The Colombian government has expelled Argentine embassy officials after Argentine President Javier Milei called his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro a “terrorist, murderer and communist” in a television interview.
“The Argentine president’s remarks not only insult the dignity of democratically elected President Petro, but also undermine the confidence of our nation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
Earlier this week, CNN en Espanol published excerpts of an interview in which Milei called Venezuela a “butcher’s shop” and Cuba an “island prison” and said Colombia was on a similar path to Petro.
“Not much can be expected from someone who was a murderer, a terrorist and a communist,” Milei said of Petro in the interview.
The ministry wrote that it was not the first time that Milei had insulted the Colombian president and “affected the historical relations” between the two countries. In the same interview, Milei also called Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ‘ignorant’ and argued that Israel ‘has not committed a single extremist act’, according to videos posted on CNN’s website.
Colombia’s foreign ministry said the decision would be communicated to the Argentine embassy through diplomatic channels. A spokesman for the Argentine embassy declined to comment.
