China now has more influence in Latin America than the United States, according to a major survey of 17 Latin American countries published recently.
The 2026 Latinobarometro survey found that China has overtaken the US on influence in Latin America for the first time since the annual survey began in 1995.
It found that 57 percent of Latin Americans see US influence as positive, down from 60 percent in 2020, while 65 percent see China’s influence as positive, up from 48 percent six years ago.
Only in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic was US influence viewed more positively than China’s.
The report says Washington’s “almost total absence” from the region in the two decades after the 2003 Iraq war helped shift the picture.
Latinobarometro director Marta Lagos told AFP that Latin American countries built closer ties with other powers such as China, the European Union and Japan during that period. China won public support by making cheap imports available, she said: “The vacuum China filled is essentially a vacuum in people’s pockets.”
As a country, however, the US remains more popular than China: 63 percent of respondents had a positive view of the world’s largest economy, against 58 percent for China. But the US figure has fallen sharply from 2024, when 73 percent viewed the country favourably while Democratic President Joe Biden was in the White House.
The report also refers to Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine”, a name combining Trump’s first name with that of James Monroe, the fifth US president, who more than two centuries ago declared Latin America an exclusive US sphere of influence. It says Trump is trying to restore US influence in what Washington calls “our hemisphere”, citing the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as an example.
In every country except Argentina, most people supported Maduro’s capture by US special forces, the survey found. But only 35 percent think it has been good for Venezuela, while 28 percent say it has harmed the country. Venezuelans themselves are among the groups that view US influence most positively.
Latinobarometro, a Chile-based non-profit, surveys public opinion on democracy, the economy, security, migration and other issues. The 2026 survey was based on face-to-face interviews with about 19,200 people in 17 countries between 7 May and 17 June, with a margin of error of 1 percent.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report