President Donald Trump announced sweeping punitive measures against Colombia on Sunday after its Marxist president, Gustavo Petro, denied entry to two U.S. military deportation planes filled with migrants. Trump in turn imposed an "emergency" 25 percent tariff on Colombian goods—and it took Petro less than an hour to offer his presidential plane to pick up the migrants.
Other measures include a travel ban on Colombian government officials and their "allies and supporters," as well as visa sanctions on "all Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombia government" Trump announced in a statement.
"These measures are just the beginning," Trump said. "We will not allow the Colombia Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!"
Petro made amends to receive the migrants shortly thereafter, announcing in a statement that he would send his presidential plane.
"The Government of Colombia, under the leadership of President Gustavo Petro, has arranged for the presidential plane to facilitate the dignified return of Colombian nationals who were to arrive in the country today in the morning hours, coming from deportation flights," the statement said.
The ordeal comes as an early diplomatic standoff stemming from the mass deportations Trump campaigned on.
In his first week back in the White House, Trump began military deportation flights to Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. He also sent 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border, with additional deployments set to follow, and launched illegal immigration raids in major cities across the country. A majority of U.S. adults, 55 percent, support Trump's mass deportations, according to a New York Times poll conducted shortly before Trump's inauguration.
The situation began earlier on Sunday when Petro, a former member of the Marxist M-19 guerilla group, prevented two American military planes from landing in his country. The planes were carrying around 80 Colombian migrants who were deported under Trump’s tough new border policies. Mexico similarly blocked a U.S. deportation plane from taking off last week, but the Trump administration resolved the situation, and Mexico accepted four deportation flights on Thursday.
Petro’s decision to block the planes serves as an early test for the Trump administration as it seeks to seal up America’s porous southern border and deport scores of illegals, many of whom are convicted violent criminals. The fresh sanctions also suggest that Trump, unlike the Biden White House, is ready to confront a host of far-left Latin American governments that have stoked anti-American and anti-Western fervor for years. In Colombia's case, Petro has established himself as a fierce opponent of Israel’s government, accusing it of "genocide" and severing diplomatic ties after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree.
While the Colombian deportation flights were initially cleared for landing, Petro revoked their diplomatic clearances at the last moment, according to NBC News.
"The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals," Petro said in a Spanish-language message on X. I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory. The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them."
Trump, in turn, took aim at Petro, calling him a "socialist" who "is already very unpopular amongst his people."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that, under Trump, "America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of."
"It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner," Rubio said in a statement provided to the Washington Free Beacon. "Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air."
"As demonstrated by today’s actions, we are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America’s border security."
Petro spent his youth as a member of Colombia’s far-left M-19 militant group, which sought to violently topple the government. In 1985, the group stormed Colombia’s national judicial building, sparking a clash that killed 94 people and that is remembered as "one of the bloodiest acts in the country’s recent history," according to the New York Times.
Petro was also known as a close adviser to Venezuela’s former anti-American president, Hugo Chavez. As Colombia's president, Petro modeled himself as a socialist revolutionary, finding common cause with the Hamas terrorist group after its shocking terror attack on Israel. Some of his comments around the Middle East war drew accusations of anti-Semitism from Jewish advocacy groups.
In September, roughly one year after Hamas’s attack, Petro accused the global media of covering up alleged Israeli crimes, likening them to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
"Anyone who defends this genocide or remains silent in the face of it has destroyed their own human condition," Petro said at the time. "It would seem as if Goebbels is the one who directs the world's communications so that tens of thousands of journalists are silenced in the face of their murdered colleagues and 20,000 babies torn to pieces by bombs."
Rep. Brian Mast (R., Fla.) said Trump's actions to confront Petro show "the rule of law and the law of the jungle have returned."
"We don't allow our people to cross Colombia's borders illegally, they shouldn't allow theirs to cross ours illegally," he told the Free Beacon. "If they do, they should work with us to clean up the mess."