Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” and Extortion Diplomacy

A week after the treacherous joint military intervention by the United States and Israel in Iran, in the midst of negotiations, President Trump gathered the heads of state of his backyard, ideologically aligned with him, at the Trump National Doral Miami (hotel and golf course). Under the slogan “Shield of the Americas,” the event was attended by the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and the president-elect of Chile. The meeting is part of the United States National Security Strategy, which seeks to fundamentally reorganize the hemisphere under a unified command to face competition with China and militarize the fight against drug trafficking, as occurred this week in Ecuador in a joint, but unconstitutional, operation by the Ecuadorian armed forces with the Southern Command. The Andean country’s constitution does not allow the participation of military forces from another country or foreign military bases. In November, President Daniel Noboa attempted to amend the constitution via a plebiscite that was not approved, so, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Donald Trump, he chose to trample on the law.

Trump’s speech to the 12 right-wing leaders of the region focused on the fight against organized crime. He noted that “at the heart of our agreement is a commitment to use lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks once and for all.” Perhaps because of his upcoming visit to Beijing, scheduled for the end of the month, Trump chose to use terms such as “foreign interference” and “external forces” on the podium instead of direct references to China. In a clear reference to that country, he said, “Under this new doctrine, we will not allow any hostile foreign force to set foot in our hemisphere, including the Panama Canal. Together, we will protect our sovereignty and our security, as well as our precious freedom and independence.”

The summit was convened to coordinate regional actions to limit China’s growing presence in the Western Hemisphere, which is seen as a risk to the security and prosperity of the United States. These issues were discussed with less fanfare during the meeting of defense ministers, in which 18 countries from the region participated. The task of carrying out the project was entrusted to Kristi Noem, who was dismissed as Secretary of Homeland Security on Thursday.

In fact, the presidential summit was preceded by a meeting (March 4 and 5) of defense ministers from 18 countries, hosted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor Stephen Miller. In his speech, Miller said that the United States “will not cede an inch of territory in the hemisphere” to its “enemies or adversaries,” and admitted that the Donald Trump administration is using “hard power, military power, and lethal force to defend the American homeland.”

Both officials presented what the Pentagon called the first “Conference of the Americas Against Cartels” at the Southern Command in Miami. In the final statement, authorities labeled drug cartels as terrorist organizations, which allows for the use of lethal force and even unilateral operations in their territories. They also agreed to protect critical infrastructure and join a coalition to combat narco-terrorism and other shared threats facing the Western Hemisphere. The problem is that relying on the armed forces to replace the role traditionally played by civilian law enforcement carries risks in a region where military institutions and oversight are weak and the armed forces often bear the legacy of human rights abuses. Rebecca Bill Chavez, president of the Inter-American Dialogue and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere affairs, believes that without strong rule of law institutions and civilian oversight, militarizing the fight against cartels can weaken the very institutions needed to defeat them.

Farewell to the Summits of the Americas

The “Shield of the Americas” summit marks a break with the Summits of the Americas that have been held every three years since 1994, when President Clinton launched them in Miami, where the proposal to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was officially launched. Those summits were less imperative, the directives more veiled, and consensus was even sought. At the 2015 Summit of the Americas, membership rose to 35 with the admission of Cuba, whose citizens are being subjected to inhumane punishment by President Trump in the form of a cruel oil embargo, which is leading to massive power cuts throughout the country. The aggression is multifaceted. On March 4, the Ecuadorian president expelled all diplomatic personnel from the Cuban embassy in Quito. In late February, the newly elected president of Honduras, Nasry Asfura, with strong support from Trump, terminated a medical cooperation agreement with Cuba, prompting the departure of more than 170 Cuban doctors who were serving low-income communities. Jamaica did the same under pressure from the United States.

The Summits of the Americas, organized by the OAS, sought to be inclusive (despite tensions), while the latest summit is a bloc of supporters of the current US president. The OAS, which was the Secretariat of these Summits, has been replaced by the Southern Command, making its agenda more militaristic and less diplomatic. Likewise, the absence of three important economies in the region reflects the difference between a bloc that seeks a more autonomous foreign policy and another that is unconditionally aligned with the United States. The presidents of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia were excluded for maintaining critical or divergent positions on the intervention and security policies of the current US administration. Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have also been excluded. Although Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, maintains open channels on energy issues, in the area of security they are considered the “target” to be neutralized, so they were not invited either.

Thus, the meeting of the 12 countries aligned with Trump seeks to consolidate itself as a regional bloc of strategic allies under a new security and geopolitical agenda that focuses on the fight against terrorism; curbing China’s growing economic and political influence in the Western Hemisphere, ensuring access to strategic resources for the United States and its allies; reducing irregular migration flows to the US border; reestablishing US dominance in the region through the so-called “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine”; and promoting free markets and “fair” trade among participating nations that share the ideological affinity of the current administration.

The United States will reward countries that have signed this agreement, as well as those that are part of the Conference of the Americas against Cartels, by providing lethal assistance via military loans with near-zero interest rates so that allies can renew their military equipment, provided it is of US origin. tax incentives for US companies that leave China to set up in the countries that have signed the agreement; and a Critical Infrastructure Fund consisting of fresh money to modernize ports and airports, in order to prevent these countries from depending on Chinese loans that Washington considers “debt traps.”

Shadows of China

The Doral Charter signed on Saturday allowed Trump to have his photo taken with his 12 guests and deliver the speech that defines his strategy. Despite the participants’ implicit commitment in that document to distance China from the region, they may not be entirely convinced. Governments have not always been able to comply with Washington’s directives to prevent their business elites from making joint investments, as was the case with the port of Chancay in Peru, where a group of Peruvian businessmen sought capital to invest in that deep-water port, which in 2007 had been identified by former sailors who later joined the Peruvian company Volcán. Thus, the Chinese state-owned company Cosco Shipping appeared, and in 2019 they jointly launched the project, which has turned that port into a hub for South America with the city of Shanghai, via a joint venture in which the Peruvian company has a 40% stake and the Chinese company the rest.

China has established itself as the leading trading partner of most South American countries, and Trump does not have the means to replace it. That is why he is applying tariffs even to countries that have existing free trade agreements (FTAs). In these agreements, approved by Congress, countries commit to reciprocally liberalizing their tariff regimes, with some exceptions provided for in the agreements themselves. However, Trump uses tariffs as a weapon of mass coercion, ignoring the legal certainty of the FTAs. This violation of the treaties is not being responded to forcefully by governments, despite the damage it causes to exporters. They seem to forget that, in order to achieve predictability in access to that country’s market, they had to give in to painful US demands in areas such as intellectual property (which led to more expensive medicines and agrochemicals), elimination of investment performance requirements, and opening up public procurement, among others. The US government is implementing a diplomacy of tariff extortion and causing a setback in international relations, where the strong impose their will.

For Latin American and Caribbean businesses, the presence of and negotiation with both hegemonic powers, the United States and China, represent a logical and pragmatic element of survival. But for US governments, particularly the current administration, freedom of choice is interpreted as a betrayal of the “Western Hemisphere,” accompanied by the most diverse and hilarious narratives, which most media outlets end up presenting as true.

The present condemns you

The Shield of the Americas project has no future. The United States is undergoing an economic, social, and moral crisis that, in the short term, will cause the government to suffer a crushing defeat in the midterm elections. Only 27% of the country’s citizens approve of military attacks on Iran. Trump has called for a 50% increase in the Pentagon’s budget at a time when the debt, spiraling uncontrollably, is approaching $40 trillion, with a chronic fiscal deficit of 6% per year, a fall in the value of Treasury bonds, and a loss of the dollar’s hegemony. These factors, particularly debt, are the major limitations of the Donroe Doctrine. Its investment promises often ring hollow in the face of tangible projects such as the laying of a submarine fiber optic cable from Valparaíso to Hong Kong by a Chinese company, which Chile has had to suspend due to pressure from the US government and threats to withdraw the visa waiver program for Chilean citizens; the suspension of the concession of two ports operated by a Hong Kong-based Chinese company at the ends of the Panama Canal, under threat from the United States to reclaim the canal; and the prevention of Chinese companies in Costa Rica from participating in tenders for the installation of 5G technology.

Most of the presidents invited are well aware of the economic situation in the United States. But they will validate the official US narrative on narco-terrorism and “the Christian heritage” that unites the hemisphere, as Pete Hegseth points out, because that discourse serves to legitimize the use of their armed forces in their respective countries. Ironically, by not demanding real economic compensation, they are accepting that the link with the United States is purely extractive and military. Washington sets the rules (and sells the weapons) and they provide the territory and obedience.

Trump does not have the resources to finance this plan. His miscalculation in invading Iran, thinking that the population of that country would bow down to the liberating bombs of a foreign army that assassinated its religious and military leaders, will prolong the war with the consequent increase in oil prices, rising inflation, economic contraction, and loss of political capital. In a scenario of war and Trump’s imminent electoral defeat, the Latin American countries that attended Doral will face an economic vacuum that China could ultimately fill more easily.

This first appeared in MIRA.

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