Brian Winter Details Latin America's Response to Trump on Foreign Affairs Podcast
Brian Winter Details Latin America's Response to Trump on Foreign Affairs Podcast
With upcoming elections in the region, there could be more countries aligned with Trump, said AS/COA's executive vice president.
Dan Kurtz-Phelan, editor of Foreign Affairs, spoke with AS/COA's Executive Vice President Brian Winter about U.S. President Donald Trump's approach toward Latin America and the responses of leaders in the region.
The conversation began with Winter providing context about the region over the last few years. He detail how despite economic progress, the region continues to confront big challenges, like organized crime. The expert spoke about the rise in cocaine production and how Latin America has become a consumer market too.
Winter also spoke about a growing conservative movement in the region and about the recent tariffs that Trump has pushed on global partners.
"With this liberation day, the tariffs that Donald Trump announced were not as bad as people had expected. Let's be clear: there are concerns all over the region about the possibility of a global recession—big disruptions—because of what Donald Trump announced, but actually most Latin American countries ended up with the minimum 10 percent tariff," said Winter.
Kurtz-Phelan then asked Winter about Trump's immigration policy and how the countries in the region have responded to these specific actions, such as mass deportations. Winter said that after Colombian President Gustavo Petro's disagreement with Trump on this topic most Latin American countries do not want to stand of the way of these policies. "I think you have Latin American governments on left, center, and right, pro-U.S., anti-U.S., all now doing their level best to accommodate the United States when it comes to this issue of migration," stated Winter.
The executive vice president highlighted there are three different groups of leaders in the region right now, grouped on where they stand on Trump. The first group, which has shown its support to the Trump administration, includes leaders like President Javier Milei from Argentina and President Nayib Bukele from El Salvador. The second group encompasses leaders that have "existential doubts" about Trump, this includes President Petro and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from Brazil. Lastly, there are other leaders who fall on the other end of the spectrum, including those from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
However, the expert argued that given the upcoming elections in the region, "a year and a half from now, we could have a Latin America that is significantly more aligned with President Trump than it is today".