Colombia president welcomes first flights of deported migrants after losing public spat with Trump
After teetering on the brink of an all-out trade war with the United States, Colombia welcomed its first flights of deported illegal immigrants, with its president heralding their "dignified" return and insisting they are not criminals.
The arrivals are taking place just two days after President Donald Trump threatened crippling tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish the country for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.
Two Colombian Air Force planes carrying deported Colombian nationals arrived in Bogota early on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing local media.
One plane, flying from San Diego, California, brought home 110 Colombians and the other, which departed from El Paso, Texas, brought home 91, the Colombian Foreign Ministry said on X.
"They are Colombians, they are free and dignified and they are in their homeland where they are loved," Colombia President Gustavo Petro wrote on X with images of the migrants disembarking a flight.
"The migrant is not a criminal, he is a human being who wants to work and progress, to live life."
The Colombian government hailed the returns as Petro fulfilling his commitments and said it is working on a "structured and accessible credit plan" to support the migrants' reintegration.
This weekend, American officials sent two flights of Colombian illegal aliens as part of Trump's ongoing deportation program. Petro rejected the flights, writing that the U.S. cannot "treat Colombian migrants as criminals."
Trump immediately clapped back, writing in a Truth Social post he was going to slap 25% tariffs on all goods from Colombia, a travel ban on Colombian government officials and other steep financial sanctions. He said the tariffs would reach as high as 50% by next week and insisted the migrants being sent back were "illegal criminals."
At first, Petro retaliated with his own 25% tariffs on U.S. goods coming from Colombia. Petro had insisted he would not accept the return of migrants who were not treated with "dignity and respect" and who had arrived shackled or on military planes.
But amid intense political pressure from within his own government, the former Marxist guerrilla fighter acquiesced to all U.S. demands.
The White House confirmed on Sunday that Colombia's president had caved "to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay,"
President Trump hailed it as a victory for his "f--- around and find out" [FAFO]-style of governing.
After the debacle, the 47th president posted a celebratory AI-generated image of himself dressed as a mobster next to a sign that read "FAFO."
Trump officials cheered the deal as a victory and said Trump used Colombia as an example of U.S. power, while Colombian officials have said the agreement is a win for both sides. Dozens of frustrated Colombians had long-awaited visa appointments at the U.S. embassy in Bogota canceled on Monday.
Colombia is one of the top recipients of U.S. aid in the world due to a security partnership. Since 2000, Colombia has received more than $13 billion in foreign assistance from the Departments of Defense and State and from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), largely focused on counternarcotics efforts, continued implementation of the government's 2016 peace accord with the FARC rebel group, integration of Venezuelan migrants and refugees, and environmental programs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Coward' Elon Musk Mocked On His Own Platform After Bending The Knee To Trump
Elon Musk went into damage-control mode early Wednesday as he tried to mend fences with President Donald Trump after their spectacular falling-out last week. And his critics are mocking his public show of fealty on his own platform. Musk spent some $291 million during the 2024 election cycle, most notably to help Trump, according to and became a constant presence by his side. Once in office, Trump put Musk in charge of the 'DOGE' initiative to cut government spending. But Musk left his role, attacked Trump's signature 'big beautiful bill' as a 'disgusting abomination,' and went scorched-earth against his one-time ally in a series of posts on X last week. Musk wrote that Trump won't release the files of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because the president is named in them, shared a post in support of impeaching Trump and replacing him with Vice President JD Vance, and floated the creation of a third political party. Trump in turn threatened repercussions for Musk's businesses and warned him of 'serious consequences' if he backed Democrats for office. But Musk blinked on Wednesday. He wrote that he regretted some of his posts about Trump and said some of them 'went too far.' He also deleted many of those messages. His critics fired back:
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Scofflaw Strongman
DONALD TRUMP SAYS HIS LATEST VENTURE into dictatorship—deploying the National Guard and Marines against American citizens, over the opposition of state and local officials—is about safeguarding the rule of law. 'If we see danger to our country and to our citizens, we'll be very, very strong in terms of law and order,' Trump told reporters on Sunday, as protests escalated in Los Angeles against his deportations. 'It's about law and order.' Don't believe it. Trump is using the Guard and the military to enforce his will, not the law. The evidence of his insincerity is what he did four years ago: When rioters were on his side, he didn't call in the Guard. He embraced the criminals, pardoned them, and purged the law enforcement officials who prosecuted them. He's a despot and a scofflaw. In the Los Angeles uprising, Trump—like every authoritarian before him—claims to be saving his country from chaos. 'Violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents,' he declared on Sunday afternoon. 'These lawless riots only strengthen our resolve.' A few hours later, he called for 'bringing in the troops . . . RIGHT NOW!!! Don't let these thugs get away with this.' And on Monday afternoon, he ridiculed any suggestion that the protesters were peaceful. 'Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction,' he wrote, 'tells you all you have to know.' Insurrectionist mobs. Lawless riots. Videos of violence. We've heard such alarming descriptions before. And on January 6, 2021, we saw how little Trump cared about them. Share AT 1:21 P.M. THAT DAY, AS TRUMP returned to the White House after instructing his supporters to march on the Capitol, he was told twice by a member of his staff, 'They're rioting down at the Capitol.' The exact moment of this encounter was captured in a photograph. Trump replied, 'All right, let's go see.' He went to his dining room and watched on TV as the riot proceeded. For the next hour, TV networks aired videos of the violence and destruction. Like this week's videos from Los Angeles, they told the president all he needed to know. But Trump did nothing. Toward the end of that hour—somewhere between 2:13 and 2:24 pm, according to the final report of the House January 6th Committee—Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, informed White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that Trump 'doesn't want to do anything' about the ongoing assault. A few minutes later, Cipollone was heard to tell Meadows, 'They're literally calling for the Vice President to be F'ing hung.' And Meadows was heard to reply, 'You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike [Pence] deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.' Meanwhile, in a phone call, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy warned Trump that the rioters 'literally just came through my office windows, and my staff are running for cover. I mean, they're running for their lives. You need to call them [the assailants] off.' Trump responded by rebuking McCarthy: 'Well, Kevin, I guess they're just more upset about the election theft than you are.' These conversations took place as Fox News, which Trump was watching, reported that police had been injured and that rioters inside the Capitol were 'feet from the House chamber.' On the screen, according to the House committee report, Fox 'was showing video of the chaos and attack, with tear gas filling the air in the Capitol Rotunda.' Throughout the afternoon, Trump's aides, family, and friends implored him to tell the rioters to go home. He refused. Not until 4:17 p.m., nearly three hours after being informed about the riot, did he comply. Join now TRUMP NOW CLAIMS that he told the rioters to be peaceful and that he offered ten thousand National Guard troops to protect the Capitol. The first claim is misleading. The second is a lie. The House report shows that before and during the assault, Trump resisted entreaties to call for peace. On January 6th, a text message to one of his top aides, Hope Hicks, said Trump 'should tweet something about Being NON-violent.' Hicks wrote back: 'I suggested it several times Monday and Tuesday and he refused.' At one point in his incendiary speech that morning, Trump did ask his followers to march to the Capitol 'peacefully.' But that phrase, according to the House report, was 'scripted for him by his White House speechwriters.' The main theme of the speech was to 'fight like hell.' Another Trump aide, Sarah Matthews, told the committee that once the riot was underway, Trump resisted pleas to call for peace. He did use the term 'peaceful' in a tweet at 2:38 p.m., but only grudgingly. Trump's press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told Matthews that Trump 'did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet.' Trump's other January 6th story, about the National Guard, is also a sham. His acting defense secretary, his Army secretary, and his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff all testified that he never ordered the Guard to deploy that day. He never even spoke to these officials. Instead, during the riot, he used his phone to press members of Congress to do what the mob wanted: overturn the election. It's true that before the attack, Trump talked about the possibility of needing guardsmen. But it was never about protecting the Capitol. It was, in Meadows's words, to 'protect pro Trump people' from anti-Trump protesters. In short, everything Trump decries in Los Angeles happened on January 6th, and more. A violent, insurrectionist mob swarmed and attacked police. And instead of bringing in the Guard 'RIGHT NOW,' Trump watched the assault, encouraged the mob, and waited to see whether it would keep him in power. In fact, when he returned to office this year, Trump pardoned nearly everyone who had pleaded guilty to or had been convicted of assaulting police on January 6th. He said the insurrectionists were right: 'They were protesting a crooked election.' He purged the prosecutors who had handled those cases. And in a speech at the Department of Justice, he boasted that he had 'removed the senior FBI officials' who, in his words, had persecuted the 'J6 hostages.' Share NOW, AS HE DEPLOYS THE MILITARY against protesters in an American city, Trump invokes 'law and order' as a bogus excuse. And he vows to go further. On Monday, he announced a policy of escalation against protesters. 'If they spit, we will hit,' he wrote on Truth Social. 'This is a statement from the President of the United States. . . . The Insurrectionists have a tendency to spit in the face of the National Guardsmen/women, and others. . . . IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before.' On Tuesday, speaking to troops at Fort Bragg, Trump said he was seizing control of the National Guard and ending the tradition of consulting governors. 'We will use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order right away,' he declared. 'We're not going to wait . . . for a governor that's never going to call.' And in remarks in the Oval Office, Trump said his policy of escalating state violence would apply to anyone who protests the military parade on June 14, his birthday. 'If there's any protester [who] wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,' he warned. 'For those people that want to protest. . . . They will be met with very heavy force.' This is not a man defending the rule of law. This is a man continuing the project he began in his first term and tried to complete on January 6th: replacing the rule of law with himself. Share The Bulwark
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Finland's Foreign Ministry summons Russian chargé d'affaires over airspace violation
Finland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned Russia's chargé d'affaires in response to a violation of the country's airspace. The meeting is scheduled for 11 June, but no further details have been disclosed. Source: Yle, a Finnish public service media company, citing the press service for Finland's Foreign Ministry, as reported by European Pravda Details: A chargé d'affaires is the deputy to an ambassador who assumes their duties in the ambassador's absence. The incident took place on the afternoon of Tuesday 10 June. A Russian aircraft reportedly entered Finnish airspace over the sea near the city of Porvoo. The Finnish Border Guard is conducting an investigation. This is not the first such incident in the region. Finnish authorities have repeatedly stated their readiness to respond decisively to any violation of national sovereignty. Background: On 23 May, Finland's Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to explain another airspace violation by Russian aircraft. At the time, Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen noted that Russian activity in the Baltic Sea had clearly increased, raising tensions in the region. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
