Colombian president Gustavo Petro blocked two US military aircraft carrying deported Colombians from landing in his country, prompting a feud with Donald Trump who enacted emergency tariffs and other retaliatory measures.
The US president responded fiercely in a post on his Truth Social network when he was informed that two repatriation flights from the US to Colombia had been denied landing clearance.
Trump wrote that flights had “a large number of Illegal Criminals” and said the landing-denial order was given by “Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro”, who he said “is already very unpopular amongst his people”.
He accused Petro of jeopardizing US national security and public safety and directed his administration “take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures”.
The measures include doubling tariffs on Colombian exports to the US to 50%; a ban and visa revocations on the Colombian government officials “and all Allies and Supporters”, and enhanced inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo entering the US and what he called “national security grounds”.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump added. “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!”
In response, Petro ordered an increase of import tariffs on goods from the US in retaliation to Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Colombia and sanctions on Colombian government officials.
Petro, in a post on Twitter/X, said he ordered the “foreign trade minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25%”.
“American products whose price will rise within the national economy must be replaced by national production, and the government will help in this regard,” the post continued. The US is Colombia’s largest trading partner, with exports including crude petroleum, coffee and cut flowers.
The back-and-forth between the two leaders depicted the rising tensions between central and south US governments and Washington over US deportation flights. Mexico had also reportedly refused to receive a similar flight on Saturday, according to US officials cited by Reuters and NBC News.
In an early Sunday post on Twitter/X, Colombia’s leftist leader wrote: “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that every human being deserves.
That is why I ordered the return of US military planes carrying Colombian migrants,” Petro wrote, sharing a video of Brazilian deportees who had been flown out of the US on Friday, shackled at the wrists and ankles.
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