Colombia orders expulsion of Argentine diplomats after Milei’s insults to Petro – News

The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement that the Government “ordered the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine Embassy in Colombia”, without specifying the number of people affected, and added: “The scope of this decision will be communicated to the Argentine embassy through institutional channels diplomats.”

Milei referred to Petro as a “murderer and terrorist” in an interview on Wednesday with the Spanish-language North American television channel CNN, in which he also called his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, “ignorant”.

The interview will be broadcast on Sunday, but the channel released excerpts on Wednesday.

Colombian diplomacy said that, “on behalf of the Government of Colombia, it repudiates the statements made by Javier Milei”.

“It is not the first time that Milei has offended the Colombian President, affecting the historic relations of fraternity between Colombia and Argentina”, recalled the ministry, in the same note.

These and other expressions by the Argentine President “damaged the nation’s trust, in addition to offending the dignity” of Petro, “democratically elected”, he highlighted.

This is not the first confrontation between the ultra-liberal Milei and the left-wing leader Petro, ideologically opposed, however the expulsion of diplomatic personnel is a measure rarely used by Bogotá.

The most recent case occurred in December 2020, when two diplomats at the Russian Embassy were expelled after being accused of “activities incompatible” with the post, for allegedly carrying out military intelligence operations.

On January 26, the Government of Colombia called the ambassador to Argentina, Camilo Romero, for consultations, after Milei stated that Petro “is a murderous communist who is sinking” the country.

In response, Colombian diplomacy stated that the statements, made in an interview, “violate the deep ties of friendship, understanding and cooperation that historically unite” the two countries, and therefore requested “immediate consultations” with Romero.

A month later, on February 24, the Colombian Government once again repudiated “irresponsible statements” by Milei, who referred to Petro as “a plague”.

On that occasion, the Colombian television channel NTN24 interviewed Milei, leaving the annual convention of the North American right, in National Harbor (Maryland), where former US president Donald Trump was present.

Asked what he thought of Petro, Milei said: “It is sinking the Colombians, in other words, it is a lethal plague for the Colombians themselves.”

When Milei was still a candidate for president of Argentina, he was criticized by Petro for derogatory comments about socialists, whose ideas he compared to those of Adolf Hitler.

During the last Argentine election campaign, Petro openly supported Milei’s rival, Sergio Massa, and described the ultraliberal’s victory as “sad for Latin America”.

The Colombian head of state was also criticized for comparing Milei with the dictators Jorge Videla, from Argentina, and Augusto Pinochet, from Chile.