The Trump administration notified Congress on Tuesday that it will redirect $52 million in U.S. foreign military financing from four countries in Europe and the Middle East to four countries in Central and South America. Funding assigned to Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq will instead support Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
The decision follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit last week to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, where he pledged additional U.S. support. It reflects the administration’s stated priority of focusing foreign policy on the Western Hemisphere, particularly efforts to combat drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
The State Department said the money would be used to “combat narcoterrorism in our backyard and help continue to secure the Panama Canal.” The department also said the Western Hemisphere has historically been neglected in U.S. military assistance and argued that the redirected financing would prevent adversaries from establishing strategic footholds in the region, an apparent reference to China’s growing presence in Latin America.
Foreign military financing provides recipient governments with U.S. taxpayer funds to buy military equipment from American defense contractors. The reprogramming therefore changes which foreign governments can use the $52 million for purchases from the U.S. defense industry rather than describing a direct transfer of military hardware.
The move also continues a series of administration decisions that have reduced funding or troop deployments to Europe amid President Donald Trump’s complaints that NATO allies are not spending enough on their defense budgets and disputes over other matters. Two of the countries losing financing, North Macedonia and Slovakia, are NATO members.
The administration has placed particular attention on the Americas and aligned closely with right-wing governments in the region. Trump has also celebrated a renewal of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which established Washington’s dominance in the Americas.