Brian Winter to The Guardian about Summit between Trump and Hemispheric Leaders
Brian Winter to The Guardian about Summit between Trump and Hemispheric Leaders
"Every government in the region is eager to have access to the intelligence that only Washington can provide," said the AS/COA vice president.
Donald Trump will welcome the leaders of at least 10 Latin American countries to a palm-dotted golf resort in Miami on Saturday as the president continues his quest to transform the US’s standing in the region and outmuscle China.
Since returning to power last year, Trump has launched a dramatic – and at times deadly – crusade to, as the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, put it, “reclaim our back yard”. [...]
Trump’s guest list includes the right-wing presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador and Paraguay but excludes the leftist leaders of three of Latin America’s biggest economies: Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
“This is the VIP level of the Latin America Trump Club – and this meeting really does seem to be conceived as a way to add a clear benefit to membership at that level,” said Brian Winter, the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly magazine.
Winter said the conclave would be attended by “ideological fellow travellers Trump likes to take photos with”. “There doesn’t appear to be anything really earth-shattering or momentous on the agenda [although] it will surely include security, migration [and] the questions of Venezuela and Cuba.” [...]
Winter said rubbing shoulders with Trump made sense for rightwing politicians keen to show voters they were tough on crime. “Security is the number one issue in Latin America today and the Trump administration is in a unique position to help in a way that produces domestic political benefits for these leaders. Nobody has the intelligence, much less the firepower, that the US does … Virtually every government in the region is eager to have access to the intelligence that only Washington can provide,” he said, noting how Mexico’s leftwing president, Claudia Sheinbaum, accepted the CIA’s help in tracking down El Mencho...