Trump slaps tariffs, sanctions on Colombia after it turns away deportation flights
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WASHINGTON/BOGOTA - US President Donald Trump said on Jan 26 that he will impose sweeping retaliatory measures on Colombia, including tariffs and sanctions, after the South American country turned away two US military aircraft with migrants being deported as part of the new US administration’s immigration crackdown.
Colombia, America’s third-largest trading partner in Latin America, responded swiftly. Writing on social media platform X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro initially said he would impose 50 per cent tariffs on US goods, but later deleted the post and announced that he had instructed his minister for external trade “to raise tariffs on imports from the US to 25 per cent”.
Mr Trump’s punitive action appeared aimed at making an example of Colombia, the second case of a Latin American nation refusing US military deportation flights. It was a demonstration of a more muscular US foreign policy and showed a renewed willingness by the US leader to force other countries to bend to his will.
Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social that the refusal by President Petro to accept the flights jeopardised US national security.
The retaliatory measures include imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all Colombian goods coming into the US, which will go up to 50 per cent in one week; a travel ban and visa revocations on Colombian government officials; and emergency treasury, banking and financial sanctions.
Mr Trump said he would also direct enhanced border inspections of Colombian nationals and cargo.
“These measures are just the beginning,” he wrote. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!”
America will “no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement, adding that Mr Petro had authorised these flights and provided all needed authorisations but then cancelled his authorisation when the planes were in the air.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military aircraft had departed California and were en route to Colombia when Bogota yanked the permissions to land.
Sweeping crackdown
Mr Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency and imposed a sweeping crackdown since taking office on Jan 20. He directed the US military to help with border security, issued a broad ban on asylum and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on US soil.
Mr Petro condemned the practice on Jan 26, suggesting the US treated migrants like criminals. In a post on social media platform X, he said Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” he wrote.
He said even though there were 15,660 Americans without legal immigration status in Colombia, he would never carry out a raid to return handcuffed Americans to the US.
“We are the opposite of the Nazis,” he wrote.
Mexico also refused a request last week by to let a
Trump did not take similar action against Mexico, the largest US trading partner, but has said he was thinking about imposing 25 per cent duties on imports from Canada and Mexico on Feb 1 to force further action against illegal immigrants and fentanyl flowing into the US.
The US is Colombia’s largest trading partner, largely due to a 2006 free trade agreement, with US$33.8 billion (S$45.5 billion) worth of two-way trade in 2023 and a rare US$1.6 billion US trade surplus, according to US Census Bureau data.
The biggest US imports from Colombia that year were crude oil, gold, coffee and cut roses.
“Petro’s finding out that tweets have consequences. He’s not (facing) a US counterpart that looks at Colombia through a strategic lens, as a key ally, but as a country to make an example of,” said Mr Sergio Guzman, director of consultancy Colombia Risk Analysis, adding that financial sanctions could be potentially economically crippling.
Mr Alejo Czerwonko, chief investment officer for emerging markets Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management, said Colombia relied on access to the US market for about a third of its exports, or about 4 per cent of its gross domestic product.
“In addition, the Petro-Trump relationship has started off on the wrong foot, which could signal additional challenges ahead,” he told Reuters.
Growing discontent
Mr Petro’s comments add to the growing chorus of discontent in Latin America as Mr Trump’s week-old administration starts mobilising for mass deportations.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry on Jan 25 condemned “degrading treatment” of Brazilians
The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 US security agents and eight crew members, had been originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais.
However, during an unscheduled stop due to technical problems in Manaus, capital of Amazonas, Brazilian officials ordered the removal of the handcuffs, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva designated a Brazilian Air Force flight to complete their journey, the government said in a statement on Jan 25.
The commercial charter flight was the second in 2025 from the US carrying undocumented migrants deported back to Brazil and the first since Mr Trump’s inauguration, according to Brazil’s federal police.
Officials from the US State Department, Pentagon, US Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The use of US military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Mr Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration on Jan 20.
In the past, US military aircraft have been used to relocate individuals from one country to another, like during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
This has been the first time in recent memory that US military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the country, one US official said.
US military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Jan 24. REUTERS, AFP
