Colombia sends plane for migrants after Trump clash

by Valentín DÌAZ

Colombia on Monday sent two military aircraft to repatriate migrants from the United States after being forced to back down in a blazing row over deportations with President Donald Trump.

President Gustavo Petro on Sunday stepped back from the brink of a full-blown trade war with the United States after Trump threatened Colombia with sanctions and massive tariffs for turning back two U.S. military planeloads of deported migrants.

The foreign ministry said Monday that a Colombian Air Force plane left Bogota in the afternoon with medical staff on board for the US city of San Diego to repatriate 110 Colombians. Shortly after, it announced another had left for Houston, Texas.

Petro, a former guerrilla, was the first Latin American leader to defy Trump over his plans for mass deportations, vowing he would only accept migrants returned on civilian flights who were not treated "like criminals."

His announcement came amid an outcry in left-wing ally Brazil over the treatment of dozens of migrants who were flown home in handcuffs last week, prompting Brasilia to summon Washington's top envoy Monday to explain their treatment.

But the resistance of Colombia's president quickly fizzled in the face of Trump's threats to impose tariffs on Colombian imports -- despite the two countries having a free-trade agreement -- and the suspension of U.S. visa applications.

Trump claimed victory Monday, telling the congressional Republicans' annual retreat in Miami that "America is respected again."

At the event, held at a Trump-owned golf club, the president insisted that "as you saw yesterday, we've made it clear to every country that they will be taking back our people, that we're sending out the criminals... the illegal aliens coming from their countries."

If countries don't accept their migrants back "fast," added Trump, "they'll pay a very high economic price, and we're going to immediately install massive tariffs, and it'll be placed on them and other sanctions."

Petro, for his part, wrote on X that Colombians were being brought home "without being handcuffed," adding: "This provision: dignity for deportees, will be applied to all countries that send deportations to us."

Trump's plan for mass deportations of migrants has put him on a potential collision course with governments in Latin America, the original home of most of the United States' estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

Since he took office a week ago, thousands of migrants have been sent back to Central and South America -- but in most cases the deportations stemmed from agreements predating his return to power.

- 'Tremendous irresponsibility' -

Petro's standoff with Trump caused an outcry in Colombia -- one of the United States' closest allies in Latin America -- over what many saw as his reckless provocation of the country's biggest trading partner.

Former right-wing president Ivan Duque accused the 64-year-old of "an act of tremendous irresponsibility."

Cristian Espinal, a student who flew to Bogota from the city of Medellin for a visa appointment at the US embassy that was cancelled over the spat, told AFP he felt frustrated by Petro's "hasty, imprudent" behavior.

Trump has called off his threatened tariff hikes but said the visa measures would stay in place until the first planeload of deportees returned.

While previous US administrations also routinely sent home illegal migrants, Trump has vowed to carry out the biggest deportation wave in history.

In a break with his predecessors, he has also begun using military aircraft, with at least one landing in Guatemala this week.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum downplayed the impact of the operations, saying Monday that 4,000 migrants sent back over the southern US border during Trump's first week back in office was "not a substantial increase" on the usual rate.

Just over 190,000 people were deported to Mexico from January to November 2024, according to government figures, representing around 17,200 per month.

Sheinbaum too is trying to avert a trade war after Trump renewed his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from both Mexico and Canada unless they halted the flow of migrants and drugs into the United States.

Honduras has called for an urgent meeting of leaders from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Thursday in its capital Tegucigalpa to discuss migration issues.

© Agence France-Presse