Newsletters
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has directed the Foreign Ministry to file a formal protest note with Washington over the April 2025 death of a Colombian national who died by suicide while in US immigration custody, escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries over American deportation practices.
Petro announced the decision Wednesday in a post on X, citing the case of Brayan Rayo Garzon, who was found unresponsive at the Phelps County Jail in Rolla, Missouri, roughly 100 miles southwest of St. Louis. An autopsy confirmed he died by suicide on April 8.
Garzon had been held in isolation at the facility while awaiting deportation to Colombia. Petro said the detainee had been refused a phone call to his mother before his death, a detail the Colombian leader highlighted as emblematic of broader mistreatment within the US immigration detention system.
The Phelps County Jail was operating as a holding facility for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the time of Garzon's death, part of a wider network of county jails and private facilities that ICE contracts to house immigration detainees across the United States.
The Colombian president cast the incident in stark terms, arguing that American immigration enforcement is producing fatal consequences. "The US government must reflect on how its immigration policy is killing Americans and Latin Americans," Petro wrote, calling on the Foreign Ministry to deliver the protest note.
Deaths in ICE custody have drawn sustained scrutiny from human rights organizations and lawmakers in recent years. Advocacy groups have long raised concerns about mental health care, isolation practices, and access to consular communication for foreign nationals held in immigration detention, rights guaranteed under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Colombia and the United States have periodically clashed over deportation policy under Petro, a left-wing president who has previously threatened retaliatory tariffs over the handling of deportation flights. The formal protest note signals Bogota's intention to pursue the matter through official diplomatic channels.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
