President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will impose sweeping retaliatory measures on Colombia, including tariffs and sanctions, after the South American country turned away two U.S. military aircraft with migrants being deported as part of the new U.S. administration’s immigration crackdown.
Colombia, the third largest U.S. trading partner in Latin America, swiftly responded, threatening a 50% tariff on U.S. goods. The country’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, later posted on X that he directed his trade minister to increase tariffs on U.S. imports by 25%.
Colombia is the second Latin American nation to refuse U.S. military deportation flights. Trump’s punitive action demonstrated his more muscular U.S. foreign policy and his renewed willingness to force countries to bend to his will.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Petro’s refusal to accept the flights jeopardized U.S. national security.
The retaliatory measures include imposing 25% tariffs on all Colombian goods coming into the U.S., which will go up to 50% in one week; a travel ban and visa revocations on Colombian government officials; and emergency treasury, banking and financial sanctions.
Trump said he would also direct enhanced border inspections of Colombian nationals and cargo.
“These measures are just the beginning,” he wrote. “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!”
He later posted a picture of himself on Truth Social in a pinstripe suit and a fedora in front of a sign reading FAFO, a common slang acronym for “Fuck Around and Find Out”.
America will “no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement, adding that Petro had authorized these flights but then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air.
SWEEPING CRACKDOWN
Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency and imposed a sweeping crackdown since taking office last Monday. He directed the U.S. military to help with border security, issued a broad ban on asylum and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.
Colombia’s Petro condemned the practice on Sunday, suggesting it treated migrants like criminals. In a post on social media platform X, Petro said Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes.
“The U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote.
Petro said even though there were 15,660 Americans without legal immigration status in Colombia, he would never carry out a raid to return handcuffed Americans to the U.S.
“We are the opposite of the Nazis,” he wrote.
Mexico also refused a request last week to let a U.S. military aircraft land with migrants.
(Reuters)
