Tired of Winning Colombian leader quickly caves to Trump, offers presidential plane for deportation flights
Returning Colombian citizens on military cargo planes, in shackles, is not acceptable to anybody. All Petro did was offer the Presidential plane to go and fetch them today and that offer has been refused as Trump wants to underline that Colombians are fourth class to him. This was Trump picking a personal fight with Petro. Chaos again. Colombia does not actually export a huge percentage to the US and can weather this easily by balancing tariffs. Pricesmart is fucked. Some very unhappy Jewish owners there. Seems there are over 14,000 Amercians without proper status in Colombia. Many would be retired. I guess that they can be returned in shackles on military cargo planes? This is bullshit and the world's governments can't let bullying like this stand or they will be voted out and replaced with hardliners.
Bah, no US pensioners in shackles on cargo planes they say. "President Petro 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 United States. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro claimed his country is 'the opposite of the Nazis' "We are the opposite of the Nazis," he wrote, in a jab at President Trump. " Colombia has South America's oldest and most stable democracy. Even the transition between right wing and left recently (first time left in power) went very smoothly. I can't stand Colombia some days but they are capable of surprising solidarity and sometimes higher minded ideals. Now who was that drug smuggler pilot buddy that Trump employed to get cocaine for his casinos... The guy Trump got the case moved to his own sister's court, from a different state. Wonder if anybody remembers him.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro buckles under Trump’s trade war threat — offers presidential plane for deportation flights Colombian President Gustavo Petro quickly reversed course about accepting flights of deported migrants from the US after President Donald Trump threatened emergency tariffs of up to 50% on the South American country for refusing to cooperate.
So, just to update. It's just MAzi incompetence and lies in full swing, no surprise. The 2 flights had prior approval, but the documentation stated they were civilian planes (like prior 2 flights that were allowed to land). Once en route Colombia realized that they were military cargo planes and denied. Partly optics, citizens arriving in shackles on cargo planes and partly paperwork. This is not Colombia's fault, this is Trump picking a fight. Import tariffs will affect nothing that ordinary Colombians actually need, just the Amazon addicted middle class will have to make due with fewer parcels of Chinese stuff. Of course they will target medicines but these can be sourced elsewhere and Colombia has a mature pharma sector. It's Amercians who are going to pay more for food. Trump probably does not even know that the South Amercian nations have their own trade org.
Not so fast with that. All he did was offer to provide planes. This may not be acceptable to us for a number of reasons ranging from logistics to security. Anyway, net/net there is zero leverage in a tariff war with Columbia considering the relative balance of trade of $13.3:13.5B. This was probably the wrong country to start the tariff policy with.
Leverage is in Colombia's favour. Not exporting as much food is just going to make food cheaper here. A popular move. Colombian oligarchy families will make slightly less massive profit for a while. The people will weep for them. The reason it's not acceptable is the Colombian Presidential plane was offered. It's a Sunday and it was available. Trump wants Petro to suffer the optics of Colombians, shackled, coming off military cargo planes. Didn't go down well in Brazil either.