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The Trump administration is redirecting tens of millions of dollars in military aid from European and Middle Eastern allies to which Congress had allocated it and sending it instead to authoritarian and conservative-leaning regimes in Latin America.
Last month, the State Department informed leaders of the House and Senate Foreign Relations committees of its intention to divert funds from their intended recipients, leading Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Gregory Meeks — the ranking Democrats on both committees — to send a letter of protest.
Shaheen and Meeks noted that the State Department’s decision to redirect more than $52 million in foreign military financing funds intended for Ukraine, Europe and Middle Eastern partners to Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru had not been properly justified.
“We urge you to use the funds for the purposes required by Congress,” they said, adding that they were suspending the diversion of these funds.
“We will consider a violation of this withholding and the transfer of funds to be a violation of statutory requirements and to have consequences for the Department’s relationship with our committees,” they continued, later adding that the funds in question had been “specifically appropriated by Congress for a particular national security purpose: assisting Ukraine and countries affected by the war in Ukraine.”
But the State Department ignored instructions from members of the House and Senate and informed Congress on Wednesday that it was diverting funds from Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq to Latin American countries led by Trump allies.
This decision, first reported by The Washington Post, is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to strengthen authoritarian leaders in Latin America while undermining America’s relations with its traditional allies and undermining Congress’ authority over government spending.
In a statement, the State Department said the funds in question would be better spent as part of the administration’s pivot “from the Middle East and Europe to the Western Hemisphere.”
“Funds used in our region will be used to combat narcoterrorism in our hemisphere and continue to secure the Panama Canal,” the ministry said. He added that they would also “strengthen U.S. security partnerships and counter adversary military influence in our shared region.”
The $52 million in question was first allocated under the Biden administration after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 in a bid to encourage European allies to share their munitions stockpiles with kyiv.
The program was intended to allow these countries to purchase American military equipment while passing on their old stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine.
Rubio, a longtime opponent of left-wing governments in Latin America, has traveled to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in recent months to drum up support for the Trump administration’s crackdown on what it claims are narco-trafficking boats in South and Central American waters.
The governments of Ecuador and Colombia are closely aligned with the White House and have cooperated with the administration’s requests for increased assistance in the fight against narcotics trafficking.
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