{"id":674145,"date":"2026-01-04T22:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674145\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T22:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:19:10","slug":"naked-imperialism-how-trump-intervention-in-venezuela-is-a-return-to-form-for-the-us-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674145\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Naked imperialism\u2019: how Trump intervention in Venezuela is a return to form for the US | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

At a press conference after Maduro\u2019s capture, Donald Trump<\/a> said that \u201cAmerican dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989.<\/p>\n

US agents place chains around the waist of Panama\u2019s then president Manuel Noriega onboard a C-130 transport plane on 4 January 1990. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n

Covert actions helped topple democratically elected governments and usher in military dictatorships in countries such as Brazil<\/a>, Chile and Argentina, but overt US military operations have historically been confined to closer neighbours in Central America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

The first direct US military attack on a South American country \u201csignals a major shift in foreign and defence policy \u2013 one that is made explicit in the new national security strategy published by the Trump administration a few weeks ago<\/a>\u201d, said Maur\u00edcio Santoro, a professor of international relations at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

That strategy called for an \u201cexpansion\u201d of the US military presence in the region in what it describes as a \u201cTrump corollary\u201d<\/a> to the Monroe doctrine \u2013 the \u201cAmerica for Americans\u201d foreign policy set out in 1823 by President James Monroe and later used to justify US-backed military coups in South and Central America.<\/p>\n

While Saturday\u2019s action was \u201cin line\u201d with many past operations, it is \u201cshocking because nothing like this has happened since 1989\u201d, said Alan McPherson, a history professor at Temple University and author of A Short History of US Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne might have thought that this era of naked imperialism \u2013 of the US getting the political outcomes it wants in Latin America through sheer military force \u2013 would be over in the 21st century, but clearly it is not,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Almost every country in the region has experienced some form of US intervention, overt or covert, in the past decades. Below are a few examples.<\/p>\n

MexicoA hand-coloured woodcut depicts Gen Winfield Scott leading US forces into Mexico City to end the Mexican-US war in 1847. Illustration: North Wind Picture Archives\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The annexation of Texas, a former Mexican territory, sparked border disputes that led to a US invasion of Mexico<\/a>, with American troops occupying the capital, Mexico City, in 1847. The war ended only with the signing of a treaty in 1848 that forced Mexico to cede 55% of its territory \u2013 an area encompassing what are now the states of California, Nevada and Utah, as well as parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.<\/p>\n

CubaCol Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders after capturing Kettle Hill in Cuba in July 1898. Photograph: Alamy<\/p>\n

In 1898, the US helped Cuba<\/a> in its war of independence against Spain. After the victory, the US received control of Puerto Rico and occupied Cuba until 1902, when an agreement granted the US navy perpetual control of Guant\u00e1namo Bay. US troops later occupied the island in from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 to 1922. After Fidel Castro\u2019s 1959 revolution, the CIA backed the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 in an attempt to trigger an uprising.<\/p>\n

HaitiUS marines board the USS Connecticut at Philadelphia\u2019s League Island navy yard en route for Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1915. Photograph: Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

Under the pretext of \u201cstabilising\u201d the country and protecting US business interests after domestic unrest that led to the repeated overthrow of Haitian leaders, the US invaded Haiti<\/a> in 1915, taking control of customs, the treasury and the national bank until 1934. When an attempted rebellion threatened the dictator Fran\u00e7ois \u201cPapa Doc\u201d Duvalier in 1959, the CIA worked behind the scenes to secure his survival, viewing him as an ally in containing the influence of Fidel Castro\u2019s Cuban revolution.<\/p>\n

BrazilBrazil\u2019s then president Jo\u00e3o Goulart (right) receives full military honours as he arrives for talks with President Kennedy. Lt Col Charles P Murray Jr is in the centre. Photograph: Bettmann\/Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

Although it ultimately never intervened, a US naval taskforce was positioned off Brazil\u2019s coast to intervene in case there was resistance to the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected leftwing president Jo\u00e3o Goulart in 1964. In the 1970s, the CIA and the FBI directly advised the repressive apparatus of dictatorships in countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina in the persecution and assassination of dissidents under what became known as Operation Condor.<\/p>\n

PanamaChildren cheer US marines during \u2018Operation Just Cause\u2019, when the US invaded Panama to remove Manuel Noriega in December 1989. Photograph: New York Daily News\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The US militarily backed the separatist movement that led to Panama\u2019s break from Colombia in 1903 and, after independence, Washington retained significant influence over the Central American country. In 1989, President George HW Bush ordered Panama\u2019s invasion by about 27,000 US troops to capture the dictator Noriega \u2013 a former CIA ally who had been indicted on drug-trafficking charges in US courts.<\/p>\n

Hours after the strikes, in which an estimated 200-500 civilians were killed, along with about 300 Panamanian soldiers, the US installed the declared winner of the election, Guillermo Endara, as president.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether a similar outcome will follow in Venezuela, which Trump has said would be \u201crun\u201d by the US<\/a> until a \u201cproper transition can take place\u201d.<\/p>\n

McPherson said it is \u201cvery rare\u201d for US interventions in the region to be followed by \u201cpeace, tranquillity, stability and democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUS interventions almost always create long-term problems of succession,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, follow a long history of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-674145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115839157292735583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}