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could deploy “an international police power” when Latin American countries were failing).

Since the 1990s, though, we’ve let down our guard. China is now Latin America’s second-largest trading partner after the United States, and has expanded its influence in the region on all fronts. Russia has relationships with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, and has increased its covert operations in Mexico. Hezbollah has a notable presence in Latin America. Trump’s focus on countering these malign actors could be seen in his successful effort earlier this year to get Panama to pull out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and is evident now in his pressure campaign against a Maduro regime in Venezuela that is aligned with China, Russia and Iran.

Trump’s actions often feel new and different, but here, his strategic departure is returning to a traditional American approach to our side of the Atlantic.

Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.

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