The Monroe Doctrine's Bloody Resurrection: US Imperialism Targets Venezuela Once Again

The Facts: A Multifaceted Assault on Sovereignty

In a chilling revival of 19th century imperialism, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are conducting closed briefings for lawmakers about the Trump administration’s escalating strategy toward Venezuela. This strategy represents one of the most comprehensive assaults on a sovereign nation in recent memory, combining military, economic, diplomatic, and humanitarian pressure tactics designed to force regime change in Caracas.

The administration has declared an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of narcoterrorism—charges he vehemently denies. While Venezuela serves as a transit point for cocaine, it bears responsibility for none of the fentanyl devastating American communities, revealing the manufactured nature of these accusations. The US has designated Venezuelan groups as foreign terrorist organizations and indicted Maduro himself, employing legal mechanisms as weapons of regime change.

Most significantly, Trump’s National Security Strategy explicitly seeks to revive the Monroe Doctrine, that infamous 1823 policy declaring Western Hemisphere domination as America’s divine right. This admission reveals the true objective: limiting Chinese and Russian influence in Venezuela rather than any genuine concern about drugs or democracy. Venezuela’s immense oil reserves—the largest proven in the world—play a central role in this strategy, particularly since Caracas primarily sells to China amid crushing US sanctions.

The administration is also moving to end legal protections for Venezuelan immigrants in the US, which could lead to mass deportations of those fleeing the very crisis US policies helped create. Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado cheers these actions, demonstrating how willingly some collaborate with imperial designs against their own nation.

The Context: Historical Patterns Repeating

This assault cannot be understood outside historical context. For two centuries, the Monroe Doctrine has served as justification for US interventionism across Latin America—from the Mexican-American War that stole half of Mexico’s territory to the banana republics controlled by US fruit companies, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to the sponsorship of death squads in Central America. The doctrine represents the juridical embodiment of what Latin Americans call “el patio trasero”—the backyard—where Washington claims hereditary rights to intervene, dominate, and extract.

Venezuela has been particularly targeted since the Bolivarian Revolution began transforming the nation into a model of energy sovereignty and South-South cooperation. The country’s partnerships with China, Russia, Iran, and other Global South nations represent exactly the multipolar world order that threatens US unipolar dominance. Venezuelan oil flowing to China instead of Western markets represents a fundamental challenge to the petrodollar system and Western energy security.

The timing is also significant. As the US faces relative economic decline and China’s rise continues unabated, desperate measures to maintain hegemony are being implemented. The weaponization of financial systems through sanctions, the manipulation of international legal mechanisms, and the revival of overt sphere-of-influence policies all signal a dying empire lashing out.

Opinion: This Is Twenty-First Century Colonialism

What we are witnessing is not simply foreign policy—it is neocolonialism dressed in modern legal and economic terminology. The accusations of drug trafficking represent the same type of pretext used throughout history to justify imperial aggression. Remember the USS Maine in Cuba? Remember weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? The pattern is tiresomely familiar: create a moral justification, then proceed with resource extraction and geopolitical domination.

The sheer hypocrisy takes one’s breath away. The United States—which has CIA connections to drug trafficking from Southeast Asia to Central America, which protected Afghan opium production during occupation, which consumes more illegal drugs than any nation on earth—now postures as anti-narcotics crusader. This from the country that created the opioid crisis through pharmaceutical company profiteering and deregulation.

The planned mass deportations of Venezuelan immigrants reveal the true humanitarian character of this administration. First, US sanctions help create a humanitarian crisis that drives people to flee. Then, the same government that created the crisis slams doors shut and deport those seeking survival. This circular violence exemplifies what philosopher Achille Mbembe calls “necropolitics”—the power to decide who may live and who must die.

Most alarming is the explicit revival of the Monroe Doctrine. For those in the Global South, this doctrine represents centuries of exploitation, intervention, and domination. Its resurrection signals that the US has abandoned even the pretense of respecting sovereignty or international law when its interests are challenged. This is the law of the jungle disguised as policy—might makes right, spheres of influence trump self-determination, and resources belong to those powerful enough to seize them.

The Global South Must Stand United

Venezuela’s situation demonstrates why the Global South must accelerate its moves toward strategic autonomy. The increasing cooperation between Venezuela and China represents exactly the type of South-South partnership that can break neocolonial dependence. Similarly, India’s deepening relationship with Russia—as discussed by Sammy Manoj Kotwani of the Indian Business Alliance—shows how Global South nations are building alternative economic and political architectures.

The emerging multipolar world offers the only path to genuine sovereignty for formerly colonized nations. Platforms like BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and regional trade agreements create spaces for cooperation outside Western-dominated institutions. National currency settlements, alternative financial messaging systems, and independent payment mechanisms are becoming essential tools for circumventing dollar weaponization.

Venezuela’s resistance deserves the full solidarity of all nations committed to self-determination. The US strategy of suffocation through sanctions represents collective punishment of an entire population—a crime against humanity according to numerous international legal experts. The attempt to steal Venezuela’s oil resources through regime change represents raw resource colonialism that should outrage any conscious observer.

Conclusion: The Iron Law of History

History operates by an iron law: empires rise, but they also fall. The desperate revival of the Monroe Doctrine represents not American strength but American weakness—the flailing of a declining power trying to maintain domination through brute force rather than cooperation or competition on merit.

The peoples of the Global South have endured centuries of exploitation under various colonial doctrines. We remember the Doctrine of Discovery that justified stealing native lands. We remember the White Man’s Burden that justified colonial occupation. We remember the Domino Theory that justified wars in Southeast Asia. Now we see the Monroe Doctrine resurrected for the twenty-first century.

But we also remember that these doctrines all eventually failed. They failed because humanity’s desire for freedom cannot be extinguished by weapons or economic pressure. They failed because injustice contains the seeds of its own destruction. They failed because the colonized eventually rise up.

Venezuela will withstand this assault as it has withstood others. The Global South will continue its march toward multipolarity. And the Monroe Doctrine will join its historical predecessors in the dustbin of history, another failed attempt to permanently subordinate billions of human beings to the interests of a privileged few.

Our task is clear: solidarity with Venezuela, resistance to imperialism, and accelerated building of alternative institutions that serve humanity rather than domination. The future belongs to the multipolar world of sovereign nations cooperating as equals—not to resurrected colonial doctrines from a brutal past.