The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has adopted a more ostentatious and stronger presence in the Americas, revisiting old foreign policy guidelines to secure the region as its exclusive area of influenceaccording to analysis of Alberto Pfeifercoordinator of the International Strategy Analysis group at USP (University of São Paulo).
Pfeifer highlights that American tactics, although often justified by , hide an intense geopolitical dispute. “Since his inauguration speech, Trump has announced this stronger presence in the Western Hemisphere,” he states.
He explains that the American strategy goes back to the past, and aims to consolidate the regional focus and free up resources in other parts of the world.
“The United States is revisiting the famous Monroe Doctrinefrom the 19th century, which said that the USA should concentrate on its neighborhood, in the American hemisphere region, leaving aside, on the other hand, other parts of the world”, he explains.
For Alberto Pfeifer, this concentration has led to the withdrawal of American support for European countries, demanding that America’s allies.
“The backdrop for actions in the Americas is not just the fight against crime, but access to the market for crucial commodities and the removal of rival powers”, he highlights.
“Behind the entire battle against transnational organized crime and drug trafficking, there is the geopolitical dispute with Russia and China, and the race for access to oil, hydrocarbons, rare earths and critical minerals that are the great center of the dispute between the United States and China. Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana and Brazil, for example, have important reserves of these resources”, he adds.
Still according to Pfeifer, the overt pressure is manifested on several regional fronts. He points out that the American government has acted directly against the regime, sending naval fleets and troops to the Venezuelan coast.
“Trump has been calling the Venezuelan leader the head of a drug cartel. Sanctions were also applied against the regime of Gustavo Petro, in Colombia, which had American aid withdrawn”, he points out.
“In contrast, Washington offers ostensible protection to aligned or strategic regimes, such as the Republic of Guyana, which discovered enormous reserves of oil and natural gas and became the country with the highest economic growth in the last two years”, he highlights.
Alberto Pfeifer remembers that support extends to the government of Javier Mileyin Argentina, (around R$108 billion) to guarantee the success of the Argentine president.
“The ultimate objective of the United States is to ward off external interests, such as Russia, China and, to a lesser extent, Iran. This geopolitical game in which the United States tries to ward off external interests is establishing the Americas region as its unique and decisive area of influence,” he notes.
“For Brazil, which is an important partner in the Americas and has its main area of external expression in the region, it is essential to calibrate its relationship with the United States, paying attention to Washington’s actions and the geopolitical implications of connections with external partners”, concludes Pfeifer.
