LatinNews Daily - 06 October 2025

Colombia: On 27 September the US Department of State announced plans to revoke the visa of Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro. The announcement came the day after Petro took part in a pro-Palestine protest march in New York City during which he called for the international community to form a military force to protect the Palestinian people from Israeli attacks and for US soldiers to “disobey [President Donald] Trump’s orders!”. Two days later Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, Finance Minister Germán Ávila, and Energy Minister Edwin Palma, among others announced that they were renouncing their visas in solidarity with Petro. In a press conference Villavicencio suggested that the revocation of Petro’s visa was “a retaliation against the protests surrounding the defence of international humanitarian law to denounce the genocide in Gaza”. Villavicencio also emphasised that despite this being a moment of tension, the two countries would still be involved in multilateral dialogue on a number of issues such as drug trafficking, climate change, and global peace, with Colombia set to serve as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council from January 2026 until the end of 2027. Also on 29 September, in a further sign of worsening relations, President Petro said that he would push to renegotiate Colombia’s free trade agreement (FTA) with the US. Bilateral trade flows reached US$53.3bn in 2024, with Colombia exporting US$25bn to the US.

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