The U.S. strikes on Venezuela and seizure of the country’s president have laid bare Washington’s focus on the Western Hemisphere, a shift that could push Latin American nations closer to China while simultaneously emboldening Beijing in the Indo-Pacific and reducing American footprint there.
“This is where we live, and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United States. It’s as simple as that,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
The stance echoed what U.S. President Donald Trump has termed a “Donroe Doctrine,” a play on words that merges his name with the “Monroe Doctrine,” which established the hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence and warned rivals not to interfere in affairs there.
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