Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for a formal diplomatic protest of the United States government in response to Brayan Garzón-Rayo's death in a Rolla jail last year.
"A young Colombian man committed suicide in an ICE detention camp run by the U.S. government," wrote Petro in a social media post on Wednesday. "He wanted to call his mother, but was not permitted to do so. He chose to take his own life."
The politically embroiled president is in his final days as the Latin American country's leader, as he is constitutionally barred from running for another consecutive term, but appears to have spoken up after renewed reporting around Garzon-Rayo's case.
St. Louis Public Radio previously found that the 27-year-old struggled with various health issues and did not receive a proper mental health screening as required under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy. Garzon-Rayo took his life days later.
Lucy "Adriana" Garzon, his mother, previously told STLPR that her son complained of nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain — symptoms consistent with later accounts from ICE officials.
An ICE report detailing the circumstances surrounding Garzón-Rayo's death said that, days after he was booked into the Phelps County Jail, a medical screening documented several health concerns, including labored breathing, anxiety, and a self-reported history of a heart murmur.
Petro also called on Colombia's foreign ministry to denounce President Donald Trump's immigration policies, alleging they are "killing both Americans and Latin Americans."
Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025, an analysis by The Guardian found, marking the agency's deadliest year in more than two decades.
An investigation by the Associated Press found that ICE detainees died by suicide at "alarming" rates, citing Garzon-Rayo's case and that of Leo Cruz-Silva. The latter was a 34-year-old Mexican man who had resided in suburban St. Louis and appeared to have also died by suicide at the Ste Genevieve County Jail last October, a facility that also contracts to hold ICE detainees.
St. Louis-area congressional representatives, Democrats part of the House Oversight Committee, toured the southeastern Missouri facility on Tuesday and alleged that detainees are being neglected.
"One of the big concerns that we heard from [two] detainees was that they were actually using shower water for drinking water, because they weren't provided enough water," said Illinois U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield. "We were given assurances [by jail officials] that those situations would be addressed."
U.S. Rep Wesley Bell, D-St. Louis County, said that ICE isn't hiding what he alleges is racial discrimination amid the rise of 287(g) agreements with police departments — contracts that deputize some immigration enforcement responsibilities to local municipalities.
The contracts incentivising enforcement have boomed across Missouri during Trump's second term, rising to as many as 85 signed memorandums as of Thursday morning, according to ICE data obtained by STLPR.
Bell said that whether it's traffic stops or other arrests, officers often target people who speak Spanish and others whom they perceive to favor immigrants.
"The narrative that these are criminals that are doing crimes and being picked up is completely false," Bell said earlier this week. "These are regular working people who are working their jobs, taking care of their families, trying to provide a better life for themselves and their families, and they're being held as those who would have been charged as criminals."
St. Louis Public Radio's Lacretia Wimbley contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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