International security

What Will The Trump Presidency Mean For Latin America?

he overall context for looking ahead to what the incoming administration of president-elect Donald Trump might do is that there has been no overarching ‘Latin America’ policy under the outgoing administration. There have been pockets of activity – Cuba, Central America, the Colombia peace deal, to name but three – but in general terms the region has received little attention from the US over the past several years. Mexico aside, it barely featured at all in the presidential campaign. This overall situation will largely remain the same under the Trump administration.

NAFTA in the crosshairs

Of all Latin American countries, Mexico received most attention from the president-elect during the campaign, both in the context of immigration and trade policy. There is clear nervousness in Mexico and in the markets about the impact of the new administration on relations between the two countries. The Mexican peso fell close to 10% against the dollar as the result of the election came in, for example.