"The US president got what he wanted with Colombia. But his strategies risk alienating allies and helping China." This is what the website wrote Politico, which analyzes the first major diplomatic clash of the new era Trump, the one with the Colombia on repatriation of migrants and the consequent threats of tariffs, pointed out that the tycoon's version 2.0, more aggressive than the first, may seem to be a winner in the short term but runs the risk of backfiring on him, favoring his Chinese rival. After Colombia, the White House has set its sights on neighboring Mexico and Canada, which have been granted time before applying the new rates (always behind blackmail on migration policies), while an intense tug of war is announced with the European Union, increasingly divided and orphaned by the Franco-German leadership. But it is precisely that of Latin America that is the most current and significant case, given that theEU-Mercosur agreement struggling to take off and that Beijing has long since extended its tentacles to the continent that was once under the exclusive influence of the United States. And that Trump could definitively deliver into the arms of the "enemy".
How Latin America Turned Its Back on the US and Came Closer to China
In 2000, every single country in theLatin america, from Mexico down, had in the star-spangled power its first and undisputed commercial partner. In 2024, in addition to Central America, only Ecuador, Guyana and precisely Colombia, which is also the only country in the area together with Brazil e Paraguay not having yet joined the Belt and Road Initiative, the so-called new Silk Road, that is, the strategic partnership agreement with China. Ecuador has signed it, while Brazil and Paraguay do not need it, given that the Portuguese-speaking country is firmly the Dragon's first commercial partner, to which it allocates its numerous agri-food raw materials of which it is the world's largest producer (coffee, soy, sugar, beef, etc.) in exchange for finished products e investments in infrastructure. Ten years ago, the countries in the world that were part of the Belt and Road Initiative were less than fifty, today instead they are about 150 (if we also count unrecognized states such as Palestine), of which 22 are from Latin America and the Caribbean, 8 from the G20 and 17 from the European Union, mostly from Eastern Europe and Portugal. A few years ago, Italy had also joined but then left, while historic allies of the USA such as Panama e New Zealand, as well as the entire Africa and the Medium Nibujon.
BRICS ON THE ATTACK: China Challenges the US in South America
In this scenario, any wrong move by the Euro-Atlantic axis, therefore Donald Trump, can further shift the geopolitical balance towards the East: this is also demonstrated by the growth and ambitions of the Brics, which from a former group of five emerging countries has now become a extended club and alternative to the West, which represents 40% of global GDP and to which countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia already belong, while Cuba, Turkey and Indonesia are about to join (which in 2045 will become the fourth largest economy in the world, behind the US, China and India). The BRICS are even about to adopt a common currency to break away from dependence on the dollar, and also for this reason the American president has announced retaliation. "The result - commented the former Chilean ambassador to China on Politico Jorge Heine – is that China has prospects of increasingly stronger ties with South America”. “While tensions between Washington and Bogota were simmering – he wrote again Politico -, the Chinese ambassador to Colombia wrote in X that bilateral relations between the two countries are at their best in 45 years. The agreement has accelerated since the president is the socialist Gustavo Petro, elected in 2022, with the result that he United States remain for now by far the first destination for Colombian exports, worth $18 billion, but now China is second with 2,5 billion, and the overall value of trade between the two countries exceeds 20 billion dollars.
Colombia: China Takes Control of Energy and Telecommunications
Beijing, as can already be seen in the rest of Latin America (in Peru it even built a port from scratch), is not just any partner, but a strategic one. In particular, in Colombia la China is becoming an increasingly popular source of finance in the sectors ofthe energy,mining, infrastructure and telecommunications. Beijing is in fact filling the gaps in the local economic system by investing in assets of public interest, especially the telecommunications network that in Colombia leaves a good part of the territory uncovered. This is why companies such as Huawei e ZTE, also on the 5G, and China is now the largest technology supplier in the country, with about 35% of the market share according to September 2023 data. During Petro's visit to China last October, when Donald Trump's victory was in the air, agreements were signed new agreements on the exchange of science and technology. But the Asian giant is active on many fronts: drinking water is lacking in most of Colombia, especially in coastal and remote areas, and Beijing is patching up the situation by helping as well Bogota to equip itself with infrastructure port worthy of its commercial potential, as well as of great works such as the long-awaited capital's subway, Trans-Amazon Rail Network and the highway project Mar 2 in Antioch.
China Takes Over Colombia's Financial and Mining Sectors
And again: China, which is also conquering the financial landscape with theopening of bank branches andYuan reserves increase at the disposal of the ally, has purchased important projects mining ed energetic across the country. Most of them belonged to local and Western companies, such as Buriticá's Continental Gold, which Zijin Mining bought for $900 million in 2019, or the numerous Canadian oil companies acquired for billions of dollars and on which fossil fuel projects were launched with Colombia's Ecopetrol. All with the prospect of formally joining the Belt and Road Initiative and of even greater influence, much to Trump's and the West's dismay. "What Trump did with Colombia," he told Politico Inu bird, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations – is a great example of how the United States will lose further ground in Latin America. Because it is a great way for China to say: 'Hey, you want financing? We will help you, because you cannot trust the United States.'” Losing the fast track to Latin America is not a painless fact: significant quantities of commodities food and above all the vast majority of minerals and “critical” raw materials necessary for the energy transition.
