U.S. Narcolepsy Toward Latin America

The United States habitually treats Latin America as peripheral except when narcotics or sudden crises demand attention; policy oscillates between episodic law‑enforcement or kinetic actions and long stretches of strategic neglect. This creates predictable gaps: weak regional institutions, large refugee flows (e.g., ~8 million Venezuelans), trade misunderstandings, and instability that ultimately bounce back onto U.S. security and migration policy. — Recasting U.S. policy as 'narcoleptic' toward its southern neighborhood highlights a persistent strategic blind spot with implications for migration, trade, counter‑narco operations, and long‑term regional stability.