By
UGO ONUOHA
Donald Trump’s reckless distortion of the Monroe Doctrine to justify the invasion of Venezuela exposes not grand strategy, but hypocrisy, imperial nostalgia, and the accelerating decline of American moral authority.
A dangerous mix of crude oil lust, militarism, and authoritarian impulse now masquerades as U.S. foreign policy.
JAMES Monroe was the fifth president of the United States of America. He served for eight years between 1817 – 1825. To an extent, even up till now, and in spite of the deep divisions within American society, his presidency is often regarded as the “Era of Good Feelings”. This was down to what was called the relative peace and unity during that time. Monroe did not earn his place in history and in the pantheon of great American presidents by his delivery of grand or, as we are wont to say here in Nigeria, legacy projects. No. But he secured his place in the hearts and minds of successive generations of Americans through his bold and grand vision for his country and the Western Hemisphere [the Americas in particular].
That grand vision of more than 200 years ago [1823] was encapsulated in what became known as the Monroe Doctrine which became the cornerstone of US foreign policy for decades, and even up till the present day. In essence, the Monroe Doctrine was an American policy which warned European powers against further colonization or intervention in the Americas in the immediate aftermath of decolonisation. It aimed to establish the Americas as a US sphere of influence. As a corollary, the US committed to non-interference in European affairs. The aim was to keep the New World separate from Old World politics and to prevent monarchies in Europe from reclaiming colonies after countries in Latin America gained their independence. Subsequently, the Doctrine was used to justify the assertion of American dominance in the region and interventions in Latin America and indeed elsewhere.
The key principles of the Monroe Doctrine included that the American continents were closed to any future European colonization; any European attempt to control, meddle or interfere with countries in the Western Hemisphere would be seen as a hostile act against the US; and, the US would steer clear of European political affairs and wars.
The Monroe Doctrine, as should be expected, has been used and abused in the hegemonic disposition of the US in the over 200 years of its formulation. It has been used to pressure presidents of countries in Latin America and in other places who were perceived as not promoting and protecting US interests; it has been deployed for regime change in the region; it has been canvassed to justify the assassinations of leaders of other countries, and the installation of friendly regimes; it has formed the basis for occupying some Latin American countries; the Doctrine has formed the basis for the invasion and the abduction of regional leaders who were subsequently put on trial in American courts of law.
It was the Monroe Doctrine which, as he’s wont to do, President Donald Trump, is attempting to bastardise by branding it as ‘Don-roe [after his own first name, Donald] Doctrine’, that he used for the invasion and kidnapping of the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. And then bundling him and his wife to the US to face charges on Trump’s so-called ‘narco-terrorism’ crime. To justify his modern day gangsterism, Trump claimed that Venezuela under Maduro, had been “increasingly hosting foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten US interests”. He said Maduro’s actions were in “gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy dating back more than two centuries”. We will recall that the alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction [WMD] was the reason that the US adduced for the invasion and destruction of Iraq. It was a ruse.
All were pretexts. Being profound and high-minded were not the forte of Donald Trump. He is banal. He is shallow. He lacks basic human decency. He is not capable of deep thought. He could be regarded as clever. He could pass as being smart. But that will only be in the class of crooks. In any case, he is a convicted felon. Trump is probably the only known practiced liar who is incapable of sustaining a lie. And that could be because 10 out of every nine words out of his mouth are likely to be lies. The reasons he adduced for abducting Maduro have all crumbled. He crumbled them himself along with his regime’s band of bare-faced liars. And racists.
Let’s make an attempt to deconstruct Trump and his rationales for going into Venezuela and abducting its president. But before that it must be acknowledged that Maduro did not cover himself in glory in the years he was in power. There are receipts that he brazenly stole Venezuela’s presidential election of last year. But if stolen election is sufficient grounds for a foreign power to oust the president of another country, some people who are sitting pretty in the presidencies of some African and third world countries would have long been sacked and jailed. Some of such presidents are consumed by working out how their henchmen will rig elections, cause violence in their opponents strongholds, compromise election managers, use security agencies to intimidate opposition figures, deploy anti-graft agents to harass and besmirch rivals, and ‘snatch, grab and run’ away with results on election day, and finally cause a ‘technical glitch’ on the portal for the transmission of election results, than in governing and doing good for a majority of their people.
Trump accused Maduro of being at the head of a drug cartel called Cartel de los Soles [or Cartel of the Suns], and so undeserving of continuing to be the president of neighbouring Venezuela. That could not be sustained because on December 1, 2025, the same Trump had pardoned a former president of another neighbouring country Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was arrested under President Joe Biden by US law enforcement agents, arraigned in a US court, convicted, and sentenced to prison for importing 400 tons of cocaine into America. Hernandez, who served as president from 2014 to 2022, was convicted for turning Honduras into a “narco-state” and accepting bribes from drug traffickers. He was to be in prison for 45 years. The hypocrisy should be staggering. Indeed, at the arraignment of Maduro and his wife in New York last week, the frequently bandied name of the drug cartel that Maduro allegedly headed for the drug business was not mentioned in the charge sheet. Pretext number one crushed. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is notorious for his alleged links to the MS-13 criminal group but he visits the White House at the instance of Trump and is treated to a red carpet reception. He was in the Oval Office last year. There have been credible allegations that Bukele’s regime made deals with the gang, offering them power and financial incentives in exchange for reducing violence and supporting his ruling party, Nuevas Ideas, during elections. He is Trump’s friend.
Then Trump said that Maduro was a dictator which is true. But that also cannot be a justification for kidnapping another country’s president. Trump himself is a wannabe dictator. He had said so severally himself. His circle of friends comprises strongmen whom he admires and dotes on, including the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, the president of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the president of China who is also the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xi Jinping. So if Trump admires dictators, he should be in love with Maduro. Another reason out the window. Trump said one of the things he liked about Xi was that he seized power for life. Maduro rigged elections to cling on to power also for life. He is not different from Xi who fiddled with the constitution of China to remain in office for life. But for Trump, it’s different strokes for different folks.
The other reason for Trump kidnapping Maduro was that he was not a legitimately elected president of his country. He rigged an election. If that be the case, the expectation should be that with Maduro’s ouster the opposition candidate who was said to have won that election would have been installed. But no. Maduro’s vice president who was his running mate in the discredited election was instead sworn in as the president of Venezuela. Trump is working with her and has already extracted a gift of 50 million barrels of crude oil. Trump has said America would sell the crude at the ruling market rate, and that he would personally control the use of the proceeds of the sale.
Meanwhile, it has been proven that Venezuela sits atop over 300 billion barrels of crude oil, reported to be the largest crude oil reserve in the world. Trump said that Maduro had to be removed because the oil belonged to America. He said US oil giants including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Conoco Philips and others were in the know about the plot. And that they would move in to take over the oil fields. The oil companies have since disclaimed the story. When finally Trump held a meeting with the oil executives last week, they gave him a condition for the transaction – that the American government, read taxpayers, should fork out a minimum of $100 billion to subsidize their potential return and investment and revamping of Venezuela’s degraded upstream and downstream oil sectors. ExxonMobil chief said that his company had a bitter experience in Venezuela about 40 years ago, and so would hedge its bet on the country this time around. In other words, the oil executives were saying that for them to return to Venezuela, the poor people of the US should fund the venture of the rich oil companies. Of course, as usual Trump had lied that he consulted with the American oil majors before and after his invasion of Venezuela.
Furthermore, Trump said that Venezuela was not a democracy. But there has been no talk of restoring democracy since the removal of Maduro. President Trump merely said he would run the country for an indeterminate period. He has not mentioned conducting any elections. Instead the rumps of the Maduro regime continue to hold on to power. He has dismissed the winner of the latest Nobel Peace Prize, a Venezuelan opposition figure, saying that she did not possess leadership capacity. But Trump added that she could be considered for some sort of role in governing that country if she gave him the Nobel Peace Prize when she visits Washington soon. Trump coveted and vigorously campaigned for the Prize before it was awarded to Maria Corina Machado, a politician and activist who was recognised for her efforts to achieve peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in Venezuela. The world football governing body, [FIFA] has since manufactured its own peace laureate and awarded it to Trump in an elaborate ceremony ostensibly to pacify him. America, Canada, and Mexico are jointly hosting this year’s football world cup.
So why did Trump invade Venezuela and kidnap Maduro. There are three possibilities. Trump has been enamoured by the phrase: take their oil. He had been quoted as saying that a grave mistake that America made when it invaded Iraq in 2003 was in not seizing that country’s oil fields and assets. And he is now insistent on seizing Venezuela’s oil. This is in spite of the fact that America is an oil producer with sizable crude deposits. Secondly, Trump is mortally afraid that Venezuela was becoming a staging post for the encirclement of the US by hostel and rival powers such as Russia and China. And in addition, Venezuela’s adoption of transactions for its crude oil sales in currencies other than the Dollar posed an immediate danger to the American currency. It did not matter to Trump that on this issue the horse has since bolted from the stable. Russia and BRICS nations have already made tremendous advances in de-Dollarisation of global trade. BRICS and partner countries now make up more than half of the world’s gross domestic product [GDP]. And they are perfecting payments for trades amongst themselves without using the USD. The American century is almost over. Trump is only helping to accelerate the decline.
However, the most important reason for Trump’s adventures could be his love for the use of the American military might in an unrestrained and unconstrained manner. Last week he bombed ISIS in Syria. Previously, he had bombed Iran, Nigeria and other places for incoherent reasons especially in the case of Nigeria. His flexing of military might has not been limited to foreign lands. He also has attempted to use the American military inside the US in spite of the act being forbidden by the US constitution. He federalised the American National Guard for domestic law enforcement in some cities controlled by the opposition Democrat Party. It was even suggested that he planned to use the military to intimidate voters during the midterm elections in November which he feared his Republican Party would lose. And in the 2028 election. But the US supreme court has stopped him by declaring that he is constitutionally forbidden from federalising the National Guard. Democracies die when megalomaniacs and buffoons accede to power. That’s the fate that awaits the US with Trump in the presidency. The sun is setting on America as a city on the hill and a force for global good.
