It was supposed to be New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani’s first meeting with a foreign leader, but President Donald Trump canceled a planned meeting between Mamdani and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a fellow democratic socialist. The Washington Post reported that the Colombian government quietly canceled the meeting, prompted by the U.S. government. The report cited two people familiar with the matter as saying that U.S. and Colombian officials held a meeting in Bogota, where State Department officials made it clear that this week’s contacts were unacceptable.Petro, who once posted “Heil Hitler” in a column supporting a right-wing presidential candidate, came to New York to attend a United Nations event, but a private meeting with Mamdani was canceled.“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” the State Department official said. “Anyone who visits the United States and shamelessly pleads with American soldiers to disobey the orders of the duly elected President of the United States will risk having their U.S. visa revoked.”They said if Petro met Mamdani, he would violate visa restrictions imposed on him after he criticized U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.Colombia holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council this June. Although the Trump administration revoked Petro’s visa last year over his public comments, it still allowed him to travel to the United Nations for his duties as host of the United Nations headquarters. Mamdani and Petro plan to hold a private bilateral meeting followed by a public event.“People don’t have to recognize, as Gustavo Petro did, that he’s not in the same category as these leaders,” Colombia expert Adam Isaacson told the Washington Post. He added, “If this is a new precedent for world leaders criticizing this administration for cutting short U.N. visits, then they won’t come again.”“He’s not a dictator — his term ends in two months,” Isaacson said of Petro. “It appears he is being punished for his crime of criticizing the Trump administration.”
