(Washington) US President Donald Trump announced a series of sanctions against Colombia on Sunday, a spectacular escalation in retaliation for Bogotá’s decision to repress military aircraft transporting immigrants expelled by the United States.
Posted at 12:09 p.m.
Updated at 5:48 p.m.
This announcement follows the decision of the Colombian leftist president, Gustavo Petro. “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with dignity that a human being deserves,” said Mr. Petro on X. We will welcome our nationals in civil aircraft, without treating them as criminals. ”
Washington will notably impose customs duties of 25 % on all Colombian goods entering the United States, which will be brought to 50 % in a week, detailed Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform, despite the free trade agreement Between the two countries.
Image taken from Donald Trump’s social social account
Bogota Report
Colombian President Gustavo Petro reacted in the evening by announcing in turn on X that he had given order to his Minister of Foreign Trade to “raise customs duties to imports from the United States”.
The sanctions train announced by Donald Trump also has a ban on entry to the United States and a revocation of visas for those responsible for the Colombian government, its allies and supporters as well as “reinforced inspections” at the entrance for all Colombian nationals and goods from this country, he said.
“These measures are only the beginning,” warned the Republican president, accusing the Colombian government of shirking its “legal obligations to accept the return of criminals they forced the United States to welcome”.
The Colombian presidency also announced that she was going to send her plane “to facilitate the return to the dignity of nationals who were to arrive in the country this morning, by expulsion flights”.
Photo Raul Arboleda, Agence France-Presse Archives
The Colombian President, Gustavo Petro
He did not specify how many flights from the United States had to land in Colombia or how many expelled migrants they transported.
A source to the Colombian presidency assured AFP that the United States had not followed “the regular procedure followed in these cases between the two countries”.
American diplomacy Marco Rubio said in a statement that Mr. Petro had started by approving thefts, but that he had “canceled his authorization when the planes were in flight”.
-Handcuffs
Donald Trump has promised to launch “the biggest expulsion program in American history”, and the White House tarnished this week of the arrest of hundreds of “illegal criminal migrants”, stressing that they had been expelled by military aircraft rather than civilian, as was previously the case.
Since its inauguration on January 20, the United States had not yet expulsion to Colombia, but this has been the case with Guatemala and Brazil.
The head of the US Massive Expulsion Policy of Immigrants in an irregular situation, Tom Homan, said on Sunday on the ABC channel that migrants could be expelled to a third country if their country of origin refused to welcome them.
On Saturday, Brazil demanded explanations in Washington for the “degrading treatment” of irregular Brazilian migrants expelled by the United States, aboard a flight arrived the day before in Manaus (north).
According to Brasilia, 88 Brazilians were on the plane.
On board, “they did not give us water, we were linked feet and fists, and they did not even let us go to the toilet,” said Edgar Da Silva Moura, a 31 -year -old computer scientist who arrived in Brazil by Brazil by Brazil by Brazil by Brazil by Brazil This flight after seven months of detention in the United States.
“It was too hot, some have passed out,” he added.
According to the Brazilian minister responsible for human rights, Macaé Evaristo, the plane also transported “autistic children, or suffering from a handicap, who have experienced very serious situations”.
PHOTO DOUGLAS MAGNO, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man expelled from the United States is greeted by relatives at the International Airport in Confins, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on January 25, 2025.
The Brazilian Ministry of Justice ordered the American authorities to “immediately withdraw the handcuffs” when the plane landed, denouncing the “blatant contempt for fundamental rights” of its citizens.
A Brazilian government source had underlined to AFP on Friday that this expulsion had “no direct relationship” with the operation against the illegal immigrants launched by the new Trump administration, but was part of a bilateral agreement between Brazil and the United States, from 2017.
