“Keep Out, China!”: Trump Resurrects
the Monroe Doctrine
“Murder.”
That’s how Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in comments to the BBC late last month, termed recent U.S. airstrikes on small drug boats in the Caribbean Sea. He also called the attacks an “act of tyranny.”
Petro said America’s use of force was excessive, arguing that nothing more than pistols were needed to stop the narco-traffickers.
The U.S. military has since September 2 been hitting the boats in international waters. The Trump administration claims the craft had come from Venezuela, were carrying illegal drugs, and were crewed by members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang.
President Donald Trump has refocused American foreign policy on the region. And, as part of that effort, he has reinstituted the Monroe Doctrine. As a result, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is definitely feeling the heat and so has his most important backer, the People’s Republic of China. China is bound to lose influence in the Western Hemisphere.
In the meantime, leftist Latin American leaders are not the only ones questioning the legality of the American strikes. For instance, Celeste Kmiotek of the Atlantic Council, in a comprehensive analysis, states the September 2 attack “appears to violate the U.S. prohibition on assassinations, as well as other U.S. laws.”
