Colombian leader slams powers for backing Ukraine, but not Palestinians

Colombian President Gustavo Petro Urrego devotes a chunk of his speech to slamming what he says is world powers’ hypocrisy in defending Ukraine but not the Palestinians.

“The same reasons they used to defend Zelensky are those same reasons that should be used to defend Palestine,” he says, adding that all wars must end for the planet to be saved from the climate crisis.

Urrego, a leftist and former guerilla, says “world powers are helping to wage one war in particular because world powers see this suiting themselves, in their gamesmanship, games of hunger, and they are forgetting to bring an end to the other war because for these powers this did not suit them,” he says.

“What is the difference between Ukraine and Palestine, I ask,” he says.

“Is it not time to bring an end to both wars and other wars as well,” he adds, proposing two peace conferences at the UN: “one on Ukraine, the other on Palestine.”

“Not because there are no other wars in the world, there are in my country, but because this alone would bring an end to hypocrisy as a political practice,” he says.