‘Gunboat diplomacy on steroids’: US signs security deals across Latin America | US military
The Trump administration is rapidly expanding US military presence across Latin America and the Caribbean through security agreements signed with Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, and Panama over recent weeks. These deals authorize US troop deployments, airport access, radar installations, and armed operations under the stated pretext of a “war on drugs,” while simultaneously conducting a four-month military campaign against Venezuela that includes oil tanker blockades, vessel seizures, and airstrikes that have killed over 100 people across the Caribbean and Pacific.
Analysts characterize the strategy as establishing operational infrastructure for a potential larger offensive against Venezuela and potentially other nations including Colombia and Cuba. Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, stated that constructing a network of locations across the region would be necessary for sustaining any expanded military operation, and Jorge Heine, former Chilean ambassador and Boston University researcher, directly contradicted the drug-war rationale by noting that Paraguay and Venezuela are not major drug production or distribution centers, indicating the actions align with Trump’s recently released national security strategy document calling for expanded US military presence in the region.
The Trump administration has reframed the Monroe Doctrine as a “Trump Corollary” explicitly calling for military expansion in Latin America, reversing historical patterns of US restraint. Ecuador rejected foreign military bases in a referendum, yet the US secured temporary air force troop deployment anyway; Peru’s congress authorized armed US military and intelligence operations following White House pressure; and Trinidad and Tobago’s installation of US radar prompted Venezuela’s interior minister to threaten retaliation and the regime to terminate fossil gas supply agreements with the Caribbean nation.
John Walsh, director for drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, described the strategy as “gunboat diplomacy on steroids,” designed to reward compliant allies while threatening nations that resist Trump administration objectives. Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro issued an urgent letter to regional leaders warning that US escalation “threatens to destabilise the entire region,” yet his diplomatic isolation—having had almost no contact with other presidents following his disputed 2024 reelection—limits his ability to mobilize regional opposition, while Trump has explicitly threatened Colombia’s leftwing president Gustavo Petro as a potential next target.
The military buildup leverages existing US infrastructure including bases in Puerto Rico, Honduras, and Cuba, alongside surveillance hubs at airports in El Salvador, Aruba, and Curaçao. For nations refusing to align with the Trump administration, Walsh explained that the visible US military presence nearby functions as an implicit threat designed to ensure compliance with American interests.