January 27, 2025
Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia
The racist discourse promoted by the new government of the United States against migrants in his country found a breaking point yesterday in the decision of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, not to allow the arrival of flights with expelled people because they were not being treated with the dignity that a human being deserves. The day before, the president of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, demanded explanations for the degrading treatment of 88 Brazilian citizens deported the day before, whom Washington sent back to their country in military planes and who traveled bound hand and foot and spent several hours without air conditioning, without being able to drink water or go to the bathroom during the flight.
The situation escalated rapidly: in response, Donald Trump announced the imposition of tariffs on Colombian exports and the suspension of visa delivery by his consular services in the South American nation, to which Petro replied that he would adopt reciprocal measures, in addition to calling a meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to analyze the aggressiveness of the new U.S. government against migrant workers.
Hours later, the Palacio de Nariño announced that the impasse had been “overcome” and that Petro’s presidential plane is ready to transport the Colombian deportees, guaranteeing them dignified conditions as subjects of law and the upcoming trip of a government team from Bogota to Washington headed by Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo to hold high-level meetings to follow up on the agreements and that the diplomatic channels of dialogue between the two countries will be maintained.
For its part, the White House issued a statement in which it assured that the Colombian government had “agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of Colombian illegals returned by the United States, including (to be carried out in) U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.” that tariffs and other trade sanctions would remain suspended, but that visa suspensions and enhanced customs inspections of Colombian products would continue until the last load (sic) of deported Colombians is successfully returned.
The episode would not be anything more than a characteristic Trump maneuver: carry out an aggressive action against another country, provoke a crisis, start a negotiation and, before it is completed, proclaim that he has defeated his counterpart. However, the infamous provocation of chaining up deportees and transporting them to their countries of origin as if they were strings of slaves has generated an outrage that transcends the Colombian sphere and Petro’s initial response. Even if they are essentially propaganda products to sustain his image as a tough man, Trump’s outbursts have the potential to provoke diplomatic and economic crises that certainly have a high cost for the countries involved in them, but which, added together, will only accentuate Washington’s isolation and its weakening as a world hegemonic power.
With all its military, economic, diplomatic and technological might, the United States cannot fight at the same time with its trading partners in this continent -starting with the main ones, which are Mexico and Canada-, Europe and Asia without going into an accelerated decline that would not be good for anyone.
Certainly, the government in Washington has the legal power to dictate inhumane and ruthless anti-immigration policies in its own territory, but not to violate the human rights of any person, American or foreign, documented or undocumented, nor to behave with transgressive bravado towards the rest of the planet. After all, his Democratic predecessors Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden expelled more foreign workers than Trump and this did not produce any diplomatic crisis.
Source La Jornada, translation Internationalist 360