The Trump administration is stripping tens of millions of dollars in U.S. military assistance from countries in Europe and Southwest Asia to support “conservative-leaning governments” in Central and South America, AP reported on Tuesday. The State Department notified Congress that it will reprogram $52 million in foreign military financing for Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia, and Iraq, using it Panama, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. The four Iberoamerican countries have all signed on to President Trump’s “Shield of the Americas", and Secretary of State Marco Rubio toured all but Panama last week.

The State Department said the funds would be used to “combat narcoterrorism in our backyard and help continue to secure the Panama Canal,” adding that the Western Hemisphere has been historically neglected in U.S. military assistance. “These funds will prevent adversaries from establishing strategic footholds in our hemisphere,” the department said in what AP characterized as “a veiled jab at China, which has increasingly sought to boost its presence in Latin America.”