Trump’s Latin America gambit to check China’s growing influence
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Washington has sent its most powerful carrier to the Caribbean Sea to hunt down smaller “Narco boats” as US President Donald Trump intensified the US war on drugs. Trump is playing with fire by sending USS Gerard Ford to the region. The optics are bad.
The world’s strongest battle group, with missile-guided destroyers and dozens of F-35 aircraft, was sent on a simple law enforcement mission in Washington’s backyard. It was an overkill. With USS Gerard Ford dispatched from European waters to the Caribbean Sea and eventually to the eastern Pacific Ocean, Washington has reported it had carried out airstrikes, sinking four “Narco boats” and killing 14 people near Mexico in the Pacific Ocean.
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Fighting the South American drug cartel should be left to the US Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies in Mexico and other Latin American partners. Trump need not impress the world, particularly China, which has a growing influence in the region, on what it can do to stop the flow of illicit substances to its borders.
Latin American countries have become another part of the world where the strategic and economic interests of the US and China collide. Washington has begun to pay attention to a region it had seemed to overlook and take for granted. It did not take too long for the US to notice that China has gained some considerable influence in some Latin American countries, like oil-producing Venezuela and Panama, which controls a canal where major international shipping routes pass.
As soon as Trump began his second them early this year, the White House has prioritized its economic expansion in the Caribbean and Latin America, aiming to weaken China’s position in the region. Washington is also increasingly worried about China’s expanding infrastructure projects in the region. In the firat months that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he had made eight of 14 trips to the region, visiting Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, and the Domincan Republic. In one of these trips, Rubio took the chance to publicly condemn Chinese investments in the Panama Canal, urging the country to withdraw from Beijing’s One Belt, One Road initiative.
The US, through BlackRock consortium, had also acquired 90 percent of the Panama Canal assets from a Hong Kong company. China has not fought back, avoiding a direct confrontation with the US in the region. Its hands are full in a bitter rivalry with the US in the Indo-Pacific region, Beijing s own front yard. The US’s tough approach to engage with its Latin American neighbors should remind countries in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that Washington’s interests are way above other countries’ national interests to gain geostrategic superiority over China, while also increasing its global economic power.
Trump’s “America First” demonstrated how Washington engaged with all regional blocs. By imposing higher tariffs on its allies and partners worldwide, Washington has been exerting pressure on governments and businesses to gain preferential trade and investment, while making them economically dependent. The Philippines is an illustrative model of how Washington attempts to influence efforts in Latin America to promote anti-China alliances, undermining Beijing’s influence and reducing cooperation as well.
For instance, Manila has veered away from Beijing and leaned towards the US and its Western allies, incldiog Japan in terms of security and economy. However, Trump’s strategy and policies have backfired. China is seen gaining ground in Asia, Africa, Middle East, the Pacific islands, and in South America. Washington is overstrecting itself in terms of military, trade and investments as many countries were trying to balance between the US and China.
The Philippines must learn from Vietnam and other countries on how to deal with the US and China. While Hanoi was resisting Beijing in its territorial disputes in South China Sea, it pursued robust economic partnership with its northern neighbor. Manila should take advantage of promoting closer ties with the Non-Aligned Movement and other Global South groups to reduce dependence on the US and avoid US manipulation.
Trump’s display of military might in Latin America is endangering US relations with its neighbors. It demonstrated Washiington was unwilling to share and wanted only to protect its interests. The US gunboat diplomacy in Latin America might backfire as well, as it would only bring these states closer to China, which pours more millions in aid and trade than the United States.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of this publication.
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