After tussle with Trump, Colombian leader asks compatriots in US to come back home

BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombian President Gustavo Petro, less than a week after backing down from a decision to turn away U.S. military planes bringing back undocumented migrants, made a bold request to migrants: Come home right away and "build social wealth."

Petro, who was elected in 2022 as Colombia's first leftist president, even offered loans that could help returning migrants start a business.

"I ask undocumented Colombians in the U.S. to immediately leave their jobs in that country and return to Colombia as soon as possible," he wrote in an early morning post on X on Friday. "Let's build social wealth in Colombia."

He said Colombia's Department of Social Prosperity will offer loans to anyone who takes him up on the offer.

After U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs and sanctions after Colombia refused to accept military flights carrying deportees, Petro quickly reversed course on Sunday and agreed to accept the migrants.

Petro did not provide detail on the loans in his post, but the department typically offers small loans geared toward productive activities that alleviate poverty.

There are an estimated 200,000 undocumented Colombians living in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center.

Colombia has a population of roughly 53 million.

Petro's post imploring Colombians who might get caught up in Trump's aggressive crackdown on unlawful U.S. migrants to return home provoked a mix of responses online, some supportive but many critical of Petro.

"Many young professionals who have recently graduated (in Colombia) haven't been able to find a job," responded X user Una Tathy X, one of nearly 10,000 responses to the president's post. "First help those who are here."

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Additional reporting by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Gabriel Araujo, David Alire Garcia and Leslie Adler)