MONROE Doctrine, established by U.S. President James Monroe in 1823, declared the Americas off-limits to future European colonization and intervention, asserting the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence while promising U.S. non-interference in European affairs.
Key principles included separate spheres for Europe and the Americas, non-colonization, and non-intervention, becoming a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy justifying interventions in Latin America and influencing relations with the region for centuries.
Today under President Donald Trump we are in the age of “Donroe Doctrine” With the invasion of Venezuela and the arrest of its president Donald Trump has announced his policy that Latin America is the US area of influence and the US has every right to intervene at will to impose its authority on the countries of the region. The latest American adventure in Venezuela is nothing new. The US has overthrown many governments in Latin America to dictate its own terms and to impose its authority on small weak nations of South America. The American interventions in the region have succeeded spectacularly and the only exception has been the tiny nation of Cuba under the rule of Fidel Castro since 1959. The US failed miserably to effect a regime change in Cuba in the failed Bay of Pigs operation and Fidel Castro continued to remain a pain in the neck for the American Govt. during his long rule. The American obsession with Cuba resulted in the Cuban Missile crisis when the world came to the very edge of a nuclear war between the USA and the USSR in 1961.
The USA orchestrated a military coup in Chile to overthrow the legally elected President Salvador Allende and installed the brutal dictatorial regime of General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. It was in 1989 when the US forces invaded Panama and arrested its president Manuel Noriega on charges of smuggling drugs into the USA and in 1983 another US invasion over-threw the Govt. of Grenada and during the last one century the US has succeeded in dozens of operation for regime change in many countries of the world including Iran, Iraq, Afghani-stan and Libya. With this history of blatant interventions The Latest American adventure in Venezuela is no surprise. As in previous interventions this assault on a small weak country was against all the canons of international law and a blatant violation of Venezuela’s freedom and independence. This action ignited a fierce debate and sent shock waves in the community of nations. The action was condemned all over the world and international experts called it an act of war and against the rule of law and principles of democracy.
Venezuela the tiny Latin American nation is in control of the largest deposits of oil in the world and is the only non-Arab country to be a member of OPEC. Donald Trump has forcibly taken over the country and promised to run the country along with the American oil giants to exploit its huge oil reserves. This action has nothing to do with drugs trafficking it is a clear and open action to capture the oil resources of this country. This action is to impose dominance over the entire Western Hemisphere to dictate policy and to control the natural resources of the region. The Venezuelan president was accused by Donald Trump of drugs trafficking and encouraging the influx of migrants into the USA all these allegations were levied without any proof or evidence. All offers of a dialogue on these issues were refused by Washington and the US resorted to strikes on Venezuelan ships suspected of transporting narcotics and a naval blockade was imposed to enforce an embargo on oil exports.
The latest action on Venezuela under the Donroe Doctrine came after months of escalating pressures on the Venezuelan President Maduro who had been accused by Trump of being in cahoots with drug smugglers without any proof or evidence. This blatant attack on a weak country is in line with the Trump regimes recently released National Security Strategy (NSS) this policy has made enforcing the so called Donroe Doctrine in the Western Hemi-sphere a top priority. The original doctrine was to prevent European decolonization and communist influence in the region. The ‘Trump corollary’ or ‘Donroe doctrine’ is designed to assert a proprietary claim and exclude China (whose trade and investment influence has been growing in Latin America) and other “non-Hemispheric” powers. Trump doesn’t just want the Hemisphere to be in Washington’s sphere of influence but for the US to have sole and exclusive control over its natural resources. American experience of regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya leaves a lot to be desired. It has always brought grief and worries for America and a lot of bloodshed and suffering for the targeted countries.
The American stunt of managing and running Iraq ended in disaster and suffering on a large scale, a majority of Americans express fears about the US getting ‘too involved’ in the South American country, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Alarmingly, the survey also found two-thirds of Republicans supported the attack. The UN Security Council in an emergency meeting to discuss the attack on Venezuela saw clear condemnation of the USA by Russia and China. Washington was accused of taking the world back to an “era of lawlessness” and undermining the “foundation of world order”. Pakistan’s envoy warned that “unilateral military” actions can lead to “unpredictable and uncontrolled outcomes” for years.
In Venezuela America could suffer a major disaster, this time they have taken too much of a political risk and they might lose all their goodwill in the community of nations As the New York Times put it in its editorial, Trump’s action represents “a dangerous and illegal approach to America’s place in the world”. Once again, the tactical success of the US action in Venezuela is likely to end in strategic failure.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
