BOGOTÁ (AFP) -- Two military planes sent from Colombia to fetch dozens of its nationals expelled from the United States arrived in Bogota on Tuesday after a blazing row with Donald Trump over migrant deportations.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted photographs on social media of migrants disembarking without handcuffs, and wrote: “They are Colombians, free and dignified, and in their homeland where they are loved.”
“The migrant is not a criminal but a human being who wants to work and progress, live life,” he added.
Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, on Sunday stepped back from the brink of a full-blown trade war with the United States after Trump threatened the country with sanctions and massive tariffs for turning back two U.S. military planes carrying deported migrants.
The planes were refused after Petro took umbrage at the treatment meted out to Brazilians expelled from the United States and flown home in handcuffs and shackled at the ankles.
In a break with his predecessors, Trump, inaugurated as U.S. president last week, has also begun using military aircraft.
Petro insisted he would only accept migrants who were not treated “like criminals.”
Bogota sent two Colombian air force planes Monday with medical staff on board to fetch its nationals in the cities of San Diego and Houston.
“We arrived well, thank God,” one of the deportees told Caracol Radio at Bogota’s El Dorado airport after the planes landed at an air base nearby.
“We’re not criminals,” added the woman, who recounted her journey via Mexico to reach the United States, only to be arrested for not having immigration papers.
Petro, a former guerrilla, was the first Latin American leader to defy Trump over his mass deportation plans.
But his resistance fizzled in the face of Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Colombian imports -- despite the two countries having a free-trade agreement -- and the suspension of U.S. visa applications.
Petro threatened retaliatory steps before backing down following an outcry at home over what many saw as a hot-headed handling of the dispute.
Trump called off his threatened tariff hikes but said the visa measures would stay in place until the first planeload of deportees returned home.
The Republican leader claimed victory Monday, telling a congressional lawmakers’ retreat in Miami that “America is respected again.”