On January 20, his first day back in office as US President, Donald Trump reportedly signed close to 100 executive orders, including some that affected several Latin American countries.
Cuba, Mexico, illegal immigration and drug cartels were targeted. In addition, he promised to regain control of the Panama Canal and probably stop buying oil from Venezuela.
A good number of the measures Trump signed on January 20 centred on the US's neighbour Mexico.
From the Oval Office, he issued a decree declaring drug cartels terrorist organisations. 'Mexico probably doesn't want that, but we have to do the right thing,' said Trump.
With this decision, American companies and citizens are prohibited from 'giving material support' to Mexican cartels. The measures also include militarising the US border with Mexico and deporting thousands of immigrants under the Stay in Mexico programme.
Officially the Migrant Protection Protocols, this is a US immigration policy implemented in 2019 under the first Trump administration. It requires migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico until their US immigration court date.
Trump also plans to impose 25 per cent tariffs on both Mexico and Canada, starting from February 1.
In a message from the White House, he said, 'We are thinking in terms of 25 per cent on Mexico and Canada, because they are allowing a huge number of people, Canada also abuses strongly - large amounts of people coming, and fentanyl arriving.' (Fentanyl is a powerful opioid drug intended as a painkiller: it is 30- 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It is widely abused: the musician Prince died of an overdose of fentanyl.)
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum congratulated Trump and advocated for a relationship based on 'dialogue' and 'respect.'
'Mexico does not have to bow its head,' she said, demanding that 'equal treatment' is maintained in the two countries' relationship.
But the Mexican government has said its 53 consulates in the US have been instructed to protect and provide immediate assistance to its citizens in the event of threats of raids and mass deportations.
Sheinbaum also promised 'humanitarian attention' to migrants from other nations, particularly from Latin America, who are in Mexico and can no longer cross into the US, but said the new Trump administration must directly deport undocumented immigrants to their places of origin - and not to Mexican territory.
Trump has already also turned his attention to Cuba. Just five days after the outgoing Biden government - in a last-minute decision - removed the country from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Trump reversed that decision.
In a post on Twitter/X, Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel called the decision an 'act of arrogance and contempt for the truth.'
As for Panama, Trump has continued his rhetoric about recovering control of the Panama Canal, which the US transferred to Panama in 1999. In fact, it featured his inaugural speech: 'We gave it to Panama and we are going to get it back,' he
