Dispatches from New York: What Matters for Latin America at the UN

Leaders in New York for the 81st meeting of the UN General Assembly will not only debate solutions to global challenges, but also find themselves hosted by an agency that’s arguably at its most fragile point since the UN Charter was inked in 1945.

António Guterres, who opened the floor for the final time in his role as UN secretary general, warned that, even as the world hurtles toward dramatic shifts fueled by AI and climate change, “Our institutions and systems of governance continue to reflect the power realities and interests of a largely bygone era.” Meanwhile, he noted, geopolitical divides are widening: “Cracks have become canyons.”

The first two presidents to address the UN, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the United States’ Donald Trump, offer examples of these diverging global visions. Two days before taking the UN podium, Lula published a Financial Times op-ed, co-authored with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and other leaders, contending that “the need for multilateral cooperation is very much alive” and pitching an initiative called Partners for Multilateralism to, among other things, support the reform of the UN system and other international agencies. Trump, for his part, repeatedly used the term “globalist” in a pejorative manner to warn against bureaucratic control on matters such as migration, the environment, and artificial intelligence. 

When next year rolls around, could a Latin American be charged with healing such fissures? A tradition of regional rotation dictates that, after Guterres steps down in December, the next UN secretary general should be from the Latin American and Caribbean. Five of the seven remaining competitors hail from the region.

For now, new Latin American leaders are taking the UN stage this week, including Peru’s Keiko Fujimori and Chile’s José Antonio Kast. Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez will also take to the podium, marking the first time a head of state from her country does so since 2018.

AS/COA Online covers the major episodes affecting the Americas from this week’s UN proceedings.

Twelve days before a vote in which Lula is fighting for his own reelection, he opened the forum for the tenth time and used Brazil’s inaugural slot to appeal to the international community and his base back home. He began by expressing “indignation” over the UN’s inability to constrain war and protect the vulnerable, in a speech that proposed diplomacy and sovereignty as the counterweights to the interests of powerful countries and industries that he framed as disrupting the world order.

“[In Latin America and the Caribbean] geographical proximity to the world’s greatest military power is inescapable, especially in the context of renewed hegemonic temptation,” Lula said, alluding to the United States before adding: “Brazil is too big to fit in anyone’s backyard.” And while acknowledging the threat of organized criminal groups, he said his country “will not outsource the responsibility of defending [our] borders.” Brazil is not a member of the U.S.-backed regional security initiative known as the Shield of the Americas; Secretary of State Marco Rubio will convene members later in the afternoon.

In his warnings about foreign interference, Lula said Venezuela “deserves to decide its own destiny” and mentioned the situations in Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba. He also brought up concerns over threats of outside intervention in Brazil’s October 4 elections, ringing alarm bells over disinformation networks working against Brazil’s “robust electoral system,” before adding: “Brazil will not allow foreign and domestic enemies of democracy to stop the people’s will.”—Luisa Leme

“America is back and our country is stronger today than ever before,” asserted Trump. In an address that heralded U.S. economic, technological, and military might as the means to resolve global issues, Trump claimed success in ending several long-standing conflicts across the globe, including in Gaza, while pledging a near-term end to hostilities with Iran and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The U.S. president’s message extended to Latin America. “Our actions in Venezuela are proof that the United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere,” he said, referring to the January operation that ousted former leader Nicolás Maduro while interim President Rodríguez looked on from the floor. Trump added that his administration would continue “reasserting American power, including military power” to combat cartels and drug trafficking and stem undocumented migration in the region.

Venezuela, Mexico, and Cuba received special attention in Trump’s comments. Ahead of a sideline bilateral meeting with Rodríguez, he hailed the cooperation that led to a major oil deal announced last month that gives Washington a stake in a fifth of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves. “To the victor belong the spoils,” he said, adding that the deal would help drive down global energy prices. Experts have cautioned it’s unlikely for Venezuela to significantly boost production in the short term. 

Trump also trumpeted “a good relationship” with the government of Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum on fighting drug trafficking, despite calling the country “the epicenter of cartel violence.” Amid stagnated negotiations with the Cuban government, mounting sanctions, and a de facto oil blockade, Cuba’s delegation walked out as Trump declared the island “a failed state” and said Rubio was working to bring about “a fundamental change” in the Caribbean nation. —Khalea Robertson

In just its second meeting as a body, the members of the Shield of the Americas gathered on September 22 under the leadership of Trump, who founded the body back in March. Hailing the group as the “largest alliance for economic and national security to ever convene in the Western Hemisphere,” Trump praised the presidents in attendance and pushed for further action to neutralize drug cartels and foster economic growth. Top Trump officials who were present included Secretary of State Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller.

Seated among his ideological allies in the region, Trump praised Latin America’s “big shift to the right” and boasted of his successful endorsements of candidates in recent elections. He urged alliance members, including newest additions Peru and Colombia, to join the United States in designating 24 groups as foreign terrorist organizations and place sanctions on them. He also encouraged military action against cartels, saying, “You let us know, and we take them out, or you take them out yourself—I like that even better. But if you can’t, we’ll do it for you.”

Trump also spoke on developing the region’s mineral wealth, especially rare earths. “The resources of the Americas must always belong to the people of the Americas,” he said, warning leaders that they “not let it be taken over by hostile outside powers."

After Trump’s remarks, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, and Colombian Vice President José Manuel Restrepo all spoke on their countries’ participation in the alliance.—Chase Harrison