Donald Trump triggered a series of retaliation against Colombia, including tariffs of 25 percent to his goods after the Latin American country refused to enter US military flights to deport migrants.
Trump reacted violently after Colombia’s left President Gustavo Petro in protest against the way the passengers were treated on board the reception of the US aircraft.
Trump said on Sunday in a contribution to Truth Social that Petros stepped on “national security and public security in the United States”.
As a retaliation, he announced nozölle of 25 percent, which would increase to 50 percent in a week, as well as a travel ban and “immediate visa withdrawal” for Colombian government officials “and all allies and supporters”.
He also announced increased border controls of all Colombian nationals and freight.
“These measures are only the beginning,” Trump wrote in a contribution to Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the admission and return of the criminals forced to the United States!”
Petro had previously written in a contribution to X that the deported migrants should be treated with “dignity and respect”.
“We will receive our fellow citizens in civil aircraft without treating them like criminals.”
Colombia has already rejected US military aircraft with deported ones this week, Petro said on Sunday. A US official said Reuters that two flights with a total of 160 deported had been denied entry.
“Colombia sends almost a third of his exports to the United States, so this Natzoll and the threat of lifting it even further are serious,” said Freeman, Fellow for Latin America studies at Council on Foreign Relations.
“It shows that the Trump government, wherever it realizes that the United States still has an impact, will fully exploit it in order to enforce compliance with its mass deportation policy.”
Trump has promised to carry out the greatest mass deportation of illegal immigrants in the history of the United States, which has led to uncertainty and resistance among potential partners in the region for the estimated 11 million immigrants without papers in the USA.
Petros announced was given a day after the Brazilian government had sentenced the use of handcuffs to its nationals on board a deportation from the USA as “humiliating”.
After the plane had made an unscheduled stopover in Manaus on Friday due to technical problems, Brasília claimed to prevent Belo Horizonte’s onward journey due to the handcuffs, the “bad condition” of the aircraft and the “anger” of the passengers 88 Brazilian citizens because of theirs “Unbelieving treatment”.
The Brazilian Minister of Justice said that there was “blatant disregard for the fundamental rights of the Brazilian citizens” and the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs promised to request education from US officials.
For Brazil, a country with a long history of slavery, the use of handcuffs to bind its citizens is particularly delicate.
Although Colombia and the United States have long been close allies- Washington provided around $ 10 billion in military and abroad between 1999 and 2016 as part of his “Plan Colombia” to combat insurgents and drug dealers- Trump and Petro are ideological against it.
In 2020, Trump Petro, a left -wing former guerrilla fighter, described a “big loser”. Petro has decided against the war against drugs waged by the USA, and cocaine production in Colombia has risen in a leak under his presidency.
In another post on X on Sunday, Petro called “an extraordinary meeting of Latin American presidents to examine the problems of migration and the new configuration of the drug market in America”.
“For Petro and many Latin American heads of state and government, it is important to show resistance to this migration policy,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a consulting company based in Bogotá. “Petro tries to show strength and present an ideological difference to Trump.”
The influx of migrants to the north through the Darién gap, a treacherous jungle section that separates Colombia and Panama, declined last year, as did the number of illegal crossings to the United States.
According to the Panamaic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 302,000 migrants crossed the Darién gap last year, a decline of over 40 percent compared to 2023 after the Panamaian authorities on the route, which were checked by criminal smuggling groups, had tough.
Venezuelans who fled from repression and economic collapse provided the majority of the crossings with almost 210,000 migrants, followed by 17,500 colombians.
However, many migrants used the legal paths opened by the bidges to get to the USA, and the total number of migrants is still close to the latest record heights.
Mexico is negotiating with the United States about immigration and drugs to avoid a 25 percent customs to its exports to the United States next week.
The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that the Mexicans would always receive open arms after NBC News had reported that it had refused to take back a military flight with migrants.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum It emphasizes that Mexico did not agree with the deportations, but Mexico will work with the United States and have a “good” relationship with the Trump government.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border quota, told ABC News on Sunday, when recording countries refuse to accept migrants, “we will accommodate them in a third safe country”.
The US Ministry of Homeland Protection And the customs and border protection authority did not respond to the request for comment on the deportation flights.
