Outgoing Marxist President of Colombia Gustavo Petro triggered a new controversy over the weekend by writing “Heil Hitler” in response to a local opinion piece favorable to outsider conservative presidential frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella.
Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever and a proud former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist guerrilla, is in his last two months of office before he is term-limited out of returning to the presidency. Petro is known for causing international incidents regularly with his prolific use of social media that have, in some cases, evolved into full-blown diplomatic impasses with other countries, including the United States.
On Sunday, Petro wrote the “Heil Hitler” on social media. He wrote the Nazi Germany salute in response to an opinion piece published in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador by Colombian journalist Felipe Zuleta Lleras and written with the use of Google’s Gemini AI platform, titled, “Abelardo: The Surgeon Colombia Needs.” In the piece, Lleras wrote that he asked Google’s AI platform a question, and said, “Since I agree completely, I fully endorse its statement.”
The text lists statements in favor of voting for de la Espriella in the Sunday, June 21, runoff election between the outsider conservative and the far-left Senator Iván Cepeda, who is representing Petro’s ruling Historic Pact coalition in the race. The AI-generated list cites de la Espriella’s campaign promises such as slashing the size of the Colombian state, a tough stance against organized crime and drug trafficking, and de-regularization of the Colombian economy.
Petro’s message drew immediate condemnation from social media users as well as local and international politicians. Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned Petro in a brief social media post that read, “A total loss of moral compass and an indelible stain on Colombia’s legacy.”
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also condemned Petro’s use of the Nazi salute, and stressed, “Whatever is going on in your personal life, there are lines that must never be crossed.” The comment appears to be a reference to widespread rumors that Petro suffers from drug and/or alcohol addiction.
“Using Nazi slogans is a disgraceful low from which there is no coming back,” Danon wrote. “I hope you come to your senses and apologize before this Wednesday, when you are scheduled to preside over the debate at the United Nations Security Council.”
Colombia currently holds the United Nations Security Council’s rotating presidency for the month of June 2026. The South American nation’s two-year term at the Council is slated to expire at the end of 2027. Petro, in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel, compared the Jewish state’s self-defense operations with the genocide committed by Nazi Germany against Jews during World War II and the Holocaust. At the time, the far-left president followed his attacks against Israel with repeated antisemitic remarks which concluded with Colombia unilaterally cutting ties with Israel in May 2024.
Petro’s four-year term as president of Colombia is slated to end on August 7, the day when he will be succeeded by the winner of the June 21 runoff between de la Espriella and Cepeda. De la Espriella, a 47-year-old conservative lawyer and businessman endorsed by President Donald Trump, is the current frontrunner of the upcoming election after he obtained nearly 44 percent of the votes in the May 31 first round against Cepeda’s 40.9 percent.
Petro has repeatedly and publicly affirmed that he rejects the results of the May 31 election, claiming to be in possession of evidence that can allegedly demonstrate “fraud” committed against Iván Cepeda. Cepeda, however, has not only publicly stated that his campaign team has found no evidence of fraud against him or any other candidate, he recognized the results of the election a week later on Sunday.
Colombian outlets noted that Petro’s “Heil Hitler” message capped a string of controversial posts and rants issued by the Colombian president over the weekend. Hours after the Hitler post, Petro published a lengthy rant against de la Espriella’s vice presidential running mate, José Manuel Restrepo, accusing him of being a “right-wing extremist” for belonging to the Catholic faith, the largest religious group in Colombia. Petro referred to Restrepo incorrectly as “Juan.”
In another equally long rant, Petro, sharing a clip of Colombian journalist Felipe Zuleta Lleras who wrote the opinion piece he responded to with “Heil Hitler,” described the journalist as an “old liberal, who claimed to be homosexual and free,” affirming that the journalist “will tremble when homosexuals are hunted down in the streets and the prisons are filled with innocent people.”
On Friday night, Petro published a message that read, “Dignity or nostalgia for slave-owning noblemen.” He accompanied the text with two photos of Colombian national soccer team member Yerry Mina — one of which was taken during the team’s “awkward” 2026 FIFA World Cup sendoff ceremony last week led by Petro. The Colombian magazine Semana reported that Mina’s Instagram account was “flooded” with racist messages after Petro published his photo.
President Petro has no possibility of running for president ever again as Colombian presidents are constitutionally barred from serving beyond one four-year term.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.