US Policy Risks Worsening Latin America’s Infrastructure Crisis, Analysts Warn

By Staff, Agencies

Analysts say Latin America faces a severe infrastructure deficit that threatens its economic competitiveness, and the United States’ renewed focus on the Western Hemisphere under the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) may worsen the situation.

The NSS—described by experts as the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine—seeks to block foreign companies from controlling strategic regional assets.

According to Chilean scholar and diplomat Jorge Heine, writing in Responsible Statecraft, this approach could deepen underdevelopment, restrict investment, and increase migration pressures toward the US.

Heine notes that decades of underinvestment in ports, highways, railways, bridges, and tunnels have left Latin America burdened with high logistics costs, estimated at 14–18 percent per export unit, compared with an OECD average of 8 percent.

The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates the region needs $250 billion annually from 2024 to 2028 to close this gap.

Without large-scale investment, Latin American exports will remain uncompetitive, reinforcing slow growth and stagnation. Since 2010, Chinese construction firms have increasingly stepped in to address the infrastructure shortfall.

A prominent example is Peru’s Chancay port—a $1.3 billion project led by the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO)—inaugurated in November 2024 and now considered the most modern port on South America’s West Coast.

Analysts argue that Chinese firms thrive partly because US construction companies often avoid major regional projects due to capacity limitations, while European firms are typically too costly to compete.