In the era of the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’ Trump points a ‘big stick’ at Maduro and calls foreign policy trade policy

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— The Monroe Doctrine is very important, but we are well beyond it. Quite. Now they call it the “Donroe” doctrine, but I don’t know. This is the Monroe Doctrine — Trump said from his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, during a press conference that attracted worldwide attention — (The Monroe Doctrine) It was very important, but we forgot it. We will never forget.

Enunciated by U.S. President James Monroe in 1823, the famous foreign policy doctrine consolidated American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Launched as a form of warning (and, to the same extent, threat) towards European powers, it advocated non-intervention by Europeans on the continent, positioning itself as guarantor by force – in a dynamic that benefited the decolonization movement of the time.

Although Trump claims that the Venezuela operation alienates from the region countries like China, Iran and Russia, which have had close ties to the Chavista regime for decades, statements from some members of Saturday’s government summit and from the president himself indicate that the objectives of the action are much more aligned with another famous line of foreign policy.

Trump made it clear that the main American objective in the country was oil. The return of American companies to the Venezuelan energy sector deserved more space in the press conference than the messages addressed to the Venezuelan diaspora in the United States. Also uncertain was the future of Chavismo – which initially did not leave power, much to the frustration of the Venezuelan diaspora.

The permanence of the Chavista authorities in charge of the government, according to Trump himself, would be conditional on respect for American interests – an existential guarantee apparently linked to a logic of negotiation, linked to oil. The green light given to Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, to assume the presidency was reportedly decided based on the expectation that she would be pragmatic to the sector.

More than the Monroe Doctrine, described prominently in documents and declarations, the Venezuelan case indicates that Trump saves in its “corollary” another policy which marked the region: the “big stick” (or “big club”, in free translation), launched by Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the 20th century.

Summarized in the motto “speak softly, but carry a big stick”, the American foreign policy line prescribes using the diplomatic route to achieve its objectives, but resorting to the use of force – in the case of the United States, still far superior to its hemispheric neighbors – if it is contradicted. It is through this policy that Washington intervened in a series of countries, including Venezuela, during the first decade of the last century.

Although he spoke of the atrocities committed by the Maduro regime, Trump made clear that these were ultimately negotiations with no desired outcome – it is unclear whether they involved severing ties with China and Russia, for example. The president, however, has openly spoken of repairing the damage caused by the nationalization process carried out under the government of Hugo Chávez.

—We built this whole industry there, and they just took it from us like we were nothing, and we had a president who decided not to do anything. We did something about it. It’s late, but we did it, the president said.

Another sign that the attack is part of a logic of negotiation, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio declared, alongside Trump, that Maduro “may be living elsewhere”, but that he was faced with the result observed this Saturday for not having responded to American demands.

— I want to be clear about one thing. Nicolas Maduro has had plenty of opportunities to avoid this. He received many generous offers and chose to act crazy,” Rubio said, later adding. “He could be living somewhere else right now, very happy, but instead he wanted to play the ‘big boy.’

Whether by the Doctrine or by the Cudgel, the return of the United States to the policy of force is worrying from the point of view of international order. Unlike Monroe and Roosevelt, Trump assumed that the United States was part of a world governed by principles such as international law, human rights and multilateral organizations – built since the end of World War II under strong American influence.