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In the weeks before he took office, Donald J. Trump repeatedly vowed to carry out the largest deportations in U.S. history and to militarize the border, all while his transition team rebuffed<\/a> requests from regional leaders to meet over the effects of his promised moves.<\/p>\n He made countries such as Mexico targets of his attacks, claiming migrants were flooding the United States with fentanyl and threatening to enforce devastating tariffs. He also zeroed in on Panama, repeatedly asserting that the country had permitted China to take control, compelling the United States to intervene and reclaim the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n So as Mr. Trump was inaugurated in Washington on Monday, the typical congratulatory messages were also accompanied by some from Latin American leaders that deviated sharply from the usual diplomatic norms.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no reason why Mexico should keep its head down or feel lesser than. We are a great country, a cultural power,\u201d said President Claudia Sheinbaum during her daily morning news conference. \u201cOur relationship with the United States will be one of equals.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She also tried to reassure unauthorized Mexicans living in the United States who might face removal. \u201cMexicans are very important to the U.S. economy, and the Trump administration knows it,\u201d Ms. Sheinbaum said. \u201cTo our countrymen and women: You are not alone, and you must remain calm.\u201d<\/p>\n Mexico is the country with the highest number of undocumented immigrants in the United States, with around four million Mexicans living there without authorization as of 2022<\/a>, according to the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n Mexico\u2019s foreign minister, Juan Ram\u00f3n de la Fuente, also said on Monday that Mexico would not support the anticipated move to reinstate a policy known as Remain in Mexico, which under the first Trump presidency forced migrants applying for asylum to wait in Mexico until the time of their hearings in immigration court. The policy was a boon for drug cartel members, who targeted asylum seekers to extort, kidnap and rape them, human rights groups say<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYes, they can do it; it is their right,\u201d Mr. de la Fuente said of the United States. But while allowing that \u201csome agreements\u201d could be reached, he pointed out that Mexico had no legal obligation to process migrants\u2019 asylum requests for the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hours later, in a message on social media, Ms. Sheinbaum congratulated<\/a> Mr. Trump. \u201cAs neighbors and trading partners, dialogue, respect and cooperation will always be the symbol of our relationship,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n But during a marathon session of signing executive orders, Mr. Trump said Monday that he would slap 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada<\/a> on Feb. 1, accusing both countries, as he has in the past, of allowing undocumented immigrants and fentanyl into the United States. Ms. Sheinbaum and some of her administration officials have previously said Mexico would have to hit back<\/a> on the United States with their own tariffs.<\/p>\n Following Mr. Trump\u2019s inauguration, the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, who warned earlier this month<\/a> that she was prepared to expel the U.S. military from the country if Mr. Trump pursued mass deportations, limited herself to sending a polite message welcoming him back into office.<\/p>\n But the country\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Tony Garc\u00eda, said in a telephone interview on Monday afternoon that his country and several of its neighbors did not plan to accept large numbers of flights carrying deportees without first negotiating the process with the incoming administration.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can\u2019t be done unilaterally,\u201d he said, of mass deportations.<\/p>\n Mr. Garc\u00eda said that while there are currently no plans to end Honduras\u2019s military agreement with the United States, which permits U.S. operations from a large military base, the Castro administration is still considering it as a potential option, so \u201cthey take us more seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The foreign ministers of several countries met last week to discuss their response to the incoming Trump administration in Mexico City, including Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela. According to Mr. Garc\u00eda, the countries agreed that they would not \u201callow anyone to be deported by force. If a country says no one can come in, not one plane can touch down.\u201d<\/p>\n Honduras is estimated to have about 525,000 unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, <\/span>according to the Pew Research Center. Mr. Garc\u00eda said it had received flights carrying more than half a million deportees from the United States in the last decade. He said the country planned to continue receiving such flights, but the two governments had to work out a plan first.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in favor of coordination,\u201d he said. \u201cNot subordination.\u201d<\/p>\n His were some of the sharpest words for the new president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Panama, a target of Mr. Trump\u2019s recent criticisms<\/a>, including his false claims that China controls the Panama Canal and that the United States should take it back, President Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Mulino roundly rejected the president\u2019s assertions, which he repeated during his inaugural speech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Canal is and will continue to belong to Panama and its administration will continue to be under Panamanian control,\u201d Mr. Mulino said in a statement posted on X.<\/a><\/p>\n However, later in the day, the Panamanian comptroller\u2019s office announced that auditors had visited the county\u2019s maritime authorities to initiate an audit of Panama Ports Company, a Hutchison Ports Holding subsidiary. The company is a major ports operator and the country\u2019s main port concessionaire. It is also part of CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of this exhaustive audit is to ensure the efficient and transparent use of public resources,\u201d the comptroller\u2019s office said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s <\/span>inaugural address \u2014 in which he said he would \u201crepel the disastrous invasion of our country\u201d \u2014 <\/span>frequently took aim at the region, as did many of the executive orders he signed Monday night. <\/p>\n But some leaders reaffirmed their intention to work with the new president and support his policy goals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who has close ties to Mr. Trump and his family, was invited to the inauguration but did not attend, said Cindy Portal, a Salvadoran senior foreign ministry official, in a radio interview. Instead, the country was represented by its ambassador to the United States.<\/p>\n Ms. Portal didn\u2019t mention any plans to push back again deportations of Salvadorans, which also make up one of the largest groups of unauthorized immigrants in the country. El Salvador had 750,000 unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2022, according to <\/span>the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Instead, Ms. Portal emphasized the Bukele administration\u2019s ties both to Mr. Trump\u2019s son and Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump\u2019s secretary of state, who was confirmed Monday night.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message we\u2019re giving Salvadorans as the government of El Salvador is to wait and not get ahead of ourselves,\u201d she said. \u201cPresident Trump has been clear about returning bad people who went in to destroy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She said if Salvadorans have not committed a crime in the United States, they have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n Countries in the region that have been economically isolated by U.S. sanctions had a variety of responses to Mr. Trump\u2019s return to power and his flurry of orders. Nicaragua\u2019s government remained silent, while Venezuela\u2019s interior minister wished Mr. Trump \u201cthe best.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuba\u2019s President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel denounced \u201cthe fraudulent designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism,\u201d in a message on social media<\/a>. \u201cThe result of the extreme economic siege measures imposed by Trump has been to provoke shortages among our people and a significant increase in the migratory flow from Cuba to the United States,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n But, in a shift, countries that have been close trading partners of the United States also saw their economies menaced. By late Monday, Mexican leaders had not yet responded to Mr. Trump\u2019s tariffs threat. But Canada\u2019s finance minister, Dominic LeBlanc, did.<\/p>\n \u201cOur country is absolutely ready to respond to any one of these scenarios,\u201d Mr. LeBlanc said. \u201cWe still continue to believe that it would be a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n Reporting was contributed by Simon Romero, James Wagner and Yubelka Mendoza from Mexico City; Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Toronto; Genevieve Glatsky from Bogot\u00e1, Colombia; Mary Triny Zea from Panama City; Gabriel Labrador from San Salvador, El Salvador; and Joan Suazo from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n