Trump’s Beef With Colombia Isn’t What You Think (It’s Dumber)

Colombian President Gustavo Petro had a simple request, Trump turned it into the stupidest international incident in a long time

Photo by David Restrepo on Unsplash

On Sunday, news broke all over social media about Colombia denying military planes with deportees from landing in the country. While Colombia has regularly accepted flights from the United States, President Gustavo Petro turned them away for one simple reason: he asked that repatriated Colombians be treated humanely. He then offered his presidential plane to ensure their treatment was just. In response, the Trump administration turned it into one of the dumbest international incidents in recent history.

In the end, Petro got what he wanted.

On Monday, legacy media chose a narrative suggesting Colombia backed down from U.S. demands. However, that’s only partially true. Moving forward, repatriations to Colombia will be conducted just as Petro asked. Typically, repatriation flights are done using commercial aircraft, not military planes. As expected, when military planes show up unannounced in foreign airspace, it creates cause for concern, as we recently saw with flights to Mexico.

The use of military planes isn’t the only issue. On Friday, a flight carrying 88 Brazilians landed in Manaus, Brazil after being diverted from Minas Gerais. Its passengers arrived handcuffed and reported being denied water during the flight. The handcuffs were only removed after Brazilian police intervened and forced their removal. This created cause for concern and after the flights to Colombia, many Latin American nations denounced the treatment of their citizens.

After the incident in Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered all Brazizilan deportees to be flown on Brazilian Air Force planes to ensure their humane treatment.

It doesn’t take a foreign policy expert to understand why these incidents are problematic or why Colombian President Petro did what he did in denying the flight from landing. Sovereign nations don’t take kindly to military planes from other countries showing up unannounced in their airspace. Since the U.S. didn’t coordinate ahead of time, this created unnecessary international incidents that provided an opportunity for the Trump administration to propagandize them.

“The State Department will continue to enforce and prioritize an America First agenda. Following President Petro’s refusal to accept two repatriation flights he previously authorized, Secretary Rubio immediately ordered a suspension of visa issuance at the U.S. Embassy Bogota consular section. Secretary Rubio is now authorizing travel sanctions on individuals and their families, who were responsible for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations. Measures will continue until Colombia meets its obligations to accept the return of its own citizens. America will not back down when it comes to defending its national security interests.” – Secretary of State Marco Rubio via press release

We saw everything from Trump threatening sanctions and tariffs to the State Department revoking Colombian officials and their families' passports to even Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) beginning to conduct “enhanced” inspections of flights and cargo from Colombia.

“At ports of entry, the Office of Field Operations has commenced enhanced inspections of flights, private aircraft, and cargo to and from Colombia. CBP has already denied boarding to flagged visa holders and in coordination with the Department of State, and is enforcing the travel ban on Colombian officials. CBP is prepared to act swiftly in support of its national security mission.” – Customs and Border Protection Media Note

The incident with Colombia ended with Petro sending his presidential plane to the U.S. to fly Colombians home just as Brazil succeeded in ensuring their planes and staff would handle the flights to Brazil. As the media continues to drive the narrative that Colombia backed down, the reality is Colombia’s president got his way and will conduct high-level talks with the Trump administration later this week. It’s worth noting that Petro stood his ground on social media.

“Trump, I don't really like traveling to the US, it's a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things. I like going to the black neighborhoods of Washington, where I saw an entire fight in the US capital between blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together.

“I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller

“I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I follow them. They were murdered by labor leaders with the electric chair, the fascists who are within the USA as well as within my country

“I don't like your oil, Trump, you're going to wipe out the human species because of greed. Maybe one day, over a glass of whiskey, which I accept, despite my gastritis, we can talk frankly about this, but it's difficult because you consider me an inferior race and I'm not, nor is any Colombian.

“So if you know someone who is stubborn, that's me, period. You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die in my law, I resisted torture and I resist you. I don't want slavers next to Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves. What I want next to Colombia are lovers of freedom. If you can't accompany me, I'll go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world and you didn't understand that, this is the land of the yellow butterflies, of the beauty of Remedios, but also of the colonels Aureliano Buendía, of which I am one, perhaps the last.

“You will kill me, but I will survive in my people, which is before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea and of freedom.

“You don't like our freedom, okay. I don't shake hands with white slavers. I shake hands with the white libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the black and white farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking the mountains of Italian Tuscany and after being saved from Covid.

“They are the United States and before them I kneel, before no one else.

“Overthrow me, President, and the Americas and humanity will respond.

“Colombia now stops looking north, looks at the world, our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the civilization of that time, of the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood has the black resistance fighters turned into slaves by you. In Colombia is the first free territory of America, before Washington, of all America, there I take refuge in its African songs.

“My land is made up of goldsmiths who worked in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.

“You will never rule us. The warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, who is called Bolívar, opposes us.

“Our people are somewhat fearful, somewhat timid, they are naive and kind, loving, but they will know how to win the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all of Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, today's Panama, formerly Colombia, which you murdered.

“I raise a flag and as Gaitán said, even if it remains alone, it will continue to be raised with the Latin American dignity that is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather did not know, and mine did, Mr. President, an immigrant in the USA,

“Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know that you love beauty as I do, do not disrespect it and you will give it your sweetness.

“FROM TODAY ON, COLOMBIA IS OPEN TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE AND HUMANITY.

“I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same.

“Let our people plant corn that was discovered in Colombia and feed the world” – Colombian President Gustavo Petro (translated, not interpreted)

While the United States needs the allyship of Latin American and Caribbean Island nations, Trump’s actions highlight how the U.S.’s waning influence can easily be undermined by ignorant moves that will force the international community to adapt to operating without the U.S. at a great cost to its citizens. Later this week, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will hold an emergency meeting to discuss just that.

“As President Pro Tempore (PPT) of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), I hereby call an urgent meeting of presidents and heads of state next Thursday, January 30, at 11:00 am (Honduras time).” – Honduran President Xiomara Castro de Zelaya

The Trump administration is putting decades of goodwill at risk for its white nationalist and racist policies and it does not appear to care about the cost to U.S. citizens. Many Latin American and European leaders are now speaking up and taking action against the U.S.’s bully tactics. As taxpayers prepare for myriad domestic problems created by Trump’s policies, we should not ignore the damage he will do to our relationships with neighbors and allies.

Why U.S. news media isn’t telling you about this is anyone’s guess. But the narrative about Colombia backing down to the big and bad United States will leave U.S. citizens ill-equipped for what is likely to come as a result of this nonsense. Whether it's appeasement or the nationalism we often see in the media doesn’t matter.

The failure to tell the whole story results in copious amounts of misinformation that white nationalists are feeding on across social media.

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