After Javier Milei called Colombia’s president a terrorist killer, countries try to repair relations | World

Colombia expels Argentine diplomats after Javier Milei insults Gustavo Petro

Argentina and Colombia stated, in a joint statement published on Sunday (31), that they are making efforts to repair frayed diplomatic relations, following comments by Argentine President, Javier Milei, which offended Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Argentina and Colombia published a joint note in which they stated that “the respective governments have taken concrete steps to overcome any differences and strengthen this relationship.”

In addition, the return of the respective ambassadors of both countries was determined (last week, the Colombian government expelled all Argentine diplomats from Colombia in response to Milei’s comments).

In an interview with CNN, Milei called the Colombian president, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement, a “murderous terrorist.” Milei was referring to the past of M-19, which became an armed group.

The Colombian government responded by expelling Argentine diplomats from the Bogotá embassy on Wednesday (27). At the time, the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a statement in which it stated that it repudiated Milei’s statements that offended “the dignity of President Petro, who was democratically elected.”

This is the second incident between Argentina and Colombia since Milei took office in December last year.

In January, Milei referred to Petro as “a murderous communist” and that the Colombian was “sinking” his country.

At the time, the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement saying that the Argentine’s statements were disrespectful, irresponsible and hurt Petro’s honor.

Colombia also summoned its ambassador to Argentina for consultations (in the diplomatic world, this is a way of signaling dissatisfaction with the actions of another country).