Donald Trump suspends sanctions after Colombia backs down on ...

The United States will not impose sanctions and tariffs on Colombia after the South American nation agreed to accept deported migrants from the US.

The White House confirmed that Colombia backed down and agreed to accept repatriated citizens on military flights.

President Donald Trump will maintain visa restrictions on Colombian officials and enhanced customs inspections of goods from the country, "until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned," the White House added.

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said the country has "overcome the impasse with the US".

"The government of Colombia … has the presidential plane ready to facilitate the return of Colombians who were going to arrive in the country this morning on deportation flights," he said.

Earlier, Mr Trump had ordered emergency tariffs on goods and an immediate travel ban on Colombian officials after the country rejected two flights carrying migrants repatriated from America.

Mr Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social social media platform on Sunday, local time, and said the decision of Colombian President Gustavo Petro had "jeopardised" national security in the US.

"We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States."

In his post, the president announced he had ordered emergency tariffs of 25 per cent to be applied to the costs of Colombian goods coming into the US, with the figure to be raised to 50 per cent in one week.

He also said there would be a "travel ban and immediate visa revocations on the Colombian government officials, and all allies and supporters", as well as visa sanctions on Colombian government party members, their family and supporters.

Increased customs and border protection checks would also be enforced against Colombians and cargo coming into the US, the president said.

Mr Trump's comments came after Mr Petro announced Colombia would not accept flights carrying migrants deported from the US until the Trump administration created a protocol that treated those individuals with "dignity".

Hours later, Mr Petro responded to the US president's sanctions in a lengthy statement posted on X by announcing he would also be imposing 25 per cent tariffs on US goods entering Colombia.

"You consider me an inferior race and I'm not, nor is any Colombian. So if you know someone who is stubborn, that's me, period.

"You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die in my law, I resisted torture and I resist you. I don't want slavers next to Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves.

"Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty … From today on, Colombia is open to the entire world, with open arms."

US imports of Colombian goods and services were valued at $US24.8 billion ($39.2 billion) in 2022, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Global economic monitor CEPII says Colombia's biggest export to the US is crude petroleum, which accounts for almost 40 per cent of its trade into America, followed by coffee and cut flowers.

In announcing his earlier rejection of migrant repatriation flights, Mr Petro denounced the US' handling of deportees "as criminals" along with a news video of migrants reportedly deported to Brazil walking on a tarmac with their hands and feet restrained.

"That is why I returned the US military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants."

He also added that his country would receive Colombians in "civilian air planes" and "without treatment like criminals".

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Colombia had accepted 475 deportation flights from the United States between 2020 and 2024 — including 124 last year — putting the country fifth in total behind Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data.

Colombians emerged in recent years as a major presence on the US border with Mexico, aided in part by a visa regime that allows them to easily fly to Mexico and avoid trekking though the treacherous Darien Gap.

They ranked fourth with 127,604 arrests for illegal crossings during a 12-month period through September, behind Mexicans, Guatemalans and Venezuelans.

Mr Petro, a former leftist guerilla, later announced that the South American country's presidential aircraft had been made available to facilitate the return of migrants who were to arrive hours earlier on the US military airplanes and guarantee them "dignified conditions."

Two hours after Mr Trump's order of the sanctions, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Mr Petro of initially authorising the migrant repatriation flights to his country but rescinding that approval after planes had taken off.

"It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner," Mr Rubio said in a post on X.

"President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of."

Mr Petro refuted that claim, saying: "I will never allow Colombians to be brought in handcuffs on flights. Marco, if officials from the Foreign Ministry allowed this, it would never be under my direction."

On Saturday in Brazil, the country's foreign ministry condemned the "degrading treatment" of Brazilians after a plane carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 US security agents and eight crew members had been originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais.

Brazilian officials ordered the removal of handcuffs seen in a news video, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva designated a Brazilian Air Force flight to complete their journey, the government said in a statement.

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The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the US carrying undocumented migrants deported back to Brazil and the first since Trump's inauguration, according to Brazil's federal police.

As part of a flurry of actions to make good on Mr Trump's election campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, his new administration is using active-duty military to help secure the border and carry out deportations.

Two Air Force C-17 cargo planes carrying migrants removed from the US touched down early on Friday in Guatemala.

That same day, Honduras received two deportation flights carrying a total of 193 people.

Colombia's refusal to accept the flights, however, is the second case of a Latin American nation refusing deportation flights, after Mexico also refused a request last week from the Trump administration to allow US military aircraft carrying migrants to land.

AP/Reuters