What is “Peace President” Trump up to lately in Latin America?

Telma Luzzani reports in the Argentine El Destape:

This week, on Argentine soil, Latin America received a new warning of automatic alignment on pain of risking a military intervention by the Pentagon. The striking thing is that, despite how dangerous this threat is, almost no one heard about it. Why? The media – astutely – did not disseminate it. There are plans that are best kept secret.

Cautious or not, the U.S. escalation in our region is obvious. As the U.S. Navy deploys more than 4,000 Marines and several warships off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, and as President Donald Trump orders preparations for the use of military force against Mexico, Colombia, Haiti and El Salvador (under the pretext of the war on drugs) in the south of the continent, in Buenos Aires, the head of the [Pentagon’s Southern Command, aka, SOUTHCOM, Admiral] Alvin Holsey, led a meeting with all the South American defense ministers to demand obedience and give them instructions. [emphasis in original] (1)

SOUTHCOM’s own report on the conference includes the following, which combines rhetoric against drug trafficking with warnings about terrorist organizations, and strategic concerns about China.:

Holsey warned that challenges and threats that “span the Andean Ridge to the Strait of Magellan are growing more complex.”

"The expanding scope, scale, and strength of transnational criminal organizations throughout the region is a top concern. Currently, 33 U.S. sanctioned groups, including recently designated 10 foreign terrorist organizations, are operating in the Western hemisphere, engaged in illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons, commodities, wildlife and persons that earn them $358 billion a year in revenue. Not only do these activities finance the expansion of their criminal enterprises, but they perpetuate a cycle of violence and corruption that threatens the citizen security and the integrity of our democracies,” said Holsey.

Holsey also shared his concerns of China’s influence in the region.

“The Chinese Communist Party continues its methodical incursion in the region, seeking to export its authoritarian model, extract precious resources, and set the theater with potential dual use infrastructure, from ports to space,” Holsey said.

“Their presence and influence have far reaching consequences across all domains, particularly in the Southern Cone where vital sea lines of communication, such as the Strait of Magellan and Drake Passage, serve as strategic choke points and may be used by [China] to project power, disrupt trade, and challenge the various sovereignty of our nations, or neutrality of the Antarctic,” Holsey said. [my emphasis] (2)

Of course, the US officially and in practice treats China as its most significant competitor for power and influence in the world.

But the wording in the SOUTHCOM press release that stresses the Chinese Communist Party of meddling in South America – yes, a cynical chuckle is appropriate in seeing the Pentagon whine about outside influence in Latin America - is notable phrasing. It’s a throwback to Cold War rhetoric about the Foreign Enemy using local Communist parties to challenge US influence. There have been political groups in Latin America that admired some form of the Chinese revolution model, most notably (and most notoriously) the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas in Peru. (3) But China is not heading anything like the Soviet-headed Communist International, or even the current Russian active cooperation with far-right politicians in Europe and the US. Business interests and state-to-state cooperation like the BRICS group are the main methods of exerting international influence outside of military power.

Whether the particular mention of the Chinese Communist Party has any real significance is impossible to say from the press release itself. But that framing is worth watching.

In the case of the Trump Administration, it definitely is using a conflation of narcotics trafficking with a military threat to justify possible armed intervention in Latin America. (And even in US cities!)

But direct military action against Mexico or Venezuela or El Salvador would be reckless and irresponsible. Not to mention illegal, something about which the Trump 2.0 Administration cares nothing at all. Also, El Salvador’s dictator Nayib Bukele is one of Trump’s favorite foreign leaders, right up there with Vladimir Putin. I suppose if Bukele were in danger of being overthrown, Trump might intervene in Chile-1973 style to keep him in power.

Venezuela has lots of oil, and that is always at the front of the minds of US policymakers. Lorenzo Santiago recently looked at Trump 2.0’s hostile policy toward Venezuela:

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Thursday, August 14, that he is sending troops to the southern Caribbean Sea to carry out military operations in the region. He said the goal is to arrest Latin American drug traffickers and linked one of these groups to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Rubio reinforced, without presenting evidence, the White House narrative that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), an alleged criminal organization. On July 25, the U.S. State Department classified the group as an international terrorist group.

Rubio reinforced, without presenting evidence, the White House narrative that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), an alleged criminal organization. On July 25, the U.S. State Department classified the group as an international terrorist group.

One doesn’t have to be any particular fan of Nicolás Maduro to see that a US military attack or a US-backed coup against Venezuela is an exceptionally bad idea.

Scripps News reports on the Trump 2.0 military threat to Venezuela: (5)

Notes:

(1) Luzzani, Telma (2025): El Pentágono marca territorio en Sudamérica: la advertencia militar que pasó bajo radar. El Destape 24.08.2025. <https://www.eldestapeweb.com/internacionales/comando-sur/el-pentagono-marca-territorio-en-sudamerica-la-advertencia-que-paso-bajo-radar-20258240547> (Accessed: 2025-24-08). My translation to English.

See also: Head of U.S. Southern Command returns to Argentina. Buenos Aires Herald 08/18/2025. <https://buenosairesherald.com/world/international-relations/head-of-u-s-southern-command-returns-to-argentina> (Accessed: 2025-24-08).

(2) U.S., South America Defense Leaders Discuss Regional Threats. U.S. Southern Command Public Affairs 08/21/2025. <https://www.southcom.mil/MEDIA/NEWS-ARTICLES/Article/4282417/us-south-america-defense-leaders-discuss-regional-threats/> (Accessed: 2025-24-08).

(3) See: Lovell, Julia (2019): Maoism: A Global History, Chapter 7. London: The Bodley Head.

(4) Santiago, Lorenzo (2025): U.S. Send Troops to Southern Caribbean in New Threat to Venezuela. NACLA 08/20/2025. <https://nacla.org/u-s-sends-troops-to-southern-caribbean-in-new-threat-to-venezuela/> (Accessed: 2025-24-08).

(5) US Navy destroyers deployed near Venezuela as Trump seeks to combat drug cartels. Scripps News YouTube channel 08/20/2025.<<https://youtu.be/xKUwhQIyhS4?si=x27khPwBVWZFrZaE>; (Accessed: 2025-24-08).