Trump should not turn his back on Latin America — like he did last week

(Photo: Martin Mejia – AP)

It is time for the Trump administration to pay at least some attention to Latin America. Even bankrupt Venezuela has been quicker and more generous than the United States during the tragedy that devastated Peru — a close U.S. ally — last week.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read a March 19 news report in Peru’s daily El Comercio listing the foreign presidents who had expressed solidarity with Peru. Most had also sent humanitarian aid to help Peru cope with the El Niño-related floods that have caused at least 75 deaths and left more than 100,000 people homeless.

The presidents of Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama, among others, had either called Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski or announced humanitarian aid to Peru, the report said. But there was no mention of the United States.

When I called a senior aide to Kuczynski to ask him whether the United States had been accidentally left out of the news report, he said there was still no official statement from Washington, nor an announcement of U.S. aid.

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