Trump Brings Back 200-Year-Old Policy to Control Latin America

A 200-Year-Old Policy Returns

In December 2025, President Donald Trump officially revived one of the oldest foreign policy positions in American history.

The Monroe Doctrine, which President James Monroe first announced in 1823, had been declared dead by the Obama administration more than a decade ago.

Now it’s back, with a new name and a much sharper edge.

The Trump Corollary calls for military force, naval deployments, and strikes on drug traffickers across Latin America, and the first bullets have already been fired.

Kerry Said It Was Over

In November 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry stood before the Organization of American States and made a dramatic announcement.

He declared that the era of the Monroe Doctrine was finished. Kerry said the U.S. would no longer tell Latin American countries how to run their affairs.

Instead, America would treat its neighbors as equals and partners.

The speech drew applause from diplomats across the hemisphere who had long resented what they saw as American meddling in their governments.

Monroe Drew a Line in 1823

President James Monroe introduced his famous doctrine during his annual address to Congress on December 2, 1823.

Most Latin American nations had recently won independence from Spain and Portugal, and Monroe wanted to keep European empires from recolonizing them.

He warned that any attempt by European powers to extend their influence in the Western Hemisphere would be seen as a hostile act against the United States.

At the time, America was too weak to enforce the threat, but the words became the foundation of U.S. foreign policy for two centuries.

Roosevelt Added the Muscle

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt transformed Monroe’s defensive warning into an aggressive policy.

His Roosevelt Corollary declared that the U.S. had the right to act as an international police force throughout Latin America.

If any country in the region fell into chaos or failed to pay its debts, America could intervene militarily.

Roosevelt tied this new authority directly to the Monroe Doctrine, giving it the legal and rhetorical cover it needed to justify decades of military action south of the border.

Invasions Followed for Decades

Between 1904 and the 1930s, U.S. Marines landed so often in Caribbean and Central American nations that they earned a nickname: State Department troops.

The U.S. invaded and occupied Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic multiple times. American forces stayed in Haiti for 19 years.

The interventions were justified as necessary to maintain stability, but they left deep resentment across the region.

President Franklin Roosevelt finally ended the policy in 1934 with his Good Neighbor approach, which renounced the right to intervene in other nations.

China Filled the Vacuum

While the U.S. focused on the Middle East and Asia for three decades, China quietly became a dominant economic force in Latin America.

By 2025, China had become the top trading partner for every South American country except Colombia. Chinese companies invested heavily in ports, energy grids, lithium mines, and infrastructure projects.

In May 2025, President Xi Jinping announced a $9 billion credit line to Latin American nations at a summit in Beijing.

The Trump administration sees this expansion as a direct threat to American interests in its own backyard.

Drugs and Migration Drive Policy

The December 2025 National Security Strategy makes clear what the Trump Corollary is really about.

It prioritizes stopping illegal immigration and defeating drug cartels above almost everything else, including traditional concerns about China and Russia.

The document calls for military deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels using lethal force where necessary.

This represents a major shift from treating drug trafficking as a law enforcement problem to treating it as a military threat requiring combat operations.

30 Boats Destroyed Since September

Since September 2, 2025, U.S. forces have carried out at least 30 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The administration claims these boats were carrying drugs bound for the United States and were operated by gangs like Tren de Aragua from Venezuela.

More than 105 people have been killed in the attacks.

The military has released videos of missiles striking small boats in open water. Critics and some foreign governments say many of the dead were fishermen, not drug traffickers.

Venezuela Takes the First Land Hit

On December 29, 2025, Trump told reporters that U.S. forces had struck a dock facility along the Venezuelan coast.

He said the site was used to load boats with drugs destined for America.

Trump declined to say whether the military or the CIA carried out the attack, but he confirmed it happened along the shore.

If verified, this would be the first known land strike in the escalating pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The administration has also seized oil tankers and deployed the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to waters near Venezuela.

Critics Warn of Backfire

Many analysts and Latin American leaders say the Trump Corollary will push the region closer to China, not away from it.

A recent survey found that 53% of Latin Americans would support U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, but opposition is growing as strikes continue.

Some experts point out that similar aggressive policies during the first Trump administration led countries to seek alternatives to American partnership.

Brazil, Mexico, and other regional powers have pushed back publicly against what they see as a return to heavy-handed intervention from Washington.

More Strikes Are Coming

The Trump administration shows no signs of slowing down.

More than 15,000 U.S. troops have deployed to the Caribbean region, the largest military presence there in generations.

The Coast Guard is pursuing additional oil tankers under sanctions.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told an interviewer that Trump wants to keep striking boats until Maduro cries uncle.

And Trump himself has said publicly that land strikes beyond the dock facility are coming soon. The Monroe Doctrine, declared dead 12 years ago, is very much alive.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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