US Discovering 'Monroe Doctrine' Never Actually Left
NPR suggests Cuba is 'bracing' as President Trump 'says the Monroe Doctrine is back' with his attack on Venezuela, implying a new, muscular stance. This framing conveniently ignores that the US has been exercising its 'right' to intervene in Latin American affairs for over a century, regardless of who occupies the White House. From Banana Republic coups orchestrated by the CIA to sanctions
strangling economies, the 'Monroe Doctrine' has simply been codified through various euphemisms like 'hemispheric security' or 'promoting democracy.' Caracas, for instance, has been under a barrage of US sanctions since 2017, long before Trump’s latest declaration, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths by 2019, according to researchers like Francisco Rodríguez – a detail often omitted in
'humanitarian crisis' narratives. One might wonder if the doctrine's 'revival' isn't just a rebranding exercise for continued economic and political coercion. The only thing new is the explicit, rather than implicit, declaration. How many times must the US 'rediscover' its long-standing imperial ambitions before the media stops presenting it as a novel policy shift?