On Sunday, January 26, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he would refuse to receive Colombian migrants deported from the United States stating that their transfer did not respect the dignity of the detainees and that they had suffered inhumane treatment: “The US cannot treat Colombian migrants like criminals…the US should establish a protocol of dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”
In response, Trump declared that he rejected Petro’s measure as an attack against the security of the United States and that he would impose several retaliatory measures against Colombia. These included an emergency 25% tariff on Colombian goods, which will be raised to 50% in a week, a travel ban and revocations of visas of all Colombian government officials as well as “allies and supporters,” and visa sanctions on party members, family members, and supporters of the Colombian government.
The tit-for-tat continued, with Petro stating that he would request all US citizens in Colombia to regularize their immigration statuses and would also implement an increase in tariffs on US products equivalent to those imposed by the Trump administration on Colombian products.
Brasilia also rejects the treatment of migrants
Petro’s stand against Trump is likely to have been in response to an incident which had taken place on Friday, January 24 in Manaus, Brazil, when a deportation flight landed for a technical stop on its way to Belo Horizonte, and Brazilian authorities witnessed the 88 Brazilian nationals being led off the plane in handcuffs and with their ankles chained together.
The Minister of Justice and Public Safety Ricardo Lewandowski quickly ordered the Federal Police in Manaus to receive the deportees, take off their handcuffs, and to use a Brazilian Air Force plane to transport them to their final destination of Belo Horizonte. Some of the Brazilians who were aboard the flight complained that they had been restrained for the entirety of the flight, were not allowed to use the bathroom, and that the plane did not have air circulating.
Following this incident which shook the people of Brazil, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in an official statement that “The indiscriminate use of handcuffs and chains violates the terms of the agreement with the US, which provides for dignified, respectful and humane treatment of returnees.”
In addition, the Brazilian government reported in its statement that “the conditions agreed with the US government are not respected. Brazil has agreed to carry out repatriation flights, starting in 2018, to shorten the time these nationals spend in US detention centers, due to irregular immigration and with no possibility of appeal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will send a request for clarification to the US government and will keep a close eye on changes in migration policies in that country, to guarantee the protection, safety, and dignity of Brazilians living there.”
An apparent truce
On Sunday evening, the tensions began to dissipate. The Colombian Foreign Ministry stated in an official communiqué that night that “the impasse with the Government of the United States had been overcome…We will continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees, guaranteeing them dignified conditions, as citizens subject to the law.”
In addition, they informed, “Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo and [Colombian] Ambassador Daniel García Peña, [will] travel to Washington DC to hold high-level meetings to follow up on the agreements, the result of the joint work and exchange of diplomatic information that occurred between the two governments.”
According to the Colombian government’s communiqué, it can be assumed that part of the agreement consists of the US authorities committing to better treatment of deported Colombian migrants.
Despite this, the White House said that Colombia had accepted all of Washington’s conditions on Colombian migrants: “The government of Colombia has agreed to all President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay”.
Both countries have announced that the economic measures taken in retaliation have been repealed given the agreement reached between Bogotá and Washington.
A diplomatic impasse that heralds geopolitical challenges
Although it might seem that the diplomatic difficulties are over, Trump’s mass deportation will continue to provoke tensions between Latin American countries and Washington, especially due to the large volume of Latin American workers who will be returned to their countries and the possible mistreatment which they may be subjected to, as the presidents of Colombia and Brazil have complained.
Because of this, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) called for an “urgent” meeting on Thursday, January 30, to discuss the challenges posed by the US decision to mass deport Latin American workers. Honduran President Xiomara Castro, current President Pro-Tempore of CELAC, informed that the meeting will address issues concerning “migration, environment and Latin American and Caribbean unity.”
In this way, the Trump administration inaugurates its term with a strained relationship with several Latin American leftist and progressive governments, whether through the incorporation of Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism (from which Biden had removed Cuba a few days before Trump’s swearing-in), the threat of “retaking” the administration of the Panama Canal, or the ever latent possibility of imposing economic and diplomatic sanctions on governments that do not agree with its actions.
