The evidence is clear. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is making good on his promise to relaunch the Monroe Doctrine that he enunciated at his inauguration on January 21 of this year. They are no longer just verbal threats and he has already dusted off the old imperial policy of the Big Stick, which postulates: “speak softly and carry a big stick, that way you will go far.”
The ten attacks it has launched on vessels in the Caribbean near Venezuela, and in the Pacific near Colombia, are preparations for what appear to be larger-scale interventions. According to the President and US Government officials, these vessels have been destroyed because they are accused of being manned by drug traffickers and transporting drugs to the United States. All this without proof.
In preparation for these attacks, President Donald Trump ordered the United States Navy to deploy ships to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Since August, he has ordered the deployment of 10 warships, including three destroyers, an amphibious assault ship, a missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered submarine, in addition to some 10,000 troops. And just last Friday the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, ordered the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, with capacity for 90 aircraft and considered the largest warship in the world, which was in Mediterranean waters and is already traveling to the Caribbean to, supposedly, reinforce the “war on drugs.”
Initially this deployment focused on waters near Venezuela and with the accusation, without evidence, that cartel vessels from that country were attacked. But this week alleged drug trafficking vessels from Colombia were also attacked.
The attacks have been accompanied by criticism of the presidents of both nations. The United States Government has increased its criticism of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, directly accusing him of directing drug cartels, has offered rewards for his arrest and has openly announced his intention to promote a regime change in that country that, curiously, has the largest reserves of oil in the world and other resources (such as minerals) desired by the United States and its companies. BBC News He recalled that earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that Maduro is a “horrible dictator” and, when asked if he demanded his departure from the Venezuelan government, he added: “We are going to work on that.” They are already doing it.
Along with the attacks on ships in the Caribbean, illegal in light of international law, Donald Trump confirmed last week that he ordered CIA agents to carry out ground operations, which means possible incursions or support for opposition forces in Venezuela that have been seeking the overthrow of the Chavista regime for years. Regardless of the reasons that the Venezuelan opposition has, what is unacceptable is that the United States assumes the right to intervene directly to remove or install governments in any country in Latin America or the world.
But what seemed to be a military deployment only against Venezuela, this week took a turn by including Colombia in its threats. This is because Colombian President Gustavo Petro has criticized the US naval deployment in the Caribbean and said that the US attacks are murders of people. “They are not war casualties, they are murders. By mutual agreement with Latin American and Caribbean countries, the fight against drug traffickers must be redirected to their personal persecution, their assets and capital, and large, massive seizures,” Petro wrote on his social networks.
The United States Government has reacted to the criticism of the President of Colombia by withdrawing the financial aid it gave to that country and withdrawing the visas of Petro, his family and other government officials, under the argument that drug production has grown. “Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has skyrocketed to its highest level in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Additionally, Trump called Petro a “thug” over the weekend.
Mexico has joined the threats to Venezuela and Colombia. Although in the case of our country the criticism is not directly against President Claudia Sheinbaum, they are still threats of direct intervention in our country. That is, the threat of the Big Stick. Just on Thursday Donald Trump said: “Mexico is run by the cartels, I respect the women they have [la Presidenta Sheinbaum]an extraordinary woman, very brave; But Mexico is run by the cartels and we have to defend ourselves from that,” Trump said at the White House, accompanied by his national security team.
“We have to defend ourselves from that,” sounds like possible direct interventions. In all cases, these are not threats that should be taken lightly and should be seen as possible interventions to reorder Latin America, which they contemptuously consider their backyard. It would be unthinkable that a century after the imperialist Big Stick policy of then President Theodore Roosevelt, Trump would now once again make threats of intervention in any country in the region real.