Nayib Bukele at Shield of the Americas meeting

 

Nayib Bukele was one of the Latin American leaders who accepted Donald Trump’s invitation to attend an inaugural meeting of the “Shield of the Americas” at the Trump-owned Doral golf course in Miami.  It was a convening of a dozen politically-aligned, conservative led countries in the Americas, saying they would work together to combat drug trafficking.

Trump has had a focus on drug cartels and gangs in Latin America as a justification for many of his actions in the region including the capture of Maduro in Venezuela, blowing boats out of the water off the coast of South America, and closing US borders to asylum seekers. 

Trump want his allies in the region to permit the US military, and their own militaries, to act freely in pursuit of those who get labelled narco-terrorists Al Jazeera reported:

But as he signed a declaration to cement that commitment, Trump signalled that it came with the expectation that cartels would not be confronted with law enforcement action, but instead military might.

“ The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our military. So we have to use our military. You have to use your military,” Trump told the audience of Latin American leaders.

“You have some great police, but they threaten your police. They scare your police. You’re going to use your military.”

We haven’t seen any public comments by Bukele regarding the drug-trafficking rationales espoused by Trump, but use of the military for domestic policing is already a hallmark of the Bukele regime. The Salvadoran navy makes regular seizures of drug boats in the Pacific, including a seizure of 6.6 tons of cocaine in February.    (The navy does not blow those boats out of the water when making the seizures).

Bukele also had meetings on the sidelines in Florida with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trump advisor Stephen Miller.  Bukele’s office published on X this highly produced video of his trip to Doral.

The meeting in Florida had also been billed in advance as a meeting to counter China’s influence in the region, which Trump now counts as the zone of influence of the US under his “Donroe Doctrine.”   Bukele has spent his time in office navigating between China and the US.  China has built some of his showpiece projects such as the new national library, an amusement park and tourism pier, and an under-construction $100 million soccer stadium. On the other hand, Bukele clearly enjoys being the favorite Latin American politician of the MAGA movement around Trump.  As described in  El Pais English:

Like a chameleon, the president has changed his tune more for convenience than ideology, analysts say. “Bukele, like all Latin American presidents, is trying to navigate difficult times: on the one hand, he needs to maintain trade, political, and security relations with the United States, and on the other, with China, a potential investor,” says Margaret Myers, senior advisor at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank.

The Shield of the Americas is not the only Trump foreign policy initiative supported by El Salvador.  The country has also joined Trump’s so-called Board of Peace.  Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill was the representative of the country at the inaugural meeting of that body.   Beyond membership of the Board, where Trump presides for life, it is not clear what, if anything El Salvador contributes to the entity beyond showing it is a loyal ally of Washington. 

An article in the Intercept did highlight how all of the members of the Board of Peace have been singled out in the past for human rights abuses in their country.

The Bukele government also signed a trade deal with the US to remove Trump’s 10% Liberation Day tariffs, in return for giving US companies access to Salvadoran markets including access to critical minerals in the country.  Subsequently the US Supreme Court ruled that those Liberation Day tariffs had been illegal, but Trump then slapped new tariffs on the globe.