Trump threatens Colombia with ‘decisive retaliatory measures’ for turning away deportation flights
Commander-in-chief says Colombian president’s ‘denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States’
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President Donald Trump has threatened Colombia with “decisive retaliatory measures” after two repatriation flights were not allowed to land in the country, the commander-in-chief wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
“I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia,” Trump wrote on the social media platform. “This order was given by Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people.”
He added: “Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States, so I have directed my Administration to immediately take ... urgent and decisive retaliatory measures.”
Trump went on to say that the U.S. government will impose 25 percent tariffs on Colombia for “all goods” going to the U.S. In a week, those tariffs will be raised to 50 percent, the president claimed.
He added that a travel ban and visa revocations will be imposed on Colombian government officials, as well as “all allies and supporters.”
Trump also said that “visa sanctions” would be levied against “all Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Government.”
The American president promised that there would be “Enhanced Customs and Border Protection Inspections of all Colombian Nationals and Cargo on national security grounds.”
Trump also noted that financial sanctions would be “fully imposed.”
“These measures are just the beginning. 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!” he concluded.
This comes after Petro said in a series of posts on X that Colombia would not accept military deportation flights from the U.S. until the Trump White House sets up a process to treat Colombian migrants with “dignity and respect.”
“I do not authorize the entry of North American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory,” Petro said on X. “The U.S. must establish a protocol of dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”
Petro noted that Colombia had already turned away military flights with Colombian deportees.
“I cannot make migrants stay in a country that does not want them, but if that country sends them back, it should be with dignity and respect for them and for our country,” said Petro.
Petro said he would allow civilian planes carrying deportees to land in his country, but that he would block the arrival of military planes.
“We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals,” Petro said.
According to the Pew Research Center, there were 190,000 unauthorized immigrants from Colombia living in the U.S. as of 2022.
Petro’s actions may complicate the Trump administration’s promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. Apart from Petro, other Latin American leaders have questioned the U.S. treatment of migrants.
The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is asking for an explanation for the “degrading treatment” that deportees were subjected to on a U.S. repatriation flight Friday, according to The Washington Post.
But so far, it’s only Colombia that has blocked the arrival of such flights.
Petro has now found himself at odds with the leader of his country’s most important trading partner and security ally, with remittances to Colombia making up about 3.4 percent of the Colombian economy, and most of those remittances emanate from the U.S.
The first leftist Colombian president, Petro, is close to the presidents of Mexico and Brazil. He wrote on X that more than 15,600 U.S. citizens are living in Colombia without the correct documentation.
Even so, he said he would not raid them and send them back to the U.S. in chains, adding that his government is “the opposite of Nazis.”
“You won’t see me burning a U.S. flag,” he added.
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