Crossing of criticism between Milei, Petro and López Obrador deepens the distance between the leaders

President Javier Milei justified this Thursday the attacks he directed at his Colombian counterpart, which have generated a diplomatic dispute between both countries, alleging that some time ago Gustavo Petro compared him to Adolf Hitler.

Along the same lines, Milei wrote a message referring to the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador with whom he also has a tense relationship.

Strong qualifications

“I’ll leave you with some things that Petro told me,” Milei said in a publication on X, formerly Twitter, in which he posted journalistic articles that echoed the comparison made in September by the leftist Colombian president.

Policy

Diplomatic tension. Petro announced that he expects an official apology and López Obrador targeted Milei on the networks

On that occasion Milei, who was a presidential candidate, had attacked socialism, stating to the press that a socialist “is trash” and “a human excrement.” Petro reacted on his social networks with three words in response to the statements of the leader of La Libertad Avanza: “This is what Hitler said.”

Relations between the two were strained to the maximum after Milei attacked Petro in an interview with CNN that will be broadcast in full this Sunday. In some previews released, the Argentine president said about his Colombian counterpart that “not much can be expected from someone who was a terrorist murderer,” in reference to his past as a member of a Colombian guerrilla group.

Colombian official reaction

In protest of these statements, the Colombian government ordered the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine embassy on Wednesday, without clarifying who will be subject to the measure.

The Colombian Foreign Ministry stressed in a statement that this is not the first time that Milei has offended Petro, which has “deteriorated the trust of our nation, in addition to offending the president’s dignity.”

He added that the expulsion of the diplomats will be communicated to the neighboring country through “institutional channels.”

In a previous statement in January, the libertarian called Petro “a murderous communist” who “is sinking” his country, which caused the Colombian government to call the Colombian ambassador in Argentina for consultations.

Against López Obrador

“Here is one of AMLO’s many attacks,” Milei posted on Thursday along with a press reference to the statements that the Mexican president addressed to him in November, when he called him a “conservative facho.”

López Obrador responded ironically to Milei this Thursday. In a brief message from his his countryman (Pope) Francis of being a ‘communist’ and ‘representative of the evil one on earth’.”

It is not the first time that López Obrador criticizes the Argentine president. After his victory in the November elections, the Mexican ruler came to compare him with the former dictators Jorge Rafael Videla of Argentina, Francisco Franco of Spain and the Chilean Augusto Pinochet.

Nuances and internal criticism

Argentine presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni attempted to lower tensions with Colombia in an interview Wednesday night with cable channel Todo Noticias. “We always appeal that the differences, of an abysmal distance between the ideology of Petro and that of Milei, do not affect the relationship between the peoples.”

Former president Alberto Fernández stated in his X account that “the derogatory and disqualifying way in which the Argentine president expresses himself about presidents legitimately elected by their people and who are recognized leaders throughout Latin America is absolutely inadmissible.”