Blackmail as foreign and commercial policy. That has been the approach that Donald Trump has adopted towards much of the world, but especially towards Latin America. He did it during his first term, pressing several countries in the region to be responsible for curbing migration to the north and to access hundreds of deportees. And now, back in power, he has thrown again from the strategy that was so fruitful at that time to, on this occasion, to advance in his mass deportation campaign. This time, unlike the first, when he launched his threats, especially in the form of sanctions, his main intimidation tactics have been tariffs, with which he has started concessions from historical allies such as Mexico or Colombia.
“The commercial weight of the United States in Latin America is so great that (Trump) has managed to extort almost all countries,” Juanita Goebertus, director of the Division of the Americas of Human Rights Watch, told El País in a recent interview. With only three months in office, the president has made the government of Claudia Sheinbaum militarize the Mexican border with the United States and that Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama access that the US immigration authorities deporting migrants to their territories. All under the pressure of an escalation in the tariffs that the Government of the Republican has already imposed them in the midst of their global commercial war.
Mexico
It is the Latin American country that can lose the most in Trump’s tariff war: the United States is its main commercial partner, while Mexico is the main supplier of the United States. Therefore, and being aware of his advantage in the bilateral relationship, the Republican made the nation – together with Canada – the main target of his tariff threats since the beginning of his mandate. In his second week back at the White House he announced the imposition of 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico from February 4. The justification? That the neighboring country was not doing enough to stop the traffic of fentanil and migrants to the United States.
The Sheinbaum government succumbed to the pressure and managed to stop the entry into force of the new rates in exchange for concessions. He agreed to reinforce the Mexican side of the border by deploying 10,000 military to combat drug trafficking and irregular immigration, as Trump demanded. A month later, the Republican imposed the 25%tariffs, which continue in force today, although with a very diminished impact, since everything covered by the Free Trade Agreement between the three American countries, the vast majority of the exchange, does not receive tariffs.
However, the Mexican president has apparently yielded to Trump’s coercion in migratory and security matters, with the extraordinary delivery of 29 drug lords to the United States as a perfect example of this. Now, the Trumpist government has also resurrected an old threat of its first term, that of a military intervention against posters on Mexican soil, to add to tariff pressure, although for now it has not announced new tariffs.
Colombia
The script is repeated in the case of Colombia. The Republican also threatened Tariffs to the government of Gustavo Petro since the beginning of his mandate, when the president of the Andean country refused the morning of January 27 to accept two flights with deportees from the United States who had previously agreed to receive. Trump reacted saying that he would hit Colombia with 25% tariffs, which would increase to 50% the following week, as well as with a series of financial and banking sanctions. He also suspended the visas for all Colombian government officials and their associates.
The diplomatic confrontation lasted less than a day. Although he initially planted the Republican, Petro ended up giving up the same night of that Sunday to all his demands, “including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal foreigners in Colombia returning from the United States, even in US military aircraft, without limitations or delay,” as his government communicated. Later, in March, after a visit to Bogotá by the Secretary of National Security of the United States, Kristi Noem, Colombia announced that both nations had also agreed to share biometric data to identify irregular migrants and transnational criminals.
Finally, however, the country was imposed on the country, as part of the large package of tariff measures announced by the Trump administration in early April.
Costa Rica and Panama
Two other countries in the region that have agreed to receive deportees are Costa Rica and Panama, although some peculiarities can be highlighted. First, neither of the two countries were threatened, at least publicly, with 25% tariffs such as Mexico and Colombia. Some analysts theorize that they were behind closed doors, since the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, visited both countries in February, after which they announced that they would receive deportations from the United States. But for now, like Colombia, both nations were taxed with the minimum 10% rate in April.
Panama has also had to deal with Trump’s imperialist threats, who insists that he wants to resume control of the country’s interoceanic channel. Although the United States gave control of the river road to Panama more than 20 years ago, the president has complained that China exerts influence on the channel while Washington is forced to pay more to use it. Although the Panamanian government has rejected the basic idea, it has had to give in other things to placate the Republican, such as allowing the American Blackrock company to buy ports in the country.
Venezuela
The coercion tactics that Trump’s government has used against the regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela are even more diverse. He has used tariffs, but also the threat of sanctions and blows to the country’s oil sector, while having deported Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador, where they have been imprisoned in a maximum security prison.
After Washington announced on March 4 that he withdrew the licenses that allowed the operation of the American oil company Chevron in Venezuela, Caracas reported four days after he would not accept deportations of his citizens from the United States. This led Trump to threaten the South American country with new “severe and growing” sanctions. Finally, Maduro turned back and agreed to resume flights, which restarted shortly after that same month.
On the 24th, however, the Trump government announced two other measures. On the one hand, he assured that, as of April 2, 25% would impose tariffs to all countries that import Venezuelan oil and gas because, he justified, Caracas has sent “tens of thousands” of violent criminals to the United States. And on the other, the exit of Chevron extended until the end of May, which was scheduled for early April. This pause gave a respite to the mature regime, since the multinational is responsible for a quarter of local oil production. To this is added the imposition of 15% levies to Venezuela’s exports, still pending application due to the 90 -day moratorium announced by the White House for all countries, with the proviso of China.
Apart Mention: El Salvador
The case of El Salvador merits a special mention. The relationship between Trump and his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, has been beneficial for both. The Republican, meanwhile, has found in Bukele a partner who accepts – and imprisoned – to migrants deported by the United States without asking questions. Thus, Bukele not only wins the most powerful man’s favor in the world, but also receives money – 20,000 dollars a year for each deporting imprisoned in the Central American country – and the validation of his prison model, harshly criticized for his bad conditions and the violation of human rights of inmates.
In addition, and probably the most important thing for Bukele, El Salvador will receive at least nine key gang members of the MS-13 that the United States has under its custody. For that procedure, Bukele offered the Trump government a 50 % discount on the rate for receiving deported migrants in their megaprision. A Win-Win.
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