Colombian Overseas Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo attends a press convention on the Colombian Overseas Ministry on the day U.S. President Donald Trump introduced the imposition of tariffs and sanctions after Colombian President Gustavo Petro refused to permit flights with deported Colombians to enter the nation, in Bogota, Colombia, Jan. 26. Reuters-Yonhap
The White Home claimed victory in a showdown with Colombia over accepting flights of deported migrants from the U.S. on Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump threatened steep tariffs on imports and different sanctions on the longtime U.S. associate.
Lengthy shut companions in anti-narcotics efforts, the U.S. and Colombia clashed Sunday over the deportation of migrants and imposed tariffs on one another’s items in a present of what different nations might face in the event that they intervene within the Trump administration’s crackdown on unlawful immigration. The White Home held up the episode as a warning to different nations who would possibly search to impede his plans.
Earlier, the U.S. president had ordered visa restrictions, 25 p.c tariffs on all Colombian incoming items, which might be raised to 50 p.c in a single week, and different retaliatory measures sparked by President Gustavo Petro’s resolution to reject two Colombia-bound U.S. army plane carrying migrants after Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity throughout deportation. Petro additionally introduced a retaliatory 25 p.c improve in Colombian tariffs on U.S. items.
Trump stated the measures have been mandatory as a result of Petro’s resolution “jeopardized” nationwide safety within the U.S. by blocking the deportation flights.
“These measures are just the start,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Fact Social. “We is not going to enable the Colombian Authorities to violate its authorized obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they pressured into the USA.”
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a late Sunday assertion that the “Authorities of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s phrases, together with the unrestricted acceptance of all unlawful aliens from Colombia returned from the USA, together with on U.S. army plane, with out limitation or delay.”
Leavitt stated the tariff orders might be “held in reserve, and never signed.“ However Leavitt stated Trump would preserve visa restrictions on Colombian officers and enhanced customs inspections of products from the nation, “till the primary planeload of Colombian deportees is efficiently returned.”
There was no fast response from the Colombian authorities.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio introduced he was authorizing the visa restrictions on Colombian authorities officers and their households “who have been accountable for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations.“ They have been being imposed on high of the State Division’s transfer to droop the processing of visas on the U.S. Embassy in Colombia’s capital, Bogota.
This mixture of images created, Jan. 26, exhibits U.S. President Donald Trump within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, and Colombian President Gustavo Petro in Mexico Metropolis, Sept. 30, 2024. AFP-Yonhap
Earlier within the day, Petro stated his authorities wouldn’t settle for flights carrying migrants deported from the U.S. till the Trump administration creates a protocol that treats them with “dignity.” Petro made the announcement in two X posts, certainly one of which included a information video of migrants reportedly deported to Brazil strolling on a tarmac with restraints on their fingers and ft.
“A migrant shouldn’t be a felony and have to be handled with the dignity {that a} human being deserves,” Petro stated. “That’s the reason I returned the U.S. army planes that have been carrying Colombian migrants… In civilian planes, with out being handled like criminals, we’ll obtain our fellow residents.“
After Trump’s earlier tariff risk, Petro stated in a put up on X that he had ordered the “overseas commerce minister to lift import tariffs from the U.S. by 25 p.c.”
Colombia has historically been the U.S.’s high ally in Latin America. However their relationship has strained since Petro, a former guerrilla, turned Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022 and sought distance from the U.S.
Colombia accepted 475 deportation flights from the U.S. from 2020 to 2024, fifth behind Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador, in line with Witness on the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight information. It accepted 124 deportation flights in 2024.
Colombia can also be among the many nations that final yr started accepting U.S.-funded deportation flights from Panama.
The U.S. authorities did not instantly reply to a request for remark from The Related Press relating to plane and protocols utilized in deportations to Colombia.
“This can be a clear message we’re sending that nations have an obligation to simply accept repatriation flights,“ a senior administration official instructed AP. The official spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate subject publicly.
Rubio in a press release stated Petro “canceled his authorization” for the flights when the plane have been within the air.
Colombians emerged in recent times as a serious presence on the U.S. border with Mexico, aided partly by a visa regime that permits them to simply fly to Mexico and keep away from trekking although the treacherous Darien Hole. They ranked fourth with 127,604 arrests for unlawful crossings throughout a 12-month interval via September, behind Mexicans, Guatemalans and Venezuelans.
A view exhibits the Colombia’s consulate signal, after U.S. President Donald Trump stated he would impose retaliatory measures after the South American nation turned away two U.S. army plane with migrants being deported, in N.Y., Jan. 26. Reuters-Yonhap
Mexico hasn’t imposed visa restrictions on Colombians, as they’ve on Venezuelans, Ecuadoreans and Peruvians.
Petro’s authorities in a press release later introduced that the South American nation’s presidential plane had been made out there to facilitate the return of migrants who have been to reach hours earlier on the U.S. army airplanes and assure them “dignified circumstances.“
As a part of a flurry of actions to make good on Trump’s marketing campaign guarantees to crack down on unlawful immigration, his authorities is utilizing active-duty army to assist safe the border and perform deportations.
Two U.S. Air Pressure C-17 cargo planes carrying migrants faraway from the U.S. touched down early Friday in Guatemala. That very same day, Honduras acquired two deportation flights carrying a complete of 193 individuals.
In asserting what he referred to as “pressing and decisive retaliatory measures,” Trump defined that he ordered the tariffs and “A Journey Ban and fast Visa Revocations” on Colombian authorities officers, allies and supporters.
“All Get together Members, Household Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Authorities,” Trump wrote might be topic to “Visa Sanctions.” He didn’t say to which celebration he was referring to or present any further particulars on the visa and journey restrictions.
Trump added that each one Colombians will face enhanced customs inspections.
Trump’s actions would appear to undercut his purpose to cut back his nation’s commerce deficit. Not like Mexico or China, Colombia is without doubt one of the few nations with a commerce deficit with the U.S., of round $1.4 billion, in line with U.S. commerce information.
Colombia is the U.S.’s second-biggest purchaser of corn and corn feed, in line with the U.S. grains council, serving to enhance U.S. commodity exports from farm belt states like Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska to greater than $733 million final yr.
The U.S. export growth has been pushed by a two-decade-old free commerce settlement between the 2 nations, which have for lengthy been shut companions within the struggle on medication. It’s unclear if Trump’s tariffs are allowed beneath the settlement, which accommodates a dispute mechanism to resolve commerce fights.
Colombia is the U.S.’s fourth-largest abroad provider of crude oil, delivery about 209,000 barrels of oil per day final yr, though booming home manufacturing has lowered the U.S.’ dependence on overseas oil. The South American nation can also be the U.S.’s largest provider of recent lower flowers. (AP)
