Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Sunday that he had banned the entry of U.S. military planes carrying deported migrants and said he would only accept civilian flights that treat migrants with “dignity.” “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves. This is why I turned back the American military planes which were transporting Colombian migrants,” the president wrote on the X network.
Left-wing President Gustavo Petro, a critic of US President Donald Trump, did not say how many flights from the United States were expected to land in Colombia, or how many deported migrants they were carrying. “I cannot ensure that migrants stay in a country that does not want them, but if this country sends them back, it must be done with dignity and respect for them and for our country,” Ms. Petro.
“We will welcome our nationals on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals,” he said. Since Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, the United States has not deported illegal migrants to Colombia, but this has been the case to Guatemala and Brazil.
Brasilia demanded explanations from Washington on Saturday for the “degrading treatment” of illegal Brazilian migrants during their expulsion by the United States on a flight arriving Friday in Manaus (northern Brazil). According to the Brazilian government, 88 Brazilians were on the plane.
