Trump has announced a series of retaliatory economic and diplomatic measures against Colombia after the country’s president Gustavo Petro denied entry to two deportation flights, citing inhumane treatment of the migrants on board. Speaking through his account on Truth Social, a social media platform which he owns, President Trump said that Petro “jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States” by revoking clearances for the flights and promised “urgent and decisive” action. The president’s measures include an “emergency 25% tariff” on all goods from Colombia; a travel and visa ban on Colombian government officials, their allies, and their families; “enhanced” CBP inspections of Colombian nationals and cargo; and a series of financial and banking sanctions. “These measures are just the beginning,” the president wrote. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!”
Speaking from his account on X, Gustavo Petro called for a reorganizing of Colombia’s economy to diminish its ties to the United States, both for exported and imported products. “The ministry must help direct our exports to the whole world other than the U.S. Our exports must expand,” Petro wrote. “North American products whose price will rise within the national economy must be replaced by national production, the government will help in this purpose.” According to the United States Trade Representative, trade in goods and services between Colombia and the United States topped an estimated $53 billion in 2022, with the U.S. running a $3.9 trade surplus. Colombia’s GDP in 2023 was $363.5 billion.
In a series of statements on X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro explained that the decision to revoke clearances for deportation flights was made in response to a lack of “dignity” in the United States’ treatment of migrants. “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” Petro posted. “I cannot make the migrants stay in a country that does not want them; but if that country turns them back it must be with dignity and respect for them and for our country. We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals. Colombia demands respect.” Petro has offered his presidential plane to carry out the deportations in order to ensure a “dignified return” for the migrants.
The leftist Petro also contrasted his country’s treatment of the undocumented Americans with the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants. While he called on the over 15,000 Americans living undocumented in Colombia to “regularize their stay,” the Colombian president rejected the idea of raids and deportations as a criminal process in response to their status. “American citizens who wish to do so can be in Colombia, I believe in human freedom,” Petro wrote. “True libertarians will never attack human freedom. We are the opposite of the Nazis.”
Just one week into Trump’s plans to deport over ten million undocumented migrants, his policy has significantly raised tensions with the countries on the receiving end of these flights across Latin America. Brazilian officials have stated that the use of handcuffs and leg irons on migrants flown in this weekend “violates the terms of the agreement with the U.S., which requires the dignified, respectful, and humane treatment of deportees,” and the country’s foreign ministry has stated that it would file an official “request for clarification.” Honduran President Xiomara Castro had already threatened to shut down American military bases in her country because of Trump’s deportation policy before he even took office. “Without paying a cent for decades, they maintain bases in our territory,” she said in a public statement on New Years Eve, “which in this case would lose all reason for existing in Honduras.”
