Colombia caves on deportations after Trump threats

Kathmandu: Colombia has backed down and agreed to accept deported citizens sent on US military aircraft, hours after President Donald Trump threatened painful tariffs to punish the defiance of his mass deportation plans.

Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, earlier said he would only take back citizens with dignity such as on civilian planes and had turned back two US military aircraft with repatriated Colombians.

President Trump, less than a week back in the office, responded furiously and threatened sanctions of 25 per cent that would quickly scale up to 50 per cent against Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said in a late-night news conference that his country had overcome the impasse and would accept returned citizens.

A White House statement said that Colombia has agreed to unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay.

RSS/AFP