US resumes Colombia visa services after Trump spat – ET TravelWorld

The US Embassy in Colombia resumed issuing visas Friday, almost a week after a high-profile social media spat between presidents Donald Trump and Gustavo Petro.

Dozens of paper-clutching would-be travellers queued outside the US consulate in Bogota from early in the morning, waiting desperately for appointments.

Some later emerged smiling with visas in hand.

The United States stopped consular services on Monday, a snap retaliation for Petro’s refusal to allow US military planes to return Colombian migrants to their homeland.

Petro accused the United States of treating the migrants like criminals, placing them in shackles and handcuffs.

The pair issued threats and counter threats of crippling trade tariffs of up to 50 percent.

A backroom diplomatic deal involving the deployment of Colombian Air Force planes to collect the migrants averted a looming trade war at the eleventh hour.Colombia’s foreign ministry earlier welcomed the resumption of services, stressing the need for “diplomatic channels” and dialogue between the two countries.

For his part Petro — an avid and combative social media user who has posted dozens of times about the incident — on Friday called for undocumented Colombians to “immediately” leave the United States and return home.