Rubio heads to Ecuador, Colombia, Peru after right-wing victories in region

Rightward shift in Latin America comes as Washington pledges to grow influence, take militaristic approach to cartels.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks in Washington, DC [AFP]

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio is travelling to three South American countries whose recently elected leaders have closely aligned with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Rubio will travel to Colombia on Tuesday to meet with newly elected President Abelardo de la Espriella. He will then visit Ecuador to meet with President Daniel Noboa before going to Peru, where he will meet with another newly elected leader, Keiko Fujimori.

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The State Department has not yet released a more in-depth agenda for the trip, saying only that Rubio will discuss “US support for Colombia’s earthquake response; enhanced cooperation in the shared fight against narcoterrorism, which threatens our hemisphere; and the benefits of deeper commercial relationships between our countries”.

The trip comes amid a rightward shift in Latin America that has seen several Trump-aligned leaders take office. Beyond the three countries, Trump also backed Honduran President Nasry Asfura, who won the presidency in November, and Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz, who won in October.

Beyond the new leaders, Trump has also closely aligned with Argentina’s Javier Milei, who took office in 2023, and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, who became the leader in 2019.

US influence over Western Hemisphere

Rubio’s visit comes as the Trump administration has pledged to assert more influence over the Western Hemisphere in what Trump has referred to as the “Donroe Doctrine”, a reference to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine that opposed European interference in the Americas.

It has shifted to a militaristic approach to security in Latin American countries, while broadly reframing efforts to combat drug trafficking as a war against “narco-terrorists”.

In August, Colombia’s de la Espriella upped cooperation with the US by joining the Trump administration’s so-called “Shield of the Americas”.

The 19 members of the group have jointly pledged a “commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks”.

Unlike his predecessor, leftist Gustavo Petro, de la Espriella has also praised US military strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. At least 227 people have been killed in those strikes, in what rights groups have condemned as extrajudicial killings .

Family members of those killed have charged that the targets were fishermen, not drug smugglers.

The US has proven a major supporter for de la Espriella in the wake of a devastating earthquake in Colombia last month in which at least 330 people were killed and thousands left homeless.

In March, the US military announced it was collaborating with Ecuador, under Noboa’s leadership, to target drug trafficking groups in the country.

Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg defended the US strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs in an interview with broadcaster Teleamazonas last week.

Peru’s Fujimori, the daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori, who notoriously dissolved the country’s Congress and Supreme Court to consolidate power during his government from 1990 to 2000, has also pledged closer ties with the US and a military crackdown on criminal groups.

Rubio’s visit comes after the US announced a controversial agreement with Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez. The deal, struck in the wake of the January 3 US abduction of Venezuela’s ex-President Nicolas Maduro, grants US companies access to 65 billion barrels of crude oil reserves over the next 100 years.

It also comes as Washington has continued to up its pressure campaign against Cuba, with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Monday rejecting any talks with the US despite its ongoing fuel blockade of the island.

Brazil and Mexico remain the only regional powers with leftist leaders. Rubio has called the region’s conservative lurch an “extraordinary achievement”.

The shift has accompanied the strengthening of ties between Israel and several Latin American countries since Trump took office.

Brazilians will go to the polls in October, when Flavio Bolsonaro, a son of former right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro, seeks to unseat Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Trump has remained a staunch ally of the elder Bolsonaro, who has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading a conspiracy to hold onto power.

The US president has also shown strong support for the younger Bolsonaro, including inviting him to the White House in May.

拉丁美洲的右倾趋势正值华盛顿承诺扩大影响力、对贩毒集团采取军事手段之际。

美国国务卿马可·卢比奥在华盛顿特区发表讲话 [法新社]

美国国务卿马可·卢比奥将访问三个南美国家，这三个国家新当选的领导人与唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府关系密切。

鲁比奥将于周二前往哥伦比亚，会见新当选的总统阿韦拉多·德拉埃斯普里利亚。之后，他将访问厄瓜多尔，会见总统丹尼尔·诺沃亚，然后前往秘鲁，会见另一位新当选的领导人藤森庆子。

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美国国务院尚未公布此次访问的详细议程，仅表示卢比奥将讨论“美国对哥伦比亚地震救援的支持；加强在共同打击威胁我们西半球的毒品恐怖主义方面的合作；以及深化两国商业关系的益处”。

此次访问正值拉丁美洲右倾之际，多位与特朗普结盟的领导人已上台执政。除了这三个国家之外，特朗普还支持了去年11月赢得总统大选的洪都拉斯总统纳斯里·阿斯富拉和去年10月赢得总统大选的玻利维亚总统罗德里戈·帕斯。

除了这些新领导人之外，特朗普还与阿根廷的哈维尔·米莱（Javier Milei，2023 年就职）和萨尔瓦多的纳伊布·布克莱（Nayib Bukele，2019 年就任领导人）关系密切。

美国对西半球的影响力

卢比奥此次访问正值特朗普政府承诺对西半球施加更大影响力之际，特朗普称之为“唐罗主义”，指的是19世纪反对欧洲干涉美洲的门罗主义。

它已将拉丁美洲国家的安全政策转向军事化，同时将打击毒品贩运的努力大体上重新定义为一场针对“毒品恐怖分子”的战争。

8 月，哥伦比亚总理德拉埃斯普里利亚加入特朗普政府所谓的“美洲之盾”计划，加强了与美国的合作。

该组织的 19 名成员共同承诺“致力于使用致命的军事力量摧毁邪恶的贩毒集团和恐怖网络”。

与他的前任、左翼人士古斯塔沃·佩特罗不同，德拉埃斯普里利亚也曾赞扬美国在加勒比海和东太平洋地区对涉嫌毒品走私者发动的军事打击。这些打击行动已造成至少227人死亡，人权组织谴责这些行动为法外处决。

遇难者家属指控袭击目标是渔民，而不是毒品走私犯。

上个月哥伦比亚发生毁灭性地震，造成至少 330 人死亡，数千人无家可归，美国已证明自己是德拉埃斯普里利亚的主要支持者。

今年 3 月，美国军方宣布在诺博亚的领导下与厄瓜多尔合作，打击该国的贩毒集团。

厄瓜多尔内政部长约翰·雷姆伯格上周在接受 Teleamazonas 电视台采访时，为美国打击据称运载毒品的船只的行为辩护。

秘鲁前领导人阿尔韦托·藤森的女儿藤森也承诺将与美国建立更紧密的联系，并对犯罪集团进行军事打击。阿尔韦托·藤森在1990年至2000年执政期间，曾因解散国会和最高法院以巩固权力而臭名昭著。

鲁比奥此次访问是在美国宣布与委内瑞拉临时领导人德尔西·罗德里格斯达成一项备受争议的协议之后进行的。这项协议是在美国于1月3日绑架委内瑞拉前总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗之后达成的，它允许美国公司在未来100年内获取650亿桶原油储备。

与此同时，华盛顿继续加大对古巴的施压力度，古巴外长布鲁诺·罗德里格斯周一拒绝与美国进行任何谈判，尽管美国仍在对古巴实施燃料封锁。

巴西和墨西哥仍然是该地区仅有的两个由左翼领导人执政的大国。鲁比奥称该地区的保守化趋势是一项“非凡的成就”。

这一转变伴随着特朗普上任以来以色列与几个拉丁美洲国家之间关系的加强。

巴西将于10月举行大选，届时前右翼领导人雅伊尔·博尔索纳罗之子弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗将挑战路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦的总统宝座。

特朗普一直是老博索纳罗的坚定盟友，老博索纳罗因领导阴谋保住权力而被判处 27 年监禁。

美国总统也对小博索纳罗表示了强有力的支持，包括在五月份邀请他访问白宫。