‘An ideological guest list’: Trump invites Latin America’s rightwing leaders to Florida summit | Americas

Donald Trump will host leaders of at least 10 Latin American countries at a palm-lined golf resort in Miami on Saturday as he continues his quest to change the United States’ position in the region and defeat China.

Since returning to power last year, Trump has embarked on a dramatic and sometimes deadly crusade: As Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said“take back our backyard”.

Vows to “take back” the Panama canal were followed by air strikes on alleged narco boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, open interventions in Brazil’s judicial system, threats of military intervention in Mexico and Colombia, and, most shockingly, the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and the use of Predator drones to help kill El Mencho, one of the world’s most wanted drug lords, in Mexico.

Trump also saved Argentina’s president, radical libertarian Javier Milei, with a multibillion-dollar bailout and intervened in Honduras’ recent elections to support the eventual right-wing winner. He recently proposed a “friendly takeover” of Cuba as his administration seeks to subdue the country’s struggling communist regime by cutting off the country’s oil supply, despite UN warnings of a humanitarian “collapse.”

“As a critic of his, I am the first to admit that perhaps there has not been a presidency since Kennedy that has had such a profound impact on Latin America. The effects are real,” said former U.S. ambassador to Panama John Feeley, who likened Trump’s behavior to that of ruthless fictional mob boss Tony Soprano.

Trump officials describe the “Don-roe Doctrine,” a revamp of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine in which President James Monroe sought to keep European powers out of America, as Beijing’s attempt to reduce its regional footprint and impose Washington’s will through economic and military pressure.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Saturday’s invitation-only Inter-American Shield summit was designed “to promote freedom, security and prosperity in our region.”

Trump’s guest list includes the right-wing presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador and Paraguay, but does not include the left-wing leaders of Latin America’s three largest economies (Brazil, Mexico and Colombia).

“This is the VIP level of the Latin American Trump Club, and this meeting really seems designed as a way to provide a clear benefit to membership at that level,” said Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly magazine.

Winter said that “Trump’s ideological companions with whom he likes to take photos” will attend the conclave. “There doesn’t seem to be anything truly earth-shattering or important on the agenda [although] will definitely include security and immigration [and] Venezuela and Cuba problems.”

Trump’s Latin American enthusiasts are celebrating their trip to Florida. “Paraguay will be present at this important meeting that will strengthen cooperation and joint work for the sake of the security and stability of our nations,” Paraguay’s president, Santiago Peña, wrote on Instagram along with an image of his invitation.

José Antonio Kast, Chile’s ultra-conservative president-elect, who has vowed a Trump-style immigration raid after taking power next week, and Ecuador’s president Daniel Noboa, who this week announced joint anti-drug operations with the United States, will also attend.

On Thursday, Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s most powerful officials, hinted at further such cooperation, claiming that drug traffickers in the region can only be defeated with military force.

“None of your nations should tolerate the existence of a single square mile of territory under the control of any entity other than the sovereign governments of your country,” Miller told Latin American military commanders, calling the drug cartels “the Islamic State and Al Qaeda in the western hemisphere.”

Winter said rubbing shoulders with Trump makes sense for right-wing politicians who want to show voters they’re tough on crime. “Security is the number one issue in Latin America today, and the Trump administration is in a unique position to help these leaders for domestic political benefit. No one has the intelligence that the United States has, nor does it have the firepower… Virtually every government in the region is eager to access intelligence that only Washington can provide.”” he said, noting how Mexico’s leftist president Claudia Sheinbaum accepted the CIA’s help in tracking down El Mencho.

But Trump’s Latin America strategy has also caused alarm and anger in capitals such as Brasília and Bogota, where officials see Maduro’s capture and U.S. attempts to strangle Cuba as a clear violation of international law.

“Cuba doesn’t go hungry because it doesn’t know how to produce.” [food] … Cuba is going hungry because they don’t want Cuba to have access to the things that everyone is entitled to,” Brazil’s leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this week.

But for now, such criticism – like Europe’s response to Trump’s attacks on Iran – appears cautious and politicians reluctant to offend the US president. Even Colombia’s outspoken leftist president, Gustavo Petro, toned down his anti-Trump rhetoric and had a friendly meeting with the US president at the White House last month.

“What’s interesting and somewhat surprising is that, at least so far, a lot of countries have complied, whether out of convenience or out of fear,” Winter said. “Even some governments deeply disturbed by the Don-Roe Doctrine keep their protests to themselves [and] “They are seeking constructive relations with Trump while quietly trying to diversify their relationship so that they are less dependent on the United States.”

Benjamin Gedan, director of the Stimson Center’s Latin America program, said the summit’s “ideological guest list” exposed the failure of Trump’s “theatrical” doctrine and the White House’s inability to work with key countries in Latin America.

“Brazil and Mexico account for more than half of the population in the region [and] more than half of all economic activities… Add Colombia and we have the two largest countries in South America. All [of them] completely outside US hemisphere policy – and this is where the US nominally dominates and [where it] It requires superiority,” Gedan said.