Image by Isabela Kronemberger.

The National Security Strategy (NSS) is a document setting U.S. foreign policy goals that the Executive Branch periodically sends to Congress. Commenting on the NSS released on December 5, Rebecca Lissner, associated with the establishment-oriented Council on Foreign Relations, indicated that, “The Western Hemisphere is elevated as America’s highest priority, with an emphasis on arresting migration, combating so-called “narco-terrorists,” and assuring U.S. dominance through a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine.

What follows here is a survey of U.S. activities in Venezuela and Honduras that make good on U.S. imperialist purposes as set forth in the 2025 NSS for Latin America and the Caribbean area.

That document asks, “What are America’s core foreign policy interests? What do we want in and from the world?” The response is: “We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States … a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations … a Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets … In other words, we will assert and enforce a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine.”

The Doctrine put forth by President James Monroe in 1823 asserts that the United States rejects the intrusion of European powers in Western Hemisphere affairs. The (Theodore) Roosevelt Corollary of the Monroe Doctrine appearing 1904 proclaimed that the United States would exercise “police power” over targeted countries and that a “big stick” would be used to fix their finances, governments, and external relations.

Attention here centers on aspects of current and past attacks on Venezuela and on recent elections held in Honduras. The Trump Corollary is at work in both situations. Each is emblematic of overreach driven by money and power, of U.S. imperialism in other words.

No invasion yet

An armada of warships patrols waters off Venezuela – guided missile destroyers, amphibious assault vessels, an aircraft carrier, and a nuclear-powered submarine. On board are fighter planes and thousands of troops. The U.S government has announced upcoming CIA actions in the country, submitted Venezuela to a no-fly zone, deployed troops and F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, reactivated the Roosevelt Roads naval base there, and persuaded rightwing president of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader to permit U.S. use there of an airport and military base in........

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