The Government of Colombia ordered this Wednesday the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine Embassy in Bogotá, in response to new offenses by the president of that country, Javier Milei, who called his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, a “terrorist murderer” in a interview with CNN en Español channel.
This was reported by the Foreign Ministry in a statement in which it said that “the Government of Colombia orders the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine embassy in Colombia”, without specifying the number of those affected, and added: “The scope of this decision will be communicated to the Argentine Embassy through diplomatic institutional channels”.
Milei referred to Petro as a “murderer and terrorist” in an interview with the American network CNN en Español in which he also called his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, “ignorant.” The interview will be broadcast next Sunday but the channel released some progress this Wednesday.
In this sense, the Foreign Ministry assured in its statement today that “on behalf of the Government of Colombia, it repudiates statements made by Mr. Javier Milei, president of Argentina (…) in which he expresses himself in a denigrating manner against the first leader of the Colombians, the respected Mr. Gustavo Petro”.
“This is not the first time that Mr. Milei offends the Colombian president, affecting the historical relations of brotherhood between Colombia and Argentina,” recalls the Foreign Ministry. He also points out that these expressions and other previous ones by the Argentine president “have deteriorated the confidence of our nation, in addition to offending the dignity of President Petro, who was democratically elected.”
This is not the first scuffle between Milei and Petro, located at ideological opposites, but it is the furthest time this crisis has gone, since the expulsion of diplomatic personnel is a measure rarely used by the Colombian Government.
The most recent case that can be remembered was the expulsion, in December 2020, of two diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Bogotá accused of “activities incompatible” with their position for, supposedly, carrying out military intelligence tasks.
On January 26, the Government of Colombia called its ambassador in Argentina, Camilo Romero, for consultations after Milei said that Petro “is a murderous communist who is sinking” the country.
The Foreign Ministry detailed on that occasion in a statement that these statements, made in an interview with journalist Patricia Janiot, “ignore and violate the deep ties of friendship, understanding and cooperation that have historically united Colombia and Argentina” and that is why it called, “immediately, to consult with Ambassador Camilo Romero.”
A month later, on February 24, the Colombian Government once again expressed its “strong rejection” of what it described as “irresponsible statements” by Milei for a new offense against Petro, whom it referred to as “a plague.” On that occasion, the Colombian television channel NTN24 approached Milei as he left the annual convention of the American right held in National Harbor (Maryland), where he was supported by former US president Donald Trump.
When asked by a journalist what he thinks of Petro, Milei said: “That he is sinking Colombians, that is, that he is a lethal plague for Colombians themselves.”
The relationship between Petro and Milei has never been good and even since the latter was a presidential candidate, the Colombian president attacked him for his derogatory comments about socialists, comparing his ideas with those of Hitler.
During the last Argentine electoral campaign, Petro openly supported the social network “. Furthermore, the Colombian head of state has compared Milei to the dictators Jorge Videla, of Argentina, and Augusto Pinochet, of Chile, something for which he was also criticized at the time.
