Historic statements from the President of Colombia: He challenged the US

Suat TEKİN - 12punto FOREIGN NEWS

Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that they would not accept US President Donald Trump's deportation of immigrants using military aircraft. Issuing a series of statements, Petro responded to Trump's threat to impose sanctions if the planes were not accepted by stating that they would 'impose counter-sanctions.'

Colombia's objection stems from the fact that immigrants are being sent from the US via military aircraft while being 'treated like criminals.' Stating that immigrants should be treated in accordance with 'human dignity,' the Colombian President assigned the presidential plane to retrieve his citizens from the US.

Following Mexico, Colombia also reacted to Trump's policy of 'deporting immigrants via military aircraft.' Last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized the US stance toward immigrants and stated that they would not accept the military aircraft that were to be used to deport Mexican immigrants.

Trump threatened to impose sanctions on Colombia after it rejected the military aircraft. The US President had not issued a direct threat of sanctions against Mexico last week. Upon Colombia's refusal to accept the flights, Trump raised the option of sanctions this time, threatening to increase customs duties and impose additional taxes on products exported to Colombia.

Mexicans are being deported from the US by both land and air. While Sheinbaum emphasized 'humane treatment,' she ordered the establishment of 'temporary' settlement areas for immigrants in the north of the country.

SANCTIONS FROM COLOMBIA AGAINST THE US

Following Sheinbaum, Colombian leader Petro also stated that military aircraft would not be allowed to enter Colombia. Furthermore, Petro underscored that they would increase customs duties applied to the US.

The Colombian President stated the following:

''I have ordered the Minister of Foreign Affairs to increase the customs duties applied to products imported from the US by 25 percent. The ministry must assist in redirecting our exports to the entire world, excluding the US. Our exports must increase. I invite all Colombian communities in other countries to become marketers of our products. The prices of North American products in the domestic market will rise. National production must replace them; the state will assist (citizens) in this regard.''

On the other hand, according to the 'emergency measures' issued by Trump; people working in the Colombian government, their families, and 'those who support the government' will not be granted US visas, Colombians will be questioned upon entry into the country, and financial sanctions against Colombia will be activated.

Despite the 'harsh and high-toned' statements he made throughout last week, Trump has not yet appeared before the cameras to provide a response to Petro.

PETRO'S STATEMENTS

Colombia, for its part, responded harshly to Trump's sanction decisions. In his remarks emphasizing 'freedom,' President Petro stressed that he would resist for Colombia's independence, while holding the US responsible for the civil war and political assassinations that have lasted for decades in his country.

In response to Trump's sanction announcement, Petro stated the following on his X social media account:

''Trump, I don't really like going to the US, it's a bit boring, but I must admit there are valuable things too; I liked the trip I took to the black neighborhoods of Washington: There, in the capital of the US, I saw a full-blown fight among black people; and Latinos building barricades (against each other), which seemed stupid to me because they should have been united.

I admit that I love Walt Whitman, Paul Simon, Noam Chomsky, and Miller.

I admit that Sacco and Vanzetti (Nicola and Bart, communist labor leaders executed in 1927 on false charges), who share the same blood as me, are unforgettable in US history, and I am following their path. Labor leaders in my country and in the US were killed by fascists in electric chairs.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

I don't like your oil, Trump, it will destroy the human species because of greed. Maybe one day, while drinking a glass of whiskey—even if I have gastritis, it doesn't matter—we can talk about this matter openly. But this is difficult because you see me as an inferior race, even though I am not Colombian, nor am I just anyone.

I am the most stubborn person you have ever known, period. (The US) may try to stage a coup (against me) with its economic power and arrogance, just as it did to Allende. But I will die for my laws; I resisted torture in the past, and I will resist you too. I don't want slave traders around Colombia. We already had many slave traders; we freed ourselves (from them). The (only) thing I want around Colombia are lovers of freedom. If you cannot accompany me, I will go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world, and you haven't understood that; this is the land of yellow butterflies, of the beauty of Remedios (a fictional character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' thought to symbolize Colombia), and at the same time, the land of Colonel Aureliano Buendia (a peasant character who rebels against the fascist regime in 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'), of whom I see myself as a counterpart, perhaps the last one.

You will kill me, but I will survive in America, in my town that was founded before yours. We are the people of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea, and freedom.

You don't like our freedom, do you? I do not shake hands with white slave traders. On the battlefield (referring to the American continent) where I arrived after crossing and saving the Italian Tuscan Mountains, I shake the hands of the black and white peasant boys of the US, whose graves I have wept over and prayed at, and the hands of those who are the heirs of Lincoln's 'white' libertarianism.

The United States is them; and I kneel before them, not before anyone else.

Colombia is no longer looking to the north; it is looking to the world. Our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Cordoba (an Islamic state established in Spain in 929), which was the advanced civilization of its time, and from the blood of the Latin Romans, the pioneers of the Mediterranean civilization that invented the republic. Democracy in Athens; it enslaved the resilient blacks of our blood. In Colombia, which was the first free region of America before Washington, and in all of America, I take refuge in African songs.

My lands belong to the world's first artists who were involved in jewelry making in Chiribiquete (a Colombian region known for its ancient cities) during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs.

You will never be able to dominate us. The warrior whose name is Bolivar (Simon Bolivar, a Spanish-born soldier who rebelled against the colonial Spanish Kingdom in South America in the 19th century and founded the Republic of Bolivar), who still screams for freedom in our lands, will continue to resist this.

Simon Bolivar. Full name Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte-Andrade y Blanco

Our people are a bit cowardly, a bit timid, naive, kind, and affectionate, but they will know how to win back the Panama Canal that you took from us through violence. Two hundred heroes from all over Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro (in present-day Panama), formerly known as Colombia, where you erased their names (200 people from different Latin American countries who opposed the US annexation of Panama were massacred by the US in Panama).

I am raising a flag, and as Gaitan (the nationalist-communist Liberal Party leader assassinated in 1948) said, even if I am left alone (in my struggle), this flag will continue to be raised thanks to Latin American honor, which means the honor of America—something your grandfathers did not know, but my grandfather did, Mr. President.

His (Trump's) obstruction does not scare me; because Colombia, besides being a land of beauties, is the heart of the world. 'I know you love beauty just like I do; do not disrespect it (beauty), it will give you its sweetness.'

Colombia is open to the whole world from today on. With open arms, we are the builders of freedom, life, and humanity.

They tell me you are imposing a 50 percent customs duty on the fruits of human labor entering the US (products exported from Colombia to the US), and I am doing the same.

Let our people feed the world by planting the corn discovered in Colombia.''

CLAIMS THAT TRUMP AND PETRO REACHED AN AGREEMENT

Later, it was claimed in the international press that an agreement had been reached between the Trump and Petro governments regarding the deportation process of immigrants. Petro, who demanded that immigrants be deported under 'humane conditions,' was requesting that the Trump administration prepare regulations to make the process 'legal.' Another condition of the Colombian government was that immigrants be sent via civilian aircraft.

There has been no statement from the US side yet that a 'deportation protocol' has been prepared.

Some journalists in the Turkish press claimed that Petro had taken a step back and accepted Trump's conditions. There is no such news in the foreign press. The claims that Petro had taken a step back were only put forward by social media accounts close to Trump and people who started journalism during the presidential election process, such as Alex Jones.

Economists close to the Democrats, who evaluated the decisions Trump made last week, had also suggested that the new administration could cause 'inflation madness.'

On the other hand, following Petro's tax announcement, Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated in a post on her X account that 'Americans will have to pay more for coffee because of Trump,' and claimed that Trump would 'make inflation worse for the working class.'

To “punish” Colombia, Trump is about to make every American pay even more for coffee.

Remember: *WE* pay the tariffs, not Colombia.

Trump is all about making inflation WORSE for working class Americans, not better. He’s lining the pockets of himself and the billionaire class. https://t.co/gcAomtzmCb

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 26, 2025

News Source: 12punto