Leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro: ‘Nazis’ in U.S. Running ‘Dreadful Experiment’ in Gaza

FILE - Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks at the International Workers' Day march in
AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File
Christian K. Caruzo

Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro accused the United States government on Monday of allegedly being run by “Nazis” who are purportedly conducting an “experiment” in Gaza comparable to the Holocaust.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever and a former member of the Marxist M19 guerrilla, made the wild accusations in a speech given during an official event where he was honored by Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki for his support of the “Palestine cause.”  The Colombian president did not provide any evidence that substantiated his “Nazi” claims.

In the speech, Petro questioned the stance of the government of the United States led by President Joe Biden on Israel’s self-defense operations in Gaza against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.

“The Nazis are in power, they ascend through financial capital, they manage to lead the government of the United States – even if it is self-styled Democrat, with progressive currents,” Petro said. “But this youthful, black, Arab, diverse, Latino progressivism, which is there, does not manage to change the will of the state, which continues helping to fire the bombs”:

Petro continued his rant by comparing the ongoing situation in Gaza to the events of World War II, asserting that there is an “experiment running, using Gaza as its laboratory.” 

“It is a dreadful experiment that has to do with the Nazis. The Nazis practiced it in a small way, relatively, and they tried to exterminate the Jewish people,” Petro said, “and the Soviet people, the democratic people and the socialists, the communists, and everyone who seemed different to them had to go to the concentration camp and the gas bed. Europe died in those camps”:

The Colombian president once again compared Israel’s self-defense operations against Hamas to actions committed by Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler.

“That which Hitler proposed is what is being applied in Gaza, but as an experiment for the world. This is how they want to dominate us, how power can end life premeditatedly and in a generalized and massive way,” he claimed, “as Hitler proposed, is what we are seeing today, they are experimenting in Gaza.”

The Colombian president also availed himself of the opportunity to condemn fossil fuels, accusing fossil fuel companies of being behind Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“What is firing is not Israel, it is a means, what is firing is the great global fossil and financial capital against a people who cannot resist, endure,” he claimed, “because they have been resistant, because they have taught all the peoples of the world that there is no other way than resistance, something that we already knew.”

Petro did not explain what the relation – if any — is between the use of fossil fuels and Israel’s operations against Hamas terrorists. The Colombian president is notorious for condemnation all fossil fuels and has repeatedly declared them to be “more poisonous” to mankind than cocaine. 

The Colombian president has also repeatedly issued alarmist climate change warnings, going as far as to demand the United States provide Colombian nationals residing in the U.S. with Temporary Protection Status (TPS) ahead of a purported “exodus” caused by climate change during his encounter with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2022, where he gifted the U.S. official with ruana, a traditional Colombian garment:

Petro began an international condemnation campaign against Israel shortly after Hamas carried out its unprecedented October 7 terrorist attack. Petro has repeatedly condemned Israel, accusing it of commiting a “genocide” in Gaza and has accused the Israeli government of turning Gaza into a concentration camp to the likes of Auschwitz.

The continued condemnation of Israel by Petro single-handedly eroded the historically friendly relations between Colombia and Israel, first established in October 1957.

At the start of May, Petro had Colombia break all diplomatic ties with Israel. By late May, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo announced that Colombia will open an embassy in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Colombian government has reportedly given Gali Dahan, the now former Israeli ambassador to Colombia, a deadline of no later than June 30 to return to Israel alongside the rest of the Israeli diplomatic personnel who were stationed in the South American nation.

The Colombian president also publicly claimed “responsibility” for the passage of a non-binding resolution by the United Nations General Assembly in May that asked the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) to reconsider granting full membership status to “Palestine.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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