Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said Sunday that he made American deportation flights return, claiming that “the United States can’t treat Colombian migrants like criminals.”
In a post on social media platform X, Petro decried the treatment of Colombian migrants and said “I disallow the entry of US planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory.”
“The US should establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them,” the president added.
Petro later specified that he wouldn’t allow the use of military aircraft for deportations.
A migrant is not a criminal and should be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves. That is why I sent back the US military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants. I cannot make migrants stay in a country that does not want them; but if that country returns them, it must be with dignity and respect for them and for our country. We will receive our nationals in civilian airplanes, without treating them as criminals. Colombia deserves respect.
President Gustavo Petro
The US Government has licenses for eight civilian repatriation flights per week, Foreign Minister Luis Fernando Murillo said ahead of the inauguration of President Donald Trump earlier this month.
The change of attitude in Bogota follows the release by the White House of images of allegedly undocumented migrants boarding a military aircraft.
According to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the batch “is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world” about the migration policy of the far-right administration.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to Petro’s decision to suspend his government’s cooperation with the American plans to deport millions of undocumented migrants.
Bogota previously protested British and German plans to demand visas of Colombian tourists on claims that they were used by people trying to migrate to Europe.
