Laura Gamba
29 January 2025•Update: 29 January 2025
BOGOTA, Colombia
Colombian President Gustavo Petro drew a comparison on Wednesday between the deportation of undocumented immigrants from the US and the transportation of people to Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Speaking at the inauguration of new Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia, Petro referenced a recent diplomatic dispute with the US.
"From the episode with Trump … there are a series of lessons to be learned, from them and from us. From them, I suppose, that they do not have to take out in handcuffs the people they want to take out of their own country. There will be a political discussion there, for example, if they are not repeating the same mistake of the Germans in 1943 because they used the trains and the railroads to take entire wagons full of Jews, socialists, and communists to the concentration camps."
Petro's statement follows a period of diplomatic tension sparked by the Colombian government's refusal to accept deportees on US military aircraft, citing concerns about the "dignified treatment" of migrants. The refusal led to a strong reaction from US President Donald Trump and an exchange of tariff threats.
Colombia has since arranged for three Colombian Air Force flights, which arrived Tuesday and Wednesday, carrying 306 Colombian nationals, including 42 minors, according to Petro.
"Is Mr. Trump going to tell 42 Colombian children that they are criminals?" Petro questioned. "In the same way that he told 42 children, he will tell hundreds of thousands that they are criminals, that is what they thought in 1943.”
"Everyone who is Latin American, indigenous, black, will be treated as a criminal. It is called collectivizing crime; Hitler invented it," he added.
