Trade is a geopolitically charged subject, and nowhere more so than in Latin America.
While the US attempts to reclaim an influence it thought it had on the region, China has been offering much-needed financing and trade links. Over the past few months, the US has made both public and private efforts to moderate Beijing’s influence on Latin America, from touting the return of the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, widely seen as an excuse for military intervention to keep any other great powers out of its southern backyard, to questioning the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank’s decision to hold its 2019 annual meeting in Beijing.
