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

Clau O'Brien Moscoso
Bolivia in Crisis pt 2: In Conversation with Evo Morales
10 June 2026
In a Black Agenda Report exclusive on May 29, 2026, former Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma spoke with correspondent Clau O’Brien
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
Cuba will not surrender! Cuba persists and resists! And that persistence is intolerable to the empire!
10 June 2026
Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of
Carlos Martinez
Siege Socialism or Barbarism: Why We Must Stand with Cuba
10 June 2026
Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are astounding, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it loo
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Denial is Not a River in Egypt, or in Venezuela
03 June 2026
The U.S. regime change plot against Venezuela succeeded and created a puppet state.
David Escobar
Colombia: An ethical revolution (with a grassroots focus) / Una revolución ética (con acento popular)
03 June 2026
Colombia's presidential election will be held on June 21st as Historic Pact candidate Ivan Cepeda runs against the Trump endorsed right wing ca
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SPEECH: Statement at the 19th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, 1964
27 May 2026
“Cuba ...
Hanna Eid
Imperialism and the Arab World: An Interview with Tara Alami
27 May 2026
Compliant Arab regimes spent decades spreading anti-Iran propaganda, but the current assault on Iran is shattering those lies.
Elías Jaua , Federico Fuentes
Former Chávez VP: Venezuela Needs a New ‘struggle for liberation’
27 May 2026
A former vice-president who served with Hugo Chávez provides analysis on what he calls neo-colonial control and coercion the U.S.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Betrayal in Venezuela
20 May 2026
Venezuela’s betrayal of Alex Saab in handing him over to the U.S. leaves little room for debate.
Tamanisha J. John
Annexationist Chauvinism: There is No Justification for the Venezuela-Guyana Essequibo Border Dispute
20 May 2026
The Essequibo dispute benefits Exxon Mobil and the Pentagon while crushing anti-imperialist solidarity.

More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Palestine Question: Background and Solution, Edward Atiyah, 1946
    20 May 2026
    “It is impossible to make a national home for one people in a country inhabited by another, except by dislodging the latter.”
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    That Sunday morning Mom cried …
    20 May 2026
    "That Sunday morning Mom cried …" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Tamanisha J. John
    Annexationist Chauvinism: There is No Justification for the Venezuela-Guyana Essequibo Border Dispute
    20 May 2026
    The Essequibo dispute benefits Exxon Mobil and the Pentagon while crushing anti-imperialist solidarity.
  • Roger Harris , Sara Flounders
    Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
    20 May 2026
    The same week Cuba mobilized millions to defend its revolution, the White House imposed even more illegal measures in an effort to strangle the country into submission.
  • Nicholas Mwangi
    Police tear gas and arrest protesters at France-Africa counter summit in Nairobi
    20 May 2026
    Organizers, activists, intellectuals, and international delegates were arrested in Nairobi during an anti-imperialist protest against the France–Africa Summit, which critics have described as an…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us