Politicians across the political spectrum in Colombia panned far-left President Gustavo Petro’s short-lived “trade war” with President Donald Trump and are calling for his impeachment and urging Congress to investigate his actions.
Petro prompted a brief diplomatic crisis on Sunday following his abrupt refusal to accept a U.S. deportation flight of Colombian migrants under grounds that the United States treats “Colombian migrants as criminals.”
President Trump responded to Petro’s actions by announcing he would impose a series of sanctions and tariffs on Colombia. Petro responded to Trump by delivering one of his characteristically long, incoherent Twitter rants, which have become a common occurrence under his administration.
Hours later, the Colombian government announced that it had “agreed to all” of President Trump’s terms and that the impasse with the United States had been “overcome.”
Foreign Minister Luis Murillo also announced that he would travel to Washington in the coming days to hold high-level meetings to follow up on the agreed upon terms. According to Colombia’s ambassador to Washington Daniel García Peña, the first deportation flights will arrive in Colombia on Monday.
Petro’s actions on Sunday, which jeopardized Colombia’s relationship with its main trade partner, prompted widespread rejection from local politicians.
Conservative Senator María Fernanda Cabal called for Petro’s impeachment on Monday, accusing Petro of not wanting to seek solutions but rather “consolidate his ideological narrative.” Cabal asserted that having the United States as an “enemy” is not a mistake, but that it is instead “part of the manual of 21st century socialism that Petro follows to the letter.”
“With this enemy created by Petro, attention is distracted from the seriousness of Catatumbo and the territorial control strategy of the ELN, Cartel of the Suns, and the Picota Pact,” Cabal’s message read, referring to several security crises that Colombia is currently enduring.
“Its strategy is clear: blame an external enemy to justify its internal failures, use isolation as a tool of control and advance its anti-imperialist agenda,” she continued. “This government does not see the crisis as a problem, but as an opportunity to centralize power and subject the country to a model of state dependency.”
The Colombian senator asserted that the solution will not come from this government, but from “Congress and from those of us who defend freedom, trade and progress,” and stressed that “it is time to demand Petro’s departure through impeachment.”
Bogotá Council Daniel Briceño rejected Petro’s actions and denounced the far-left president for preventing deported Colombians from exercising their right to return to their country. Briceño called for the Colombian Congress to investigate Petro’s decisions and called for the office of the Colombian Attorney General to act against the officials who executed the refusal of the deportation flight.
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, alongside other members of the conservative Democratic Center party, issued a joint statement condemning Petro for maintaining an “alliance” with Venezuela’s socialist Maduro regime while seeking to break with the United States.
The party’s statement also accused Petro of using the deportees to hide the “destructive advance” of his government and of using the same “national dignity” rhetoric espoused by the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes “to cover up their failures.”
“The series of insults from President Petro to President Trump, elected with all democratic legitimacy, has been creating barriers to dialogue,” the statement read. “If it was about changing the conditions of deportation, they could have talked about it before authorizing the flights that the President revoked. Or with the Biden Administration that deported a large number of Colombians.”
“We cannot forget that in the last 30 months, more than 2 million Colombians have left the country with no intention of returning,” the statement continued. “The major cause has been the destruction of our economy and the weakening of security, due to the decisions of the National Government.”
Petro’s predecessor, conservative former President Iván Duque, stressed in his own statement that all countries have the autonomy to set their own immigration guidelines and pointed out that the United States has been sending deportees to Colombia and other countries for decades. Duque further stressed that Colombia has the “moral duty” to welcome back its deported nationals.
“In an act of tremendous irresponsibility, the Petro government has defied a sovereign decision of the U.S. without even advancing a diplomatic dialogue process, ignoring the bilateral relations that the two countries have had for more than 200 years,” Duque asserted.
“This populist bravado of the Petro government in the face of a U.S. national security decision is unleashing sanctions measures whose cost for the country and its citizens is enormous,” he continued.
Former President Duque asserted that it is “curious” that Petro’s “clumsy and defiant” attitude against the United States was never applied to other countries that have conducted mass deportations of Colombians in the past, such as Mexico.
“It is urgent that diplomacy and brains prevail over the outbursts and ideological whims of the Petro government,” Duque said.
Mayor of Medellín Federico Gutiérrez – the man who lost the 2022 presidential election to Petro – called for a delegation of fellow Colombian mayors to travel to Washington to let the Trump administration know that Petro “does not represent us.” Gutiérrez asserted that Medellín is willing to receive the deported Colombian nationals.
“The United States has been, for more than one hundred years, a strategic ally of our country. During different administrations it has contributed to our national security, economic growth and the deployment of international tourism,” Gutiérrez said.
“With a lot of effort and trust building, Colombia became one of the great commercial allies of the United States and one of the main ones in South America. Petro has put all of this in jeopardy,” he continued.
Green party politician and former FARC hostage Íngrid Betancourt asserted on social media that Petro’s government was “humiliated, brought to its knees and beaten” after Sunday’s actions.
“Its stubbornness, stupidity and vulgarity gave rise to one of the most shameful episodes in our history. They also measured its oil,” Betancourt said. “It was left as a pariah for violating international agreements and failing to protect Colombians.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Read the full article here