On April 20, President Biden welcomed his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, to a meeting in the Oval Office. Biden thanked Petro for his “outspoken and strong commitment to peace and human rights,” while Petro emphasized that “democracy, freedom, and peace” are common interests for both administrations. Unfortunately for the Colombian people, these claims are gravely mistaken. Gustavo Petro has always been and remains an apologist for terrorist violence, a defender of naked authoritarianism, and a threat to freedom and the rule of law. Biden’s failure to treat him accordingly, whether out of ignorance, carelessness, or malice, does a great disservice to all Colombians who actually hold the values he claims to espouse.
As I have written elsewhere, Petro’s political life dates back to the late 1970s, when he joined the nationalist and socialist April 19 Movement (M-19) terrorist organization. M-19 was responsible for seizing Colombia’s Palace of Justice in 1985 in collaboration with Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel, a deeply traumatic episode for the nation that caused the deaths of 100 innocent people, including half of the country’s sitting supreme-court judges. While M-19 was demobilized and its members pardoned in 1990, Petro has not atoned for his role in it. During his failed presidential run in 2018, he proudly tweeted an image of the M-19 banner on a mast at one of his rallies, claiming that there was “nothing to fear in Colombia’s best ideas.” Indeed, during his meeting with Biden, Petro claimed, with a broad grin on his face, that April 19 was a very important day for Colombia, for Latin America, and for himself, vindicating the founding myth of a terrorist organization from the comfort of the White House.
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