
Speak loudly and carry a big stick—Trump’s approach to the Americas
“al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere,” U.S. officials have rallied domestic support for this more muscular foreign policy.For countries in the region, the new policy will set off a scramble to adjust. Pro-U.S., and pro-Trump, leaders like Argentina’s Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele have fared well.
The region’s two dictators—Cuba’s Miguel Díaz-Canel and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega—will face growing pressure, along with Colombian President Gustavo Petro.A few months into his second term, Trump increasingly fixated on Venezuela and Colombia, which he saw as origins of immigrants and drugs to the U.S.After the move against Maduro, Trump has said the Petro government could be next because Colombia is “producing a lot of drugs.” The country is the world’s largest producer of cocaine. Trump has told reporters a move against Colombia “sounds good to me.”Petro, a 65-year-old former leftist guerrilla who has spoken of American designs on the region his entire adult life, has warned the U.S. against any move on Colombia and, in a rambling missive on X, cast the U.S.
operation against Maduro as having “bloodily urinated on the sacred sovereignty of all of Latin America.”Mexico has also come under growing pressure to curb its powerful drug cartels, while the Trump administration has pushed Panama to curb expanding Chinese influence and hasn’t ruled out using military force to reclaim the Panama Canal. Panama and the U.S. have agreed to strengthen bilateral security cooperation.For now, though, the focus remains on Venezuela.
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