When President Donald Trump learned Colombia had pushed back on US deportations, his threat of a massive trade war laid out the stakes: cooperate, or else.
Tariffs, just as they were during his first term from 2017 to 2021, are Trump's weapon of choice on the global stage.
While it may be too early to tell how successful of a tactic they are against both US allies and rivals such as China, it shows how Trump -- who prides himself on his negotiating skills -- will not hesitate to take a hard line to get what he wants.
Leverage
After a rollercoaster Sunday with dueling tariff threats between Washington and Bogota, the White House said Colombian President Gustavo Petro had backed down and accepted the terms of repatriating immigrants from the United States.
Trump had first threatened to levy 25 percent tariffs on all imported Colombian goods in a heated response to Petro refusing to accept two military planes carrying deported migrants.
It was not clear whether leftist Petro had conceded his demand that the migrants be treated "with dignity."
Planes sent by Bogota to ferry the migrants would nonetheless return by Monday or Tuesday "at the latest," according to Daniel Garcia Pena, Colombia's ambassador to the United States.
Eddy Acevedo, chief of staff at the nonpartisan Woodrow Wilson Center think tank, said Petro "quickly became aware of the amount of leverage the United States has with Colombia and that his reckless decision could jeopardize."
"Last year alone, Petro had no problem allowing in 14,000 Colombians that were deported from the United States back to Colombia," Acevedo said.
'America First' in action
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was quick to declare victory Sunday, saying: "Today's events make clear to the world that America is respected again."
Trump himself echoed the sentiment on Monday, telling reporters on Air Force One that "it serves the world well to look at" the Colombia spat.
Trump's plan for mass deportations of migrants has put him on a potential collision course with governments across Latin America, the original home of most of the United States' estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.