Bogota —
The Colombian government ordered the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine embassy in Bogotá, this after a series of insults by the Argentine president, Javier Milei, against his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, whom he classified as a “terrorist murderer.”
The Colombian Foreign Ministry detailed in a statement that “on behalf of the government of Colombia, it repudiates statements made by Mr. Javier Milei, president of Argentina, in an interview with the channel CNN in which he expresses himself in a degrading manner against the first president of Colombians, the respected Mr. Gustavo Petro.”
“This is not the first time that Mr. Milei offends the Colombian president, affecting the historic relations of brotherhood between Colombia and Argentina,” mentions the Colombian Foreign Ministry.
In this sense, the Foreign Ministry points out that “the Government of Colombia orders the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine embassy in Colombia”, without specifying which officials will have to leave the country.
The Colombian Foreign Office added that “the scope of this decision will be communicated to the Argentine Embassy through diplomatic institutional channels.”
This is not the first time that Colombia has raised its voice in protest over the words of the Argentine president about his Colombian counterpart. On January 26, Bogotá called its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations, after Milei referred to Petro as “a murderous communist who is sinking Colombia.”
On that occasion, the Foreign Ministry expressed its most “strong protest against the disrespectful and irresponsible statements of the President of the Argentine Republic, Mr. Javier Milei, against President Gustavo Petro, during an interview with the journalist Ángela Patricia Janiot, in the program “What happened to what happened?”
A month later, on February 24, Colombia once again rejected the statements of the Argentine president, who referred to Petro as “a plague,” classifying them as “disrespectful” and “reiterative,” pointing out that his words “deteriorate the historical ties of friendship between the two nations.”
The Argentine government has not commented on Bogotá’s decision to expel the Argentine delegation, following this new crisis in relations between Petro and Milei, which have never been good, but which is the first time they have reached this level of crisis. since the expulsion order of diplomatic personnel is an unprecedented measure by the Colombian government.
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