Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro declared that neither Israel nor the United States are “the children of God” and accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a “criminal” in an unhinged speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
Petro, who called for a “world revolution” and for an artificial intelligence “global public authority,” accused the “richest one-percent of humanity, the powerful global oligarchy” of allowing bombs to fall in “Gaza and Sudan,” and denounced free market ideas for allegedly bringing about “the maximization of death.”
The bombs, according to Petro, are allegedly being brandished by “racists, supremacists, those who stupidly believe that the Aryans are the superior race.”
“The control of humanity on the basis of barbarism is under construction and its demonstration is Gaza. When Gaza dies, humanity will die,” Petro said. “It turns out that God’s people were not Israel, nor the United States, but the whole of humanity and the children of Gaza were just that, humanity, God’s chosen people.”
“[Benjamin] Netanyahu is a hero for the richest one percent of humanity because he is able to show that peoples are destroyed under bombs,” he continued.
Petro, an ardent communist and member in his youth of the M19 Colombian Marxist guerrilla terrorist organization, cut diplomatic ties with Israel in May in response to Israel’s self-defense operations against the jihadist terrorists of Hamas. The rupture followed Petro publicly comparing Israel to Nazi Germany for entering Hamas-controlled Gaza to prevent the terrorists from repeating the atrocities of the October 7 attack against the country.
The far-left president ranted that “no one listens” to governments such as his that demand an end to the “genocide” in Gaza, the “decarbonization” of the world, and his proposal of debt forgiveness in exchange for climate action. Petro claimed that governments with “the power to destroy life” are the ones that are heard instead.
The Colombian far-left president also criticized the free market and accused “the richest one percent” of opposing the end of using oil and coal and advancing the “climate crisis.” Petro claimed that the ones leading humanity “to the destruction of the atmosphere and of life” are those who shout “Long live liberty, damn it!” – using the campaign slogan of President Javier Milei of neighboring Argentina, a fervent anti-communist.
“They [“the richest 1 percent”] pay for the campaigns, they own the media, they are the ones who hide the truth from science, as in the movie Don’t Look Up, they are the ones who say what is thought, what is said, and what should be banned and silenced,” Petro said.
Petro also accused the “global oligarchy” of “economically blockading rebel countries” such as Cuba and Venezuela. Petro notably did not condemn the regimes of those countries for their extensive track records of human rights violations against their own people.
The Colombian president also referred to socialism and asserted that its “red flag,” which did not find its place in history, must now be of “all colors.”
“That word socialism today has another meaning. People are strong if we help each other. It is the basis of socialism,” Petro said.
Petro concluded his speech by calling for a “world revolution” and stressing the need to “build the greatest army of all time, composed of warriors of life” to overthrow the “global oligarchy.”
“It is up to humanity to fight the battle. It is time for the people to take the problems into their own hands. We must turn to the people. New leaderships will appear; the oligarchy will be overthrown. A new history is about to begin,” he concluded.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
