Colombian far-left President Gustavo Petro ordered on Wednesday the expulsion of Argentine diplomatic personnel from the country in response to statements by Argentine counterpart Javier Milei, who called Petro a “terrorist murderer” in a yet-to-be-aired interview.
Milei, a staunch anti-communist, was interviewed by journalist Andrés Oppenheimer for his weekly television show. While the interview is scheduled to be broadcast by CNN en Español on the evening of Sunday, March 31, the television channel has published several preview clips of the interview on its website and on social media.
In one such clip, Milei describes Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 guerrilla terrorist organization, as a “terrorist murderer,” which drew the immediate ire of the Colombian far-left president.
“The carnage that is Venezuela is truly unheard of. The same as the island-jail of Cuba,” Milei said. “Then, there are other cases that are on the way there, right? Let’s say like the case of Colombia with Mr. Petro that, let’s say, not much can be expected from someone who was a terrorist murderer, right? A communist.”
Shortly after the clip was published, the Colombian Foreign Ministry released a statement repudiating Milei’s words, stressing that “it is not the first time” that Milei has offended Petro and “affected” the relations between Colombia and Argentina.
“The expressions of the Argentine president have damaged the confidence of our nation, in addition to offending the dignity of President Petro, who was democratically elected,” the statement read.
“In this context, the Government of Colombia orders the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine embassy in Colombia,” the statement continued. “The scope of this decision will be communicated to the Argentine Embassy through diplomatic institutional channels.”
The Marxist M19 group, which Petro regularly boasts of having belonged to, was a Colombian guerrilla terrorist group active between 1974 and 1990, when it demobilized and became a small far-left political party that disbanded in 2000. Petro joined the gang at the age of 18.
The terrorist organization is known to have committed several terrorist attacks. Most notably, M19 was responsible for the 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, one of the worst terrorist attacks in Colombian history.
A memorial flame burns at the rebuilt Palace of Justice on the 30th anniversary of a deadly siege in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, Nov. 6, 2015. The poster on the wall shows Pedro Elias Serrano, a judge who died in the siege. Rebels from the now-defunct insurgency known as M-19 took the high court hostage Nov. 6, 1985, with the aim of putting then-President Belisario Betancur on trial. (Fernando Vergara/AP)
On that day, roughly 35 M19 members attacked the seat of Colombia’s judiciary, holding hundreds of civilians hostage. Nearly a hundred civilians were killed during the siege, including 11 Colombian Supreme Court justices.
M19 was also responsible for the 1980 siege of the Dominican Republic Embassy in Bogotá, where members of the Marxist guerrilla group held nearly 60 people, including 15 ambassadors, hostage for roughly two months. The hostages were participating in an official gathering marking Dominican Independence Day.
Additionally, M19 was involved in the abduction and murder of labor leader José Raquel Mercado in 1976, the hijacking of a Colombian airliner in 1982, several attacks on villages, and the theft of the swords that belonged to Venezuelan founding father Simón Bólivar from a museum in 1974, as well as numerous other crimes.
Last week, Petro claimed during an official event that M19 had some of its members train with pro-Palestinian terrorist groups in Libya, asserting that the groups had “the same root” as M19.
“We also want to have a homeland. That is why the M-19, in stories not known, was in the deserts of the Sahara and was side by side with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Polisario Front, and the SWAPO,” Petro said. “And, although they may not like it, of the African National Congress, which was Nelson Mandela’s guerrilla group. The M19 fought with Nelson Mandela for freedom.”
The upcoming CNN en Español interview marks the second time that Milei has accused Petro of murder. In January, Milei described Petro as “a communist murderer who is ruining Colombia” during an interview.
In August, Petro compared Milei to Adolf Hitler after Milei described socialists as “garbage” and “human excrement” in remarks given to a Colombian radio station.
Petro was one of the first Latin American Presidents who lamented Milei’s landslide victory in the November 2023 presidential runoff election.
“The extreme right has won in Argentina; it is the decision of its society. Sad for Latin America and we shall see. Neoliberalism no longer has a proposal for society, it cannot respond to the current problems of humanity,” Petro said at the time.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.