering denunciation of U.S. foreign policy and President Donald Trump, calling for criminal charges against the  U.S. leader, and accusing Washington of complicity in genocide.

Speaking in New York at the 80th General Assembly, Petro – dressed in a white guayabera – launched into a fiery speech that quickly prompted the U.S. delegation to walk out of the chamber. His remarks went far beyond diplomatic criticism: they appeared aimed at imploding what remained of U.S.-Colombia relations, severing decades of strategic partnership on a global stage.

“This hall is a mute witness, and an accomplice, to genocide in today’s world. When we believed it was only the property of Hitler, Trump does not speak of democracy, he does not speak of the climate crisis, he does not speak of life – he only threatens, kills, and lets tens of thousands be killed,” Petro declared, accusing Trump of presiding over policies that cost countless lives.

The Colombian leader then called on the United Nations to initiate criminal proceedings against the current U.S. president. “There must be criminal charges opened against those officials of the United States, including the senior official who gave the order – President Trump, who allowed missiles to be fired against young people who simply wanted to escape poverty,” he said.

Petro alleged that Trump had personally authorized missile strikes against migrant boats in the Caribbean, killing vulnerable youths fleeing poverty. “Trump fires missiles at unarmed migrant boats and accuses them of being drug traffickers and terrorists, when they did not have a single weapon to defend themselves. The traffickers live in New York, just a few blocks away from here, and in Miami,” he told the assembly.

As he escalated his attack, Petro drew historical parallels between Trump’s America and Europe in the 1930s. “And today, irrationalism is filling the United States, and it was the prelude to Hitler in 1933,” he warned. “As collapse approaches, while the old white societies of Europe and the United States continue applauding their new fashionable Hitlers, they do not listen to their young people, to their children, or to humanity.”

The accusations grew sharper when Petro addressed U.S. drug policy. He claimed that the true beneficiaries of the narcotics trade were not Latin American traffickers but elites in the United States. “When most of the drug traffickers are blond and blue-eyed, keeping their vast fortunes in the world’s largest banks, and do not live in Bogotá, Caracas, the Caribbean, or Gaza, but in Miami – they are the neighbors of the President of the United States,” he said.

At that point, the U.S. delegation stood up and exited the chamber, leaving only a handful of allies to hear the remainder of Petro’s remarks.

Turning to Gaza, Petro urged the international community to act outside the U.N. Security Council, which he accused of paralysis due to U.S. veto power. “The genocide must end with what follows diplomacy. It is with a vote of the United Nations General Assembly and not with a vote of the Security Council, where they veto. It is with a United for Peace for Palestine, forming an armed force to defend the life of the Palestinian people,” he said.

He insisted that blue-helmeted peacekeepers were insufficient and called instead for the formation of a powerful international army to intervene in Gaza. “Not with blue helmets, untrained and sometimes unwilling to do what is necessary. It is with a powerful army from the countries that do not accept genocide. That is why I invite the nations of the world and their peoples, as part of humanity, to unite their armies and weapons. Palestine must be liberated,” Petro said, appealing to Asian, Slavic, and Latin American militaries to join forces.

In one of his most pointed accusations, Petro directly linked Trump to the ongoing war in Gaza. “Trump not only lets missiles fall on young people in the Caribbean, not only imprisons and chains migrants, but he also allows missiles to be launched against children, women, and the elderly in Gaza. He makes himself an accomplice to genocide – because it is genocide, and we must shout it again and again.”

Petro further claimed that U.S. foreign policy in Latin America was being advised by Colombian political actors allied with drug cartels. “I do not know if Trump realizes that his foreign policy toward Colombia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean is advised by Colombians who are political allies of the cocaine mafia,” he charged.

As his speech drew to a close, Petro denounced the veto power wielded by Washington and its allies over U.N. resolutions. “Humanity cannot allow one more day of genocide, nor allow the genocidaires like Netanyahu and his allies in the United States and Europe to remain free,” he said, demanding that the Assembly act to stop what he repeatedly described as genocide in Gaza.

By the end of his 40-minute intervention, Petro had branded Trump a criminal, accused the United States of racism and imperialism, compared Western leaders to Hitler, and called for the creation of an international armed force to counter U.S. and Israeli power.

The fallout was immediate. Analysts warn that Petro’s words, delivered in front of world leaders, represent a deliberate rupture with Washington. Colombia, once described as the United States’ closest ally in Latin America, now appears to be positioning itself as a radical outlier. For Petro, the objective seemed clear: not to salvage a fragile relationship, but to bring it crashing down in real time.

Source: Resumen