Áltica Research, a market and public opinion research firm, just released a poll on Donald Trump's popularity numbers... in Latin America. The polling was conducted on January 3 and 4, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
This will probably come as no surprise to those of us in the U.S. who realize the good the president is doing for our entire world by taking down Maduro and his regime and restoring Venezuela to peace and sanity, but, as it turns out, the folks south of our border like what our president is doing too. Most of them anyway...
According to the polling, Trump is viewed most favorably in Costa Rica with a whopping 87% approval rating (there's a reason I love it there). Chile, a country that just overwhelmingly rejected Communism in its recent elections, was next with 78% of the people viewing our president favorably.
Despite President Gustavo Petro's mad ramblings about imperialism, 77% of Colombia approves of Trump, while Panama follows closely with 76% and Peru with 74%. In Argentina, 61% of the people are Trump fans, and 60% in Ecuador. Even in Uruguay, one of the few center-left holdouts in the region, over half of people — 52% — are pro-Trump. And, well, just 43% like our president in Mexico, but nearly half the country is more than I expected.
A new poll shows that most South American’s support Trump‘s decision to arrest Maduro:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 7, 2026
87% in Costa Rica
78% in Chile
77% in Colombia
76% in Panama
74% in Peru
61% in Argentina
60% in Ecuador
52% in Uruguay
43% in Mexico pic.twitter.com/AqsbI36Jg0
So why do we care?
I see so many people, even on the right, complain that this particular part of our president's foreign policy — focusing on Venezuela, courting the Western Hemisphere — is not "America First." They're either short-sighted, willfully ignorant, or they're just plain dumb.
While I could rehash all the reasons why this is exactly America First, I want to focus on one many are missing: Our interests don't stop at the border, especially in the Western Hemisphere where families, economies, and the consequences of crime left unchecked are deeply connected. It's beyond time Republicans remembered that.
According to the Pew Research Center, Latinos are one of the fastest-growing racial or ethnic groups in the U.S., making up about 20% of the country. In the past, this particular group has voted Democrat, but that's changing. We saw it in 2024 when Latino voters helped Donald Trump win the presidency in a big way. If we want Republicans to maintain power and prevent a continuation of what went through in 2021 through early 2025, we need to continue to court Latino voters.
I hate judging people by groups and not as individuals — that's what Democrats do, and it's gross. They see groups, particularly minorities in our country, as some sort of possession they can control and manipulate, and that's not what I'm talking about here.
What I am saying is that long-time conservatives and many Latino individuals have a lot in common. We tend to be family-oriented, value life, and have strong religious beliefs that often lead to socially conservative views. More importantly, we tend to be hard workers who favor things like entrepreneurship, self-reliance, and economic mobility. We also tend to be patriotic and love our country and will do — and vote for — what's best for it. It's hard to find someone who loves the United States more than the people who immigrated here lawfully, seeking opportunity and the American dream.
We can easily come together for the greater good if the GOP and our party's candidates can remember something that the Democrats and the media often forget: All voters are individuals who are capable of changing our minds when we see someone who truly aligns with our values and does what he says he's going to do.
Don't just take it from me. Josh Cortez is an "eight-generation Texan" who is running for Congress to represent the state's 25th district. He recently wrote a piece for The Hill in which he claimed "Hispanic Americans are no longer buying what Democrats are selling." Here's more:
As a Hispanic conservative from Texas, I see this shift everywhere I go. It is happening in our churches, in our small businesses, in our neighborhoods, and around our kitchen tables. It is a movement rooted in lived experience. We know what it means to work hard, to play by the rules, and to fight for a better future for our children. We have grown tired of the failed leadership that has made life harder for working families.
He adds:
Even more insulting is the Democrats’ habit of treating U.S. Hispanics and illegal immigrants as if they were the same — as though we shared the identical values or worldviews on immigration. Democrats may not want to admit it, but most Hispanic families in the U.S. support strong borders because we know that chaos is not compassion and lawlessness is not opportunity. Trump has always understood this and campaigned on it. It is why many heavily Hispanic counties in Texas went for him overwhelmingly in 2024, despite having never previously supported Republicans for president.
Now, back to the poll. Many Hispanic voters in our country have family and friends spread throughout Mexico and Central and South America. Many of you do — I receive emails almost every week from someone whose wife's family or whose parent's siblings or whose cousins live in Honduras, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica... even Venezuela and Cuba. Many of you do business in some of these countries.
The majority of these people want the same things we do: a better life in their own nations. They're just not the ones who make the headlines.
For years, the Venezuelan regime has been a cancer on them, too, via mass migration, drug trafficking, organized crime, and the support of corrupt politicians and terrorist groups. By handling that, President Trump is creating a brighter future for all 35 sovereign nations in the Western Hemisphere. That will also have a positive influence on the Latino population here in the U.S. It already has.
According to the January 2-5, 2026 Economist / YouGov Poll, the president's approval is way up with Hispanics now that Maduro is sitting in a jail cell in New York. If you saw the celebrations taking place across the United States, Europe, and Central and South America this week, that comes as no surprise. Heck, even that always-angry lady on The View praised the president.
The people I've spoken to personally this week, both Venezuelans and other Latin Americans, have been incredibly joyful and appreciative. As a matter of fact, a few minutes ago, I saw a post on X that said, "Trump and Marco Rubio in less than one week changed 25 years of dictatorship in Venezuela. Everything is moving so fast that what’s happening almost seems unreal. God bless the forces of heaven."
While I believe that dismantling the Venezuelan regime matters for reasons much greater than winning elections, it would be stupid for the Republican Party to ignore the political reality: that creating stability across our backyard and instilling a newfound confidence in many voters here at home can be a powerful electoral force.
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