Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan hit a short stumbling block on January 26 when Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, refused to allow two US flights carrying deported Colombian migrants to land. Petro’s criticism was that the US authorities was treating the migrants like criminals by repatriating them in army planes.
Across the identical time, the US had also deported dozens of Brazilian migrants. These individuals arrived within the Amazonian metropolis of Manaus handcuffed, with the Brazilian authorities expressing outrage over their “degrading therapy”. One of many migrants claimed they weren’t given any water throughout the six-hour flight nor had been they allowed to make use of the lavatory.
Petro’s pushback enraged Trump. In a put up on his Fact Social media web site, Trump wrote: “We is not going to permit the Colombian authorities to violate its authorized obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they pressured into the US”. He then threatened Colombia with 25% tariffs and stated his authorities would impose a journey ban on Colombian authorities officers.
Petro responded by launching a scathing social media assault on Trump. He initially vowed retaliatory tariffs on US items and likewise insisted he wouldn’t settle for migrants who weren’t handled with “dignity and respect”. However, inside just a few hours, Petro had backed down.
Carlos Ortega / EPA
In response to a White House statement launched late that night, Colombia had agreed to all of Trump’s phrases. This included the “unrestricted acceptance of all unlawful aliens from Colombia returned from the US, together with on US army plane, with out limitation or delay”.
The White Home hailed the settlement with Colombia as a victory for Trump’s hardline immigration technique. In her assertion, press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote: “At present’s occasions clarify to the world that America is revered once more.” However Trump’s punishing tariff threats and foul rhetoric towards unlawful immigrants could solely injury the facility and place of the US within the area.
Setting a nasty precedent
As Petro’s row with Trump unfolded, Colombia’s former president Iván Duque accused his successor of participating in “an act of super irresponsibility”. He careworn that Colombia has a “ethical responsibility” to take again the unlawful migrants despatched by the US, and highlighted the “huge” toll sanctions and tariffs would have on the financial system.
Nonetheless, in an interconnected worldwide financial system, Trump’s unilateral menace of tariffs and sanctions generally is a double-edged sword.
Colombia is a comparatively minor buying and selling companion to the US. But when Petro’s authorities had refused to adjust to Trump’s calls for, it nonetheless would have meant increased costs for espresso, avocado and several other different commodities. In 2022, the US imported US$24.8 billion (£20 billion) price of products from Colombia – nearly US$2 billion of which was espresso.
Trump’s willingness to wage a commerce conflict with nations in Latin America may encourage different economies within the area to hurry up their seek for various commerce companions. This might result in extra commerce offers between Latin American nations themselves.
In Could 2023, beneath the management of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 12 South American nations gathered in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, to express their interest in reviving the Union of South American Nations with the specific intention of bolstering regional commerce and cooperation.
The union successfully broke down in 2019 after main nations like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru withdrew their membership amid considerations about Venezuela’s management. However the “Latin America is stronger collectively” slogan often quoted by political leaders within the area could now really materialise, because of Trump.
Latin American nations are wanting additional afield, too. The EU established a trade deal with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia in December 2024, bringing 25 years of on-off negotiations to a detailed. Trump’s tariff threats might encourage different economies within the area to discover changing into part of that settlement, doubtlessly on the expense of the US.
Antonio Lacerda / EPA
And it’s attainable that extra Latin American nations could finally search membership of the Brics bloc of rising economies, which has repeatedly drawn Trump’s ire for consuming into US energy and affect. Bolivia and Cuba, alongside seven different nations, had been announced as companion states to Brics in late 2024, and extra might observe. Whereas not formally a part of the bloc, these companion states will get help from its members.
Worse nonetheless, Trump’s threats might inadvertently push Latin American nations into the arms of China. Throughout Trump’s first time period, his administration coined the term “troika of tyranny” to explain Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. These nations are all led by dictators.
Since then, Beijing has actively pursued a policy of nearer cooperation with these nations by making them “strategic rivals” towards the US within the area. A 2024 report by researchers on the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research, an American thinktank, even found evidence of suspected Chinese language spy services in Cuba.
Trump’s uncharitable rhetoric and less-than-civilised therapy of unlawful immigrants are, on the very least, more likely to gasoline extra anti-American sentiment within the area. This resentment in direction of the US could effectively manifest in constructing bridges with governments and ideologies which can be inimical to US pursuits.
