‘Naked imperialism’: How Trump intervention in Venezuela is a return to form for the U.S.
The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, follow a long history of interventions in South and Central America and the Caribbean over the past two centuries. But they also mark an unprecedented moment as the first direct US military attack on a South American country.
At a press conference after Maduro’s capture, Donald Trump said that “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again”.
But since the mid-19th century, the US has intervened in its continental neighbours not only through economic pressure but also militarily, with a long list of invasions, occupations and, in the case most closely resembling the current situation, the capture of Panama’s dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989.
Covert actions helped topple democratically elected governments and usher in military dictatorships in countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina, but overt US military operations have historically been confined to closer neighbours in Central America and the Caribbean.
The first direct US military attack on a South American country “signals a major shift in foreign and defence policy – one that is made explicit in the new national security strategy published by the Trump administration a few weeks ago”, said Maurício Santoro, a professor of international relations at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
That strategy called for an “expansion” of the US military presence in the region in what it describes as a “Trump corollary” to the Monroe doctrine – the “America for Americans” foreign policy set out in 1823 by President James Monroe and later used to justify US-backed military coups in South and Central America.
While Saturday’s action was “in line” with many past operations, it is “shocking because nothing like this has happened since 1989”, said Alan McPherson, a history professor at Temple University and author of A Short History of US Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“One might have thought that this era of naked imperialism – of the US getting the political outcomes it wants in Latin America through sheer military force – would be over in the 21st century, but clearly it is not,” he added. [Continue reading…]