The Trump government denies Ada Colau entry to Puerto Rico for an act: "It was for political reasons"

The Trump government denies Ada Colau entry to Puerto Rico for an act: "It was for political reasons" The US government has denied the former mayor of Barcelona and current Frente Amplio candidate for the general elections, Ada Colau, permission to enter Puerto Rico. Sources close to Colau, who attribute the decision to her participation in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted by Israel last year while transporting humanitarian aid to Gaza, explain that she had planned to participate in an act on municipalism organized by the Puerto Rico Cities League collective. She was preparing a talk with the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, although the New York councilman finally delegated his participation to a member of his team. The Frente Amplio candidate's circle reports that the North American authorities denied Colau her request for entry through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), the permission required to enter the US for citizens from countries that do not require a visa. The former mayor's permit was the only document rejected, as the rest of the team members obtained theirs without problem. Having received the negative verdict, Colau requested an appointment with the US embassy in Spain to try to have the decision reconsidered. According to the former mayor in a conversation with Diario.es, during that meeting, the US diplomatic authorities asked her if she had been detained at any time or if she had criminal records. In response to Colau's negative answer, the next question was more direct: if she had traveled to Israel. "The official asked me several questions, beating around the bush," the leader explains, who states that the US authorities were very interested in investigating whether she had been detained in the Hebrew state. "I told them that the last time I went to Israel, I did so on a peaceful humanitarian mission to bring humanitarian aid, and that the Israeli army detained us and then returned us to our countries after reaching an agreement with them," Colau recalls. At all times, she assures, she had no criminal record and had not been detained in Israel because no one officially informed her of her arrest, she was not taken in front of any judge, nor did she have the right to legal assistance. Colau participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla in October last year, an initiative to reach the coasts of Gaza and deliver a contingent of humanitarian aid. The flotilla was intercepted by Israel in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea when it tried to circumvent the blockade imposed by the Israeli naval forces, and more than 400 activists—including the former mayor of Barcelona—were detained and held for four days in a high-security prison. After that interview, and given the "particular" nature of her case, the US authorities asked for her passport to study the matter, Colau explains. The final verdict arrived a few days later, last Sunday, when the US returned her documents along with the definitive rejection of her application for entry to Puerto Rico. The reason officially put forward by the embassy to deny her the visa is that they consider the former mayor has "intent to immigrate" to the US. On the contrary, the leader of Frente Amplio considers that the US decision to prohibit her entry to Puerto Rico is due to "political reasons." "I went to Puerto Rico two years ago and had no problem," Colau laments, calling it "extremely serious" that the Trump Administration, as part of its policies, is "bunkering the borders in an arbitrary, authoritarian, and undemocratic way." "And, furthermore, with the aggravating factor that it is in Puerto Rico, because the US operates there as a colonial power and controls its borders by completely invading the sovereignty" of the island, the leader denounces. "Insults" and "aggressions" during the detention in Israel In the humanitarian trip to Gaza that led the US government to reject her entry permit to the country, Colau denounced that she was a victim, like the rest of her companions, of mistreatment by the Israeli forces. In an interview in Diario.es, the former mayor narrated how the Israeli soldiers put them "on their knees, heads against the ground" when detaining them, the same treatment they received for the following four days. "It was all insults, aggressions, they didn't let us sleep, they didn't give us water, they denied medicine to the people who needed it... We felt a lot of fear, I am not ashamed to admit it. We thought if they were doing this, how far could they go? Especially knowing that it had nothing to do with what they do to the Palestinians for years," she explained then. Colau's case is just the latest example of the arbitrary use of entry permits to the US by the Trump Administration. Since returning to power in January 2025, the US president's government has vetoed access to its territory for leaders from all over the world: this is the case of, for example, former Argentine president Cristina Fernández, European Commissioner Thierry Breton, or Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.