analysis
The US president transfers a concept from the 19th century into the 21st century.
Jan 5, 2026, 1:16 p.mJan 5, 2026, 1:16 p.m
James Monroe was the American Secretary of State at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1823 he gave a speech to Congress in which he stated that the United States would no longer tolerate foreign interference in Latin America. He wanted to warn the Europeans against further colonialist experiments in the US backyard.
The Foreign Minister’s remarks went down in history as the so-called “Monroe Doctrine”. When Donald Trump began threatening Mexico, Panama and other Latin American countries, the tabloid New York Post picked up the term and turned it into the “Donroe Doctrine.”
Donald Trump explains his Donroe Doctrine.Image: keystone
At the press conference after the successful military action in Caracas, Trump happily accepted this satirical formulation and explained his vision of the Donroe Doctrine as follows: “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again. That will never happen again.”
The Donroe Doctrine can also be found in the now well-known strategy paper on national security. Seen this way, Venezuela is probably just the first step. Trump wants to expand US dominance across the entire American continent.
But first, Trump must prove he is successful in Venezuela. This can justifiably be doubted, as the American experiments with “regime change” failed disgracefully in the last century. This time everything will be different, assure Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In fact, the USA is apparently not seeking any “regime change” in Venezuela. They are counting on the rest of the cabinet of deposed President Nicolás Maduro to work with them. Above all, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
Rodríguez is considered clever and pragmatic. She has already held discussions with the Biden administration about possible cooperation. Because she was once energy minister, she also knows the oil business very well. Her brother Jorge, a trained psychiatrist, is also an important player in Caracas.
Clever and pragmatic: Delcy Rodríguez, Vice President of Venezuela.Image: keystone
However, the Vice President has to walk a delicate tightrope. On the one hand, it has to fulfill the wishes of the White House, but on the other hand it also has to keep the most important figures in the Maduro regime in line, above all Vladimir Padrino Lopez, the commander in chief of the army, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
This explains why Rodríguez initially strongly condemned the American intervention and demanded that Maduro be handed over. Nowadays, however, she is adopting a different tone. “We invite the US government to work cooperatively with us and strive for common development within international laws and to strengthen coexistence,” she announced in a communiqué.
Apparently the American plan stipulates that Venezuela will no longer be able to export oil as it wishes, but only as Washington orders. Because Venezuela’s economy would no longer function without oil exports, Rodríguez and her colleagues have no choice but to cooperate. Democratic elections are not planned. That’s why Trump threw María Corina Machado, the Nobel Prize winner and leader of the opposition, under the bus.
The White House is very confident that the plan will work. That’s why other countries are already being targeted. For Trump, for example, Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, is a dead man walking. “He won’t be doing it much longer,” said the US President.
Because it relies on oil from Venezuela and this oil is no longer flowing, Cuba’s regime will collapse according to Trump’s calculations. And if Mexico doesn’t get its drug lords under control, “we’ll have to do something there too,” said Trump.
The Donroe doctrine thus takes shape. A regime that is loyal to Trump is already in power in El Salvador. In neighboring Honduras, a candidate supported by the US president has just won the election. The same is true in Chile, and in Argentina Trump has a loyal ally in Javier Milei. That’s why people don’t sleep so well in Canada and Greenland anymore. Trump also counts the two as part of his West.
What does the Donroe Doctrine mean for the rest of the world? Nothing good. It reinforces the thesis that Trump wants to divide the world with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The Financial Times states in an editorial comment: “Authoritarian leaders will feel emboldened by Trump’s behavior. This may sound simple, but it will encourage China to conquer Taiwan. And there is no doubt that the West will find it more difficult to drum up support for Ukraine in the Global South.”
Meanwhile, in the New York Times, M. Gessen states that the removal of Maduro from power is a gift to Putin. She writes: “It has long been obvious that Trump instinctively shares Putin’s worldview: power is there to divide the world.”
She brushes off the objection that Maduro was a protégé of Moscow as follows: “Allies come and go. Worldviews and the desire to shape the world according to one’s own will remain. Putin’s world just got a little more harmonious. Not because, as conspiracy theorists suspect, Putin has Trump in his hands, but because two autocrats look at the world through the same lens.