Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico and distinguished scholar, comments on Trump’s plans to build the wall, deport undocumented immigrants, and “rip up” the North American Free Trade Agreement. Recommends a tough response by Mexico to every one of these.
Trump’s election calls attention to Latin America’s extensive experience with populism. Article argues: “For Latin American scholars the trends are particularly worrisome. We have seen this movie before, and it rarely ends well. In that regard, Latin America is a powerful and often sad demonstration of the anti-institutional pitfalls of populism.” Author points out the different institutional checks to populism in the US and those in Latin American countries.
What does Trump augur for Latin America? While the Trump team has said very little about Latin America, Trump’s comments on Mexico have had serious reverberations for that country’s economy, such as lowering the value of the peso. Other than possibly Cuba, the rest of the Americas will be unaffected. Missing from the article is the impact on the US economy of protectionism. For example, if the Mexican peso is cheaper, US exports to Mexico will be more expensive. This will reduce jobs in the US.
Geopolitics waits for no man, not even the United States’ president-elect. Little more than a week after Donald Trump’s victory, Xi Jinping, president of the world’s second largest economy, set off for Latin America—his third trip there since 2013—clutching a sheaf of trade deals. They were proposed long before the change of government in Washington. But at a time when the image of the big, bad yanqui seems to be making a comeback, Mr Xi may find himself with an opportunity to boost Chinese influence in the American backyard.
