In the weeks before taking office, Donald J. Trump repeatedly promised to carry out the largest deportations in US history and to militarize the border. All while his transition team responded demands from regional leaders to meet on the results of the promised actions.
He has targeted countries such as Mexico, alleging that migrants are flooding the US with fentanyl and threatening to impose devastating tariffs. He also zeroed in on Panama, saying repeatedly that the country had allowed China to take control, forcing the United States to intervene and take back the Panama Canal.
So, the typical congratulatory messages during Mr. Trump's inauguration in Washington on Monday were sharply deviated from the usual diplomatic norms by some of the Latin American leaders.
“There is no reason for Mexico to hang its head or feel inferior. We are a big country, we are a cultural power,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at the daily morning press conference. “Our relations with the United States will be equal.”
He also tried to convince undocumented Mexicans living in the United States that they could face removal. “Mexicans are very important to the U.S. economy, and the Trump administration knows that,” Ms. Sheinbaum said. “To our fellow men and women: You are not alone and you must remain calm.”
Mexico has the largest number of undocumented immigrants in the United States, at nearly four million Mexicans living there without permission from 2022According to the Pew Research Center.
Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente also said Monday that Mexico would not support a pending move to restore the policy known as the stay-in-Mexico policy, which forced migrants who applied for asylum during Trump's first presidency to wait in Mexico until then. their hearings in immigration court. The policy was a boon to drug cartel members who targeted asylum seekers for extortion, kidnapping and extortion. human rights groups say.
“Yes, they can do it; it is their right,” Mr. de la Fuente said of the United States. But while allowing “some deals” to be reached, he noted that Mexico has no legal obligation to process migrants' asylum claims to the United States.
Hours later, in a message on social media, Ms. Sheinbaum congratulated Mr. Trump. “As neighbors and trading partners, dialogue, respect and cooperation will always be the hallmark of our relationship,” he wrote.
But during a marathon session on signing executive orders, Mr Trump said he would do so on Monday It imposed a 25 percent tariff on Mexico and Canada on February 1, accused both countries of allowing undocumented immigrants and fentanyl into the United States, as they have done in the past. Ms. Scheinbaum and some officials in her administration have previously said Mexico had to strike back At their own rates in the US.
Following Mr. Trump's inauguration, Honduran President Xiomara Castro, who warned earlier this month If Mr. Trump carries out mass deportations, he has contented himself with sending a polite message that he would be reinstated, saying he was prepared to withdraw the U.S. military from the country.
But Tony García, the country's deputy foreign minister, said in a phone interview Monday afternoon that his country and several of its neighbors do not plan to accept large numbers of flights carrying deportees without discussing the process with the incoming administration.
“They cannot be done unilaterally,” he said, mass deportations.
Mr. García said that while there are currently no plans to suspend Honduras' military agreement with the United States that allows the United States to operate from a large military base, the Castro administration is still considering it as a potential option, so “we are being taken more seriously. .”
The foreign ministers of several countries, including Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela, met in Mexico City last week to discuss their response to the Trump administration. According to Mr. Garcia, the countries agreed that they “will not allow the forced deportation of anyone. If a country says that no one can enter, no plane can land.”
Honduras is home to an estimated 525,000 unauthorized immigrants in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center. Mr. García said he had received flights carrying more than half a million deportees from the United States in the past decade. According to him, the country plans to continue such flights, but both governments should first prepare a plan.
“We are in favor of coordination,” he said. “Not submission.”
His words were the sharpest words for the new president.
in Panama, the target of Mr. Trump's recent criticismincluding false claims that China controls the Panama Canal and that the United States should take it back, President Jose Raul Mulino strongly denied the president's repeated claims during his inaugural address.
“The canal is and always will be owned by Panama, and its administration will continue to be under Panamanian control,” Mr. Mulino said. X said in a statement.
However, later in the day, the Panamanian comptroller's office announced that auditors were visiting the county's maritime offices to begin an audit of the Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hutchison Ports Holding. The company is the main port operator and the country's main port concessionaire. It is also part of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings.
“The goal of this comprehensive audit is to ensure efficient and transparent use of public resources,” the comptroller's office said he said.
Mr. Trump's opening speech – he said he would “defeat a disastrous invasion of our country” – He frequently targeted the region, as did many of the executive orders he signed Monday night.
But some leaders have reaffirmed their intention to work with the new president and support his policy goals.
Cindy Portal, a senior official at Salvador's foreign ministry, said in a radio interview that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who has close ties to Mr. Trump and his family, was invited to the inauguration but did not attend. Instead, the country was represented by its ambassador to the United States.
Ms. Portal did not mention plans to again roll back the deportation of Salvadorans, who make up one of the largest groups of illegal immigrants in the country. In 2022, 750,000 illegal immigrants lived in the United States in El Salvador. Pew Research Center.
Instead, Ms. Portal highlighted the Bukele administration's ties to both Mr. Trump's son and Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump's secretary of state, who was confirmed Monday night.
“Our message to Salvadorans as the Salvadoran government is to wait and not get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “President Trump has been outspoken about turning back the bad guys who came in to destroy.”
According to him, if the Salvadorans have not committed a crime in the United States, they have nothing to fear.
Economically isolated by the US sanctions, the countries of the region reacted differently to Mr. Trump's return to power and his many orders. Nicaragua's government remained silent, while Venezuela's interior minister wished Mr Trump “the best”.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel condemned the “false designation of Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism.” a message on social media. “The result of the extreme economic blockade measures implemented by Trump has led to famine among our people and a significant increase in the flow of migration from Cuba to the United States,” the statement said.
However, in turn, countries that are close trading partners of the United States also saw their economies in danger. As of late Monday, Mexican leaders had yet to respond to Mr. Trump's threat of tariffs. But Canada's Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc did.
“Our country is fully prepared to respond to any of these scenarios,” Mr. LeBlanc said. “We still continue to believe it will be a mistake.”
Participated in the report Simon Romero, James Wagner and Yubelka Mendoza from Mexico City; Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Toronto; Genevieve Glatsky From Bogotá, Colombia; Mary Trini Zea from the city of Panama; Gabriel Labrador from San Salvador, El Salvador; and Joan Suazo From Tegucigalpa, Honduras.