COMMENTARY President Trump says Latin America needs America "much more than we need them." Not anymore: his Jan. 6 pardons destroyed the rule-of-law example Latin America did need from us.
After President Trump鈥檚 second inauguration on Monday, as he was penning more signatures than most folks scribble when they buy a house, a Brazilian journalist asked him about Latin America.
鈥淭hey need us much more than we need them,鈥� with a dismissive shrug.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 need them. They need us.鈥�
It was the sort of sneering, juvenile putdown Trump loves to aim at Latin America, like those paper towels he tossed at Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria destroyed their island in 2017. In his inaugural address, when he doubled down on his preposterous pledge to seize the Panama Canal, he made it clear Panama might as well be one of the 鈥渟hithole鈥� countries he denigrated in his first presidency.
Just another loser that needs Trump much more than Trump needs it.
READ MORE: Biden's pardon sets a foul example for America 鈥� and the Americas
But let鈥檚 say, to humor him, that before this week Trump was right 鈥� that Latin America and the Caribbean needed us much more than we needed them. Even if he were right then, he鈥檚 not anymore 鈥� thanks to no one except Trump.
That鈥檚 because this week Trump destroyed something Latin America did need from America:
Our example.
With one of those signatures, Trump pardoned or commuted sentences for the almost 1,600 MAGA insurrectionists charged or convicted in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Congress, a seditious attempt to overturn the 2020 election that Trump lost at the end of his first presidency.
With one swipe of his Sharpie, Trump revoked America鈥檚 constitutional rule of law.
Trump has now definitively defiled the key thing that distinguished America from Latin America 鈥� our expectation of constitutional lawfulness.
As he did in 2021 when he allegedly incited the Capitol rioters 鈥� many of whom viciously assaulted police officers and menaced then Vice President Mike Pence with a noose 鈥� Trump has again defiled instead of defended the key thing that distinguishes America from Latin America.
From the Venezuelas, Cubas, Nicaraguas, Guatemalas, Haitis and Hondurases, where constitutional rule of law is usually more farce than fact.
Sure, you can argue Latin America needs our trade and technology and finance, or that it couldn鈥檛 get by without the cash remittances its migrants send back from our fields and hotels and construction sites. Maybe 鈥� but then again, it鈥檚 proven in this century that a pretty darn adequate substitute for America in those departments.
Conquistadorism vs. constitutionalism
No, the commodity Latin America needs most from America 鈥� the yanqui model that鈥檚 helped the region metamorphose from dictatorial conquistadorism to democratic constitutionalism 鈥� is our lawfulness.
God knows the U.S. hasn鈥檛 always lived up to that model in this hemisphere, especially when we鈥檝e propped up lawless tyrants like Pinochet, Somoza and Duvalier. But rarely have we ever trashed it on our own soil as definitively as Trump and the MAGA mob did on Jan. 6.
Or as Trump鈥檚 new Secretary of State Marco Rubio , referring to all the Latin Americans he grew up with in Miami: 鈥淭oday America looked like the countries that they came here to get away from.鈥�
Which is precisely why it was so important 鈥� so historically vital 鈥� that the people who planned and perpetrated the Jan. 6 uprising were brought to justice. That includes Trump himself, who was about to be prosecuted until he won the presidency again in November.
With the Jan. 6 convictions, America at least showed Latin America that Latin American-style impunity did not in the end triumph over American-style rule of law. They were a reminder that in spite of Jan. 6, America was still a touchstone.
Not now.
Trump鈥檚 pardons of even the worst Jan. 6 offenders, the fulfillment of his pathetic if not sinister effort to erase the event from history, has also erased for the time being the American example.
In its place, he鈥檚 exalted the image of American convicts like Miami鈥檚 Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the white supremacist hate group Proud Boys, who until this week鈥檚 pardon was serving a 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 plot.
The Proud Boys wear a patch reading 鈥淩WDS鈥� 鈥� a reference to the right-wing death squads that have long symbolized a historic contempt for constitutional rule of law in so much of Latin America.
So no, President Trump, it turns out Latin America actually doesn鈥檛 need America anymore.
Thanks to you.
