Colombian President Gustavo Petro delivers his address at the United Nations General Assembly, September 24, 2025. Photo: X/@infopresidencia.
On Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the United States’ extraterritorial policy of war and its active military presence in the Caribbean Sea during his participation in the 80th United Nations General Assembly, held in New York, at the headquarters of the UN. He also called for the formation of an international armed force to stop the Gaza genocide that is being committed by the Zionist entity.
At the beginning of his speech on Wednesday, September 24, the Colombian president emphasized that US actions in the Caribbean today are making barbarism a global reality. He added that the US is trying to impose on Latin America what has been happening in Gaza for years, amounting to genocide.
He stressed that the missiles that Washington is launching in the Caribbean are not meant to stop drug trafficking and that narrative is a “lie” to subjugate Latin American countries under the guise of fighting international drug trafficking organizations.
Petro added that US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy toward Colombia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean is being curated by “Colombians who are political allies of the cocaine mafia.”
He also condemned the killings of civilians in speedboats in the Caribbean, in which 17 young people have reportedly been killed by US missile strikes in the alleged fight against drug trafficking.
In this regard, the Colombian president emphasized that those people were unarmed and were exterminated simply for being “poor.”
“Drug policy is not about stopping cocaine from reaching the US,” stated President Petro at the UN. “It is about dominating the peoples of the Global South in general,” he said. “It does not focus on drugs; it focuses on power and domination.” Petro also condemned the treatment of Latin American migrants in the US, who are labeled as criminals without evidence by Washington and held in “concentration camps” in the style of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Missiles are dropped on the poor
“They call us drug traffickers when most drug traffickers are blond and blue-eyed and keep their enormous fortunes in the world’s largest banks,” noted President Petro. “They do not live in Bogotá, or Caracas, or the Caribbean, or Gaza but in Miami and are neighbors of the US president. They live in New York, Paris, Madrid, Dubai—they live where there is luxury, not poverty—but the missiles are fired where there is poverty, not luxury,” Petro said.
The Colombian president added that the US claim that the Tren de Aragua criminal gang is an international drug-trafficking terrorist organization is false: “It is a lie that the Tren de Aragua is a terrorist group. They are just common criminals organized as a gang, and Washington has blown it out of proportion due to its stupid idea of blockading Venezuela and seizing its oil.”
He also stressed that “migrants are not criminals” and that there is no reason whatsoever to send them to “concentration camps” after US authorities expel them from the country “in chains.”
“Migration is nothing more than the product of the blockade imposed on poor countries, such as Iran, Iraq, Cuba, or Venezuela,” stated President Petro. “The economic blockade is nothing more than genocide.”
President of Colombia Accuses the US of Enforcing Failed ‘War on Drugs’
Forming an international force to stop the genocide of Palestinians
The Colombian president condemned the genocide against the Palestinian people and pointed out that the international community, including Trump and the UN, is complicit in Israel’s extermination of Gazans.
“Trump does not talk about democracy, he does not talk about the climate crisis, he does not talk about life; he only threatens, kills, and lets tens of thousands die,” Petro said.
He called on the UN to work to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and those responsible for the genocide in Palestine are captured and prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. He also urged the organization to stop the diplomacy that has failed to address global problems and instead take action to stop the genocide in Gaza.
“Palestine must be liberated,” Petro said, calling on the international community to take up arms and form an international army to stop the Zionist entity’s military actions, which no one has been able to halt so far. “The UN must begin its transformation by stopping the genocide in Gaza by creating a global army of salvation voted into existence by the UN General Assembly and free from veto,” he emphasized.
Capitalism or life
Petro also warned that the historical moment that humanity is currently experiencing, driven by the actions of the most powerful Western countries—which privilege a “rich and racist society” that considers itself the “superior race”—is leading humanity “to the abyss of its own destruction.”
The Colombian president stressed that the world must choose between ending the capitalist economic model or facing the end of the planet. “The world is facing a choice between capital or life, greed or life, barbarism or democracy, liberty or death, as the Liberator Simón Bolívar used to say.”
“What is needed to overcome the climate crisis is a global revolution of the peoples—of united peoples, of civilizations. It should be a revolution of humanity to remain alive and free,” added the Colombian president. He urged the UN to reform itself based on the vision of the unity of civilizations above nation-states and governments.
He also condemned the imposition of economic blockades by the US against countries such as Venezuela, a policy designed by Washington to try to overthrow democratically elected leaders, install vassal governments, and profit from the natural resources of sovereign natures.
This speech came amid tensions between Colombia and the US after US President Donald Trump ordered a large-scale military deployment in the Caribbean with the pretext of combating drug trafficking. Although there is no evidence, Washington claims that it has destroyed three “drug boats,” resulting in 17 deaths. Petro has referred to these actions “murders.”
He also severely criticized Washington’s decision to decertify Colombia in its fight against drugs, which he called Washington’s “colonial blackmail” against the Colombian government because of its left-wing policies.
Trump will make more war
President Petro described the speech delivered by his US counterpart, Donald Trump, at the United Nations General Assembly as “contrary to the interests of humanity.”
“I can tell you about the mistakes in Trump’s drug policy, because he is fueling it,” President Petro commented. “In his climate policy, because he is going to exacerbate it; in his immigration policy, because he is going to make more wars; and his policy facing the enormous crisis that humanity is already experiencing and that must be stopped immediately if we want the children of everyone everywhere on the planet to live,” the Colombian president said to the press in New York.
According to him, Trump, in his UN speech, displayed a “negative force, a force contrary to life, a deeply ignorant, obscurantist force,” referring to the US president’s stance on the conflict in Gaza and other global issues.
President Petro added that the “negative force” intends to take humanity “back to the times of Hitler. And following the example of humanity in the times of Hitler, we must defeat Hitler.”
Earlier, the US president boasted about his country’s might; criticized the UN’s lack of effectiveness in resolving global conflicts; questioned the growing diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state; defended the actions of the genocidal Zionist colony; attacked Europe, Iran, and Venezuela; and denied the existence of the climate crisis.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SL
