Muhamad Yehia
The Colombian President Gustavo Petro initially refused to accept two flights carrying deported migrants, accusing Trump of not treating the returnees with “dignity”.
The US will not impose tariffs on Colombia after Bogota backed down and agreed to accept inbound flights carrying deported migrants, the White House has said.
Donald Trump had ordered 25% tariffs on all Colombian goods after the country’s President Gustavo Petro refused landing to two US military deportation flights on Sunday.
Petro initially said his country would only accept migrants from the US if they arrived on civilian planes, saying that they should not be treated “like criminals”.
However, by late Sunday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Colombia had “agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay
Following Petro’s refusal to accept the two planes, Trump ordered retaliatory measures including visa restrictions and steep tariffs on all Colombian incoming goods, which would double, after a week, to 50%.
In a social media post in which he celebrated Colombia’s culture, Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with “dignity” during deportation and announced a retaliatory 25% tariff on US goods.
“Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world,” he said.
In response, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that his measures against Colombia were “just the beginning.”
“We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States,” Trump wrote.
Just hours later, the Colombian government took a U-turn, with the country’s foreign ministry announcing it had “overcome the impasse.”
The White House said Colombia had agreed to accept all deportation flights without restrictions, adding that Trump’s proposed tariffs had been drafted and would still be implemented if Colombia did not honour the agreement.
Colombia’s foreign minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said the country would receive Colombian deportees and would guarantee them “decent conditions.”
He added that Petro’s presidential plane had been prepared to facilitate the return of the Colombians on the blocked US military flights.
The quarrel between the two countries comes as a warning of what could happen if a country seeks to impede Trump’s immigration plans.
On his first day in office last week, Trump signed multiple executive orders related to immigration, promising to carry out “mass deportations.”
Some of his executive orders were signed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to carry out arrests of illegal migrants on US soil.
Agents conducted such arrests in Chicago on Sunday, the ICE said in a statement.
Trump’s government has also been using active-duty military to help with his immigration crackdown. On Friday, two US military planes carrying migrants landed in Guatemala and a further two arrived in Honduras.