Trump Hasn’t Learned From History in Latin America |
Welcome back to your final 2025 edition of Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. We’re pausing the newsletter for the next two weeks to celebrate the holidays but will be back in your inboxes on Thursday, Jan. 8!
Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: The former presidents of Colombia and Mexico discuss U.S. actions in Latin America, Dan Bongino is leaving the FBI, and Ukraine urges Europe to give it frozen Russian assets.
Welcome back to your final 2025 edition of Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. We’re pausing the newsletter for the next two weeks to celebrate the holidays but will be back in your inboxes on Thursday, Jan. 8!
Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: The former presidents of Colombia and Mexico discuss U.S. actions in Latin America, Dan Bongino is leaving the FBI, and Ukraine urges Europe to give it frozen Russian assets.
The controversial U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats near Latin America and the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive posture toward Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s regime have raised alarm across the globe.
SitRep sat down on Tuesday with former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, a Nobel Peace laureate, and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo to get their thoughts on the escalating situation and its impact on Latin America.
The conversation with Santos and Zedillo, who are part of the Nelson Mandela-founded group The Elders, occurred shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump announced a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers to and from Venezuela. Santos and Zedillo were not available to comment on that development, but they had already made clear their concern over recent steps that the United States has taken in the region.
Santos and Zedillo also discussed the Gaza peace process and why they’re pushing for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian leader imprisoned in Israel.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
SitRep: How concerned are you about the U.S. strikes near Latin America and Trump potentially taking military action in Venezuela?
Ernesto Zedillo: Venezuela needs and deserves to have democracy and the rule of law return. What’s happened under [former Venezuelan President Hugo] Chávez and Maduro is outrageous. They have destroyed Venezuela’s democracy and economy, and have imposed tremendous pain on the Venezuelan population, forcing millions of Venezuelans to leave to places like Colombia. It has been a humanitarian disgrace. Any reasonable human being should be offended and concerned about the situation in Venezuela.
Having said that, and this applies to the U.S. and to others—history is very clear in Latin America that every time there has been foreign intervention in the internal affairs of our countries, that has been a disaster for our countries and also a failure for whoever is intervening. Because those interventions have fostered the power of those opposing human rights, democracy, and........