US President Donald Trump announced that he will impose retaliatory measures on Colombia, including tariffs, revocation of visas for officials and travel bans, after the South American country rejected two US military planes carrying deported migrants.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered tariffs, visa revocations for officials and other retaliatory measures against Colombia after the South American country rejected two US military flights carrying deported migrants.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social social network. He added that Colombian President Gustavo Petro's decision “endangers” American national security.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations in terms of accepting criminals who were forcibly brought to the United States.”
hours before Petro had announced that his government would not accept the flights with deported migrants until the US government creates a protocol that treats migrants with “dignity.”
Petro made the announcement in two posts on X, formerly Twitter, one of which included a news video of migrants allegedly deported to Brazil walking along a tarmac with their hands and feet tied.
“A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” wrote the Colombian president. “That's why I had the US military planes that came with Colombian migrants returned.
“I cannot make migrants stay in a country that does not want them; But if that country returns them it must be with dignity and respect for them and for our country. On civil planes, without being treated as criminals, we will receive our compatriots,” he added.
Following Petro's decision, Trump immediately ordered his administration to take urgent retaliatory measures.
Among them, the imposition of emergency tariffs of 25% on all goods arriving in the United States, which will rise to 50% in a week; the travel ban and the revocation of visas for officials of the Colombian Government and its allies; the full imposition of emergency Treasury, banking and financial sanctions and the intensification of border inspections on Colombian citizens.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said on his X account after learning of the measures that “the Colombian president, Petro, had authorized the flights and had granted all the necessary authorizations, but then canceled his authorization when the planes were already in the air. As today's actions demonstrate, we are unwavering in our commitment to ending illegal immigration and strengthening America's border security.”
Trump's measures threaten to hit Latin America's fourth-largest economy hard. The United States is the main destination for Colombian exports of products such as oil, coal, coffee and flowers.
Petro also assured on Sunday that 15,660 Americans are in Colombia irregularly and said that they should approach the immigration service to regularize their situation.
Subsequently, the Government of Colombia announced in a statement that it made the presidential plane available to “facilitate the dignified return” of citizens who were going to return to the country on military flights.
“In no way have Colombians, as patriots and subjects of rights, been or will be banished from Colombian territory,” said a statement from the Presidency announcing that it will address the issue at the Extraordinary Assembly of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). next January 30.
Deportations to other countries
Colombia's refusal to accept the flights is the second case of a Latin American nation rejecting mass deportations on US military planes.
Colombia's decision follows a similar one in Mexico, which also rejected a request last week to allow a US military plane to land with migrants on its territory.
Petro's position adds to the growing discontent in Latin America with the measure adopted by the Trump administration, which has been in power for a week and is beginning to mobilize to carry out mass deportations.
Brazil's Foreign Ministry condemned the “degrading treatment” of Brazilians after immigrants from that country reported mistreatment when they were handcuffed on a commercial deportation flight.
The use of US military aircraft to conduct deportation flights is part of the Pentagon's response to Trump's national emergency declaration on immigration on Monday.
In the past, US military aircraft have been used to move people from one country to another, such as during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
U.S. military planes made two similar flights on Friday, each carrying about 80 migrants, to Guatemala.
(With information from Reuters and AP)