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When Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, refused military planes carrying deportees, infuriating President Trump, he revealed how heated the question of deportations has become.
President Gustavo Petro of Colombia at his inauguration in 2022. Credit… Federico Rios for The New York Times Inside Colombia’s Crisis Over Trump’s Deportations
When Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, refused military planes carrying deportees, infuriating President Trump, he revealed how heated the question of deportations has become.
President Gustavo Petro of Colombia at his inauguration in 2022. Credit… Federico Rios for The New York Times
Colombia’s president, early on Sunday, announced that he had turned back two American military planes carrying deportees from the United States, setting off an extraordinary crisis inside and outside his country as he infuriated President Trump and caught even his own inner circle off guard.
President Gustavo Petro’s friends — and even his most powerful political adversary, former President Álvaro Uribe — quickly jumped in, working contacts in Washington to help defuse a crisis that threatened to devastate Colombia’s economy and upend relations in the region.
Late on Sunday, after moments when the tense discussions between the two countries appeared on the verge of breaking down, the White House announced that the Colombian government had agreed to receive all deportation flights, including military planes. The Colombian Foreign Ministry soon said “the impasse” had been overcome.
“Despite the difficulties we had, it’s proof that diplomatic channels continue to be the best way to sort out differences,” said Colombia’s ambassador to the United States, Daniel García-Peña, who was in Bogotá, the capital, on Sunday.
He was part of a small group that for several hours managed Mr. Petro on one line and the Trump administration, through its special envoy to Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, on another.
On Monday, Mr. García-Peña said he hoped the “U.S.-Colombia relationship cannot only continue throughout this new administration” but flourish. But on Sunday, that prospect seemed far off.
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