US, Colombia recall their ambassadors in diplomatic tussle

The Star

2 days ago

FILE PHOTO: A flag flutters in front of Colombia's embassy in Washington, U.S. January 26, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has recalled its top diplomat from the U.S. embassy in Bogota over statements it said were made at high levels of the Colombian government, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, prompting the South American country to also recall its ambassador to the U.S.
President Donald Trump's administration recalled Chargé d'Affaires ad interim John McNamara "for urgent consultations following baseless and reprehensible statements from the highest levels of the Government of Colombia," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
"In addition to the recall of the Chargé, the United States is pursuing other measures to make clear our deep concern over the current state of our bilateral relationship."
The State Department did not specify which comments it took issue with or what other measures were being pursued by Washington.
After Washington's announcement, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he was recalling Colombia's ambassador to the U.S., Daniel Garcia-Pena.
In a lengthy post on X, Petro said the diplomat should come back to discuss the two countries' bilateral agenda, listing priorities such as climate cooperation, anti-narcotics efforts and migration policy.
Colombia's foreign ministry said Minister Laura Sarabia, who announced her resignation on Thursday, is "in communication with the United States while she is in office until they designate a new foreign minister who will be in charge of the matter."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a rebuke to Colombia's government last month after Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, a potential presidential contender and a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Center party, was shot in Bogota.
Rubio said the shooting of Uribe was "the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government."
Uribe has been undergoing repeated serious surgeries since the shooting, which left him in critical condition.
In January, Trump and Petro clashed over Colombia's refusal to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants, prompting Trump to threaten tariffs and sanctions. But the two countries managed to pull back from the brink of a trade war and overcome the impasse.
Petro at the time had condemned the military deportation flights and said he would never carry out a raid to return handcuffed Americans to the U.S.
"We are the opposite of the Nazis," he wrote in a post on social media platform X.
Colombia is the third-largest U.S. trading partner in Latin America.
The U.S. is Colombia's largest trading partner, largely due to a 2006 free trade agreement that generated $33.8 billion in two-way trade in 2023 and a $1.6 billion U.S. trade surplus, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Susan Heavey in Washington, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto, Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota, and Sarah Morland and Brendan O'Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Matthew Lewis)