Donald Trump triggered a flood of retaliation measures against Colombia, including 25 percent tariffs for its goods after the Latin American country had rejected the entry into US military flights in which migrants were deported.
Trump ruled out after the left President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, protested against the way the passengers were treated on board, refused to receive the US aircraft.
Trump said on Sunday in a post about the social of truth that Petros move “endangered national security and public security of the United States”.
As retaliation measures, he announced an emergency with 25 percent, which would increase in addition to a travel ban and “immediate visa returns” for Colombian government officials “and all allies and supporters” to 50 percent per week.
He also announced improved border inspections of all Colombian nationals and freight.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote in a contribution about the social truth. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate their legal obligations in relation to the acceptance and return of the criminals they have 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 deportees this week, Petro said on Sunday. A US official said Reuters that two flights with a total of 160 deported had refused to enter.
“Colombia sends almost a third of his exports to the United States, so that this emergency tariff and the threat to further increase it is serious,” said Freeman, a scholarship holder for Latin American studies on the advice for external relationships.
“It shows that the USA, where the Trump administration is identified, still has levers, will use it to the fullest to comply with compliance with its mass deportation policy.”
Trump has promised to carry out the greatest mass deportation of illegal migrants in the history of US history, which led to uncertainties between the estimated 11-meter-and-documented immigrants in the USA and the resistance of potential partners in the region.
Petro’s announcement was made one day after the Brazilian government as a “humiliating” had “humiliated” the use of handcuffs on their Nationals on board a deportation flight from the USA.
After the plane had made an unscheduled stop in Manaus on Friday due to technical problems, Brasília said that the flight because of the cuffs, the “bad condition” of the aircraft and the “now” of the aircraft and the “now” of the aircraft to the goal Belo Horizonte continued 88 Brazilian citizens about their “unfounded treatment”.
The Brazilian Minister of Justice said that there had been “a disrespectful disrespect for the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens”, and his Foreign Ministry had sworn to demand the clarification of US officials.
For Brazil, a country with a long history of slavery, the use of cuffs to captivate its citizens is particularly sensitive.
Although Colombia and the United States have been close allies for a long time – Washington Bogotá, as part of his plan in Colombia, provided military and foreign help for combating insurgents and drug dealers between 1999 and 2016 – are ideologically opposed.
In 2020, Trump referred to Petro, a left -wing former guerrilla, as “Major Loser”. Petro spoke strongly against the war against drugs waged by the United States, and cocaine production in Colombia has increased 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 leaders, it is important to show resistance to this migration policy,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of the Colombia risk analysis, a advice based in Bogotá. “Petro tries to show violence and project an ideological difference to Trump.”
The river of migrants north through the Darién gap, a treacherous jungle section that separates Colombia and Panama, fell last year, as did the number of illegal intersections to the USA.
Last year, according to Panama’s Foreign Ministry, the Darién gap, which has been due to over 40 percent in 2023, crossed after the Panamaian authorities on the route, which has been controlled by criminal smuggling groups.
The Venezuelans, who fled to oppression and economic collapse, formed most of the intersections with almost 210,000 migrants, followed by 17,500 colombians.
However, many migrants used legal paths that were opened by the bidges to go to the United States, and the total number of migrants are still close to the latest record highs.
Mexico is negotiating with the United States about immigration and drugs to try to avoid a tariff of 25 percent to its exports to the United States from next week.
The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that Mexicans would always greet open weapons after NBC News had reported that it had refused to take back a military escape from migrants.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum Has emphasized that Mexico will not agree to the deportations, but will work with the USA and have a “good” relationship with the Trump administration.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border quota, told ABC News on Sunday, when the host countries refuse to maintain migrants, “we will place them in a third safe country”.
The US Ministry of Homeland Protection And the customs and border protection authority did not answer the deportation flights on request for comments.
