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<div class="gmail-zox-post-top-wrap gmail-zoxrel gmail-left gmail-zox100"><div class="gmail-zox-post-title-wrap gmail-zox-tit2"><div class="gmail-zox-post-width"><div class="gmail-zox-post-head gmail-zoxrel"><h1 class="gmail-zox-post-title gmail-left entry-title">The \u2018Donroe Doctrine\u2019: This is Trump\u2019s neocolonial plan for Latin America</h1>
<span class="gmail-zox-post-excerpt"><p>The Donald Trump administration
seeks to forcibly impose the hegemony of the US empire in Latin America.
Through war, he is reviving the colonial Monroe Doctrine, which top
officials now proudly call the Donroe Doctrine.</p>
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<div class="gmail-zox-author-name-wrap"><p>By <span class="gmail-zox-author-name gmail-vcard gmail-fn gmail-author"><a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/author/ben-norton/">Ben Norton</a> - October 27, 2025 - </span><font size="1"><a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/10/27/donroe-doctrine-trump-neocolonial-plan-latin-america/">https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/10/27/donroe-doctrine-trump-neocolonial-plan-latin-america/</a></font></p></div>
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<img width="422" height="237" src="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Trump-Monroe-Donroe-doctrine-US-neocolonial-plan-Latin-America.jpg" class="gmail-flipboard-image gmail-wp-post-image gmail-lazy entered gmail-loaded" alt="Trump Monroe Donroe doctrine US neocolonial plan Latin America" style="margin-right: 0px;">
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<div class="gmail-addtoany_share_save_container gmail-addtoany_content gmail-addtoany_content_top"><div class="gmail-a2a_kit gmail-a2a_kit_size_40 gmail-addtoany_list" style="line-height:40px"><a class="gmail-a2a_button_twitter" href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/#twitter" title="Twitter" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="gmail-a2a_svg gmail-a2a_s__default gmail-a2a_s_twitter" style="background-color:rgb(29,155,240);width:40px;line-height:40px;height:40px;background-size:40px;border-radius:6px"></span></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br><p>The <a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/10/20/trump-cia-attack-venezuela-us-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Donald Trump administration is waging war on Venezuela</a>, but this is part of a larger political war on Latin America.</p>
<p>In the first year of Trump\u2019s second term as president, the US government has:</p>
<ul><li>killed dozens of people without charges and trial in US military
strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, executing
humble fishermen from not only Venezuela but also <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colombian-killed-us-strike-fisherman-wife-says/">Colombia</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/17/trump-caribbean-venezuela-trinidad-boat-strikes">Trinidad and Tobago</a>;</li><li>imposed <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0292" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">sanctions</a> on the democratically elected left-wing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro;</li><li>hit <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/outrage-in-brazil-as-trump-threatens-50-tariff-on-imports/a-73244289" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Brazil with 50% tariffs</a>, one of the highest rates on Earth, to try to destabilize democratically elected left-wing President Lula da Silva;</li><li>threatened to forcibly \u201ctake over\u201d and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/26/panic-and-defiance-in-panama-after-trump-threatens-to-take-back-canal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">colonize the Panama Canal</a>, in violation of the Central American nation\u2019s sovereignty;</li><li>tightened the <a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/10/31/us-israel-world-un-vote-cuba-blockade/">illegal</a>, six-decade <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx24468drd1o">blockade of Cuba</a>; and</li><li>waged a regime-change war aimed at overthrowing the government of Venezuela, and <a href="https://www.geopoliticaleconomy.report/p/trump-cia-attack-venezuela-us-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ordered the CIA to kidnap or even assassinate its President Nicolás Maduro</a>.</li></ul>
<p>Those are the sticks of Trump\u2019s new Big Stick Policy, aimed at Latin America\u2019s left-wing leaders.</p>
<p>As for the carrots, Trump has pledged to economically bail out right-wing US allies in the region.</p>
<p>For instance, the <a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/10/25/trump-bailout-argentina-javier-milei/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Trump administration offered $40 billion to try to save Argentina\u2019s libertarian President Javier Milei</a>, a close Trump ally who has overseen a severe economic crisis.</p>
<p></p>
<h3>The US empire\u2019s goals in Latin America</h3>
<p>The US government has always meddled in Latin America\u2019s internal affairs. This is far from new.</p>
<p>The United States <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0dd424de-9992-4d45-ad77-9dc7f75caaf1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">overthrew at least 41 governments in Latin America</a> from 1898 to 1994, according to research by Columbia University historian John Coatsworth.</p>
<p>In the past three decades, Washington has backed dozens more coups,
coup attempts, regime-change operations, and \u201ccolor revolutions\u201d in the
region.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/09/13/us-251-military-interventions-1991/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">US military has intervened in every single country in Latin America</a>, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. (The only exception is French Guiana, which is a colony of France.)</p>
<p>US imperialism has always been bipartisan in Washington, and has continued under both Republican and Democratic presidents.</p>
<p>However, Donald Trump has brought back the most overt, aggressive form of interventionism.</p>
<p>In its flagrant attacks on the sovereignty of Latin America, the US empire has three main goals.</p>
<p><strong>Exploit the region\u2019s resources</strong></p>
<p>One, the US wants to exploit Latin America\u2019s plentiful natural
resources, including oil and natural gas; gold, iron ore, and other
minerals; agriculture; and fresh water. (As the climate crisis worsens,
water will become increasingly important.)</p>
<p>Trump has been very open about the fact that he wants US corporations
to take over and profit from the region\u2019s natural resources.</p>
<p>At a 2023 rally, Trump boasted said he wanted to \u201ctake over\u201d Venezuela, and \u201c<a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/06/12/trump-venezuela-oil-coup/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">we would have gotten all that oil</a>\u201d.</p>
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<p><strong>Cut off relations with China</strong></p>
<p>The second goal of the US empire is to prevent all governments in
Latin America from having close ties with China. Washington would like
to cut off regional relations with Russia and Iran as well, but China is
the top priority.</p>
<p>China is already the number one trading partner of South America, and economic exchange is growing more and more by the year.</p>
<p>The United States is waging a Second Cold War, or Cold War Two, which
seeks to isolate China. US strategists want to turn not only Latin
America but all of the western hemisphere into an imperial \u201csphere of
influence\u201d.</p>
<p>It is not a coincidence that, in the first trip that Trump\u2019s
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took abroad, he went to Panama, where he
successfully pressured the country to <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/04/panama-drops-belt-and-road-agreement-with-china-after-us-pressure_6737775_4.html">withdraw from China\u2019s global infrastructure project</a>, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_15264" style="width:1090px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15264" class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-15264 gmail-lazy entered gmail-loaded" src="https://i0.wp.com/geopoliticaleconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/largest-trading-partner-latin-america-US-China-map.jpg?resize=880%2C815&ssl=1" alt="largest trading partner latin america US China map" width="422" height="391" style="margin-right: 0px;"><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-15264" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">The number one trading partner of countries in Latin America</p></div>
<p><strong>Install right-wing regimes that keep workers\u2019 wages low, so US corporations can \u201cfriendshore\u201d manufacturing</strong></p>
<p>Finally, the third goal of the US empire, which is closely related to
the first two, is to topple all independent left-wing governments in
Latin America and replace them with right-wing, oligarch-run regimes
that obediently serve the interests of Washington and US corporations.</p>
<p>These right-wing governments would also keep wages of workers low, so
US corporations can reshore or \u201cfriendshore\u201d manufacturing production
out of Asia and into Latin America, which is a major priority for Trump.</p>
<p>US imperial strategists recognize that it is not realistic for the US
itself to re-industrialize and bring back manufacturing jobs,
especially in labor-intensive industries that are prone to unionization \u2014
so they instead plan to exploit low-paid Latin American workers.</p>
<p>Argentina\u2019s libertarian leader Javier Milei is the poster child of
the kind of leader Washington would like running every country in Latin
America. His extreme neoliberal policies, which are being designed by
longtime employees of Wall Street megabank <a href="https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1980637411857326224" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">JPMorgan</a>, are <a href="https://x.com/dw_espanol/status/1979315712716943411" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">rapidly de-industrializing Argentina</a>,
turning the South American nation into a resource colony and destroying
any local manufacturers that could possibly compete with US
corporations.</p>
<p>Another model for the kind of leader the US empire would like to run
all of Latin America is Ecuador\u2019s right-wing President Daniel Noboa, who
is a dual US citizen and the son of the country\u2019s richest oligarch.
Noboa is pushing through measures that <a href="https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2025/09/06/ecuador-noboa-abre-la-puerta-a-bases-militares-de-ee-uu-y-respalda-la-designacion-de-rubio-como-fto-para-pandillas-ecuatorianas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">allow the US military to re-open bases in Ecuador</a> and enter the country at any time, for any reason, without oversight by the local government.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_14446" style="width:1930px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14446" class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-14446 gmail-lazy entered gmail-loaded" src="https://i0.wp.com/geopoliticaleconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Javier-Milei-Argentina-Trump-Karina-IMF.jpg?resize=880%2C495&ssl=1" alt="Javier Milei Argentina Trump Karina IMF" width="422" height="237" style="margin-right: 0px;"><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-14446" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Argentina\u2019s
libertarian President Javier Milei and his sister and chief of staff
Karina meet with their boss, US President Donald Trump (Credit: White
House photo)</p></div>
<h3>Trump turns the colonial Monroe Doctrine into the Donroe Doctrine</h3>
<p>Donald Trump has proudly revived the colonial Monroe Doctrine, a
202-year-old policy that essentially states that Latin America is the
imperial \u201cbackyard\u201d of the US empire.</p>
<p>The US government first declared the Monroe Doctrine when it was
beginning to expand its territorial empire to both the west and the
south.</p>
<p>From 1846-48, for instance, the US waged a colonial war of aggression
against Mexico and stole the northern half of its territory, which
became the modern-day US states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas,
Utah, and New <em>Mexico</em> (that is why it is called <em>New</em> Mexico, because it was seized from \u201c<em>Old</em> Mexico\u201d).</p>
<p>Note that these natural resource-rich territories that were stolen
from Mexico were cash cows for the US empire: California is the
third-largest US state by land and has the single biggest economy ($4.1
trillion in GDP), while Texas has both the second-largest territory and
economy ($2.7 trillion in GDP).</p>
<p>With the original Monroe Doctrine, Washington was sending a message
to European colonial empires, warning them that Latin America would be
part of the US empire\u2019s sphere of influence, and that it would not
tolerate European intervention in the region. It was cynically framed as
a kind of colonial anti-imperialism.</p>
<p>Today, the Monroe Doctrine 2.0 uses the same kind of cynical framing,
except now the US empire is telling China that it cannot have relations
with the countries of Latin America.</p>
<p>In fact, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/trumps-donroe-doctrine-aims-to-dominate-the-americas-b31208dd" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Wall Street Journal reported that Trump administration officials</a> have casually referred to their neocolonial strategy as the \u201cDonroe Doctrine\u201d.</p>
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<p>According to this neocolonial Donroe Doctrine, the Wall Street
Journal wrote, Trump is \u201ctreating the hemisphere as an extension of the
U.S. homeland, where Washington will act unilaterally to root out
perceived enemies. Loyalty is rewarded, and defiance can carry a price\u201d.</p>
<p>A more straightforward description was put forward by <a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/03/07/us-defense-secretary-hegseth-overthrow-china-crusade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Pete Hegseth, Trump\u2019s extremist self-declared secretary of war</a>: \u201cthe Americas first\u201d.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has quietly expanded its ultra-nationalist
\u201cAmerica first\u201d slogan into the neocolonial principle of \u201cthe Americas
first\u201d, with the US on top and in control \u2014 or, as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPEXh8tDrxB/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">left-wing critics in Latin America</a> put it, \u201cthe Americas for the North Americans\u201d.</p>
<p>The idea is for the US government to control everything in the
western hemisphere, from Canada (which Trump wants to make \u201cthe 51st US
state\u201d) and Greenland (which Trump also wants to colonize) at the top of
North America, down to the southern tip of South America, in the
Argentina run by loyal US asset Javier Milei.</p>
<p>This is precisely why Donald Trump chose lifelong neoconservative war
hawk Marco Rubio to serve as both his secretary of state (head of the
State Department) and national security advisor (chief of the National
Security Council).</p>
<p>Rubio is just the second official in US history to simultaneously
serve in both positions, after notorious war criminal Henry Kissinger.</p>
<p>A former Florida senator, Rubio is the veritable king of the right-wing Miami <em>golpistas</em>
(coup-plotters). He has dedicated his entire career to trying to
overthrow the leftist governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.</p>
<h3>MAGA\u2019s neocolonial slogan for Latin America: Monroe 2.0</h3>
<p>The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/trumps-donroe-doctrine-aims-to-dominate-the-americas-b31208dd" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Wall Street Journal described</a> the US government\u2019s neocolonial attacks on Latin America as \u201cTrump\u2019s new war on terror\u201d.</p>
<p>The newspaper interviewed Steve Bannon, who was the CEO of Trump\u2019s
2016 presidential campaign and served as the US president\u2019s chief
strategist during his first term.</p>
<p>Bannon proudly described Trump\u2019s neocolonial foreign policy as \u201cMonroe 2.0\u201d.</p>
<p>\u201cThis is much more sellable to the America First base than the stuff
in the Middle East\u201d, Bannon added, indirectly referring to the
US-sponsored genocide in Palestine and its nonstop wars in West Asia.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal noted that \u201c\u2018Monroe 2.0\u2019 has become a popular rallying cry across the conservative ecosystem\u201d.</p>
<p>What this demonstrates is that Trump\u2019s far-right, so-called \u201cMAGA\u201d
(Make America Great Again) movement is not actually anti-war or
anti-interventionist. MAGA Republicans happily support US imperialism in
Latin America. They don\u2019t see Latin Americans are equal human beings;
they consider them to be inferior, and treat them all as criminals.</p>
<p>The aggressive attacks on Latin America are by no means a new feature of Trump\u2019s second term.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_5324" style="width:1290px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5324" class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-5324 gmail-lazy entered gmail-loaded" src="https://i0.wp.com/geopoliticaleconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/John-Bolton-Trump-Pompeo.jpg?resize=880%2C495&ssl=1" alt="President Donald J. Trump and President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea" width="422" height="237" style="margin-right: 0px;"><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-5324" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Advisor John Bolton in April 2019</p></div>
<p>In the first Trump administration, the US president voluntarily
surrounded himself with neoconservative war hawks like his National
Security Advisor John Bolton, who was one of the architects of the Iraq
War in the George W. Bush administration.</p>
<p>Bolton admitted in a CNN interview that the first Trump White House carried out a coup attempt in Venezuela.</p>
<p>During that coup attempt in 2019, Bolton \u201cproudly\u201d stated that <a href="https://theweek.com/speedreads/835854/john-bolton-says-monroe-doctrine-alive-well-history-shows-why-thats-controversial-statement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">the Monroe Doctrine is \u201calive and well\u201d</a>.
In his 2020 memoir \u201cThe Room Where It Happened\u201d, Bolton declared that
\u201cit was time to resurrect\u201d the Monroe Doctrine, claiming that Venezuela
\u201cwas a threat due to its Cuba connection and the openings it afforded
Russia, China, and Iran\u201d.</p>
<p>In his first administration, Trump also appointed the neoconservative
war hawk Mike Pompeo as CIA director, then secretary of state. Pompeo,
too, <a href="https://2017-2021.state.gov/a-foreign-policy-from-the-founding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">cited the colonial Monroe Doctrine</a> as he oversaw US-backed coup attempts in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.</p>
<p>US officials have made it as clear as day that they support blatant colonialism in Latin America.</p>
<p>In a Fox News segment in October 2025, Republican Senator Lindsey
Graham, a close Trump ally, and pro-Trump host Sean Hannity proposed <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-host-sean-hannity-floats-making-yet-another-country-donald-trumps-51st-state/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">colonizing Venezuela and turning it into the 51st US state</a>.</p>
<h3>Trump\u2019s new \u201cwar on drugs\u201d is an imperial war based on lies: It is WMDs 2.0</h3>
<p>US spy agencies have long had close ties to drug traffickers in Latin America.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, the CIA used drugs to fund its terror wars against leftist groups in Central America. In his <a href="https://archive.org/details/dark-alliance-the-cia-the-con-gary-webb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">influential book</a> <em>Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion</em>, journalist Gary Webb documented the role of the US spy agency in trafficking cocaine to finance the <em>Contra</em> (Counterrevolutionary) death squads that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/09/opinion/l-terror-is-the-most-effective-weapon-of-nicaragua-s-contras-938786.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">unleashed terrorism against civilians</a> to try to overthrow Nicaragua\u2019s socialist Sandinista government.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://archive.org/details/bigwhiteliedeepc0000levi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">bombshell book</a> <em>The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War</em>,
a former agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Michael
Levine, showed how US intelligence operatives used drugs and cartels to
advance Washington\u2019s imperial interests in Latin America and around the
world.</p>
<p>To try to justify his neocolonial attacks on Latin America, Donald
Trump has claimed that he is supposedly fighting \u201cdrug trafficking\u201d.</p>
<p>This is completely false. It is a lie that is reminiscent of the
George W. Bush administration\u2019s false allegation that Iraq supposedly
had \u201cweapons of mass destruction\u201d, or WMDs.</p>
<p>First of all, it is not cocaine but rather synthetic opioids like
fentanyl that are responsible for the vast majority of drug-related
deaths in the US.</p>
<p>Venezuela already is <a href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/10/20/trump-cia-attack-venezuela-us-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">not a major producer of cocaine</a>, but it has practically nothing to do with fentanyl.</p>
<p>Journalists at the <a href="https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/marco-rubio-secretary-state-push-venezuela-maduro-regime-change-boat-strikes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">independent publication Drop Site News</a> spoke with a senior US government official, and reported the following (emphasis added):</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>U.S. intelligence has assessed that little to
none of the fentanyl trafficked to the United States is being produced
in Venezuela</strong>, despite recent claims from the Trump administration, a senior U.S. official directly familiar with the matter tells Drop Site.</p>
<p>The official noted that many of <strong>the boats targeted for
strikes by the Trump administration do not even have the requisite
gasoline or motor capacity to reach U.S. waters</strong>, dramatically
undercutting claims by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The claim is
backed up by recent comments made by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who
similarly noted that zero fentanyl is produced in Venezuela.</p></blockquote>
<p>Even some mainstream Western media outlets, such as the Financial Times (FT), have <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bd217091-84bb-4af2-b08b-9d9556dbb6d6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">admitted that Trump\u2019s war on Venezuela</a> is not actually about stopping the flow of drugs.</p>
<p>\u201cThe priority now is to force the departure of top Venezuelan
government figures\u201d, the FT wrote. It added that the Trump
administration is making \u201cthe clear threat that if Maduro and his inner
circle cling to power, the Americans may use targeted military force to
capture or kill them\u201d.</p>
<p>This is not surprising, given that, during Trump\u2019s first term, Marco Rubio lobbied the president to <a href="https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/mexico/internacionales-mx/n-131858-marco-rubio-agita-al-war-room-de-trump-pide-invadir-venezuela-para-asegurar-los-votos-de-florida/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">launch a US invasion of Venezuela</a>.</p>
<p>Today, Rubio is the second-most powerful person in the US government, and he is now overseeing this neocolonial war.</p>
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<p>The FT made it clear that the US has three main goals: overthrowing
Venezuela\u2019s independent leftist government; exploiting the country\u2019s
plentiful natural resources; and cutting off its ties with China,
Russia, and Iran.</p>
<p>\u201cAt stake in Venezuela are the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves
and valuable deposits of gold, diamonds and coltan\u201d, the newspaper
stressed.</p>
<p>The FT quoted a wealthy US-backed Venezuelan opposition figure, who
revealed, \u201cThe plan now is a capture of Nicolás Maduro. Capture-kill or
capture-arrest and take him out, one way or another\u201d.</p>
<p>So the US empire has two war scenarios for Venezuela: the Panama option, or the Libya option.</p>
<p>The US invaded Panama in 1989, killed many civilians, overthrew its
government, and arrested its leader Manuel Noriega (who, ironically, was
a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/panamas-noriega-cia-spy-turned-drug-running-dictator-idUSKBN18Q0NW/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">longtime CIA asset</a>, who had spent years trafficking drugs with the backing of US spy agencies).</p>
<p>US-led NATO forces waged a regime-change war in Libya in 2011,
killing anti-colonial leader Muammar Gaddafi, and collapsing the state.
Still today, 14 years later, Libya is a failed state that has been
plagued by endless civil war, and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42038451" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">open-air slave markets</a> where African refugees are bought and sold like cattle.</p>
<p>Either scenario would be catastrophic for the people of Venezuela,
but they are never considered in the war plans made by Washington\u2019s
imperial strategists.</p>
<h3>The US government is allied with the worst drug-traffickers in Latin America</h3>
<p>The US military killed dozens of people in attacks on boats in the
Caribbean and eastern Pacific in September and October 2025. None of the
victims were formally charged or given a trial.</p>
<p>The Trump administration did not present a shred of evidence proving that the people it executed were \u201cdrug traffickers\u201d.</p>
<p>Among the victims were fishermen from Venezuela, Colombia, and Trinidad and Tobago.</p>
<p>One of the few leaders in the region who was brave enough to stand up
to the US empire and speak out against its extrajudicial executions was
Colombia\u2019s President Gustavo Petro, the country\u2019s first ever left-wing
leader.</p>
<p>Petro has been particularly outspoken against Trump. In his 2025
speech at the UN General Assembly, the Colombian president compared the
US government to Nazi Germany and called Trump the \u201cnew Hitler\u201d.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_13918" style="width:1290px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13918" class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-13918 gmail-lazy entered gmail-loaded" src="https://i0.wp.com/geopoliticaleconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/petro-xi-china-colombia.jpg?resize=880%2C495&ssl=1" alt="petro xi china colombia" width="422" height="237" style="margin-right: 0px;"><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-13918" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Colombia\u2019s President Gustavo Petro with China\u2019s President Xi Jinping in October 2023</p></div>
<p>Colombia has historically been the closest US ally in Latin America.
The country has been governed for decades by corrupt right-wing
oligarchs.</p>
<p>Petro is the first modern leader of the country to pursue an
independent, non-aligned foreign policy. He took a historic trip to
Beijing in May, where he signed an agreement for <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/colombia-signs-up-to-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/a-72534659" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Colombia to join the Belt and Road Initiative</a>. This <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/colombias-china-pivot-raises-u-s-concerns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">infuriated China hawks</a> in Washington.</p>
<p>To punish Petro for resisting the US empire and defending his
country\u2019s sovereignty, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the
democratically elected Colombian president and his family members.</p>
<p>In an angry post on his website Truth Social, Trump viciously
attacked Petro and repeatedly misspelled the name of the country,
confusing Colombia the nation with the US university, Columbia.</p>
<p>In his social media publication, Trump claimed, without any evidence, that supposedly Petro is an \u201cillegal drug leader\u201d.</p>
<p>This is completely false, and it represented a flagrant attack on the
democratically elected leader of a sovereign, independent country.</p>
<p>US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager from Wall Street, also echoed Trump\u2019s lies. He <a href="https://x.com/SecScottBessent/status/1981798717607837863" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">incorrectly wrote on Twitter</a>
that, \u201cSince President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production
in Colombia has exploded to record high rates\u201d. This is a lie.</p>
<p>Independent experts have shown that cocaine production has fallen under President Petro.</p>
<p>In fact, the opposite is true: <a href="https://x.com/GuillaumeLong/status/1981970094688231475" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">cocaine production significantly increased</a> under Colombia\u2019s previous right-wing leader, Iván Duque, who was a close US ally and friend of Trump.</p>
<p>During Trump\u2019s first term, Duque\u2019s ultra-conservative government in
Colombia played a key role in the US-led coup attempt in neighboring
Venezuela.</p>
<p>Duque\u2019s political mentor was the most powerful figure in Colombian politics, the right-wing oligarch Álvaro Uribe.</p>
<p>Uribe served as president of Colombia from 2002 to 2010. During this time, the US-backed <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67005102" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Colombian military murdered more than 6,400 innocent civilians</a>
and dressed them up in the uniforms of revolutionary socialist groups,
falsely claiming they had been guerrillas, in what was known as the
infamous \u201cfalse positives\u201d scandal.</p>
<p>Uribe was the closest US ally in Latin America. He obediently did everything Washington wanted.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_15265" style="width:524px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15265" class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-15265 gmail-lazy entered gmail-loaded" src="https://i0.wp.com/geopoliticaleconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/alvaro-uribe-george-bush-Colombia-1.jpg?resize=514%2C331&ssl=1" alt="alvaro uribe george bush colombia" width="422" height="272" style="margin-right: 0px;"><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-15265" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Colombia\u2019s drug-trafficking President Álvaro Uribe with US President George W Bush</p></div>
<p>Uribe also happens to be one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the modern history of Latin America.</p>
<p>The US government has known for decades that Uribe is a drug lord,
yet it has happily supported him, because he has always loyally served
US interests in the region.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">1991 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report</a>
described Uribe as one of \u201cthe more important Colombian
narco-traffickers\u201d, identifying him as a \u201cclose personal friend of Pablo
Escobar\u201d who was \u201cdedicated to collaboration with the Medellín [drug]
cartel at high government levels\u201d.</p>
<p>There is a mountain of evidence substantiating this. The <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-ad36c6626bec45c8876de3b9b4241587" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Associated Press reported</a>
in 2018, \u201cAs Alvaro Uribe, Colombia\u2019s most powerful politician, was
making his rise to the presidency more than two decades ago, U.S.
officials were repeatedly told that the up-and-coming politician had
ties to the nation\u2019s drug cartels, according to newly declassified State
Department cables\u201d.</p>
<p>Despite Uribe\u2019s well-documented history of drug trafficking, the
Trump administration has continued to publicly defend him to this day.</p>
<p>While the Trump administration falsely claims that its war on
Venezuela is about stopping the flow of drugs, Rubio has heaped praise
on the drug-trafficker Uribe.</p>
<p>\u201cColombia\u2019s justice has prevailed as former President Uribe is
absolved after years of the political witch hunt against him and his
family\u201d, Marco Rubio tweeted on 21 October, adding the hashtag \u201cUribe is
innocent\u201d.</p>
<p>Back at the beginning of the US war on Venezuela, in July, Rubio
tweeted, \u201cFormer Colombian President Uribe\u2019s only crime has been to
tirelessly fight and defend his homeland\u201d.</p>
<p>This is demonstrably false.</p>
<p>In addition to Uribe\u2019s work with drug cartels, it has been known for
decades that Uribe and his family collaborate closely with right-wing
death squads, which kill left-wing activists, labor organizers, land
defenders, and indigenous leaders in Colombia, on behalf of large
corporations, landlords, and oligarchs.</p>
<p>In fact, a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia used a <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/colombia/2018-07-09/former-colombian-presidents-ranch-paramilitary-base-according-new-testimony" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ranch belonging to the Uribe family</a> as its base of operations.</p>
<p>What all of this demonstrates is that the US government\u2019s policy in Latin America is fundamentally based on lies.</p>
<p>The United States has for decades supported the worst
drug-traffickers in the region, to destabilize independent, left-wing
governments and promote the interests of US corporations.</p>
<p>Trump\u2019s neocolonial war on Latin America today is certainly not new.
Every US president has committed imperial crimes in the region.</p>
<p>However, the difference with Trump is that he is proud of the fact
that he is a colonialist. He doesn\u2019t hide it. He doesn\u2019t regurgitate
cynical propaganda about \u201cdemocracy\u201d and \u201chuman rights\u201d.</p>
<p>Trump says the quiet part loud. He has taken the mask off of the US
empire and shown its true face: an ugly visage based on lies,
exploitation, and war.</p>
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