As the United States and Israel wage war against the peoples of Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, and the peoples of the region, the Trump administration seeks to secure its dominance in the Americas. On March 7 in Doral, Florida (part of the Miami metropolitan area), the Trump administration will host a summit entitled “Shield of the Americas”. Although its organizers claim that the summit seeks to strengthen ties between the US and the rest of the countries in the region, it appears that powerful countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil will not be in attendance. The participation of Venezuela, Uruguay, Guatemala, and Nicaragua has also not been confirmed.
The intention of the meeting has not been hidden by US administration officials themselves. Spokesperson Anna Kelly said the summit seeks to “support the work done by Trump to make the United States and its partners greater.” Kelly also spoke of the “Donroe Doctrine,” according to which the United States seeks to reaffirm its dominance over the American territories.
Perhaps that is why the 12 countries that have been confirmed for the summit are those whose governments have demonstrated, in word and deed, absolute alignment with Washington’s political, economic, and security interests.
Among them are Javier Milei of Argentina, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, Daniel Noboa of Ecuador, Rodrigo Chaves of Costa Rica, Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic, José Raúl Mulino of Panama, Santiago Peña of Paraguay, Nasry Asfura of Honduras, Mohamed Irfaan Ali of Guyana, and Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago. José Antonio Kast, Chile’s president-elect who will take office on March 11, has also been invited.
In short, these are leaders who have not only expressed their loyalty and admiration for President Donald Trump and his geopolitical project, but also leaders whom the US president himself has publicly praised and supported.
Perhaps the most striking case is that of Asfura, whom Trump gave his unconditional support to in the recent and controversial elections in the Central American country, but then refused to maintain protected immigration status for Honduran migrants in the US. Milei notably has been a frequent visitor of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound and the US government recently granted almost USD 20 billion to rescue Argentina’s troubled economy. Noboa, has spent much of his troubled mandate attempting to open his country up to foreign military bases, which is prohibited under the 2008 constitution. His shocking defeat in the recent popular consultation has not stopped the Ecuadorian leader from launching joint military operations with the United States.
Accordingly, this summit seeks to reaffirm, as stated by Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, “a historic coalition to work together to combat gangs and criminal cartels, [as well as] address illegal and mass migration not only to the United States, but also throughout the Western Hemisphere.”
These agreements, according to Leavitt, will be reflected in the Doral Charter, a document that will ensure a hemispheric alliance to “affirm the right of the peoples of the hemisphere to chart their own destiny, free from interference,” Leavitt said. Recently fired Secretary of the Department Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, will oversee the summit.
The “Shield of the Americas Summit” will directly follow the ongoing “Americas Counter Cartel Conference”, hosted by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and SOUTHCOM, where “Military leaders from across the Caribbean, Central America, and South America joining together to aggressively and urgently confront threats to our homeland and hemisphere. The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine is in full effect.”
US presence increases in the region
Without a doubt, the United States has taken a more aggressive stance toward the region. On January 3, it attacked Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. They were taken to New York City and legal proceedings have been initiated against both of them. In addition, it ensured, through the threat of a second attack, that the new Venezuelan government would grant it tacit control of the oil industry, which has undoubtedly been of enormous help to US war interests now that a military front has opened in West Asia.
Furthermore, Trump seems determined to overthrow Cuba’s revolutionary government by not only radicalizing sanctions against the island but also imposing possible sanctions on third countries that sell oil to Cuba. This situation has caused a major energy crisis in Cuba, severely limiting its productive, commercial, educational, and hospitality capacities, which has led many critics to speak of a genuine “humanitarian crisis” caused by the Trump administration.
In this regard, US foreign policy, under the so-called Donroe Doctrine, has become more active in sanctioning any Latin American country that does not share Washington’s values and hemispheric plans. Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico are countries that have either been threatened or punished through astronomical tariff increases for clearly political disagreements.
A clear example of this was seen when Trump increased tariffs on Brazil because of the Brazilian court’s conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a close friend of Trump’s, for participating in the attempted coup against the current president, Lula da Silva.
On March 4, Ecuador announced that it was declaring the entire Cuban diplomatic delegation persona non grata and ordering the expulsion of all those individuals within 48 hours. Quito did not explain this measure, which is historic in that no entire diplomatic delegation from a country has ever been expelled from Ecuador, thus breaking with a tradition of Ecuadorian diplomacy that seems to be changing without much resistance in the face of agreements and pressure from the north.
A new strategic agreement?
This is not the first time that the United States has sought to forge strategic ties with Latin American countries in the face of military conflicts in which Washington is involved. During the 1930s and 1940s, Washington promoted the so-called Good Neighbor Policy to gradually ensure that Latin American countries did not ally themselves politically or economically with the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy). Of course, at that time, President F.D. Roosevelt agreed to this by reducing US military interventions in American territory (without eliminating them).
Could it be said that the Doral Charter, which is to be signed in Miami in the coming days, is more similar to the set of direct and covert actions that the US government carried out in Latin America after World War II? During the Cold War, under the pretext of a supposed communist threat in the region that would threaten US security by becoming pro-Soviet, Washington financed, supported, and backed all kinds of actions (dictatorships, torture, disappearances, coups d’état, false flag attacks, etc.) to curb the emergence of transformative and sovereignist processes in Latin America. Many Latin American governments, true puppets of Washington, faithfully followed the orders that came from the United States.
The truth is that, unlike in the 1960s and 1970s, there does not seem to be any possibility of new socialist revolutions in Latin America at this time. Rather, this new moment in the history of American geopolitics seems to be more about crushing the revolutionary processes that exist, and securing the resources and markets of the Americas in the face of a future in which unipolarity could be broken.
Thus, it is no coincidence that President Trump himself has praised and seen as indispensable the revival of the Monroe Doctrine for the 21st century. In this sense, it is clear that Washington has found allies around the world, including in Latin America, who seem willing to put the interests of Trump’s geopolitical project and those around him above all else.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth put it clearly at the so-called “Americas Counter Cartel Conference”: “President Trump has reestablished the Monroe Doctrine. The Trump Corollary of the Monroe Doctrine or if you’d like for short, you can just call it the Donroe Doctrine. Under President Trump, securing America’s interest in the Western Hemisphere and keeping our Homeland safe are our top national security priorities.”
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