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Gustavo Petro responds to Trump: “Overthrow me…the Americas and humanity will respond”

66 comments
  • Gustavo Petro's statement, worth a read:

    Trump, I don’t like traveling to the U.S. much, it’s a bit boring, but I confess there are worthy things. I like to go to the Black neighborhoods of Washington. There, I saw a whole fight in the capital of the U.S. between Blacks and Latinos, with barricades, which seemed to me like nonsense, because they should unite.

    I confess that I like Walt Whitman, Paul Simon, Noam Chomsky, and Miller.

    I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, in the history of the U.S., are memorable and I follow them. They were murdered for being labor leaders with the electric chair by the fascists who are inside the U.S. just as they are in my country.

    I don’t like your oil, Trump, you are going to end the human species with greed. Maybe one day, along with a drink of whisky—which I accept despite my gastritis—we can talk frankly about this, but it’s difficult because you consider me an inferior race, and I am not, nor is any Colombian.

    So if you are looking for a stubborn person, that’s me, period. You can try to stage a coup with your economic power and arrogance, like you did with Allende. But I will die by my law, I withstood torture, and I resist you. I don’t want slave owners on Colombia’s side, we already had many and we freed ourselves. Who I want to be on Colombia’s side are lovers of freedom. If you can’t join me, I will go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world, and you didn’t understand it. This is the land of the yellow butterflies, the beauty of Remedios, but also of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, one of whom I am, perhaps the last.

    You will kill me, but I will survive in my town, which came before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea, and freedom.

    You don’t like our freedom, fine. I do not shake hands with white slave owners. I shake the hands of libertarian whites, heirs of Lincoln, and of the Black and white rural boys from the U.S., in front of whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking through the mountains of Tuscany and after saving myself from COVID.

    They are the US, and before them, I kneel, before no one else.

    Overthrow me president, and the Americas and humanity will respond.

    Colombia, now stop looking to the north, look to the world, our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Córdoba, the civilization of that time, from the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood carries the resistant Black people who were turned into slaves by you. In Colombia lies the first free territory of the Americas, before Washington, of all the Americas, I take refuge there in their African songs.

    My land is of the goldsmiths that existed in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.

    You will never dominate us. The warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, and who is called Bolívar, opposes you.

    Our peoples are somewhat fearful, somewhat shy, they are naive and kind, lovers, but they will know how to win back the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all over Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, now Panama, before Colombia, whom you murdered.

    I raise a flag, and as Gaitán said, even if I am alone, it will remain raised with Latin American dignity, which is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather didn’t know, but mine did, Mr. President, immigrant in the US.

    Your blockade does not scare me because Colombia, in addition to being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know you love beauty as I do, don’t disrespect it, and it will offer you its sweetness.

    COLOMBIA FROM NOW ON FACES THE WHOLE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE, AND HUMANITY.

    I have been informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruit of our human labor to enter the US, I will do the same.

    Let our people plant corn, which was discovered in Colombia, and feed the world.

  • He already backed down and kowtowed to Trump.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/26/colombia-gustavo-petro-trump-deportation-flights

    There are no heroes, sorry.

    • No, his position has always been that the US could send migrants back, but it had to be done humanely. Petro objected to the military transports with underfed and cuffed people in it (same thing Brazil is complaining about). It's also why he sent the presidential plane to pick up migrants in a humane way instead.

      After that Trump threw his hissy-fit and threatened tarriffs, Colombia reiterated that it only needs people to be taken care of properly and treated like people, and the US caved to those (imo very reasonable) demands.

      Ofc Trump bullshits his way through what should normally be a political humiliation, but here we are.

      • It won't be done humanely regardless and I have no idea why people think it will. That's my biggest issue here. Trusting a Nazi to keep his word.

  • Didn’t Trump say if Kamala was elected we’d have WW3? It’s been less than a week and we’re trying to start some $&@!

  • MBFC:

    Overall, we rate The People’s Dispatch as Far-Left Biased based on promoting Marxist-Leninist perspectives. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to consistent one-sided reporting that lacks context and a complete lack of transparency.

    • I'm curious, do you think there is some bias in this article? What is it?

      In case you doubt their translation, you can find the original source of the statement by Petro here.

      Is there some other source, which you consider less biased, which has published an English-language translation of his response to Trump?

      Or, would you consider any reporting at all of this head of state's response to be intrinsically biased?

      • I used that link to look up the source. It wasn't here so I posted it here. I do the same with archive links.

        I didn't report this and don't have a problem with it. In general, the fact that they don't disclose the country they operate out of is problematic since we can't know if they're operating from a place where telling the truth is illegal.

        Edit: I should also say that it's important they've never failed a fact check. I don't really care about them having editorial bias as long as we know what it is.

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