WASHINGTON, D.C. –Representative Mario Díaz-Balart (FL-26), Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, of the House Committee on Appropriations and co-chair of the Congressional Colombia Caucus released the following statement strongly condemning Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s anti-Semitic remarks: “At this time when Israel is reeling from a heinous attack on innocent men, women, children, and the elderly, it is crucial that the world unequivocally affirm Israel’s right to self-defense, condemn terrorism, and express solidarity with the people of Israel. This is why it is particularly abhorrent when a “leader” such as Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, compares Israel engaging in self-defense to the abhorrent actions of the Nazis, saying, “This is what the Nazis said of the Jews.” Speaking of Israel, he further stated that “democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics,” and that “no democrat in the world can accept Gaza being turned into a concentration camp.” When Israel’s ambassador to Colombia invited Petro to the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, Petro retorted that they were being “copied in Gaza.” This blatant antisemitic statement should be retracted immediately with an apology. Holocaust victims who experienced the evils of the Nazis and the depths of human depravity firsthand were also victims of Hamas terrorists on October 7. And, the Jewish people are now suffering heinous acts of antisemitism, including in Colombia, in part due to ignorant comments such as these. Now must be a time of moral clarity, not drawing false equivalencies to justify an unjustifiable position. It is shameful that the Colombian president’s sympathies seem to lie with the terrorists rather than their victims, and that he further insults the Jewish people by flippantly invoking the horrors of the Holocaust to delegitimize the State of Israel during one of the darkest times of its 75-year history.” ### | 