A new sheriff in town

TWO HUNDRED YEARS after the Monroe Doctrine was declared by the 5th President of the United States, and despite the widespread doubt about its power and efficacy, the doctrine was invoked by the 47th President of the United States.

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The present circumstances were, I think, not imagined in 1823.President James Monroe’s eponymous doctrine warned European powers against interfering in the affairs of newly independent nations in the America’s. On the night of January 2/3, 2026, President Donald Trump transgressed every basic tenet of the doctrine. He used USA’s military power to invade a sovereign country in the America’s, capture the elected President, and whisk him away to be tried by a criminal court in New York. It was an astounding enlargement of the Monroe doctrine. No foreign power had interfered in the affairs of Venezuela. The people of Venezuela had elected Nicolas Maduro as President, although the outcome of the election was bitterly contested. Mr Maduro may have turned undemocratic and authoritarian but he is not the first elected ruler to have done so.

Hegemonic presidents

The new doctrine deserves to be called the Bush-Trump doctrine. The closest parallel was the US’ interference in Panama (1989). Under President George Bush Sr, the US military invaded Panama, defeated the Panamanian forces, forced President Noriega to seek refuge in the Vatican’s Embassy, and eventually surrender. The declared goal was regime change. With that military action, the US became the new Sheriff in the Americas.