Milei Lashes Out Against Petro, Again

New statements have been made by the Argentine president, Javier Milei, against the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro. In a recent interview by the media outlet NTN24, the Argentine head of state once again lashed out against Gustavo Petro, whom he holds responsible for “sinking Colombians”, as he declared to Colombian cable TV.

In response, the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a press release expressing “its forceful and energetic rejection of the statements” of the Argentine politician. Disagreements and polemic statements between the two antagonistic regional presidents are becoming usual since the Argentinean broke into politics and became president of his country last December.

U.S. right wing forum

Last weekend’s incident is the second of its kind in a month. In the last clash, of the same nature as the first one, President Milei said that Petro “is sinking Colombians, that is, he is a lethal plague for Colombians themselves”, in a new display of verbal excess from the Argentine far-right politician.

Milei participated this Saturday in National Harbor (Maryland, United States) in the annual convention of the US right-wing CPAC, an event in which he was in the presence of former US President Donald Trump, whom he had greeted previously. The forum was attended by far-right leaders from across the globe and dealt with issues such as “gender ideology”, “woke culture” and “climate dictatorship”.

At the end of his speech, the Argentine president, who referred to Petro as “a murderous communist who is sinking” the country a month ago, which caused a crisis in the countries’ bilateral relationship, was approached by a journalist from NTN24 who asked him about this situation and what he would say now to his Colombian counterpart.

CPAC has gone from being the most important conservative convention in the United States, where the ideas of the political right-wing were debated, to an event to praise the unique figure of former President Donald Trump. With the participation of far-right leaders from various countries, the statements heard at this year’s CPAC even alluded to the attempted takeover of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The slogan of this year’s conference clears all doubts: “Where globalism comes to die”, a harangue that completes the usual Trumpist lexicon, with criticisms, not only from the speaker, of environmentalism, immigration, woke culture and fake news.

Diplomatic response

Whereas a month ago Colombia recalled its ambassador in Buenos Aires, Camilo Romero, for consultations, this time it has limited itself to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There, it rejects the “disrespectful statements that are presented repeatedly, which damage the historical ties of friendship between the two nations and represent an offense to the dignity of the President of the Republic of Colombia democratically elected by the people of Colombia.”

After the controversial statements of the president of Argentina, his Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, far from lowering the tension, insisted on reinforcing the words of the president of his country on the same platform. “If President Petro expects President Milei to apologize to him, let him sit down, because he is not going to apologize to him.”

For now, Colombia has addressed these new defiant statements of the Argentinean president, who again verbally charged against the first Colombian leftist president, established as a referent of this political thought in South America.

What seems to be materializing, likewise, is the Argentinean president’s need to repeatedly confront and hurl biting criticism at his ideological enemies, which in the region are embodied by the Colombian president. Milei himself is facing a wave of protests in his country, following his government’s harsh economic rules imposed on the weakened national economy, as well as the slimming down of the state.