Washington — Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump He doesn’t mince words about the larger message he’s trying to send to the world with the US military takeover raid Nicolas Maduro The deposed Venezuelan leader and his wife went to the United States To face federal drug trafficking charges.
Trump declared after Maduro’s arrest that “American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere will never be in doubt again.”
In the days since the daring raid, Trump and his team have underscored the idea that the new emphasis on American hemispheric supremacy is here to stay. He also halted Maduro’s arrest to make it clear to his neighbors to line up or face possible consequences.
Trump’s rhetoric harkens back to the power talk of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when American presidents deployed the military to conquer territories and resources, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
“There were periods, like Vietnam and Iraq, that raised questions about a return to US imperialism, but the messages of US leaders in those periods were overlaid with talk of democracy. The way Trump talks about it is something we haven’t seen in a very long time.” said Edward Frantz, a historian at the University of Indianapolis.
In the aftermath of the operation, Trump’s tough talk was directed at nominal allies Greenland He renewed his calls for the United States to control Danish territory for reasons of national security – and Mexico. Trump says that America’s southern neighbor needs to “mobilize its efforts” to fight drug cartels.
Trump has also warned against that old foe Cuba ‘retreats’ Now that Maduro, who has provided oil at deeply discounted prices to the economically isolated government in Havana, has been ousted. The president heightened concern about Venezuela’s neighbor when he told reporters that the military operation in Colombia – the center of global cocaine production – “sounds good to me.”
The Republican president also told his administration You will “run” Venezuela Politics and the threat of the new leader of the country, Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, The outcome will be worse than Maduro’s if she does not “do what is right.” He has made clear that he expects Caracas to open up its vast oil reserves to American energy companies, further fueling speculation about American transgressions.
“We’re going to go in with the very big American oil companies, the largest anywhere in the world, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure — the oil infrastructure — and start making money for the country,” Trump said over the weekend.
The incursion into Venezuela has divided Latin America, with Trump’s mostly right-wing leaders praising his ouster and non-aligned leaders condemning him on sovereignty grounds. Concerns have increased that Trump may actually be serious about wanting to annex Greenland as well.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned on Monday that Trump… That would represent regression If Trump tries to follow through on his assertions that the United States “absolutely” needs to seize Greenland for national security reasons. The alliance, which includes the United States and Denmark, was a key pillar of security in the post-World War II era.
Frederiksen told Danish channel TV2: “If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, everything will stop.”
In the early twentieth century, American leaders repeatedly resorted to… monroe Doctrine, A founding document of American foreign policy written by the country’s fifth president, which was intended to oppose European interference in the Western Hemisphere.
Now, Trump is also relying on this principle to justify US intervention in Venezuela and threaten action across the hemisphere in the name of protecting the safety and well-being of Americans.
“Trump’s speech conjures images of Teddy Roosevelt and gunboat diplomacy. The speech is a return to the era before the Great War,” Frantz said, referring to the 26th president’s intercessions for the unstable Caribbean and Central American economies, as well as his support for Panama’s secession from Colombia in the name of the United States’ national interest.
Just weeks before Maduro’s ouster, Trump announced a long-awaited plan National Security Strategy Which contains some disparate elements that seem to conflict with each other.
On the one hand, Trump, who has long avoided America’s role in foreign wars, asserted that the administration was “willing not to intervene.” But the strategy document also made clear that the administration would seek to “restore American primacy in the Western Hemisphere.”
With Maduro’s ouster, the administration has clearly redoubled its attention to the latter issue.
“This is the Western Hemisphere” Secretary of State Marco Rubio He said this in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “This is where we live – and we will not allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operations for America’s adversaries, rivals and rivals.”
The seizure of Maduro and Trump’s speech could certainly be a level-setting moment for world leaders as they consider what might lie ahead in the final three years of Trump’s second term.
At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council At a meeting on Monday, Colombian Ambassador Leonor Zalapata Torres said the raid in Venezuela was reminiscent of “the worst intervention in our region in the past.”
“Democracy cannot be defended or strengthened through violence and coercion, nor can it be replaced by economic interests,” said Zalpata Torres, whose country requested the meeting.
At the same time, Democrats are questioning whether Trump’s actions have created a delegation structure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has plans to seize more territory from neighboring Ukraine, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has pledged to annex the self-governing island of Taiwan.
“What the president did in this case gave Putin and Xi Jinping a pass into the room,” Sen. Angus King, R-Maine, said in an appearance on CNN.
For their part, the Russians condemned Trump’s actions in Venezuela. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia, the country’s envoy to the United Nations, said the international body “cannot allow the United States to declare itself as the supreme judge” of the world.
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AP writers Jennifer Peltz and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations contributed to this report.