“These funds will prevent adversaries from establishing strategic footholds in our hemisphere.” That was the State Department’s explanation on Tuesday for a $52 million shuffle in military aid, and the adversary it had in mind appeared to be China, whose presence in Latin America has been growing.
The department told Congress it intends to move Foreign Military Financing out of Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq and into Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, according to El País. The program hands recipient governments U.S. money to buy American defense equipment, services and military training. The department said the new money would go toward fighting “narco-terrorism,” helping secure the Panama Canal and weaning the four countries off military supplies from U.S. adversaries.
A hemisphere-first map
The timing is not subtle. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had just returned from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, where he pushed for wider intelligence-sharing and coordinated security operations under the U.S.-led Shield of the Americas initiative. Peru and Colombia signed on during the trip. Ecuador was already inside the framework, and so is Panama.
In Lima on Sept. 10, Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori announced her country’s entry, saying membership would get intelligence to Peru faster and let it hit criminal organizations harder. Standing beside Rubio, Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella said security cooperation, military modernization and the fight against transnational crime would be his priorities, according to the Colombian presidency. Rubio told that joint appearance the coalition was already becoming operational.
The Cuba question
Strategically, the calculus runs through Havana as well. Washington is stepping up pressure on Cuba, and all four recipients belong to a coalition Cuba attacked sharply when it was created. The State Department has not said the $52 million is aimed at the island.
Trump introduced Shield of the Americas at a March 7 summit in Florida. There he said Cuba was in its “last moments” under its present political system and would have “a great new life,” Diario de Cuba reported. He also said he and Rubio were negotiating with Cuban authorities, a description Havana disputed. President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the coalition “reactionary and neocolonial.” Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described it as a “grave threat” to regional peace.
The money may also fill a hole. Soon after the launch, Chatham House observed that the initiative had no dedicated resources for intelligence-sharing, joint exercises or intercepting illicit cross-border flows. With all four recipients already in the coalition, the transfer could begin to close that gap. Washington has not said the funds will be used to stop Cuban vessels, restrict Cuban intelligence activity or disrupt the island’s programs abroad.
