Brian Winter in Foreign Affairs: Trump Is Remaking Latin America

At the G-7 summit in June, the global media eagerly gathered to hear U.S. President Donald Trump provide details about his administration’s latest agreement with Iran. But Trump insisted on returning to one of his favorite subjects: the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuela’s then-leader, Nicolás Maduro, in early January. “We have the most powerful military in the world. You saw that with Venezuela, which was . . . 48 minutes, and now our relationship with Venezuela is great,” Trump enthused. “We paid for the cost of the war 40 times, taking millions of barrels [of oil] out. Venezuela’s benefiting, we’re benefiting.”

Trump’s desire to turn his gaze south, rather than east, west, or north, is understandable. At a time when the president’s war on Iran looks like a miscalculation of historic proportions, and when his rhetoric, tariffs, and other actions have alienated traditional U.S. allies in many parts of the world, Latin America stands out as the foreign policy sphere in which Trump has enjoyed the most success in advancing his agenda.

Indeed, this White House has focused more attention and resources on Latin America than any U.S. administration in at least 40 years, including Trump’s own first term. Shortly before Trump’s inauguration, I argued in Foreign Affairs that this was likely to occur, not because the region fit a grand foreign policy theory but because it is instrumental to some of Trump’s most important domestic priorities: halting unauthorized immigration, reducing drug overdose deaths, and guaranteeing the United States’ long-term security in energy and critical mineral supplies. The administration has also sought to roll back China’s rising influence in Latin America, which both Republican and Democratic leaders have increasingly seen as a threat to U.S. national security...

Read the full article.