I want to thank you for helping my America, my Colombia, achieve freedom,” he said. “You even gave us our flag.”

Petro is one of only a handful of heads of state that have visited Haiti recently given a surge in gang violence that has prompted a growing number of leaders in the international community to call for a U.N.-peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country, noting that the current Kenyan-led mission lacks funds and personnel.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro arrived in Haiti's southeastern city of Jacmel on Wednesday afternoon in a rare visit by a foreign head of state to the Caribbean nation, as Haiti endures an extended conflict with armed gangs.

Francisco de Miranda, considered to be the precursor of Venezuela’s independence, stitched the country’s first flag in Jacmel and set sail from the port city. A decade later, South American liberator Simón Bolívar launched his successful movement from Jacmel’s shores.