Washington and Latin America

For two centuries, the United States treated Latin America as its backyard. Then China arrived. Between 2013 and 2024, Beijing poured more than $145 billion into Latin American infrastructure, becoming the leading trading partner of most countries in the region. For Washington, this was not just economic competition-it was a strategic defeat. The second Trump administration responded with a new doctrine: the Donroe Doctrine. A deliberate fusion of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and Trump's confrontational style, it declared that the Western Hemisphere was, and must remain, an American hemisphere.This book tells the story of that reconquest. It examines the strategy, the key players, the allies, the adversaries, and the profound risks of a new era of American interventionism. From the diplomatic offensive of Marco Rubio to the creation of the Shield of the Americas, from the war on narcoterrorism to the militarization of the Andes, from the scramble for lithium and oil to the escalating competition with China, this book offers a comprehensive and unflinching analysis of the most consequential geopolitical rivalry of the twenty-first century.
It is a story of power, ambition, and conflict. It is a story about the United States and Latin America. Above all, it is a story about the future of the Western Hemisphere-and the choices that will define it.