US pressures Latin America to spend more on defense

According to information from the Bloomberg agency, the Donald Trump government delegation asked these countries to increase their defense budgets to around 3.5% of GDP, remembering that many governments in the region spend less than 1% of GDP in this area.

“This defies common sense,” said US Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby. “It is essential that you invest more in your own defense.”

Colby cited the threats posed by “narcoterrorism” and praised Peru, which recently reached an agreement to purchase new American-made F-16 fighter jets.

The annual study by the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) on military spending around the world, whose 2025 report was released in April, showed that only three Latin American countries were among the 40 nations in the world that invested the most in defense last year in absolute terms.

Of these three countries, Brazil invested only 1.1% of GDP in defense and Mexico only 0.7%, while Colombia directed 3.2% of GDP to military spending.