Colombian air force plane carrying deportees from US lands

Two Colombian air force planes sent to the US to fetch deported migrants have landed in the capital, Bogotá.

The migrants had been on US military flights headed for Colombia on Sunday, when Colombian President Gustavo Petro barred the US military aircraft from landing, arguing that those on board were being treated like criminals.

The incident took the two countries to the brink of a trade war after DonaldTrump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Colombian goods and Petro said he would retaliate in kind.

Diplomats from both countries reached a deal which has seen Colombia send its own air force planes to collect the migrants, a process that Petro said ensured they were treated “with dignity”.

“They are Colombians, free and dignified, and in their homeland where they are loved,” he wrote on X.

He also posted photos of the migrants getting off the plane without handcuffs.

The treatment of deportees on US military flights seems to have been at the centre of the spat between the two governments.

Colombia has accepted deportation flights from the US in the past: in 2024, 124 planes carrying deported migrants from the US landed in the country.

But in one of his posts on X on Sunday, Petro referenced a news video showing migrants deported from the US to Brazil, who had been handcuffed and had their feet restrained during the deportation flight.

The Colombian leader said that he would “never allow Colombians to be returned handcuffed on flights”.

Petro’s refusal to let the US military aircraft land angered President Trump, who campaigned on a promise to remove unlawful migrants from the US through “mass deportations”.

Trump directed his administration to “immediately” slap 25% tariffs on all Colombian goods coming into the US, which he said would increase to 50% after a week.

He also imposed visa restrictions and other sanctions, in what many observers felt was an attempt to send a message to other countries to co-operate or face serious consequences.

US State Department Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told Fox News on Monday that “this was about reminding Colombia that there is a price to pay if you go against your agreements, things that you promise”.

The US embassy in Bogotá cancelled hundreds of visa appointments on Monday and Tuesday.

Colombians arriving at the gates were handed letters which told them the cancellation was “due to the Colombian government’s refusal to accept repatriation flights of Colombian nationals”, the Associated Press reported.

US officials had said earlier that the visa restrictions would not be lifted until the migrants who had been turned back on Sunday had landed in Colombia.

Neither the US nor the Colombian government have provided details of the deal that defused the situation.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement that “the Government of Colombia has 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 US military aircraft, without limitation or delay”.

Meanwhile, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said that the “impasse” with Washington had been “overcome”.

Murillo added that his government would continue to receive Colombian deportees in “dignified conditions”.

It is not currently clear if Colombia will continue sending air force planes to the US to collect deported migrants or if Tuesday’s two flights were a one-off.

Central American and South American leaders are expected to discuss how to deal with the Trump administration’s migration policy at a summit convened by Honduras in the wake of the Colombia-US spat.

President Petro has already confirmed his attendance.