Miami Hosts Summit of Right-Wing LATAM Leaders

Trump will confirm loyalties with the ‘Shield of the Americas’ initiative.

On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump will receive about a dozen right-wing Latin American head of states in Miami.

The Republican leader will present the “Shield of the Americas” initiative at Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort that will also host the G20 Summit in late 2026.

Convened before the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, this conservative summit comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Havana as a result of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

According to the White House, the meeting’s goal is to counter the influence of China in the hemisphere and address security, irregular migration, and organized crime in Latin America.

Trump’s summit will include Javier Milei (Argentina), Rodrigo Paz (Bolivia), Rodrigo Chaves (Costa Rica), Luis Abinader (Dominican Republic), Daniel Noboa (Ecuador), Nayib Bukele (El Salvador), Irfaan Ali (Guyana), Nasry Asfura (Honduras), Jose Mulino (Panama), Santiago Peña (Paraguay), and Kamla Persad-Bissessar (Trinidad and Tobago).

Also attending will be Jose Antonio Kast, who next Wednesday will assume office as president of Chile after winning the runoff election in December.

A Parallel Forum to The Summit of The Americas
All indications suggest the Doral Miami meeting brings together Latin American countries that the United States can easily pressure to support its geopolitical projects.

For that reason, the Trump administration did not invite progressive presidents such as Lula da Silva (Brazil), Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia).

The meeting is a kind of parallel forum to the Summit of the Americas, the gathering of heads of state organized by the Organization of American States (OAS) since 1994.

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Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America Program at the Stimson Center, considers it a mistake to exclude Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, since “all three are highly relevant because of their challenges with organized crime and the advanced capabilities of their security forces.”

Imposing an ideological code on the forum “means creating a group that will constantly change after every election,” he pointed out.

Trump has not concealed his desire to promote a rightward shift in Latin America and has actively intervened in elections in countries such as Honduras and Argentina.

The Trump Doctrine for Latin America
The U.S. interventionist policy is reflected in the current U.S. National Security Strategy, which aims to turn the region into a sphere of influence for Washington.

It is an update of the so-called Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed in 1823 under the slogan “America for the Americans.”

The strategy has been driven by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who during his career in the Senate defended a hard line toward Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

Under that pretext, the Republican leader spent weeks promoting a bombing campaign against small boats in the Caribbean Sea that he accused of transporting drugs.

Following the U.S. military operation on Venezuelan territory, Washington set its sights on Cuba and threatened to impose tariffs on any country that supplies it with oil, further worsening the island’s economic and energy crisis.

Trump announced negotiations with Havana and last week suggested a possible “friendly takeover of Cuba,” but attention shifted to the Middle East when the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran broke out on Feb. 28.

(Telesur)