President Gustavo Petro was very active on social media over the weekend with statements that escalated to an international diplomatic level. One of the most critical points was the posting of the phrase “Heil Hitler” on his X account.
This message was a response to an opinion column by journalist Felipe Zuleta Lleras titled “Colombia doesn’t need more rhetoric; it needs order, authority, and economic freedom.” The allusion to the Nazi regime provoked immediate outrage.
“Heil Hitler” (in English, “Hail Hitler” or “Long Live Hitler”) was a salute and political slogan used in Nazi Germany to express absolute loyalty and obedience to dictator Adolf Hitler.
For this very reason, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, strongly criticized the use of that expression, calling it a “shameful disgrace” and unacceptable conduct. He also demanded a public apology before Gustavo Petro’s trip to New York to attend the UN Security Council session, during Colombia’s rotating presidency this month.
According to Israeli diplomacy, the Colombian president crossed a line by resorting to symbols associated with the Holocaust and World War II. However, Petro did not remain silent and continued trying to promote his idea, without evidence, of possible “fraud.”
In response to political scientist Sandra Borda, who questioned then-candidate Iván Cepeda’s acceptance of the election results eight days after the first round, the head of state replied: “I never accepted the results of the April 19, 1970 elections, and much later several of those involved confessed to it. That fraud led us to take up arms and create the M-19, which, through its peace process, changed the Constitution in a Constituent Assembly.”
Later, the president again used his Twitter account to reiterate this narrative. In another message, he stated: “I didn’t belong to any guerrilla group, but rather to an army of Bolívar.”
Under that logic, Petro argued that his participation in the M-19 should not be classified as guerrilla warfare, but as a “commitment to the principles that gave rise to the 1991 Constitution,” which, according to him, he helped to build after the repeal of the 1886 Constitution, which he described as “archaic.”
