For Trump, the incident was a perfect PR stunt, allowing him to showcase the maximum-pressure strategy he might use against any Latin American government that openly challenges hi

Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan hit a brief stumbling block on January 26 when Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, refused to allow two US flights carrying deported Colombian migrants to land. Petro’s complaint was that the US government was treating the migrants like criminals by repatriating them in military planes.

Rift between US and Colombia, threats of tariffs on Mexico, designs on Panama Canal and mass deportations could encourage closer ties with Beijing