Colombian President Gustavo Petro seems to have backed down from a heated – and really public – faceoff with U.S. President Donald Trump over deportation flights this previous weekend.
However, opposite to media accounts and the president’s personal press workplace, that doesn’t essentially imply that Trump has “gained.”
“This was spherical considered one of what’s going to be a really drawn-out battle,” says Sergio Guzmán, director of threat consultancy agency Colombia Danger Evaluation.
Why We Wrote This
The media have painted Donald Trump because the victor in his showdown with Colombia, after Colombia appeared to relent on accepting navy flights carrying deportees. However consultants say the faceoff may herald extra battle.
Mr. Trump has referred to as unlawful immigration a nationwide emergency, and in his give attention to combating it, he’s enlisted the U.S. navy’s assist at each the border and in finishing up deportation flights.
Colombia blocked the arrival of two U.S. navy airplanes flying deportees into the nation early Sunday morning, with Mr. Petro labeling it inhumane and calling for a course of that treats deportees with “dignity and respect.” Colombia acquired some 14,000 deportees from the U.S. between January and December 2024, however this was the primary recognized try on a navy aircraft.
A flurry of tweets all through the day escalated between the 2 leaders, with Mr. Trump threatening first 25%, then 50% tariffs on all Colombian imports. Mr. Petro introduced his personal retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports to Colombia, additionally promising to lift them to 50%.
However Sunday evening noticed either side say an settlement had been reached. The White Home mentioned in an announcement that Colombia had “agreed to all of President Trump’s phrases,” together with using navy flights.
In the meantime, a consultant from the Colombian presidential workplace mentioned that Colombia “has the presidential aircraft able to facilitate the return of Colombians who have been going to reach within the nation this morning on deportation flights.” The assertion didn’t deal with – or contradict – future U.S. plans to make use of navy plane in deportations.
“It’s not a query of removals”
Latin American international locations have been bracing themselves for Mr. Trump’s promised mass deportations, however Mr. Petro’s confrontation with Mr. Trump took many without warning each by way of its fast escalation – and in how Mr. Petro appeared to concede below U.S. threats. Though the Colombian chief’s unusually public diplomacy may imply extra repercussions from the U.S., he drew consideration to latest developments in U.S. deportations, using U.S. navy plane, which may generate extra pushback from regional leaders down the road.
“We’ll see extra questioning and presumably objections to using the navy to reinforce the U.S.’s potential to deport,” says Eric Sigmon, an analyst and former migration knowledgeable within the U.S. authorities. “It’s not a query of removals,” however of how completely different arms of the federal government are getting concerned in border safety in new methods.
As many Latin American international locations, together with Colombia and Mexico, know firsthand, the involvement of the armed forces in civilian policing can typically result in a bounce in human rights abuses.
“The navy isn’t skilled for” deportations, says Mr. Sigmon.
Mexico refused a request final week to let a U.S. navy plane land with migrants, although with a lot much less fanfare. Two U.S. navy plane landed in Guatemala with roughly 160 deportees on Friday. Brazil’s international ministry over the weekend condemned what it referred to as “degrading remedy” of Brazilians after migrants have been handcuffed on their deportation flight from the U.S., and through which some reported “mistreatment” throughout the flight.
Honduras has referred to as an emergency assembly of the Neighborhood of Latin and Caribbean States on Thursday to debate migration and U.S. deportations.
“It is going to be a chance to deal with strategic points for the area, akin to cooperation on migration, safety of human rights,” mentioned an announcement from Colombia’s presidential workplace Sunday evening.
“Petro needed to turn out to be the top of the worldwide resistance on Trump,” says Mr. Guzmán. “However he did it to nice penalties for the nation’s financial system.” Though the U.S. backed down from imposing sanctions, their language “means that Trump can nonetheless signal them every time he needs. It’s a sword hanging over us.”
