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Shortly after taking office in January, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged to carry out what he called an “Americas First” foreign policy. “U.S. foreign policy has long focused on other regions while overlooking our own,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “That ends now.”

Rubio’s first official trip in February took him to five Latin American and Caribbean nations. Since then, nonstop attention from U.S. President Donald Trump has injected further unpredictability into a region where politics were already volatile. Some ideologically aligned leaders, such as in Argentina and El Salvador, have bought into the MAGA vision—striking shady deals with the United States that have come under scrutiny from Democrats.

Shortly after taking office in January, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged to carry out what he called an “Americas First” foreign policy. “U.S. foreign policy has long focused on other regions while overlooking our own,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “That ends now.”

Rubio’s first official trip in February took him to five Latin American and Caribbean nations. Since then, nonstop attention from U.S. President Donald Trump has injected further unpredictability into a region where politics were already volatile. Some ideologically aligned leaders, such as in Argentina and El Salvador, have bought into the MAGA vision—striking shady deals with the United States that have come under scrutiny from Democrats.

The Trump administration has wielded U.S. economic and military might to try and extract concessions from other countries that don’t toe its line. This month, the White House marked the anniversary of the

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