The reconfiguration of development aid to Latin America under the Trump 2.0 Administration: between structural dependence and the quest for autonomy

Abstract

This article analyzes the reconfiguration of development aid architecture in Latin America during Donald Trump’s second administration from a structuralist and neorealist perspective. Using primary and secondary sources, it examines the extent to which the withdrawal of US cooperation—manifested in the contraction of USAID, the subordination of aid to strategic interests such as security and migration containment, and the weakening of multilateralism— has transformed the international cooperation system or, on the contrary, represents a phase of continuity within its structural logic of power. The study also explores the expansion of China as an alternative actor, whose strategy of influence combines financial, institutional, and cultural instruments articulated around the Belt and Road Initiative and the narrative of South-South cooperation. It  also analyzes the responses of Latin American countries to this scenario, characterized by defensive diplomacy and fragmented efforts at regional coordination that oscillate between the search for autonomy and the reproduction of new dependencies. Overall, the article offers analytical tools for understanding the tensions between continuity and change in the global development architecture, as well as the dilemmas facing Latin America in the contemporary hegemonic dispute between Washington and Beijing.