U.S. Officials Told Colombia to Cancel President’s Meeting With Mamdani

A meeting scheduled for this week between President Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York was called off after U.S. diplomats told Colombia’s government that the move could violate the terms under which Mr. Petro was being permitted to enter the United States, Colombian and American officials said.

The U.S. State Department canceled Mr. Petro’s visa last fall, and he only had a limited travel allowance to attend a U.N. Security Council Meeting on Wednesday — any other activities outside that meeting were not allowed, the officials said.

Colombian officials said they agreed to cancel the meeting, which was scheduled for Friday, after officials at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, contacted Colombia’s foreign ministry.

While foreign heads of state typically have visas that let them freely enter the United States, the U.S. State Department canceled Mr. Petro’s visa after he appeared at a pro-Palestinian rally in Manhattan in September and, denouncing U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, called on U.S. soldiers to disobey presidential orders.

The cancellation followed a series of tense standoffs between Mr. Petro, an avowed leftist, and the Trump administration.

The New York City Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, the State Department said, “As the secretary has said, a visa is a privilege not a right. Any individual’s U.S. visa is at risk of revocation if they visit America and outrageously implore U.S. soldiers to disobey orders of the duly elected president of the United States. Despite President Trump’s efforts to find common ground, the same individual continues with this kind of behavior.”

Along with losing his visa, Mr. Petro has faced other penalties. The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on him after he characterized the U.S. boat strikes on vessels said to be carrying drugs off the coast of South America as “murder.”

The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors had also initiated criminal investigations into Mr. Petro over possible drug-trafficking ties, a claim he has forcefully denied.

While the two leaders’ relationship had taken a friendlier turn earlier this year, with a phone call and a White House meeting from which they had emerged smiling, Mr. Petro has recently reverted to making fiery speeches against the U.S. president.

Last week, Mr. Trump endorsed the right-wing candidate in Colombia’s presidential election, who is facing a senator from Mr. Petro’s party in a runoff later this month, inciting Mr. Petro’s anger.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials last year objected to Mr. Petro’s participation at the rally in New York during the period around the United Nations General Assembly.

Mr. Rubio has tried to revoke visas and green cards related to pro-Palestinian protests and, in one notable case, the writing of an opinion article for a student newspaper. Federal judges have ruled that he and the Trump administration have violated the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, assembly and the press, in these episodes.

At the United Nations on Wednesday, Mr. Petro spoke about the boat strikes and said that Colombia believes “the state of Palestine should be free and sovereign.”

In New York, a person familiar with Mr. Petro’s planned meeting with the mayor said Mr. Mamdani was going to hold a public forum with the Colombian president at a university on Friday, where they would discuss governing with a focus on working people, rising income inequality and protecting democracy.

Mr. Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor has been open in his support of pro-Palestinian protesters, was to have a brief private meeting with Mr. Petro. Last week, as the city was preparing to publicly announce the event, Colombian officials canceled, saying that Mr. Petro would have to leave the country earlier than expected.

City officials did not speak to State Department officials, the person familiar with the meeting said.