Marxist former President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Thursday bid farewell to his term in power with an Artificial Intelligence-generated animated video proclaiming, “And we are going to return.”
Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever, concluded his four-year term on Friday, August 7. The same day, Colombia’s new conservative president, Abelardo de la Espriella, began his presidency in a ceremony held on Friday afternoon in the city of Cali.
Late on Thursday night, during the final hours of his administration, the now-former president — a vocal advocate for the legalization of cocaine and a former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist group — published an AI-generated video on his social media accounts that appears to summarize specific moments and “achievements” in his far-left presidency. The video features wool felt doll characters, one of which resembles Petro.
Although the video published by Petro contains Spanish-language subtitles, significant portions of the animation’s garbled “speech” sound inaudible and unintelligible. The audible portions containing Petro’s voice appear to have been taken from speeches delivered by the former president over the past years.
The video begins with the Petro-looking character receiving the Colombian presidential sash before an audio snippet proclaiming, “My name is Gustavo Petro, and I am your president” is heard. The audio clip appears to have been taken from the former president’s victory speech in June 2022.
The video continues with the former president’s character walking alongside a group of indigenous people before the “Petro” doll is seen “helping” a fisherman who thanks him for giving him land. The “Petro” figure then shares a meal with characters dressed as Colombian military officials who thank him for giving them a better minimum wage. Immediately afterwards, the video shows the former president’s likeness expressing that his government gave a “historic budget” for education.
The video then cuts to what appears to be a reference to Petro’s unhinged September 2025 speech at the United Nations General Assembly. The “Petro” character, wearing a similar white shirt to the one Petro wore at the U.N., proclaims, “There is no superior race, gentlemen, the chosen people of God is all of humanity,” a phrase Petro said during his U.N. speech.
The next segment of the video appears to reference Petro’s 2025 May Day speech during which he, wearing a red jacket and white gloves, unsheathed a sword that belonged to Venezuelan founding father Simón Bolívar. At the event, Petro and his followers also raised the “flag of War to the Death,” briefly hoisted by Venezuela over 200 years ago during its war of independence against Spanish colonial rule. Petro co-opted both the heirloom sword and the historic flag for his own political use. The now-former president ordered the return of Simón Bolívar’s sword to a museum in Bogotá in late July. The sword was famously stolen by Petro’s M19 terrorist group in 1974 until it was eventually returned to the Colombian state.
The video concludes with the likeness of the former president surrounded by other figures as he raises a book of his leftist reform projects and animal protection laws, as well as an elderly figure who “thanks” him for raising his pension.
Towards the end of the video, Petro’s voice is heard saying, “This is Gustavo Petro speaking, and I was your president,” a phrase he said during a rally ahead of the June presidential runoff election between President Abelardo de la Espriella and far-left Senator Iván Cepeda.
A chant is also heard in the background: “And he will return, and he will return, Gustavo Petro will return.”
Gustavo Petro is term-limited and unable to run for president of Colombia ever again. The Colombian constitution explicitly states that an elected president and vice president may only serve for one four-year term and cannot be reelected. Petro, however, has repeatedly insisted — without evidence — that “algorithmic fraud” was allegedly committed during the June presidential runoff, and has repeatedly refused to acknowledge President Abelardo de la Espriella’s victory.
Former President Petro’s four-year presidency was marked by a myriad of controversies and numerous diplomatic incidents single-handedly started by Petro — including, but not limited to, proclaiming that cocaine is “less harmful” than whiskey, several threats against President Donald Trump, and numerous social media controversies and unhinged speeches.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.