Biden ends with only two more visits to Latin America than Trump

Joe Biden came into office with an electoral commitment to reverse almost everything his predecessor had done. Once in the White House, however, he did not quite act in that direction. Certainly not in the case of Latin America: he improved on Trump's ways, but maintained most of his policies, although softening his hand at some point in relation to Venezuela and, in his last days, Cuba. If Trump was absent from the region -he only visited one country, compared to the eight, some of them repeated, visited by George Bush and Barack Obama in his first term-, Biden was no more solicitous and only unpacked Trump's only visit when the Democrats had already lost the elections.

The foreign trips made by U.S. presidents throughout their term of office are a numerical confirmation of their political and economic interest in other international actors and the different regions of the world. Latin America is generally not a priority neighborhood for Washington. While Mexico and Central America are involved in issues of concern to the United States, the region as a whole occupies little of the White House's attention. The latter has been notorious in the last two presidencies.

During his first term, George W. Bush made several trips to the region, visiting eight countries and emphasizing his interest in strengthening free trade and security. In his first term, Obama also made eight visits to Latin America and focused on multilateralism and equality attention in hemispheric relations. However, his approach was less proactive compared to Bush. In contrast, Trump made only one trip to the region, in a presidency marked by a review of his predecessor's achievements. Finally, Biden's policies were not a reversal, but a partial continuity of what was established by Trump; Biden was in the end in three countries, although as in the case of Trump they were multilateral appointments that could have occurred in another part of the world.

Trump now, in his second term, has the opportunity to establish a closer relationship with the rest of the hemisphere, although his aggressive statements towards Canada, Mexico and Panama do not herald a particularly attuned relationship. In any case, if he makes more trips to Latin America, when his eight years in office are counted, he will hardly come close to Bush's total of 17 visits to countries in the region and Obama's 16.

The following is a comparison of the trips made to Latin America by the U.S. presidents who have been in the White House so far this century. Special attention is paid to the first term, in order to make the comparison more comparable, given that Biden and Trump have only been president for four years.

Bush: Promoting political and economic liberalization

visit On the eve of his first overseas visit to Mexico in February 2001, President George W. Bush promised to usher in a 'Century of the Americas'. However, 9/11 made this promise fade away, relegating the region to the back burner of U.S. foreign policy priorities. Since then, Washington's approach in Latin America has focused on promote security, free trade and democracy.

U.S. economic policy toward the region revolved around the signature of bilateral and regional free trade agreements to keep Latin America open to U.S. trade and capital. Thus, in 2002, Bush met with President Fox to discuss the functioning of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement); that year he also traveled to Peru, where he met with his counterparts from Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador to renew the ATPA (agreement for Andean Preferential Trade). Days later, he visited El Salvador together with other Central American presidents to promote CAFTA (agreement Central American Free Trade Agreement).

In 2004, Bush visited Colombia, following the implementation of Plan Colombia, conceived in 1999. This initiative sought to combat drug trafficking and strengthen security after conceiving regional terrorism as a national threat. Two other visits to Latin America were made in the context of APEC, the Asia-Pacific summit. During his first term, Bush visited Europe and Asia on 28 and 9 occasions, respectively, showing greater interest in other regions.

Obama: Less Accent and a Twist on Cuba

Barack Obama looked a little less to Latin America than his predecessor, although the issue of visits was similar. While Bush was committed to free trade agreements, Obama, reluctant to new FTAs, had no alternative activity to get involved in the region.

Like Bush, Obama's first trip to Latin America was to Mexico in April 2009, where he met with President Calderón. That month he also attended the V Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, where he expressed his commitment to an equal attention between the U.S. and its neighbors and his commitment to multilateralism.

In keeping with this multilateral commitment, Obama attended the next hemispheric summit - the VI Summit of the Americas, held in Colombia in 2012 - to discuss Economics and security issues. He also visited Mexico on two other occasions, in 2009 for the North American Leaders Summit, and in 2012 for the G-20 meeting . In addition to the meeting with Calderon, Obama also met with his counterparts in Brazil, Chile and El Salvador on a tour in 2011.

However, Washington was marginalized with the creation of CELAC, which brings together all the countries of the Western Hemisphere except the United States and Canada, and to some extent with Unasur, which introduced its own dynamics in South America apart from the rest of the continent. This coincided with a growing interest in Asia and the emergence of China, which began to displace the USA as the main trading partner of some countries partner .

However, the little interest shown towards the hemisphere contrasts with the outstanding bequest of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2015, already in his second term.

Trump: Revisionism

Under the slogan 'America First', Trump pursued a policy that was less collaborative and more focused on direct US interests. Thus, Trump's program was based on a revisionism of the policies implemented by Obama. On the one hand, he prioritized immigration issues, such as the construction of a border wall with Mexico, and protectionism, trying to reduce the trade deficit with Mexico by renegotiating NAFTA.

On the other hand, it increased pressure on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, seeking government changes. Thus, he imposed new sanctions on Nicolás Maduro's regime in 2017 and reversed Obama's policy toward Cuba, reinstating some trade and travel restrictions; he later tightened sanctions on the Caribbean island.

That greater distance from the region was reflected in his travels. Trump only traveled once south of the Rio Bravo, and that was to attend in Argentina in 2018 to a G-20 summit. There he took the opportunity to sign the T-MEC, the renewed free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. He did not attend, on the other hand, the VIII Summit of the Americas, held that same year in Peru.

Trump compensated for his lack of direct presence in the region with bilateral meetings with Latin American leaders who came to the US, with whom he met on 21 occasions, both in Washington and at his residency program in Mar-a-Lago. The main focus of the meetings was the economic development and the reinforcement of security, in addition to the economic and political crisis in Venezuela.

Biden: Only partial review of revisionism

From Joe Biden, Democratic president, a review of Trump's policies and a reversal to reedit the relationship between the US and Latin America that existed during Obama's term was expected, but it did not happen.

Indeed, just after taking office position in 2021, Biden suspended construction of new sections of the wall along the border with Mexico. However, he maintained most of the sanctions imposed by Trump on Cuba and Venezuela. Eventually, in 2023, his Administration suspended most of the sanctions against Venezuela's oil and gold industries, but due to the Maduro government's continued repression and the failure of Barbados' agreement to hold free elections the bulk of the sanctions were reintroduced. As for Cuba, only in his last days in the White House did Biden opt to soften the pressure, removing the island from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism (Obama had taken it off, and Trump had also reintroduced it when he was already saying goodbye to position).

Moreover, Biden signed an executive order to deport certain asylum seekers, a measure that, along with Mexico's commitment to increase immigrant detentions, helped significantly reduce illegal crossings since the end of 2023, after an unprecedented boom in migrant arrivals at the border.

Until near the end of his term, Biden had only traveled once to Latin America. In 2023 he was in Mexico for attend to the North American Leaders Summit. Only when he was starting to pack up his things from the White House, after the election won by Trump, did Biden return to the region. These were also multilateral meetings, and not related to Latin America: he was in Peru for attend to APEC and the next day he went to Brazil, where he participated in the G-20.

Unlike Trump, Biden did attend a Summit of the Americas, although this one took place in Los Angeles in 2022. That meeting was boycotted by some leaders, protesting the non-invitation of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Biden sponsored the creation of a new regional forum, the Alliance for the Economic Prosperity of the Americas (APEA), bringing together various leaders at the White House, but it was an initiative with little momentum and ambition.

Trump 2.0

In conclusion, the patterns of visits and policies toward Latin America by U.S. presidents show that, although interest in security and trade has been maintained, the emphasis has been different in each presidency. However, in all of them, attention to the region has tended to be secondary to other strategic areas.

As for Trump's second term, a more nationalistic and confrontational policy is to be expected. He is expected to focus on immigration regulation, economic pressure on Venezuela and Cuba, and protectionism.