Petro’s Controversial Statements on Israeli Attacks and Nazism: The President’s Publications Spark International Debate

2023-10-14 09:43:00
The president’s publications Gustavo Petro through platform controversy at national and international levelThe Colombian president compared the destruction caused by the Israeli attacks on Gaza City – in response to the surprise attack on Israel carried out by the Hamas group on October 7 – with that committed by Nazism in the Warsaw Ghetto during the German occupation in World War II.

Furthermore, Petro assured that the Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, justified the siege and blockade of Gaza using terms that “the Nazis said regarding the Jews.” According to the Colombian president, “this hate speech“If it continues, it will only bring a holocaust.”

The leader of the Historical Pact also expressed the support for the Palestinian causewithout explicitly condemning the Hamas attack, something that generated discontent on the part of the Colombian political sphere, as well as various Jewish organizations.

It is not the first opportunity that the president causes controversy throught social media. The politician is a frequent user of the platforms, essentially X, where he publishes more than a dozen daily posts, mostly linked to the actions or activities carried out by the Government.

“Nowadays it is impossible to think regarding building any type of government communication, political communication, without thinking regarding social networks,” researcher Sandra Osses Rivera said in a conversation with Sputnik.

In the last year, some of the Petro’s publications have generated great reactions, like when he had an unfriendly exchange with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, for example. The Colombian president is no stranger to exchanges on the networks and he does not hesitate to express his position on controversial issues.

For the academic coordinator of the master’s degree in Political Communication at the Externado University of Colombia, the construction of President Petro’s speech “is usually unguarded, with little modesty or care,” while at the same time seems to be not so premeditated in some cases and “more linked to emotion.”

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Despite this, Osses highlighted that “there are a particular commitment to the way in which Petro builds dialogue with citizens and the way to introduce nuances and positions of the Government regarding issues especially in the international sphere”.

According to the escalation in the Middle EastPetro claimed his position in favor of peace and assured that only rational dialogue can overcome a 75-year conflict. Furthermore, he recalled that he had advocated for a solution to the Palestine conflict in his speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in September. The president also he remarked that “the extreme right governs Israel and also Gaza” and that Colombia is committed to “peaceful negotiation and the liberation of the Palestinian people from all oppression.”

Petro affirmed that his Government’s position regarding the conflict is in line with the UN, which advocates the recognition of two free States, one Israeli and the other Palestinian.

The construction of a political agenda and a presidential profile

According to Osses, social networks “not only build particular ways of entering the public and political agenda, but also diminish the forms of mediation in broad layers of the population.”

Along the same lines, the Colombian political scientist Felipe Mendoza assured, in dialogue with Sputnik, that the The impact of networks on the political agenda is “brutal, radical, forceful.”

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The expert considered that Petro, even before assuming the Presidency, used the networks as an “agile mechanism” for this purpose. From there, established as a progressive politician, the president, according to Mendoza, has tried to show coherence regarding his and his ideological and geopolitical position. has sought to consolidate itself as an international leader.

Various analysts have highlighted that the Petro administration, unlike that of its predecessor Iván Duque (2018-2022), represented a change of outlook on the world stage.

So far in his administration, the Colombian head of government has imposed an approach more inclined to recognize multipolarity. The participation of the international community in the peace talks, the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Venezuela, and the rapprochement with other powers and even continents, account for this.

For Mendoza, Petro is characterized by producing a “crash once morest him the state in which International once morest the position of international organizations”.

Along the same lines, Osses considered that the Colombian leader’s use of social networks not only contributes to the construction of a presidential figure who imposes his own style, but also to seek breaks with established international agendas.

“It breaks with the traditional forms of Colombian diplomacy, much more careful, more aligned with more polite [corteses, respetuosas] and commonly accepted international dialogue“, pointed out.

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For Osses, the president seeks keep distance of certain positions with which Colombia “has been timid or has remained silent” due to alignments with the US and some European countries.

On the contrary, Petro is committed to establishing discussions, putting controversial political positions on the agenda and recognizing the diplomatic space as a space for dispute, said the interviewee.

In this sense, Mendoza asserted that the networks are “a perfect platform to be able to permanently confront and provoke the status quo and through his Twitter [X] “Petro is managing to put the country into its orbit.”

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