“The Labour Government needs to be awake to the dangers of US policy in Latin America”
By Tim Young
As Keir Starmer’s “true friend in the Oval Office” cultivates his right-wing allies in Latin America, it becomes ever more apparent that the Labour Government needs to take a different approach to the Trump administration.
Latin America did not feature at all in David Lammy’s Locarno foreign policy speech in January ‘25 except as part of an undifferentiated ‘Global South.’ When he publishes the Government’s response to three commissioned studies on how to maximise Britain’s global impact, how best to use development aid, and how to bolster economic diplomacy, we may get a clearer idea, but the signs so far have not been good. This includes the continued refusal to give Venezuela back its gold, illegally held in the Bank of England, as part of the Tories’ previous support for the US’s ‘regime change’ agenda there.
Meanwhile, Trump’s alliances with extreme right-wing governments and currents in Latin America are gathering pace, with serious consequences for left and centre-left parties’ electoral prospects, for social justice, and for fairer and stronger economies.
Dangerous right-wing alliances
Pursuing his reactionary agenda for both the US domestically and for key countries in Latin America, Trump has promised the biggest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history, as part of his objective to “secure the border, finish building the wall, and deport illegal aliens.” A first step has been to strike a deal with the ultra-reactionary Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, paying US$6m to detain 252 Venezuelans branded “foreign terrorists.” Migrants have also been deported to other Latin American countries to widespread condemnation.
Alongside Bukele, the other key bases of Trump’s far-right support in Latin America are Argentina’s President Milei, Ecuador’s President Noboa, and the arch-reactionary Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who was recently found guilty in court of trying to stage a coup against President Lula and for plots to assassinate Lula and other political enemies.
As President, Trump has tried to pressure the Brazilian authorities over Bolsonaro through his media group and the video platform Rumble jointly filing a lawsuit against Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who was hearing the charges against Bolsonaro. The New York Times felt moved to term this as appearing to represent “an astonishing effort by Mr Trump to pressure a foreign judge as he weighed the fate of a fellow right-wing leader who, like him, was indicted on charges that he tried to overturn his election loss.”
Argentinean President Milei is another Trump favourite, meeting Trump or Elon Musk ten times over 15 months (Musk presumably because of the country’s lithium reserves). Milei’s mirroring of Trump’s positions (such as withdrawing from the WHO, opposing “woke ideology”, and anti-climate change actions) helped secure Washington’s support for a recent IMF-approved $20bn loan.
In Ecuador, Daniel Noboa’s fraudulent re-election as President in April gives Trump another ally (or client state), and one which is offering the US two strategically-located military bases, in Manta and the Galápagos Islands.
This group of reactionary politicians have already developed a close affinity with the US far-right, and were speakers at last year’s US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Since Trump’s re-election, that intertwining of such connections and activity has grown in strength, giving the US renewed influence in the region.
Labour must separate the UK from Trump’s agenda
However, other key targets of US policy in the region remain contested on an international level. In 2024, for example, 187 countries (including the UK) called for an end to the US’s decades-long blockade of Cuba through illegal sanctions, with only the US and Israel voting against.
The Labour Government needs to be awake to the dangers of US policy in Latin America, and must develop distinctive positions separate from those of the US. And not just in Latin America. It also needs to be aware of, and respond to, the implications of CPAC activities for Europe as well: in May this year it held international events in Poland and Hungary, linking Trump’s political agenda with far-right leaders in Europe’s populist conservative movement.
- LIVERPOOL EVENT: ¡Viva la solidaridad! Stand with Latin America Against Trump. Monday 29th September 6:30pm. The Racquet Club Hotel & Ziba Restaurant. Register here.
- STATEMENT: Trump – Hands off Honduras. Read here.
- This article is from CLPD’s annual briefing, which you can read here.
- Tim Young is a former officer of the Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela Solidarity Campaigns, and is a member of the Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America volunteer team.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
