The Trump Administration in Latin America: Continuity and Change

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.11.1.0013
• Pages: 13-23
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019
• Author: Carlos Oliva Campos,Gary Prevost
• Subject Matter: Trump,John Bolton,foreign policy,Cuba,Venezuela

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ACADEMIC ARTICLE

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IN LATIN

AMERICA: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

Carlos Oliva Campos1

University of Havana, Cuba

Gary Prevost2

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, USA

Abstract

Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election without a clearly articulated

policy for either Cuba or the Latin American/Caribbean region as a whole. Two years

into that presidency, this article seeks to describe that policy and place it within

Trump’s wider foreign policy. The article deconstructs the worldview of ‘America First’

as lying within the perspective of the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party,

epitomised by John Bolton, the current National Security Advisor. The implications of

that worldview for Cuba and Latin America make for a reversal of Obama’s opening

to Cuba, a hardline on immigration from Mexico and Central America, and greater

pressure for regime change in both Venezuela and Nicaragua. Also analysed is the

resonance of Trump’s policies with the recent turn to the political right in Latin

America, notably in Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia.

Keywords: Trump, John Bolton, foreign policy, Cuba, Venezuela

1 Carlos Oliva Campos is an Associate Professor of History at the University of

Havana. He is the author and co-editor of numerous scholarly books including Pan

Americanism and Neo Pan Americanism: The View from Latin America, The Bush

Doctrine and Latin America and Cuban-Latin American Relations in a Changing

Hemisphere.

2 Gary Prevost is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Latin American Studies at

the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University (USA) and Research Associate at

Nelson Mandela University (South Africa). He is the author and editor of numerous