Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

U.S. Takes Aim at President Gustavo Petro, but He's Akin to a Rock Star in Colombia
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Dan Kovalik
25 Mar 2026
🖨️ Print Article

All eyes are now fixed on the US-Israeli War on Iran, so there's been little attention to US moves to undermine Colombian President Gustavo Petro. These could, at worst, see Petro in a US prison alongside Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the US kidnapped on January 3rd. I spoke to attorney and author Dan Kovalik, President Petro’s legal representative in the US and in international courts. We agreed that, as peace and justice activists, we need to understand this as another front in a global war to crush dissidence and re-establish the hegemony of neoliberalism and US empire. He said that President Petro is akin to a rock star in Colombia where huge crowds turn out to meet him in public.

Ann Garrison is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann@anngarrison.com. You can help support her work on Patreon.

Daniel Kovalik is a lawyer focusing particularly on human rights and a prolific author. He taught International Human Rights Law at the University of Pittsburgh from 2012-2023. His most recent books are "The Case for Palestine: Why it Matters and Why You Should Care," and "Syria: Anatomy of a Regime Change."

Colombia
Gustavo Petro
Venezuela
Nicolas Maduro
Neoliberalism
imperialism
Latin America

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: O.A.S., Roque Dalton, circa 1970
28 October 2026
“The President of the United States is more/ the President of my country/ than the President of my country.”
Francy Natalia Mosquera Garcia , Caroline Shenaz Hossein
Afro-Colombian Women and the Making of the Black Social Economy
28 October 2026
Colombia's constitution recognizes Black communities as collective rights-holders, but extractivism and dispossession have undermined
Ricardo Vaz
Western Media Accept Trump’s Plundering of Venezuelan Oil as Business as Usual
28 October 2026
Venezuelanalysis editor Ricardo Vaz exposes how the media establishment presents no principled opposition to the imperialist predation of Venez
Geraldina Colotti
Lula wins in Brazil, but the far right won’t back down
28 October 2026
Lula's narrow runoff victory over Flávio Bolsonaro preserved Brazil as one of the last bulwarks against the far right in Latin America, a victo
Jacqueline Luqman
The World Rises Up Against the U.S. Neoliberal Order
21 October 2026
The protests spreading across Spain, India, France, Chile, and other countries are responses to the global neoliberal order of auster
Belen Fernandez
Israel’s Lebanese Land Grab
21 October 2026
Under the guise of a farcical “pilot zone” project to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, Israel is pursuing a scorched-earth strategy whi
Joshua Reaves Charmelus
At the "Foro Internacional Por La Paz," delegates from around the world demand an end to US Interference in Latin America
21 October 2026
Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Honduras, Peru, and Costa Rica have all elected right-wing presidents in the past year, and most are open T
Orinoco Tribune
Colombia’s First National Strike Against De la Espriella Met With Police Crackdown
21 October 2026
Thousands of people took to the streets across Colombia on Wednesday in the first national strike against President Abelardo de la Espriella’s
Issa G Shivji
Positioning Pan-Africanism In The Geopolitical Turmoil
21 October 2026
As we are experiencing a world order in disorder, with war and conflagrations and a shifting balance of power, Issa Shivji calls for a Sovereig
Stephen Millies
Don’t Let Them Kill Cilia Flores!
14 October 2026
While Trump pardoned an actual drug lord president, he keeps a kidnapped Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, First Combatant Ce

More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Matthieu Chapman’s Book, “Shattered”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Matthieu Chapman’s Book, “Shattered”
    12 Jul 2023
    This week’s featured author is Matthieu Chapman. Chapman is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz and the Literary Director of NY Classical…
  • The History Of Affirmative Action Exposes Its Reactionary Weaknesses
    Jacqueline Luqman
    The History Of Affirmative Action Exposes Its Reactionary Weaknesses
    12 Jul 2023
    Affirmative action began as a reparations program but ends as a "diversity" project which barely benefits Black people.
  • Peru’s Black Misleadership Class Complicit with Coup Regime and International Far Right
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Peru’s Black Misleadership Class Complicit with Coup Regime and International Far Right
    12 Jul 2023
    The U.S. isn't the only country with a duplicitous Black political class. The coup government in Peru has Black "leaders" who protect and defend the right wing who ousted an elected president and…
  • Kenya Committing Atrocities in Somalia with US Backing
    Jamal Abdulahi
    Kenya Committing Atrocities in Somalia with US Backing
    12 Jul 2023
    The US "war on terror" brought nothing but terror to the Horn of Africa. Kenya is a US client state which has spent years destabilizing Somalia under the guise of fighting terrorism.
  • Mourning Mutulu Shakur and the Black Radical Tradition that Modernized America
    Jon Jeter
    Mourning Mutulu Shakur and the Black Radical Tradition that Modernized America
    12 Jul 2023
    The late Mutulu Shakur and other Black radicals were responsible for improving the lives of millions of people in the U.S. The counter revolution ended that period of progress, but the political…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us