While the Donald Trump was traveling on a major tour of Asia that will culminate in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to pacify the US-China trade war, the smell of real war is wafting over Latin America. Venezuela and Colombia have been targeted by the American president with the official goal of dealing with drug cartels, but with moves that are considered incompatible with International Law.

Trump specifically said he doesn’t even need congressional approval to conduct military operations and added: “We’re just going to kill people who bring drugs into our country.”

The CNN network spoke of plans to even bomb targets in Venezuela, while the largest aircraft carrier on the planet, the USS General Ford, was leaving the Mediterranean, setting its bow for the Caribbean. According to the Secretary of Defense, “USS Ford’s mission is to enhance US capabilities to detect, track and interdict illegal actors and activities that undermine the security and well-being of the United States.” The US aircraft carrier, along with three destroyers, is currently in the Mediterranean.

It is expected to take several days for the aircraft carrier and its escort ships to reach South America. The 333-meter-long ship is named after the 38th President of the United States and can accommodate up to 90 warplanes and helicopters, as well as several thousand troops.

It is recalled that the US has in recent weeks carried out air attacks on vessels in the Caribbean waters, on at least 10 occasions, killing 43 people, according to the Agence France-Presse count.

Intense reactions

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in his television-radio message accused the US of “trying to provoke a war, which we will prevent”, he even warned that the country has anti-aircraft missiles to defend itself.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who was sanctioned by Washington on Friday, spoke of mafia-style extortion, stressing that his country is no one’s colony.

The US attitude was criticized by Malaysia, where Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva is currently, who emphasized that such attacks on the territory of other states constitute a gross violation of their national sovereignty. Calls for restraint from UN officials as well. “Deliberate resort to lethal force is permitted only as a last resort when there is an immediate threat to life,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned.

Behind the cartels

Some, however, see beyond the official targeting of the cartels and a more comprehensive effort to demonstrate the power of the USA and Donald Trump personally, as a whole, towards the countries of Latin America.

The fear of communism in South America of the 1970s and 1980s may not prevail today, but for Washington the southern part of the American continent remains central to their role in the world, and there are several troublesome governments there. In addition, the “erosion” of several economies in the region by China’s “commercial and economic expansionism” is causing concern in many American think tanks.

The media in Europe may be focusing primarily on Trump’s tariff war against the EU, Canada and China, but the American president’s pressure on South American governments he “doesn’t like” is suffocating and overt, and not limited to diplomatic and economic sanctions.

Restoration of American hegemony

Behind the systematic connection of drug trafficking and the “threat” of immigration to issues of US national security, is not only a rhetorical “invention” of Trump, but the anxiety to restore American hegemony throughout the continent. The meddling in Brazil’s internal affairs in solidarity with Bolsonaro, the unconditional support for Miley in Argentina, the close “pressure” on the president of Mexico Sheinbaum are some examples of this approach. The personal antipathy towards the “leftist” Gustavo Petro of Colombia also comes from the awareness that without Colombia’s support for the American plans it will be difficult to “hand over” Maduro to neighboring Venezuela.

However, many warn of the unforeseeable consequences that the “militarization” of the confrontation with Latin American governments could bring. Especially when some moves often look like impulsive decisions of the president’s anger, which are not part of an integrated plan for the region, by a planet ruler who has made himself go down in history as a “peacemaker”.

Sources: ARD, RND