Lima (AFP) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up a whirlwind tour of Latin America in Peru on Thursday, deepening cooperation with a new bloc of conservative governments and pressing the fight against regional drug cartels. Rubio arrived in Lima after stops in Colombia and Ecuador, where he welcomed closer coordination against criminal gangs that Washington now describes as terrorist organizations.
Ahead of his visit, Peru joined the “Shield of the Americas,” a US-led coalition promoted by President Donald Trump to combat drug trafficking and organized crime across the region. Peru, the world’s second-biggest cocaine producer after Colombia, has faced a sharp deterioration in security in recent years. The number of homicides in the country of 34 million has risen markedly since 2018, and businesses across the country live in terror of extortion gangs.
Peru’s new President Keiko Fujimori said that being part of Trump’s “shield” allowed Lima to receive security intelligence more quickly “and act more firmly.” At a press conference with Rubio, she credited the recent arrest of a Peruvian gang member in Bolivia to information supplied by the FBI. Rubio stressed that Latin America was a “real priority” of the Trump administration. “Us getting involved in the region is not a favor. It is essential to our own security, to our own prosperity, to our own well-being in the United States of America,” he said.
In Quito on Wednesday, he announced that Los Tiguerones, one of Ecuador’s most powerful criminal gangs, would be designated a terrorist organization by Washington, cutting it off from the US financial system. The United States has already applied similar designations to other Ecuadorian gangs, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. “We’re not talking about an ordinary mafia. We’re talking about terrorists,” Rubio told reporters. “If you don’t do something against these groups, they will devour these countries whole.”
The tour reflects a broader shift in regional politics as a string of right-wing governments seeks closer ties with the Trump administration. The right-wing wave is mounting as Washington openly asserts its desire for hegemony over the continent in the name of what it calls the “Donroe Doctrine.” The expression blends Trump’s first name with that of James Monroe, the fifth US president, who more than two centuries ago declared Latin America the United States’ exclusive sphere of influence.
On Rubio’s first stop in Colombia, he framed President Abelardo de la Espriella’s recent rise to power as part of a wider regional trend. The top US diplomat hailed the restoration of “natural ties” between Washington and Bogota following “the mistakes of the last four years,” referring to the previous leftist government. Rubio’s trip also highlights US efforts to counter the influence of China, Russia, and Iran in Latin America.
Ahead of his arrival in Lima, the Chinese embassy rejected suggestions that the region was anyone’s “backyard” and defended Beijing’s cooperation with Latin American countries. “The countries of Latin America have the sovereign right to freely choose their partners and to develop external cooperation based on their own national interests,” the embassy wrote on X.
© 2024 AFP
