The Americas | Latin America First

Donald Trump turns an angry gaze south

Relations with Central America are likely to worsen

Deportation flights have begun.
Photograph: US Government
|BOGOTÁ, PANAMA CITY AND WASHINGTON, DC

THE TRADE war between the United States and Colombia on January 26th was over within a day—about the same time it took Teddy Roosevelt’s gunboats to engineer the secession of Panama from Colombia in 1903 as the prelude to digging the Panama Canal. Now, as then, force won. Colombia stopped resisting President Donald Trump’s deportation of its unwanted nationals. But America First bullying may yet provoke a backlash.

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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Donald Trump glares south”

From the February 1st 2025 edition

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