Steve Bloomfield writes:

Donald Trump has enjoyed very few foreign policy victories since returning to power. From failed wars to failed peace processes, his second term in office has been marked by one costly blunder on the world stage after another. In Latin America, though, the US president has a different story to tell.

His administration’s national security strategy outlined how the US wanted to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”. It was a brazen document, laying out how his government would interfere in the political life of countries it considered part of its sphere of influence, rewarding governments and movements that are “broadly aligned with our principles and strategy”.

To this end, Trump bailed out Argentina to the tune of $40bn and threatened to withdraw the funding if President Javier Milei’s party lost the midterm elections. In Colombia, he repeatedly bullied and threatened the leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, hitting him with personal sanctions and accusing him of being an “illegal drug leader”. And most dramatically, he invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its president. The day after Nicolás Maduro was brought to the US, the state department posted a picture of Trump above the slogan “This is OUR hemisphere”.

Over the past 18 months, seven rightwing or far-right candidates have won presidential elections across Latin America. In most of them, Trump openly backed the winning candidate. “We’re doing very well in South America,” Trump said last month. “Lots of people that I got elected.”

This weekend, he will be hoping to add the greatest prize of all: Brazil, South America’s biggest country and its largest economy. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, is neck and neck with the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. If he wins, Trump wins – and the hemisphere really will be his. [Continue reading…]