In the end, President Trump’s first confrontation with one of the closest allies of the United States in Latin America was only about 12 hours, which would result in the Colombian military flight to return illegal immigrants to result in a complete retreat of Mr. Trump’s threat.
It wasn’t much competition. Colombia depends on the United States more than a quarter of its exports. And while the specifics of the dispute are likely to be forgotten quickly, Mr. Trump’s rapid fire will be stored by the crushing of tariffs and the rapid surrender by President Gustavo Petro is likely to encourage Mr. Trump when he is considering using the same weapon against new targets.
There’s little secrets about who has in mind: Denmark, whose Prime Minister told him Greenland, was not for sale during a Heated conversation conversation Almost two weeks ago and Panama, where Foreign Minister Marco Rubio is supposed to land in a few days to demand to return control over the Panama Canal to the United States – the country that built it 120 years ago.
Welcome to the age of what Fred Kempe, President of the Atlantic Council, Washington Think Tank, characterized as an era of “greater mercantilism, smaller free trade and more discharge”.
Sunday’s diplomatic debacle with Colombia had elements of all three. However, it was also instructive how to decide in the White House of Trump in the White House abroad: there were no political documents or meetings in a situation that would consider possibilities or talk about a quiet mission that would de-espolt of tension with the ally whose cooperation America He needs various problems. This would be, as a dispute over the return of the Colombians would be deported in the regular Presidency, because they were illegally in the United States, whether the President was a democrat or a Republican.
In this case, there was perhaps no internal debates: Colombia is not China, Russia, nor North Korea and Iran, all countries that have ways to hit the United States or its interests. So it was an easy goal-a relatively free place for Mr. Trump to point out how he imagines the use of American power.
In this case, there was no such process – and no time for such a process. First, it developed on the social media, with the angry post of Mr. Petrho, who said that the United States would not allow a military aircraft to land in his country, which bears set Colombian returnees. “I can’t get migrants to stay in a country that doesn’t want them,” Mr. Petro wrote, “but if this country sends them back, it should be with dignity and respect for them and for our country.”
Mr. Trump shot back to the truth of Social – where he states a statement before the White House’s press office releases them (which caught up with quoting the truth of social contributions) – he demanded that Mr. Petro would get out of the way or watch his economy crushed. He promised to immediately store 25 percent of tariffs on Colombian exports, which would apparently affect raw oil, coal and coffee. The tariffs would double if Mr. Petro did not include this matter during the week, Mr. Trump said. For a good level, the Colombian President described the “socialist” that Mr. Petro would freely admit.
Furthermore, it became fascinating: Mr. Petro fought briefly and announced his own tariffs on American imports and accused Mr. Trump of trying to overthrow his democratically elected government. “You don’t like our freedom, well,” Mr. Petro wrote. “I didn’t get my hands with white enslavers.”
Of course there was a lot of history. Twenty -twenty years ago, the United States supported the Panama Revolution against Colombia because it knew it would speed up the way of building a canal. It’s an era, Mr. Trump still talks about it.
Probably Mr. Petro looked at his chances of coming out at this conflict and decided to be zero. And he quickly decided that his best course was to get Mr. Trump out of the way. Military flights could be renewed, its Foreign Ministry announced. There were more words about requesting that passengers were treated with dignity, but apparently it wasn’t enforceable. The United States suspended an increase in the tariff before they occurred, and Mr. Rubio said that Visa restrictions would remain until the aircraft actually land.
So when the day ended, it didn’t change much. Mr. Petro averted several flights, Mr. Trump threatened retaliation, Mr. Petro folded and the status quo largely continued.
But to anyone who is trying to come to the next moves by Trump’s administration, there were many indicators in this morning about where things could go.
Start with Denmark, whose Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, and Mr. Trump and Mr. Trump was full of aggressive conversation just five days before he was inaugurated. After heard his threat that he could take advantage of military or economic forced to get to Greenland and Panama’s canal, it opened with the notions of how the United States could expand their existing military presence in Greenland – there is a cosmic power base – And help use its considerable mineral resources. Mr. Trump was not interested in cooperation; He wanted control, maybe ownership, and seemed to be happy to encourage the Greenland movement to seek independence from Denmark to get there.
It was a remarkable exchange. After all, Denmark is a NATO ally, and in the last month Mr. Trump has spoken about the use of all elements of American power – economic and military – to achieve the goal to force her to give up the territory. If there was an example of how Mr. Trump is not interested in maintaining the “order -based order” after World War II and replacing the supervisor policy, it was it.
Denmark “would be eager to negotiate with Americans about the rights, resources development, coordination of polar security and anything else that Trump’s administration wanted,” wrote Ian Bremmer on Monday morning. “Now it is more likely that Greenland will vote for independence in the upcoming referendum, creating its own security agreement with Americans, critically undermining US relations with Denmark and the Nordic block.”
And then there is Panama, preparing for the acceptance of Mr. Rubio. The first visit to the Foreign Minister is usually about the confirmation of alliances and is looking forward to years of cooperation. Mr. Rubio’s arrival is likely to include some of it – and the request to be eliminated by Panama Canal and the arrangement returned to what Theodore Roosevelt meant in 1903: American control.
