By Bruno Sgarzini – Oct 7, 2026While in the second decade of this millennium Washington focused on expelling progressives from power in Latin America, in the third it seems to have concentrated on removing Chinese capital from the strategic branches of the economy in Latin America. The reinforcement of the Monroe Doctrine (“America for the Americans”), with its new stage name, Donroe, dramatizes a series of calibrated and deliberate attempts to block China in key areas of Latin American development.One of the first battles fought by the Trump administration was against the ports at both entrances of the Panama Canal, administered by the Hong Kong consortium CK Hutchison. The original initiative was to expel this conglomerate so that China would not be able to control the main transoceanic passage of the region and to replace it with another led by the investment fund BlackRock and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) through a purchase operation.However, a regulatory body in China abruptly halted the operation. Amid pressures, the Supreme Court of Panama declared the concession unconstitutional in January 2026, and the Panamanian state took control along with the Western port giants Maersk and MSC.China’s response was aggressive: it multiplied the detentions of Panamanian-flagged ships in Chinese ports, which it attributes to maritime security checks, affecting one of the main sources of income for Panama’s Maritime Authority. More than 200 ships left the Panamanian registry between April and June 2026 due to the magnitude of the detentions.Beijing has reportedly asked its state-owned companies to suspend negotiations for new infrastructure projects in Panama, and the Chinese maritime giant Cosco announced the suspension of its services at Balboa, one of the ports affected by the court ruling.For its part, CK Hutchison initiated international arbitration against the Panamanian state in August, claiming more than $1.5 billion in compensations. Its subsidiary in Panama, the Panama Ports Company is involved in another arbitration for more than $2 billion.The case resonates strongly in other parts of Latin America, where the United States is trying to destroy Chinese capital’s ties. One of the greatest pressures is being experienced by Peru since the inauguration of a deep-water megaport in Chancay, managed by Cosco, which provides China with autonomy with respect to ports and bioceanic routes under US influence, such as Panama.Earlier this year, Washington harshly criticized the ruling of a Peruvian court that excluded the port from Peruvian state supervision because it is “private.” In June, the Second Constitutional Chamber of Lima revoked that ruling following an appeal by Peruvian regulatory bodies, and the dispute could reach the Constitutional Court. The US State Department, for its part, revoked the visa of Peruvian judge Juan Carlos Núñez Matos of the First Specialized Constitutional Court of Lima, who had ruled in favor of Cosco Shipping Ports Chancay Peru.The US Southern Command, the Pentagon’s division for Latin America, has claimed, without presenting evidence, that the port could be used as an intelligence base by the People’s Liberation Army of China. To reinforce control of the port, the United States has donated scanners to the Peruvian customs and has threatened tariffs if “near-shoring” companies are established, a euphemism for relocating business operations closer to the destination of their exports.The Peruvian political class, however, has not boycotted the initiative with Chinese capital, its main trading partner and a source of investments in mining, energy, and infrastructure.In Argentina, of course, all this maneuver was not necessary for Javier Milei’s government to halt the Atucha III nuclear power plant project, managed by the state-owned company Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA (NA-SA) and the China National Nuclear Corporation, with financing from Chinese banks. Repeatedly, US officials from the nuclear sector had called for the project to be halted, in an area of dispute between US companies and their Argentinian counterpart NA-SA. Milei intends to bankrupt the state-owned company by defunding it and sell it to US capital.Scott Bessent, secretary of the US Treasury, has said several times that Argentina should abandon the swap (currency exchange) with the People’s Bank of China, which provides some stability to the reserves of the Argentinian Central Bank. However, the pressure has not yet borne fruit. The US Southern Command, on the other hand, launches annual campaigns against the deep space observation station operated by Chinese scientists in Neuquén, which it presents as a “security risk.”All these efforts were made explicit during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent tour of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The promotional launch of the tour began with the publication of a column by Rubio in several Latin American newspapers, where he stated that “when a country’s critical assets fall under foreign control, these nations lose their sacred right to decide their own destiny and face serious threats to their national sovereignty.”Latin America and Its Stolen ElectionsOne of the initiatives that he promoted during this visit was the Shield of the Americas, a coalition designed to combat “drug trafficking” and “evil influences” in the region. In Peru, he met President Keiko Fujimori to ensure Lima’s inclusion in this initiative and criticized Chinese companies in the country. In Colombia, he signed energy and trade agreements designed for US capital to control its natural resources.However, none of the far-right governments dare to completely sever their ties with China, after having seen Panama’s harakiri. The trade of goods between China and Latin America increased from $274 billion in 2013 to more than $518 billion in 2024. China’s share of regional trade increased from 1.7% in 2000 to 17% in 2023.According to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), China is the second largest trading partner of the region, behind the United States. China executed 294 infrastructure projects in the region between 2005 and 2024, with investments exceeding $129 billion and the creation of nearly a million jobs.This is why, even for Trumpist presidents, breaking relations with China is considered as “political suicide.” (Diario Red)Translation: Orinoco TribuneOT/SC/CD