By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, N.B.] Telegraph-Journal
Apart from his threats to retake the Panama Canal and claim Greenland, Donald Trump’s “Monroe Doctrine 2.0” is also aimed at putting Western Hemisphere states on notice that they cannot flaunt American policy, especially when it comes to turning a blind eye to migrants from those countries entering the United States illegally.
“President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of. It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Jan. 26.
“We are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America’s border security.” After all, this was a centerpiece of Trump’s election platform and a main reason for his victory. But the new policy faced pushbacks within a week of his inauguration.
First test case: Colombia. Its offence was refusing to allow two U.S. flights carrying deported migrants to land because they were military, not civilian, transport planes. That was enough to prompt Trump to threaten to drop the hammer.
“We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States,” Trump posted on his Truth Social media site.
On top of the 25 per cent tariffs he announced he would impose in retaliation, Trump also indicated he would introduce a travel ban and “immediate visa revocations” on Colombian government officials, as well as its allies and supporters.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had initially responded by saying his country would only accept repatriated citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals. “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” Petro replied. “That is why I returned the U.S. military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants.”
In a lengthy message on X, he added that Trump would “wipe out the human species because of greed” and accused the president of considering Colombians an “inferior race.” Petro went on to describe himself as “stubborn” and said that while Trump could try to “carry out a coup” with “economic strength and arrogance,” he would fight back.
Former right-wing President Ivan Duque called Petro “irresponsible” and warned that the sanctions would have a severe impact on Colombia’s economy.
Anyhow, Petro’s bluster didn’t last long. Soon afterwards, Colombia had backed down. It “agreed 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," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reported in a statement Jan. 26.
As a result, Washington would not go ahead with the tariffs. But Leavitt warned that the measures, which would have imposed a 25 per cent tariff on all Colombian goods coming into the United States and then raised to 50 per cent one week later, would be “held in reserve, and not signed.” President Trump, she declared, “expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.”
The United States imports about 27 per cent of its coffee from Colombia, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as goods like bananas, crude oil, avocados and flowers. The coffee imports alone are worth nearly two billion dollars annually. The South American country is also the largest supplier of fresh cut flowers.
Colombia is as well the U.S.’s fourth-largest overseas supplier of crude oil, shipping about 209,000 barrels of oil per day last year, although booming domestic production has reduced American dependence on foreign oil.
It’s no secret that Petro doesn’t like Donald Trump – he has criticized his policies on migration and the environment in the past. A left-wing former guerrilla fighter with the leftist M-19 rebel movement, he and his political alliance, known as the Pacto Historico, ascended to power in an election in 2022.
Since then, U.S.-Colombia relations have grown more tense because Petro has pursued certain policy changes, including his opposition to American-backed policies to reduce illicit drug supplies -- Colombia continues to be the source of roughly 90 per cent of the cocaine entering the United States. Some members of the U.S. Congress question whether robust U.S. assistance for the country should even continue.
Also, Colombians have emerged in recent years as a major presence on the U.S. border with Mexico, aided in part by a visa regime that allows them to easily fly to Mexico and avoid trekking though the treacherous Darien Gap in Panama. They ranked fourth with 127,604 arrests for illegal crossings during a 12-month period through September, behind Mexicans, Guatemalans and Venezuelans.
Trump’s “border czar” expressed confidence that other countries reluctant to take back their citizens would relent under American pressure. “El Salvador didn’t want to take MS-13 members back. Took President Trump 48 hours to make that happen,” Tom Homan told ABC News.
Finally, on Feb. 2, Panamanian President José Raul Mulino agreed to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road development and infrastructure initiative after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned him to reduce China’s role in the Panama Canal operations or face American retaliation. This American administration means it.
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