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Trump imposes tariffs and sanctions on Colombia over deportation flights


Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of retaliatory measures against Colombia, including 25 percent tariffs on its goods, after the Latin American country refused entry to US military flights deporting migrants.

Trump was caught off guard after Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro refused to board a US plane to protest the treatment of passengers on board.

Trump said in a post on Istine Social on Sunday that Petro’s move “threatened the national security and public safety of the United States.”

In retaliation, he announced an immediate 25 percent tariff that would increase to 50 percent within a week, along with a travel ban and “immediate visa revocation” of Colombian government officials “and all allies and supporters.”

He also announced enhanced border inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo.

“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote in a post on Istin Social. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the acceptance and return of criminals they have forced into the United States!”

Petro previously wrote in a post on X that deported migrants should be treated with “dignity and respect”.

“We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes without treating them like criminals.”

Colombia has already turned away US military planes carrying deportations this week, Petro said on Sunday. A US official told Reuters that two flights carrying a total of 160 deportees had been turned away.

“Colombia sends almost a third of its exports to the US, so this emergency tariff and the threat of raising it further is serious,” said Will Freeman, fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“It shows that wherever the Trump administration identifies the US still has influence, it will use it to its fullest extent to align with his mass deportation policy.”

Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation of illegal migrants in US history, fueling uncertainty among the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US and resistance from potential partners in the region.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he has already turned away a US military plane carrying deportees this week © Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images

Peter’s announcement came a day after the Brazilian government condemned as “degrading” the use of handcuffs on its nationals aboard a deportation flight from the US.

After the plane made an unscheduled stop in Manaus on Friday due to technical problems, Brasília said it prevented the flight from continuing to Belo Horizonte because of the cuffs, the “bad condition” of the plane and the “anger” of 88 Brazilian citizens over their “inappropriate treatment”.

Brazil’s justice minister said there had been “an appalling disregard for the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens,” and his foreign ministry vowed to demand an explanation from US officials.

For Brazil, a country with a long history of slavery, the use of cuffs to castrate its citizens is particularly sensitive.

Although Colombia and the U.S. have long been close allies — with Washington providing about $10 billion in military and foreign aid to Bogota as part of its Plan Colombia fight against insurgents and drug traffickers between 1999 and 2016 — Trump and Petro are ideologically opposed. .

In 2020, Trump called Petro, a leftist ex-guerrilla, “the ultimate loser.” Petro has spoken strongly against the US-led war on drugs, and cocaine production in Colombia has grown under his presidency.

In another post on X on Sunday, Petro called for an “extraordinary meeting of Latin American presidents to examine the problems of migration and the new configuration of the drug market in America.”

“It’s important for Petro and many Latin American leaders to show resistance to this policy on migration,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombian Risk Analysis, a Bogota-based consultancy. “Petro is trying to show force and project an ideological difference with Trump.”

The flow of migrants north through the Darién Gap, a treacherous stretch of jungle that separates Colombia and Panama, has fallen in the past year, as has the number of illegal crossings into the US.

Last year, 302,000 migrants crossed the Darién Gap, an increase of more than 40 percent in 2023, according to Panama’s Foreign Ministry, after Panamanian authorities on a route controlled by smuggling groups.

Venezuelan refugees are crossing the border into Brazil as they flee repression and economic collapse at home © Alan Chaves/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images

Venezuelans, fleeing repression and economic collapse, made up the majority of the crossing, with nearly 210,000 migrants, followed by 17,500 Colombians.

But many migrants have used legal avenues opened by the Biden administration to cross into the US, and total migrant numbers remain near recent record highs.

Mexico is negotiating with the US over immigration and drugs to try to avoid a 25 percent tariff on its exports to the US starting next week.

Mexico’s foreign ministry said Friday it will always greet Mexicans with open arms, after NBC News reported it refused to turn back a military flight of migrants.

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum he emphasized that while he does not agree with the deportations, Mexico will cooperate with the US and have a “good” relationship with the Trump administration.

Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told ABC News on Sunday that if host countries refuse to accept migrants, “then we will put them in a third safe country.”

AND US Department of Homeland Security And the Customs and Border Protection Agency did not respond to a request for comment on the deportation flights.



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