[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ex Tillerson waded into controversy as he began his first Latin American tour by touting a return to a 200-year-old foreign policy doctrine used to justify armed US intervention in its backyard. The US secretary of state also slammed China’s growing “imperial power” in the region.
In a speech last week before leaving on the trip which takes in Mexico and Central America, South America and the Caribbean, Mr Tillerson admitted Washington needed to do more to stop the gun smuggling that is fuelling violence, and said the US was as much to blame for the drug problem as the Latin American nations supplying the narcotics used north of the border.
But his characterisation of the controversial 1823 Monroe Doctrine as “clearly . . . a success” is likely to raise the hackles of his hosts. It may also have highlighted the void left by the departure of some of the state department’s most experienced Latin America hands.
The doctrine, first set out by US President James Monroe, asserts that the American continent should no longer be subject to foreign colonisation or interference. A corollary issued by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 held that the US could exercise “international police power” in the hemisphere — a formulation often subsequently cited to defend US military action.
Mr Tillerson described the policy framework “as relevant today as it was the day it was written” in unscripted questions after the speech at the University of Texas on the eve of his visit.
Dan Restrepo, Barack Obama’s point man on Latin America, called it “certainly not a modern vision of Latin America and hemispheric relations”, coming on top of what he termed President Donald Trump’s “demonisation” of drugs, immigrants and criminals flowing north.
Mr Tillerson’s arrival in Mexico came as the Center for American Progress, where Mr Restrepo is a senior fellow, issued a new report on weapons from the US to Mexico and Central America.
“The impact of rampant gun trafficking from the United States to Mexico has been devastating,” the CAP said.
“In 2017, Mexico reached its highest level of homicides in the past 20 years, with a rate of 20.5 homicides per every 100,000 people,” it added, calling access to firearms “a key driver” of the escalating murder rate.
Illegal guns was also fuelling violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle, the report said, referring to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — the three countries that are the biggest source of illegal immigrants into the US today. From 2014 to 2016, almost half the guns seized in El Salvador originated in the US, the report said, citing official US data.
Mr Tillerson acknowledged that for every 10 trucks headed north inspected for drugs, only one truck going south had a comparable inspection. He added: “We have committed [to Mexico] that we will do a better job of interdicting weapons flowing in.”
The North American Free Trade Agreement was also on the agenda in Mexico, where Mr Tillerson was due to hold talks with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts.
He struck a markedly more conciliatory tone than Mr Trump has to date, saying: “I’m a Texan, former energy executive and I’m also a rancher. I understand how important NAFTA is for our economy and that of the continent.”
In comments aimed at China’s growing economic influence in Latin America, Mr Tillerson warned that the region must “guard against faraway powers”. Panama, where he travelled on Saturday, last year cut ties with Taiwan.
“Rex Tillerson arrives in Mexico revindicating the Monroe Doctrine that has served to justify gringo interventions in Latin America and warning that the region ‘does not need new imperial powers that seek only to benefit their own people’. Translation: ‘They’re ours,’” tweeted Francisco Baeza, a Mexican political observer.
