Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the Trump administration of revoking his travel visa to the US. “I can no longer go because I believe they took away my visa,” he said of his non-participation in the 2025 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) taking place in Washington D.C. from April 21 to 26.
Viciously targetting US President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting in Bogota, he said, “I didn’t need to have one, but anyway, I’ve already seen Donald Duck several times, so I’ll go see other things.”
How the State Department responded to Colombian president’s alleged travel visa revocation
The US State Department diplomatically steered clear of the situation, citing confidentiality. Without confirming or denying Petro’s accusations, a spokesperson for the government department told the New York Post, “Visa records confidential under US law; therefore, we cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases.”
Similarly, a US Embassy official in Bogota told a local news service that “no formal notification of visa revocation” had been issued, as per the Independent.
US vs Colombia: Tariffs, visa sanctions and more threats
A trade war nearly erupted between the US and Colombia earlier this year after the latter country’s president blocked the landing of two military planes carrying Colombians deported from America. The Trump administration’s threat of punitive tariff imposition on Colombian imports initially prompted Gustavo Petro to ramp up retaliation by imposing levies on US goods.
However, the White House eventually announced a victory lap when the deported Colombian nationals were finally accepted into the country. The initial denial was fuelled by the beliefs that Colombians being transported back to their origin country were being treated like criminals despite the lack of any convictions. “The U.S. must establish a protocol of dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them,” Petro said on X at the time.
“A migrant is not a criminal and should be treated with the dignity a human being deserves,” he added. “We will receive our nationals in civilian airplanes, without treating them as criminals. Colombia must be respected.”
In addition to the tariff threats, Trump’s retaliatory measures doubled down on potential “Visa Sanctions on all Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Government,” and a “Travel Ban and immediate Visa Revocations [for] Colombian Government Officials, and all Allies and Supporters.”
Ultimately, the January fiasco threatened hundreds of visa appointments’ status following cancellations at the US Embassy in Colombia over the deportation flights dispute. Applicants were notified of the same through letters, saying that the cancelled appointment were “due to the Colombian government’s refusal to accept repatriation flights of Colombian nationals,” according to the Associated Press.
When Colombia finally gave in, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again.”