Nick Schifrin:
Geoff, this morning outside the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombians expecting to pick up their visas instead picked up this piece of paper saying that their appointments were canceled due to — quote — “the Colombian government’s refusal to accept repatriation flights of Colombian nationals.”
Those deportation flights on military planes, unlike Biden era deportations on commercial or charter planes, began late last week. The Trump administration said Colombia initially agreed to receive Colombian deportees, but after some Brazilian deportees you see there arrived in handcuffs or reports of poor conditions on the planes, that’s when Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced publicly that Colombia would not receive them until they — quote — “received dignity and respect.”
In reply to that, President Trump threatened 25 percent tariffs that could rise to 50 percent, travel bans, visa revocations, and enhanced inspections on Colombian goods. And in reply to that, Petro vowed his own tariffs and called President Trump a — quote — “enslaver,” who was — quote — “going to wipe out the human species because of greed.”
Now, that is what Petro said. What he did was cave. The government now says that it will allow these deportation flights to leave the United States on military planes and land in Colombia. Trump said the visa restrictions would go into effect and remain in place until that first plane lands, and that’s why, Geoff, we saw those lines outside the embassy.
