What Happened Between Colombia & the U.S. Was Never About Tariffs — It Was About Dignity
The latest chapter in the saga between Colombia and the U.S. has ended a short-lived impasse that, for a moment, threatened to get very expensive for both countries. It all started after Colombia’s government barred two US military planes carrying deported Colombian migrants from landing in the country.
Petro himself explained his reasoning, saying “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves. That is why I turned back the US military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants.” He went on to clarify on X, formerly Twitter, that he had never refused to accept migrants, but that these should be treated “with dignity.”
Reports showed that migrants were handcuffed, their feet chained and were being transported in military planes, without even being allowed to go to the bathroom or drink water. Brazil also complained about this same treatment for Brazilians on a deportation flight on Saturday (January 25).
President Trump’s response was to threaten tariffs on “all goods” coming from Colombia, which would increase to 50% after a week. Colombia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of coffee and fresh flowers. He also threatened to bar Petro and members of his government from visiting the United States.
Colombia’s response was swift, with Petro imposing the same tariffs on U.S. goods and telling President Trump, “I do not shake hands with white slavers,” and adding, “You can use your economic strength and your arrogance to try to carry out a coup d’état, as you did with Allende. But I will die in my own law, I resisted torture and I will resist you.”
Later in the day, however, both the Colombian Foreign Secretary and the Trump WH released statements making it clear the solution had been resolved, with the WH saying that Colombia had agreed to all the demands, while Colombia explained that they’d been guaranteed dignified treatments for migrants—and the country was ready to send the Presidential Plane to bring back the migrants in the two flights they’d refused entry to.
It’s a good resolution for Colombia and Latin America at large—even if the Trump WH wants to spin it as a win for them. For Gustavo Petro, and for a region that is seeing the new administration try to reduce migrants from our communities to criminals, it was never about the legality of deportation. It was always about dignity. And though it might be impossible to win the battle against people who see migrants as less, the battle for dignity will continue to be fought.