Seoul Gazette - Colombia sends plane for migrants after Trump clash

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 military planeloads of deported migrants.

The foreign ministry said Monday that a Colombian Air Force plane would leave Bogota in the afternoon for the US city of San Diego, to repatriate 110 Colombians.

The ministry said that there would be medical staff onboard and that a second Colombian aircraft would leave on a similar mission "in the coming days."

Petro, a left-wing former guerrilla, was the first Latin American leader to defy Trump over his plans for mass deportations, vowing that 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 there in shackles on Friday.

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 US visa applications.

The White House claimed a win for Trump, saying Colombia had agreed to take back "all illegal aliens."

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo confirmed only that the government would "continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees" in "dignified conditions."

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 deported to Central and South America -- but in most cases the deportations stemmed from agreements predating his return to power.

- Sent home in chains -

Petro's standoff 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" behaviour.

Trump has called off his threatened tariff hikes but said that 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 the 4,000 migrants deported back across 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) on Thursday in Tegucigalpa to discuss migration issues.

C.Nam--SG