A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States holds an emergency meeting in Honduras on Thursday. The meeting was called after a rhetorical battle over immigration played out on social media over the weekend between President Trump and the president of Colombia. The White House claimed victory after Colombia's leader first balked at accepting flights of deported migrants from the U.S. and then was confronted with threats of tariffs and visa restrictions. Colombia ultimately backed down, and the Trump administration held up the episode as a warning to other nations in the region.
Now, to discuss all this, we've called up Maria Fernanda Bozmoski. She's the Central America lead at the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. Maria, so what did you make of what happened between the presidents of the United States and Colombia? Why do you think Colombia eventually had to kind of back down?
MARIA FERNANDA BOZMOSKI: Thanks for having me. What we saw this weekend is just a prelude of what we can expect to continue seeing. It was a ping-pong of tweets, a diplomatic spat. And I think that the Trump administration is betting on a coercion strategy that will yield results in the short term but is not sustainable in the long term. Latin America and the Caribbean countries have other options other than the United States, and so the administration has to really balance out those sticks and carrot approach.
MART脥NEZ: What other options? I mean, I would always imagine that many Latin American countries rely a lot on their diplomatic ties with the United States. So what other options would they have?
BOZMOSKI: A lot of Latin American, Caribbean countries have very strong commercial, economic and diplomatic ties with China. As this was unfolding on Sunday, China and Russia were on the sidelines watching this and making moves. The Chinese ambassador in Colombia was tweeting about how great the relationship is. So the strategy has worked. Colombia backed down after disallowing the migrant planes from coming to Colombia. But again, this is not a long-term strategy, and the region really needs to start seeing the United States as a reliable economic, commercial partner.
MART脥NEZ: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that, quote, "it's always important to keep a cool head" when dealing with Trump's threats. Did Colombian President Gustavo Petro just not do that well enough?
BOZMOSKI: I think that these countries are in difficult situations, trying to navigate. For many of them, this is the first time that their - their first rodeo with President Trump. And I think that other countries are taking note. They're preparing for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to come down to five countries later in the week. And they're just seeing how to approach this administration - what works, what doesn't work.
MART脥NEZ: Yeah, he's going to be in Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Dominican Republic this week. What do you expect to come out of these meetings?
BOZMOSKI: Well, I expect migration to be top of the agenda. Security issues will be top, as well, of the agenda, but also commercial ties and how to deepen the commercial ties that the United States has with these countries. Remember that in Central America, the United States is the top trading partner for most of these countries, which is different than Colombia, for example, South America. Actually, Colombia does have the United States as the top trading partner, but the majority of South America has China. So those will be the issues that will be top of the agenda. Marco Rubio is there to keep pushing the State Department's agenda, which is a safer, stronger, more prosperous America. And that has to happen with a strong Western hemisphere, with allies and partners.
MART脥NEZ: And one more thing really quick - that meeting that I talked about earlier - the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, that emergency summit happening on Thursday, what do you expect to come out of that? And can these countries somehow have some kind of stand that they might take against Trump, if that's what they want to do?
BOZMOSKI: The Latin America CELAC Forum is a nonbinding organization. They'll come out with a statement, but there's nothing much beyond that. They're going to come out with a statement on migration, climate change, Latin American and Caribbean unity in the current context.
MART脥NEZ: All right, that's Maria Fernanda Bozmoski. She is the Central America lead at the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. Thank you very much.
BOZMOSKI: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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