Donald Trump launched a wave of retaliatory measures against Colombia, including a 25 percent tariff on its goods, after the Latin American country refused entry to US military flights to deport migrants.
Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s leftist president, responded with a tit-for-tat threat of 50 percent on goods from the United States.
The row began when Petro declared in a post on X that deported immigrants should be treated with “dignity and respect.”
“We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian aircraft, without treating them like criminals.”
Colombia had already turned away U.S. military aircraft carrying the helicopter this week, Petro said Sunday.
Trump responded by accusing Petro in a post about the social reality of danger to “the national security and public safety of the United States.”
He announced a 25 percent state of emergency that would increase to 50 percent per week, along with a travel ban and “immediate visa displacement” for Colombian government officials “and all allies and supporters.”
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump posted. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the admission of forced criminals to the United States!”
“Your blockade does not frighten me because Colombia, besides being a country of beauty, is also the heart of the world,” Petro wrote in a lengthy message on X.
He also said he finds visiting the United States “boring” in an apparent jab at Washington’s imposition of travel restrictions. “Overthrow me, boss [Trump]The Americas and humanity will respond.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Petro had initially authorized deportation flights only to have them canceled while they were in the air.
“As evidenced by today’s actions, we are unwavering in our commitment to ending illegal immigration and strengthening America’s border security,” he said.
Colombia sends nearly a third of its exports to the United States “so this emergency tariff and the threat to lift it is even more serious,” noted Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“It demonstrates that wherever the Trump administration determines that the United States still has leverage, it will use it to the fullest extent to obtain compliance with its mass deportation policy.”
Trump has promised to carry out the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants in US history, prompting uncertainty among undocumented immigrants in the United States and resistance from potential partners in the region.
Petro’s announcement came a day after the Brazilian government condemned as “humiliating” the use of handcuffs on its citizens on a deportation flight from the United States.
After the plane grounded out of Manaus on Friday due to technical issues, Brasilia said it prevented the flight from continuing to its final destination of Belo Horizonte due to handcuffs, the “poor condition” of the plane and “outrage” from 88 Brazilian citizens over their “indecent treatment.”
Brazil’s justice minister said there had been “a blatant disrespect for the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens.”
Although Colombia and the United States have long been close allies — with Washington providing about $10 billion in military and foreign aid to Bogotá as part of its plan for Colombia to fight rebels and drug traffickers between 1999 and 2016 — Trump and Trew are ideologically opposed.
“It is important for Tru and a lot of Latin American leaders to show resistance to this policy on migration,” said Sergio Guzman, director of risk analysis at Colombia, a Bogotá-based consulting firm. “Petro is trying to show strength and display an ideological difference with Trump.”
The flow of migrants north through the Darien Gap, a treacherous stretch of jungle separating Colombia and Panama, has declined in the past year, as has the number of illegal crossings into the United States.
Last year, 302,000 migrants crossed the two-way divide, down more than 40 percent in 2023, according to Panama’s Foreign Ministry, after a crackdown by Panamanian authorities on the route controlled by criminal smuggling groups.
But many migrants have used legal pathways opened by the Biden administration to cross into the United States, and overall migrant numbers remain near recent highs.
Mexico is negotiating with the US over immigration and drugs to try to avoid a 25 per cent tariff on its exports to the US from next week.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it will always welcome Mexicans with open arms, after NBC News reported it refused to take back a military flight of migrants.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stressed that although she does not agree with the deportation, Mexico will cooperate with the United States and has a “good” relationship with the Trump administration.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told ABC News on Sunday that if host countries refuse to take in migrants, “then we’ll be put in a safe third country.”