Bogotá, Colombia – Colombian President Gustavo Petro railed against Donald Trump at a preliminary meeting of the COP30 climate summit today, accusing him of being “against mankind” and comparing his immigration policy to that of “the Nazis.”
The Colombian president took issue with his U.S. counterpart’s absence from the summit on climate change, a phenomenon Trump recently described as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, has become increasingly isolated on the world stage in recent weeks after clashing with Trump, who imposed harsh sanctions on the Colombian last month, calling him “an illegal drug dealer” and a “thug.”
Addressing some 60 heads of state at a summit prior to COP30’s official start on Monday, Petro said: “Today, Mr. Trump is literally against mankind. By not coming here, he proves it.”
“He personally denies science and is leading his society blindly toward the abyss,” continued Petro.
During his term Petro has been a vocal critic of climate change; in 2023, he halted fossil fuel exploration and became the first leader of a major oil and coal producing nation to sign a treaty calling for an end to their use.
Last year, his government outlined a US$40 billion blueprint to phase out fossil fuels in Colombia, which counts coal and petroleum among its most important exports.
However, Colombia continues to export oil and coal and most leading presidential candidates running to replace him next year support fossil fuel production.
Other world leaders also took aim at the White House’s climate skepticism, with Brazilian host President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticizing “extremist forces that fabricate fake news and are condemning future generations to life on a planet altered forever by global warming.”
But Petro went further, taking the opportunity to lash out at Trump on a range of issues, from the White House’s ongoing military campaign in the Caribbean to its immigration policy.
“They continue, these anti-immigrant policies modeled on those of the Nazis carried out against our peoples in the United States,” said the Colombian president.
He also used the speech to condemn Trump for adding him to the “Clinton list” of organizations and individuals involved in terrorism and narcotrafficking, which banned him from the U.S. and froze his assets in the country.
“[I] have been deemed by Trump to be a narcotrafficking leader when in my personal life – at the risk of losing it – I have been the primary champion of the fight against drug trafficking in Colombia,” said Petro in his speech.
The White House accuses Petro of personally overseeing narcotrafficking in Colombia, a claim for which it has not provided evidence.
Later this week, the Colombian leader is due to host EU and Latin American delegates at the EU-CELAC conference, despite several high-profile European leaders pulling out, potentially to avoid irking president Trump.
Featured image description: Gustavo Petro at the COP30 summit.
Image credit: @InfoPresidencia via X.
This article originally appeared on The Bogotá Post and was re-published with permission.
