A renewed diplomatic row has broken out between Colombia and Argentina over comments made by President Javier Milei about his Colombian counterpart.

The outspoken Argentine leader called President Gustavo Petro a “terrorist”, “murderer” and “communist” in a recent interview with CNN.

Colombia has retaliated by ordering the expulsion of Argentine diplomats from their embassy in the Andean nation.

“The Argentine president’s comments have deteriorated the trust of our nation, in addition to offending the dignity of President Petro, who was democratically elected,” Colombia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

In January, Colombia recalled its ambassador to Argentina after similar comments from President Milei, who came into power in December.

He is known as “the madman” by some of his followers and leads a nation facing very high annual inflation and national debt.

Read more:
Who is Milei – ‘madman’ who called the pope an imbecile

In the CNN interview – which has yet to be aired in full – President Milei also took swipes at other regional leaders, including Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

President Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, is a former member of the long-demobilised M-19 guerrilla movement.

Related posts:

What is Sharia law and how has the Taliban interpreted it? Ottawa police chief resigns as Trudeau invokes emergency powers to crack down on trucker protests Kim makes appearance as North Korea celebrates his late father’s birthday Earthquake hits popular holiday island of Madeira British journalist reveals he lost half a leg and a foot in bombing that killed two colleagues Argentina’s vice president jailed for corruption – but won’t actually head behind bars 100m-high wall of sand towers above Chinese region during storm UK defence spending as share of GDP falls despite Russia’s war in Ukraine Cat killing competition for children cancelled after backlash As Swiss glaciers melt at alarming rate, voters go to polls over ambitious plans to tackle climate change More than 250,000 flee Sudan safe zone after takeover by militia responsible for Darfur destruction Relatives of Israeli hostages storm parliament