00:13Before we conclude this news brief, let's take the topic of the day which is the U.S. midterm.
00:18For that, let's go live to Washington DC, the U.S. Capitol, with our colleague Jose Gestoso,
00:23who is there and has more information on what is happening today in the U.S. and the importance it
00:28has,
00:28not only for the U.S. but also for the international scenario.
00:31Welcome, Gestoso, to From the South.
00:35Thank you very much. We are leaving a historical moment in the U.S. history.
00:41Now it's taking place already in many, many states' elections, midterm elections,
00:47to decide the balance of power here in the Congress behind my back.
00:54And in order to put in perspective what that could result, represent for the U.S. future
01:03and for our Latin America future, I'm joined with Camilo Enriquez.
01:10He is a political analyst expert also in Latin America.
01:15Camilo, how do you see in the eventuality, we don't know, that the Democrats recover the balance of the power
01:25in the House of Representatives
01:27and eventually in the Senate could impact foreign policy of the Trump administration?
01:34Jorge, thank you very much, first of all, for this invitation.
01:37I think the House of Representatives will be taken by the Democratic Party.
01:44In terms of the Senate, we will see, but it seems that the polls show that also they will take
01:48the power.
01:49However, even if they take the power, I think what they can do is limited because maybe they can continue
01:59with support to foreign aid to Latin America,
02:04impeachment to Donald Trump and investigations to his close circle.
02:07But at the end, by constitution, who manage the foreign policy in the U.S. is the president, the diplomacy
02:14and the international relations and also the security.
02:17As you can see, in both parties, Democrat and Republican, there is a shared agenda, at least in three topics.
02:25China, security and migration.
02:27So how I think it will change is how they will support these three shared priorities.
02:34And I think one of the most important is China, because they are already present in Latin America.
02:40Maybe the U.S. forgot Latin America and the hemisphere during the last 30 years.
02:46And China silently took advantage on that, brought a lot of investment in infrastructure, ports, 5G technologies, etc.
02:55And now that the U.S. is seeing that it's losing Latin America and maybe this is a threat in
03:01terms of security from these investments in the region,
03:05they are putting again our hemisphere in the agenda.
03:08And President Trump has already said his own words.
03:12If by any chance the Democrats, that they call him jihadist, terrorist, communist, gain the precisely the control of the
03:23Congress.
03:23What I'm going to practice is veto, veto, veto.
03:27So tension is coming.
03:29Tension is definitely coming.
03:30We know that the personality of President Trump is just doing what he wants.
03:36Sometimes without respecting the institutions, it's his style.
03:42And as we see this morning, the attacks to Iran, but also the promise to cut the budget to Israel
03:49at the end of this year.
03:51So let's see what happens.
03:53Of course, the tensions will increase here in Washington, but also in the region.
03:57Because as we know, most of the Latin American countries now are aligned with a Trump agenda.
04:03But I think it's a global trend what is happening in terms of this type of governments and this damage
04:11of the democracies in all over the world.
04:14There are two countries that are basically the most important countries in terms of the economic impact that are Brazil
04:21and Mexico.
04:22Brazil finished to be reelected, President Lula.
04:26How difficult the U.S. eventually is going to try to make his next turn, talking about four years, to
04:35Lula.
04:35And is it's going to go after the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, in order to stop also the leftist
04:46government in the region, you think?
04:48I feel that if you compare the personality of Lula Sheinbaum with Petro, for example, from Colombia, they have totally
04:56different personalities.
04:57Even if they have Lula and Sheinbaum differences, ideological differences with Trump, they, at the end, the diplomacy continue working.
05:04However, on the other side, with Petro, it's not like that.
05:08So I think these two presidents of Latin America that are presidents of powerful economies have the opportunity to continue
05:16managing a stable relation,
05:18maybe not directly with Trump, but with the administration via diplomacy.
05:21And also the U.S. need Latin America, especially Mexico, because the U.S. don't want to continue relying on
05:27China, buying and producing everything and the supply chain there.
05:31They want to bring the supply chain here, through near-shoring.
05:34So that's why I think even if there are those tensions, Democrats and Republicans have a shared agenda, at least
05:42in the idea, maybe in the implementation different.
05:44Again, China, security and migration. And the term of Trump is ending. He has like two years.
05:52It's a lame duck. Exactly. They call it like that here. Re-election is not possible. So many of the
05:58Republicans, as we already saw, will step down the support to Trump because his future is ending soon.
06:06So that means that he will continue acting as he is.
06:11So basically, you anticipate that from his end, there's not such a big change in the coming two years towards
06:19Latin America.
06:20In his, in his, in his foreign policy, not. However, I think in Latin America, presidents as Abelardo, I don't
06:28know if you saw.
06:28In Colombia. In Colombia. He was the first or one of the first presidents who approve or support or congratulate
06:37Lula on his winning.
06:38And he said, even if we have different political difference, we must work together because we share the Amazon region.
06:44And I think that's what Latin America, the advantage of Latin America.
06:48Latin America now doesn't need to sign a check with one economy. Latin America has the opportunity and the autonomy
06:55now because we are not in the Cold War anymore as 30 years ago to have agreements with different economies.
07:00Not only China, Brazil, the European Union, etc. So I think Latin America now has a great opportunity in terms
07:09of near shoring, in terms of minerals that the big powers are looking for.
07:16And I think Latin America now must put the cards on the table to sign better trade agreements in order
07:22to support our, our countries.
07:24Camino, thanks very much for joining us.
07:26Thanks for the invitation.
07:28We were talking with Camino Enriquez, a political analyst, regarding the impact that these elections will have in the future
07:37of the U.S.
