A major diplomatic clash erupted between the United States and Colombia, with both nations implementing retaliatory tariffs after Colombia refused to accept deportation flights of Colombian migrants.
Newsweek reached out to the White House, U.S. State Department and Colombian Foreign Ministry for comment by email on Sunday.
Why It Matters
Trump initiated his much-promised plan to deport unauthorized or undocumented immigrants within the first week of his new administration. The first flights, which used military planes, started taking off on Friday last week. The White House published photos of migrants boarding the planes along with the declaration, “deportation flights have begun.”
Trump made immigration a central theme of his successful presidential campaign and Americans largely support his mass deportation plans.
A New York Times/Ipsos poll, carried out from January 2 to 10, found 55 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported such plans. Eighty-eight percent supported “Deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records.” Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the immigration system is broken.
What To Know
Colombia refused to accept U.S. deportation flights of Colombian migrants. Trump then announced several retaliatory measures on his Truth Social, his social media platform:
- Initial 25 percent tariffs, increasing to 50 percent within a week
- Visa restrictions on Colombian government officials
- Enhanced customs inspections
Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded on X, formerly Twitter, with matching tariffs and a strongly worded statement defending Colombian sovereignty.
President Gustavo Petro’s Full Statement
Trump, I don’t really like travelling to the US. It’s a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things. I like going to the Black neighborhoods of Washington, where I saw a fight in the US capital between Blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together.
I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller.
I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I follow them. They were murdered by labor leaders in the electric chair, by the fascists who are within the USA as well as within my country.
I don’t like your oil, Trump. It’s going to wipe out the human species because of greed. Maybe one day, with a glass of whiskey that I accept, despite my gastritis, we can talk frankly about this, but it’s difficult because you consider me part of an inferior race and I’m not, nor is any Colombian.
So, if you know someone who is stubborn, that’s me, period. You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die true to my principles, I resisted torture and I resist you. I don’t want slavers next in Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves. What I want next in Colombia are lovers of freedom. If you can’t join me, I’ll go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world, and you didn’t understand that, this is the land of the yellow butterflies, of the beauty of Remedios, but also of the colonels like Aureliano Buendía, of which I am one, perhaps the last.
You will kill me, but I will survive in my people, which lives, before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea and of freedom.
You don’t like our freedom, okay. I don’t shake hands with White slavers. I shake hands with the White libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the Black and White farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking the mountains of Italian Tuscany and after being saved from Covid.
They are the United States, and before them I kneel, before no one else.
Overthrow me, Mr. President, and the Americas and humanity will respond.
Colombia now stops looking north, it looks at the world. Our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the civilization of that time, of the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood comes from the Black resistance fighters turned into slaves by you. Colombia is the first free territory of America, before Washington, [before] of all America, and I take refuge in its African songs.
My land is made up of goldsmiths who worked in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.
You will never rule us. You’re opposed to the warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, whose name is (Simon) Bolívar.
Our people are somewhat fearful, somewhat timid, they are naive and kind, loving, but they will know how to win the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all of Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, today’s Panama, formerly Colombia, which you murdered.
I raise a flag and as (Jorge Eliecer) Gaitán said, even if it remains alone, it will continue to be raised with the Latin American dignity that is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather did not know, and mine did, Mr. President, an immigrant in the USA.
Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know that you love beauty as I do, do not disrespect it and it will give its sweetness to you.
FROM TODAY ON, COLOMBIA IS OPEN TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE AND HUMANITY.
I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same.
Let our people plant corn that was discovered in Colombia and feed the world.
What Happens Next
The White House announced Sunday night that Colombia has agreed to the “unrestricted acceptance” of immigrants who entered the US illegally from Colombia, with President Donald Trump suspending plans for a 25% tariff “unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement.”
“The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Based on this agreement, the fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement.”
Update, 1/26/25 at 11:43 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and statement from the White House.
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