‘Our hemisphere, our rules’ — that, in essence, appears to be the driving rationale behind the United States of America’s dramatic recent escalation of maritime tensions in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Last week, the US seized a Venezuelan oil tanker in international waters, seemingly in violation of the maritime law. Donald Trump’s administration also announced sanctions against the nephews of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and six other Venezuelan ships. The US has of course bombed more than 20 boats over the past three months, killing more than 80 people. And Mr Trump is now openly warning of imminent land attacks against Venezuela while also threatening strikes against Mexico and Colombia. According to the official narrative from Mr Trump’s administration, these attacks and threats are aimed at crushing the illegal flow of fentanyl, cocaine and other dangerous narcotics into the US. But Washington has provided no evidence that the bombed boats were carrying drugs, that they were headed to the US, or that Mr Maduro is behind a notorious drug cartel that the US has proscribed as a terrorist organisation. While claiming that he is trying to save the US from a drug crisis, Mr Trump, astonishingly, has pardoned the former Honduras president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in the US of leading a massive narcotics smuggling operation.
A newly-released US National Security Strategy explains what these seeming inconsistencies are really about. Narcotics smuggling is a red herring for Mr Trump who is trying to revert to a more than 200-year-old policy of treating Latin America as an extension of the US’s empire where everyone must subscribe to Washington’s demands. The NSS refers to the Monroe Doctrine, which in 1823 declared that the US would treat any European influence in Latin America as an act of hostility. In the 1930s, the US pulled back from that doctrine, but then routinely interfered in the region during the Cold War, sponsoring coups, attempting regime change, and invading countries. America’s focus had shifted to the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region in recent decades, but the NSS says that Mr Trump wants to bring it back on Latin America. That is why Mr Trump has threatened to withhold aid from Honduras, for instance, unless his preferred candidate is declared winner in the recent elections. Mr Trump’s desire to effectively declare his rule over Latin America is a stunning betrayal of his promise of non-interventionism. He must be stopped: the 21st and the 19th centuries cannot coexist.