Why Latin America Has Been Demure in Davos |
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.
The highlights this week: Latin America reacts to the discourse at the World Economic Forum, Guatemala enacts a state of emergency, and Chile battles deadly wildfires.
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.
The highlights this week: Latin America reacts to the discourse at the World Economic Forum, Guatemala enacts a state of emergency, and Chile battles deadly wildfires.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s show-stealing speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week carried a direct message to many Latin American countries. After denouncing the liberal international order as a “fiction,” Carney called for “middle powers” to unite to defend their shared principles, autonomy, and economies—or risk ending up on the “menu” of more powerful ones.
Carney was reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated shattering of norms, including respect for other countries’ sovereignty and international treaties. Trump has threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and has shown disregard for a trade pact that he negotiated with the United States’ northern neighbor in his first term.
Latin American countries are even more familiar than Canada with assertive U.S. behavior. That’s due to a long history of U.S. intervention in the region.
Even so, several conservative Latin American leaders have opted to vocally back Trump’s policies. Among them is Argentine President Javier Milei, who railed against the “catastrophic” effects of international institutions on Wednesday in Davos and elected to join Trump’s so-called Board of Peace for Gaza.
But some other governments have staked out a more independent stance. They include Colombia and Brazil, which are led by leftists. Both countries dispatched top officials to Davos in the past but did not send their presidents this year.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro planned to attend the conference but canceled his trip at the last moment in order to prepare for his upcoming visit to the White House, El Colombiano reported. Petro........