[News] From Monroe to Trump, Two Centuries of Imperial Interference

[Anti-Imperialist News]

resumen-english.org
<https://resumen-english.org/2025/12/from-monroe-to-trump-two-centuries-of-imperial-interference/>
>From Monroe to Trump, Two Centuries of Imperial Interference
------------------------------
By Carlos Aznárez. On December 23, 2025

image: Al Mayadeen

When the now much-quoted James Monroe uttered that famous phrase “America
for Americans” in 1823, he could not have imagined that this sincere
statement would run through the entire subsequent history of US foreign
policy, much less that 200 years later one of his compatriots—as arrogant
and ambitious as he was—would raise the stakes.

The former warned the European colonizers that their license to do as they
pleased on the continent stretching from south of the Rio Grande to the
confines of Tierra del Fuego had expired, not because he was a vigilante,
but because the aforementioned phrase meant that “those lands are ours, the
Americans.”

His current imitator is not to be outdone. In addition to proclaiming
himself owner of Venezuelan lands and riches that do not belong to him,
appealing to the usual arrogance that characterizes him, he expands the
same colonizing desire when he thinks of Europe, Africa, or Asia. And just
as Monroe thought of putting a stop to the Europeans’ expropriatory zeal on
the continent, Trump now appeals to the National Security Strategy to
enforce his regional dominance, by hook or by crook, leaving his
competitors Russia and China out of the game.

Donald Trump feels more like Monroe than Monroe himself, and just as he
longs for a Nobel Peace Prize, he must imagine that his name will be used
to label future streets and avenues in the countries that “belong to him,”
as is already the case with his predecessor from the early 1800s.

Two centuries ago, the hypocrisy so carefully crafted by the gringos, who
tend to give their misdeeds grandiose aliases, named the period during
which Monroe governed the “era of good feelings,” so it is easy to imagine
that the current “Trump Doctrine,” of plunder, interference in sovereign
countries, and warmongering threats, will be given a similar label, which
will be repeated obediently by all his accomplices in the long list of
abuses committed.

In this sense, when Trump recently claimed, with a grim expression, that he
was ordering a total maritime blockade of Bolivarian Venezuela until “they
return to the US the oil and land they stole from us,” he was doing nothing
more than obeying the imperial mandate that all presidents who have passed
through the White House have religiously followed. It is no surprise that a
large part of the US leadership truly believes that Latin America and the
Caribbean belong to them (that is what the “backyard” theory is all about)
and every so often, they are not only content to intervene in the economies
of each of the countries, but also show that this or that territory,
including its natural resources, is part of what they need for their future
survival.

Some time ago, during Trump’s first term, it was common to find in study
manuals or maps used in the United States that the Amazon was no longer
Brazilian or belonging to neighboring countries, but rather a “universal
heritage.” Following this definition, Washington promoted private
investment in carbon credits with technology companies such as Microsoft
and Google, generated USAID assistance with resources for climate control,
and many of these actions led to more deforestation, a succession of
massive fires whose perpetrators were never identified, and illegal gold
laundering. If it is “universal,” then it is also ours, surely thought the
billionaire friend of Zionist pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Now, this twist in the “Trump Doctrine” has decided to increase the
pressure and is no longer content with maneuvers to co-opt political
leaders or hand-picked leaders (Javier Milei and Tito Asfura, for example),
but, taking advantage of the climate of right-wing and even fascist
tendencies that reigns on the continent and in the world, it has left
behind any kind of subtlety and is moving decisively against countries such
as Venezuela, which not only ideologically oppose the “manifest destiny” of
US usurpation and abuse, but also, among other common goods, have enough
oil reserves to supply themselves for a hundred years.

It can be said, without a doubt, that just as they did (and continue to do)
with Cuba for 66 years, they have tried everything with Venezuela in the
last quarter century, during which a popular, revolutionary, and Chavista
government has ruled the Caribbean country.

   - A failed coup d’état,
   - a failed oil coup,
   - guarimbas
   - and terrorist actions resulting in the deaths of numerous citizens,
   - attempts to invade by land from Colombia, thwarted by the unity of the
   people and the armed forces,
   - and a direct attack on President Nicolás Maduro and his cabinet using
   a drone carrying explosives.

Added to all this is an economic blockade that has lasted several years,
the blatant intervention in airspace, and a sustained campaign of foreign
aggression with the complicity of Europe (subordinate to everything the
United States orders), the OAS, the DEA, the CIA, and several Latin
American leaders, including some who dare to call themselves “progressives.”

In the face of all these actions, the Bolivarian government and people
responded with fierce resistance and sustained progress in deepening the
Revolution. This is not the result of a miracle but of a strong, coherent,
and disciplined political will, which has enabled the country to recover
economically, just when the peoples of neighboring countries, even with
imperial support, are suffering from almost everything, and day after day
the gap between a small core of ultra-millionaires and a gigantic mass of
impoverished population widens.

*Venezuela is an example, as Cuba always was, but it also has all the
elements to become a great power in the region.* Hence the resentment and
visceral hatred it generates in characters like Trump, accustomed to
everyone kneeling before their proposals of submission.

Unlike other countries, mired in intrinsic weaknesses and overt complicity
with the policies imposed by Washington, the Bolivarian revolutionary
government has always responded with dignity and courage to any kind of
pressure, including the brazen military blockade that Trump has imposed.

*Carlos Aznares *is a founding editor of the Resumen Latinoamericano

Source: Cuba en Resumen
<https://cubaenresumen.org/2025/12/21/de-monroe-a-trump-dos-siglos-de-injerencia-imperial/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20251224/71f71921/attachment.htm>