The Colombian president had refused flights carrying migrants deported from the United States to Colombia, accusing Trump of not treating migrants with “dignity.”
The White House said the United States would not ultimately impose tariffs on Colombia after Bogota reversed course and agreed to receive flights carrying deported migrants.
Donald Trump had decreed additional customs duties of 25% on all Colombian products after the Colombian president Gustavo Petro had refused the landing of two expulsion flights from the American army this Sunday.
Mr. Petro initially said his country would only accept migrants from the United States in “civil aircraft, without treating them like criminals“.
However, late Sunday afternoon, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavittdeclared that Colombia had “accepted all of President Trump’s conditions, including unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on board U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay“.
Previously, President Trump ordered visa restrictions, 25% tariffs on all imported Colombian goods, which would be increased to 50% within a week, and other retaliatory measures after Mr. . Petro to accept the two American military planes.
Mr Petro accused Mr Trump of failing to treat immigrants with “dignity” when deporting them and announced a 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on US goods in retaliation, in a message posted on Twitter. social media where he celebrated Colombia’s heritage.
“Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, in addition to being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world” he said.
In response, Mr. Trump announced these measures on his Truth Social platform, specifying that these were “just the beginning”.
“We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the acceptance and return of criminals they forced into the United States” he said.
Hours later, the Colombian government made an about-face, with the foreign ministry announcing it had “overcome the impasse.”
The White House said Colombia had accepted all deportation flights without restrictions, adding that Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs had been drafted and would still be implemented if Colombia failed to comply with the agreement.
The Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luis Gilberto Murillosaid his country would welcome returning Colombians as expellees and guarantee them “decent conditions“.
He added that Petro’s presidential plane had been prepared to facilitate the return of Colombians who would have arrived in the country earlier aboard blocked military flights.
The feud between the two countries comes as Donald Trump signed numerous decrees relating to immigration from the first day of his mandate, promising to carry out “mass deportations”.
Some of these executive orders were signed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to make arrests of illegal immigrants on American soil.
Agents made such arrests of migrants in Chicago on Sunday, ICE said in a statement.
The Trump administration has also tapped active-duty military personnel to help with its immigration crackdown. On Friday, two American military planes carrying migrants deported from the United States landed in Guatemala and two others in Honduras.
Additional sources • AP