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Trump, I don't really like travelling to the US. It's a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things. I like going to the Black neighborhoods of Washington, where I saw a fight in the US capital between Blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together.

I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller.

I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I follow them. They were murdered by labor leaders in the electric chair, by the fascists who are within the USA as well as within my country.

I don't like your oil, Trump. It's going to wipe out the human species because of greed. Maybe one day, with a glass of whiskey that I accept, despite my gastritis, we can talk frankly about this, but it's difficult because you consider me part of 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 true to my principles, I resisted torture and I resist you. I don't want slavers next in Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves. What I want next in Colombia are lovers of freedom. If you can't join me, I'll go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world, and you didn't understand that, this is the land of the yellow butterflies, of the beauty of Remedios, but also of the colonels like Aureliano Buendía, of which I am one, perhaps the last.

You will kill me, but I will survive in my people, which lives, before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea and of freedom.

You don't like our freedom, okay. I don't shake hands with White slavers. I shake hands with the White libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the Black and White farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking the mountains of Italian Tuscany and after being saved from Covid.

They are the United States, and before them I kneel, before no one else.

Overthrow me, Mr. President, and the Americas and humanity will respond.

Colombia now stops looking north, it looks at the world. Our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the civilization of that time, of the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood comes from the Black resistance fighters turned into slaves by you. Colombia is the first free territory of America, before Washington, [before] of all America, and I take refuge in its African songs.

My land is made up of goldsmiths who worked in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.

You will never rule us. You're opposed to the warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, whose name is (Simon) Bolívar.

Our people are somewhat fearful, somewhat timid, they are naive and kind, loving, but they will know how to win the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all of Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, today's Panama, formerly Colombia, which you murdered.

I raise a flag and as (Jorge Eliecer) Gaitán said, even if it remains alone, it will continue to be raised with the Latin American dignity that is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather did not know, and mine did, Mr. President, an immigrant in the USA.

Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know that you love beauty as I do, do not disrespect it and it will give its sweetness to you.

FROM TODAY ON, COLOMBIA IS OPEN TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE AND HUMANITY.

I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same.

Let our people plant corn that was discovered in Colombia and feed the world.

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[-] big_spoon@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 days ago

most people ignore that tariffs on colombia would not only affect coffee price but corn exports, because that senator young said it

[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 4 points 4 days ago

I cannot keep up with everything so I’ve made my focus of Trump travesty health care, mental and physical.

What happened here? The cliff notes version.

I already stocked up with a years supply of coffee beans in anticipation of Trump. Even so. What’s the root of this dispute?

[-] AlbigensianGhoul@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 3 days ago

Basically Trump has started the mass deportations using military personnel and the foreign citizens were treated like sub-human prisoners even within their own countries' borders in cases like Brazil. You can read this with Google translate, but just browse the images in this Brazilian news article and that'll be enough.

Petro was among the leaders who refused to receive the citizens in such degrading circumstances, was sanctioned for it, and then did this statement as a response. This forced diplomatic talks and now the Colombian citizens will be brought with a presidential Colombian plane rather than a USA military one and the sanctions put on hold.

There'll still be the baseline 25% Trump tariffs, but not the increased 50% of the sanctions.

Critical section from TeleSur

“We have overcome the impasse with the U.S. government. We will continue to welcome Colombian men and women returning as deportees, guaranteeing them dignified conditions as citizens with rights,” said Colombia’s Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo.

“The Colombian government has made the presidential plane available to facilitate the return of the nationals who were scheduled to arrive in the morning in the country on deportation flights,” he added, putting an end to the exchange of messages between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro on social media throughout Sunday.

The diplomatic tension arose after Petro refused to accept two military planes carrying deported Colombians from the United States. Following his decision not to authorize the landing of the military planes, Trump announced he would impose 25% tariffs on Colombian products and revoke the visas of Colombian government officials. In response, Petro promised reciprocal measures.

Despite the agreement reached, the White House stated that the possibility of imposing tariffs and sanctions remains “on hold unless Colombia fails to comply with the agreement.” Trump argued that Petro’s refusal endangered “the national and public security of the United States.”

Source, emphasis mine.

[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 5 points 3 days ago

Grocery prices are abysmal. Trumps plan to fix that problem is to raise the price of coffee by 25%.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago
[-] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 days ago

Please do not parrot mainstream media trying to paint Trump as the winner here, it was the USians that conceded not Colombia.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I was already lectured on it, thanks.

[-] AlbigensianGhoul@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 3 days ago

The statement wasn't about tariffs, it was about the conditions and treatment of the Colombian citizens being deported. People were being sent handcuffed and chained on a military plane.

Please don't project expectations that were never there, the tariffs were a threat of equal retribution. Imperial media is calling this a "trade war" like they peddled the "3 day SMO" lie.

The U.S. decision to send deportees on military planes was the reason Petro cited for his refusal. “The United States cannot treat Colombian migrants like criminals… I cannot force migrants to stay in a country that does not want them; but if that country returns them, it must be done with dignity and respect for them and for our country,” he pointed out, demanding that deportations be carried out on “civilian planes” and that a protocol be established, as “a migrant is not a criminal.”

After the announcement of sanctions against his government, Petro issued a statement saying he had ordered the presidential plane to transport the returnees. He also mentioned that 15,660 U.S. citizens residing in Colombia are in “irregular status.” Therefore, he urged them to “regularize their situation” and assured them of their continued stay in Colombian territory.

Source.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

I know what the statement was about, I read it and the very end of the statement was about tariffs? Trump and Petro trading barbs about tariffs was why people expected tariffs. Are we talking about the same statement? Re-read it if you need to, you linked it.

The person I responded to was implicitly mentioning prices going up due to tarrifs so I responded in regards to that. The Cliff Notes is: No tariffs.

[-] AlbigensianGhoul@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 3 days ago

The statement is not about tariffs (it's about USA interventionism and intransigence over mistreatment of Colombian citizens), and the unilateral increase in tariffs from the USA is only mentioned at the very end, with the counterthreat that Colombia could respond in kind if needed. It worked, the USA conceded to their demands for the deportees and dropped sanction threats. 25% import tariffs are still going through in the US side.

Though I concede I misread the original comment, I wrongfully thought people being rounded up en masse and chained like animals for deportation would be more important to Yankees than coffee prices. I suppose that's "cringe" indeed.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

Dude, I think you misunderstood everything I said.

Yes, I know what the statement said. Again, I read it. The statement is not only or even mainly about tariffs, yes, but they were mentioned at the end, as you just admitted so I don't know why you have to summarize it for me.

But, no, the US did not drop their demands. Read the article I linked. Petro accepted the US's demands and so the US backed off on the tariffs as did Petro.

President Petro at first said Colombia would retaliate by imposing tariffs on US goods, but the White House later announced that Colombia had agreed to accept migrants - including those arriving on US military aircraft - "without limitation or delay".

That is cringe because the US will be able to round up people en masse and chain them like animals for deportation because Petro conceded. I only care about how people are being treated by AmeriKKKa. I don't give a shit about the price of coffee, I don't even fucking drink coffee, I was just responding to the subject that person was talking about because they asked. And don't call me a Yankee, if that was your intention, I live here but I'm not a fucking Yankee.

[-] AlbigensianGhoul@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

President Petro at first said Colombia would retaliate by imposing tariffs on US goods, but the White House later announced that Colombia had agreed to accept migrants - including those arriving on US military aircraft - "without limitation or delay".

Please exercise more caution when reading the BBC. The White House press secretary can say whatever they want, doesn't mean it's true. For instance, see that the statement from Colombia's foreign ministry directly contradicts that. The entirety of imperial media has reframed this conflict over "not accepting deportees", so that no matter what happens Trump can claim a victory and move on before people take note of the truth. Then they launder Trump's lies so that even the basic facts are distorted.

And it worked, people are being transported on Colombia Air Force planes, with dignity, were even met personally by the president and yet even supposed leftist English-language outlets are peddling the "backed down on deportation due to tariffs" lie.

At least non-English leftist news media (1, 2) are reinforcing how this brought Latin America (especially Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and the Haitian community) together rather than some imagined defeat.

Also, you were not the Yankee I was referring to.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago

Ah, that's all really good to know! Thanks for clarifying that! Sorry, wish we had opened with this topic to avoid misunderstanding!

Of course, I don't trust BBC and even less the WHPS but I didn't find anything saying anything different at the time. I don't use them often. Hopefully they do keep transporting people in civilian planes though.

Also, you were not the Yankee I was referring to.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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