Colombia has refused to accept military deportation flights from the United States, sparking a furious response from President Trump, who on Sunday announced a barrage of tariffs and sanctions targeting the country that has been America’s top ally in Latin America.
President Trump said the United States would immediately impose a 25% tariff on all Colombian imports, raising it to 50% in a week.
The Trump administration will also “impose the full measure” of banking and financial sanctions on Colombia, as well as a travel ban and cancellation of visas for Colombian government officials, the president said.
The move reflects how Mr. Trump is setting an example in Colombia as countries around the world prepare to carry out the mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants he has threatened.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a series of social media posts Sunday that Colombia would not accept military deportation flights from the United States until the country provides a process to treat Colombian immigrants with “dignity and respect.”
Mr Petro also said Colombia had already kicked off a military plane carrying Colombian deportees. Other countries in Latin America have raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s deportation plans, but Colombia appears to be the first to explicitly refuse to cooperate.
“We can’t have immigrants stay in a country that doesn’t want them,” Petro said. “But if we send them back, they have to be treated with dignity and respect for them and for our country.”
He said deportees could still be accepted on non-military flights.
Mr. Petro’s position has been such that since he took office last Monday, he has issued a series of executive orders and made other moves to lay the groundwork for deporting huge swaths of immigrants.
Tariffs alone could have a huge impact on Colombia’s economy. The United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner and tops Colombian exports, including raw milk, coffee and cut flowers.
Mr. Petro also noted Americans living in Colombia. Mr. Petro said in a social media post that more than 15,000 Americans are living in the country without authorization, and called for their immigration status to be “normalized.”
The U.S. Embassy in Bogota did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Petro did not include details about when or how many military planes and migrants were taken down.
There were 190,000 unauthorized Colombian immigrants in the United States in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the Pew Research Center.
A representative for Mr Petro confirmed the plane had taken off but did not immediately respond to other questions. Representatives of Colombia’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States typically sends deportees back on planes similar to commercial jets operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. After Mr. Trump signed an executive order allowing the military to secure the border, Defense Secretary Robert G. Salesses said in a statement last week that the military would provide planes to support deportation flights.
The Trump administration is sending military planes in addition to the regular flights that operate on the ice. That means it does not replace the typical flights that land several times a week in countries across the region, and Mr. Petro noted that they are “civilian flights.” .”
New planes sent by the military can depart from the United States only if the receiving country approves them. Mr. Salesses said that before the military dispatches a flight, the State Department will first “obtain the required diplomatic clearance and provide host country notification.”
It is unclear which countries agreed to receive the military planes carrying the deportees, or whether Colombia withdrew from the agreement if it did.
Brazil’s foreign minister complained Friday about the “degrading treatment” of its citizens after 88 migrants were handcuffed aboard a flight from the United States.
Earlier Friday, Guatemala received two U.S. Air Force jets carrying a total of 160 deportees, one of the first countries to publicly receive such flights. Guatemala’s government sent the country’s vice president to oversee the arrival of deportees on a C-17 aircraft, and the Trump administration has stepped up its messaging efforts on social media.
Officials in Mexico, the largest source of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, recently said they are open to receiving expelled citizens from Mexican cities along the U.S. border.
“As for repatriation, Mexican men and women will be returned to their territory with open arms,” Mexico’s Foreign Minister said in a statement on social media Friday night.
Nonetheless, Mexican authorities have not disclosed whether they plan to accept military flights, as Mexico has sometimes done in the past, or whether they will accept migrants deported from other countries.
On Friday, news outlets reported that Mexico had diverted a military plane carrying the deportees, an account that could not be independently verified.
Honduras, which, like Colombia, rolled back the Trump administration’s plan for mass deportations, said it was open to receiving military flights.
“We are open to receiving our compatriots as long as the conditions are appropriate and properly coordinated,” Foreign Minister Enrique Reina said in an interview Saturday.
He said the government had been talking with the U.S. Embassy in Honduras about deportation flights but had not officially approved the arrival of military planes carrying the deportees.
About 4 million unauthorized immigrants from Mexico live in the United States, making up about 37% of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.
However, although Mexico remains the most common country of birth for unauthorized immigrants in the United States, numbers have declined from a peak of 6.9 million in 2007.
Unauthorized immigrant populations in other countries have grown in recent years, particularly in the Caribbean, South America, and Asia.
Annie Correal Reporting from Mexico City.
