US: Colombian President's comments ‘reckless and incendiary’
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US says it will revoke the visa of Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, accusing him of inciting violence by encouraging American soldiers to disobey orders. When addressing a pro-Palestinian protest in New York, he suggested they should ignore the orders of Donald Trump, and obey the orders of humanity instead. Mr Petro was returning to Bogota when the move was announced. On arrival, he tweeted that he no longer had a US visa and did not care - adding that he considers himself a "free person in the world." The State Department described his actions as reckless.
Also in the programme: The International Paralympic Committee lifts its ban on Russia and Belarus; and as England's women take on Canada in the rugby world cup final - we hear from one former international in a house with divided loyalties.
(Photo: Colombian President Gustavo Petro addresses pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside UN headquarters in New York, September 26, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Bing Guan)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.9 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service, coming to you live from London. |
| 0:13.5 | I'm James Kamara Sami. Some diplomatic incidents can be accidental, inadvertent, others can be very deliberate. The reason for the US State Department |
| 0:23.2 | announcing on Friday that it was revoking the visa of the Colombian president Gustavo Petro |
| 0:28.4 | falls into the latter category. The left-wing leader, a staunch opponent of the Trump |
| 0:33.3 | administration, used his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly to address a pro-Palestinian |
| 0:40.1 | demonstration and to say this. |
| 0:42.4 | From New York, I ask to all the soldiers of the United. |
| 0:50.6 | From New York, I asked to all the soldiers of the USA Army, don't put your hands against the people against humanity. |
| 1:01.4 | Disobey the Trump's order. Obey the order of humanity. |
| 1:06.4 | In a post on X, the State Department wrote that the Colombian president had, quote, urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence, adding, we will revoke Petro's visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions. |
| 1:21.2 | Well, earlier in the week, in an interview with the BBC, President Petro had criticised the recent US airstrikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, |
| 1:29.7 | which are reported to have killed 17 people. |
| 1:35.2 | Launching missiles over sovereign waters outside the United States is an act of tyranny. |
| 1:46.0 | And what is happening there is a tyranny. |
| 1:49.6 | We cannot know if these young people were migrants or if they were working for drug trafficking |
| 1:55.6 | mafias. |
| 1:56.5 | And in both situations, they have no right. |
| 2:01.7 | Mr. Trump has no right to launch a missile against them. |
| 2:06.7 | Well, the BBC's Global Affairs reporter Mimi Swabee has been following the story and is with me here in the studio. |
| 2:13.6 | Well, Mimi, first of all, I think we know that the president has arrived back in Colombia now. |
| 2:19.3 | What's he been saying? |
... |
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