Trump Cancels Trip to Latin America Due to Crisis in Syria

While the White House believes the scrapping of this trip ensures that the United States can respond promptly to any developments in the crisis in Syria, others express doubt and fear regarding potential repercussions of Trump’s absence in the summit.

On Tuesday, President Trump caught everyone by surprise by canceling a trip to South America this weekend. He was supposed to attend a major summit that involves a majority of the Western Hemisphere countries and he explained this last minute cancellation as result of the crisis in Syria.

A recent chemical weapons attack broke out in Syria, which killed over 40 civilians and many White House aides and officials have expressed the sentiment that it would be better in this moment for the president to stay in the United States.

President Trump’s decision to no longer attend this trip could also bring relief on himself and his advisers, since since his inauguration he has accumulated and incited increasing tension with many Latin American nations from his inappropriate comments on social media and harsh insults on these countries, specifically on the issues of illegal immigration, criminal gangs and illicit drugs.

Aside from this trip to Lima, Peru, a trip scheduled on Saturday to Bogota, Colombia, was also canceled because of a similar concern regarding the crisis in Syria.

The White House secretary has commented that “President Trump will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.” She said that the White House has agreed upon the decision that the priority of the president right now is to stay in the United States to counter any further developments of the crisis.

In response to his cancellation, many Latin American experts and specialists have expressed suspicion and discontent. Richard E. Feinberg, a senior Latin America fellow at the Brookings Institution and professor at the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, remarked that “Trump’s dropping out of the Lima summit is an appalling demonstration of disrespect for Latin America.”

The scrapping of this trip, in the eyes of many Latin American specialists, is simply enforcing the hostility and tension between the United States and Latin American countries that have been building up in his administration.

This decision was also not previously informed by many officials in the White House, as one of his economic advisers, Larry Kudlow, said on a radio show that he would be traveling with Mr. Trump to Peru and then Colombia this week, completely unaware of the newest change of plan of the White House.

In defense of the president staying in the White House instead of attending the summit, many of his advisers have claimed that they anticipate few actual breakthroughs in the North American Free Trade Agreement with Latin American countries during this summit.

During the last Summit of the Americas, where was three years ago, Mr. Obama held a meeting with President Raul Castro of Cuba, establishing relations with Havana, and easing tension between the two nations. This is the first attempt of potential peace and compromise between the two in the past half century. These feelings of peace and cooperation that were established by Mr. Obama, has been dismissed by President Trump, who has openly criticized Latin America and broken into a vocal argument with the leader of Mexico very recently.

Many are wary of the repercussions that could follow President Trump’s absence in this summit: “Skipping the Summit of the Americas sends a terrible message about U.S. disengagement in our hemisphere, compounding negative message of Trump’s Cuba, NAFTA and immigration policies.” Experts and officials who are currently working closely with Latin America fear that this absence would push the potential cooperation and compromise even further out of the horizon.

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