Miley calls Petro a “killer communist” and Colombia calls its ambassador to Argentina for consultations

Javier Miley doesn’t bite his tongue when describing his counterpart Gustavo Petro. “He is a killer communist who is sinking Colombia,” he answered without hesitation to the Colombian journalist Angela Patricia Zeniot in an interview that spread like wildfire on social networks this Friday and brought Colombia to Buenos Aires. I was forced to call my ambassador immediately. While ideologically opposed, the two presidents have been on a collision course for some time, and the words of the far-right only confirm this.

“Those who attack us do not know what communism is or what socialism is,” Petro said this Friday during an event in the Pacific, where his government this week hit back at Miley without naming him. . “We believe and want the means of production to be in the hands of the people, not in the hands of the state,” he said in a didactic tone in reference to the discussion about the port of Buenaventura.

“On behalf of the Government of Colombia, I present my most energetic protest against the insulting and irresponsible statements of the President of the Argentine Republic,” first responded Colombia’s Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, who later reconciled his silence with that message. Broke. Suspended this week by the Attorney General’s Office. “President Meili’s words ignore and violate the deep ties of friendship, understanding and cooperation that have historically united Colombia and Argentina and which have grown stronger over two centuries,” the Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.

Argentinian Ambassador Camilo Romero supported him, saying, “Miley is a hypocrite.” “Today he asks our government for approval for his new ambassador to Colombia, he is President Gustavo Petro is a murderer,” reminding that he had previously attacked Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and even Pope Francisco. , “We may think differently, but the historical brotherhood of the region and our people must transcend differences.”

In any case, it was not a completely unexpected encounter. A few days before the second round, which elevated Miley, Petro, the first leftist president of contemporary Colombia, had asked on social networks to vote for his opponent, the Peronist Sergio Massa. He then commented, “Miley returns us Pinochet and Videla,” in reference to the military dictatorships of Augusto Pinochet (1974–1990) in Chile and Jorge Rafael Videla (1976–1981) in Argentina. “Argentina defeated barbarism. This is a moment of hope. You choose between barbarism and hope. Congratulations to the Argentine people,” he wrote after the results of the first round, in which Massa finished in first place.

Earlier, at the start of the campaign, Petro had also compared Miley to Adolf Hitler, after the extreme leader said socialist politicians were “trash, human feces”. Miley replied to him and has since made clear the gulf that separates them. “As a socialist nothing surprises me, they are part of the decline. We liberals are very troubled by this, because we expose them,” he announced at the time.

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The two leaders represent opposing political projects on countless issues, as was evident in Miley’s premiere at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) this month. The contradiction has been eloquent. Argentines hailed businessmen as heroes, saying “capitalism is the only tool to end hunger and poverty on the planet,” while Colombians repeatedly invoked the role of the state to correct inequalities. Miley also attacked those who warn about the dangers of climate change, while Petrou, a convinced environmentalist, has been very critical of capitalism at Davos. In his debut at the World Economic Forum a year ago, the Colombian advocated ending dependence on oil and coal for a rapid energy transition. “We are approaching the point of no return, and where no return means the extinction of life,” he then warned dramatically.

Argentina’s insult to his Colombian counterpart, as well as his attack against “communism” in Davos, have exposed Miley, who appeared complacent after his presidential victory. While being dogmatic about his economic positions and about international politics, Miley did not ignore any enemies during the campaign: he called Pope Francis a “dirty leftist”, said he was “communists” in countries like China and Brazil. “Will not trade with” – Argentina’s main trading partners described its neighbor, Chile’s Gabriel Boric – with whom he spoke kind words in this week’s interview – as “poor”, and the region’s most important economic Threatened to dissolve the coalition Mercosur.

Coming to the presidency was a shock of reality. After several disagreements, his government reached out to China once again to resolve differences, kept the last Peronist government ambassador to Brasília in his post due to good relations with Lula, confirmed that he would meet the Pope in Rome in mid- do. February, and their chancellor has just returned to Buenos Aires from the Mercosur Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, where the priority of the meeting, according to an Argentine Foreign Ministry statement, was “to strengthen the integration process.” But anyone who expected some restraint against Petro was wrong.

Miley has been somewhat more pragmatic as president than on the campaign trail, but he has nonetheless been involved in Argentina’s “return to the world” while seeking to prioritize relations with the United States, where the Biden government would Because of this she looks at them with distrust. Praise for the former President. By contrast, Petro has been a standard-bearer for the Palestinian cause – with Donald Trump, and Israel, which is facing a delicate moment in the eyes of the world due to its aggression in the Gaza Strip. His most obvious move was to resign from the previous government and refuse to join BRICS, the economic alliance led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, despite the fact that it is an open source of international financing for a country. There was a door. There is a very dire need. Argentina in crisis.

Petro’s insult did not receive much airplay in Argentina as the President was embroiled in another controversy. Being a minority in Congress, Miley wants to give way to a part of the opposition to get his state reforms approved. His favorite tactic is to threaten provincial governments with cuts to federal funds, hoping that Congress will back down. At a cabinet meeting this week he even said, “I’ll leave them penniless, I’ll melt them all,” according to a report, which cost the minister who reportedly leaked his threat to the press. Was. Work.

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