Colombian President Petro refuses to allow US migrant deportation flights to land in country

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro will not allow planes from the United States carrying migrants on deportation flights to land in the country, he said in a post on X in the early hours of Sunday morning.

”The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote in the post, adding that the government in Washington should develop a protocol that ”treats migrants with dignity.”

Un migrante no es un delincuente y debe ser tratado con la dignidad que un ser humano merece.

Por eso hice devolver los aviones militares estadounidenses que venían con migrantes colombianos.

No puedo hacer que los migrantes queden en un país que no los quiere; pero si ese país… https://t.co/U1MmWrNio1

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 26, 2025

Petro’s comments add to the growing chorus of discontent in Latin America over planned mass deportations by US President Donald Trump.

Brazil’s foreign ministry said late on Saturday that it would demand explanations from the U.S. government over the ”degrading treatment” of Brazilians on a deportation flight, while Mexico on Friday also refused such a flight to land in the country.

Officials from the US Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately reply to requests for comment.