After a spectacular military operation in Venezuela, an aspiring BRICS member, US President Donald Trump is beaming with confidence. Within 24 hours of the audacious operation in Caracas that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Trump has threatened three more countries in the so-called Western Hemisphere, which the US now wants to treat as its backyard.
Trump’s remarks have put Colombia, Cuba, and Greenland on notice. And though Trump has not mentioned BRICS in his warning blitz, Russia and China will be foolish not to see the writing on the wall. The military operation in Venezuela is a direct affront to BRICS.
Furthermore, while the world has learned to live with and politely ignore Trump’s bombastic claims, such as making Canada the 51st state of the US, the pendulum has shifted after the Venezuela operation. The US has shown that it has the means, the wherewithal, and the ambition to act on Trump’s claims, which till recently, sounded more like fantasy tales.
In the new world order, one can ignore Trump’s fantasies at one’s own peril. Words like sovereignty, international law, and the United Nations have lost their gravitas. The Global South, and multilateral institutions like BRICS that claim to speak on its behalf, are afflicted with a dangerous dispondency.
So, what does this new world order entail for the Global South, the BRICS, and countries in the Western Hemisphere, particularly those directly threatened by Trump: Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland?
Trump’s Warning Blitz
On January 4, barely 24 hours after the Venezuela operation, Trump told reporters on board Air Force One that Colombia and Venezuela were “very sick” and that the government in Bogota was run by “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
“And he’s not going to be doing it very long. Let me tell you,” Trump said, referring to Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
When asked if he meant a US operation against Colombia, Trump said, “Sounds good to me.”
Earlier on December 3, Trump said about Petro, “He has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He’s making cocaine. They’re sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his a**.”
On Cuba, Trump said, “Cuba is ready to fall. Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. Cuba literally is ready to fall.”
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also warned Cuba.
“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned,” Rubio said.
Warning Mexico, Trump said that the country “has to get their act together because they’re pouring (drugs) through Mexico and we’re going to have to do something.”
Trump also revived his long-standing push for the US to take control of Greenland, the semi-autonomous Danish territory, claiming that it was essential for American security.
“We need Greenland. … It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Trump even claimed that Europe supports the idea.
“The European Union needs us to have it, and they know that,” he said.
Trump’s warning blitz against Latin American countries, as well as Greenland, represents a new phase of US foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, widely described as ‘Monroe Doctrine in Action’.
Monroe Doctrine In Action
The Monroe Doctrine is a U.S. foreign policy established in 1823 that opposed European colonialism in Latin America and underscored U.S. primacy in the Western Hemisphere. It stated that any further European colonization or intervention in the Americas would be viewed as a hostile act against the United States.
Trump has made no secret of his desire to revive the ‘Monroe Doctrine’.
In December last year, the Trump administration released its much-awaited US National Security Strategy (NSS), a 33-page document outlining the U.S.’s global priorities and foreign policy goals.
The report said that after years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere and to protect the US homeland and its access to key geographies throughout the region.
In language deceptively similar to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, the report declared that the US will not allow “non-Hemispheric competitors” to influence the region.
“We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere,” the report said.
The military operation in Venezuela could be seen as the manifestation of this ‘Monroe Doctrine’ in the 21st century.
Speaking on January 3, Trump talked about his outlook on foreign policy in Latin America, referring to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine.
Pointing to China, Iran, and Russia’s influence on the oil industry in Venezuela, Trump said, “All of these actions were in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries.”
He added, “All the way back, dated to the Monroe doctrines. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donroe doctrine.”
Apparently, by the ‘Monroe Doctrine,’ Trump meant Donald (Don) and former US President James Monroe (Roe).
James Monroe originally gave the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. By calling it the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’ Trump is highlighting that he has revived it in 2026 after years of neglect by multiple US Presidents.
Trump added, “Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.
“We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors, we want to surround ourselves with stability, and we want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world.”
Gretchen Murphy, a professor at the University of Texas, described Trump’s reference to the doctrine as in line with how it had been used by his predecessors, including Roosevelt, who she said “claimed that the Monroe Doctrine could be extended to justify interventions that instead of defending Latin American nations from European intervention, policed them to make sure their governments acted in U.S. commercial and strategic interests.”
“I think Trump is jumping on this familiar pattern -– citing the Monroe Doctrine to legitimate interventions that undermine real democracy, and ones where various kinds of interests are served, including commercial interests,” Murphy, author of “Hemispheric Imaginings: The Monroe Doctrine and Narratives of U.S. Empire,” told the Associated Press.
In fact, under this doctrine, Trump is threatening not just Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba, but also supporting regime change in several Latin American countries ruled by left-wing governments and trying to replace them with right-wing governments.
Trump has backed the right-wing government of Argentina’s Javier Milei and pardoned ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez of drug trafficking charges.
Meanwhile, he has sparred with the Colombian President Petro and sanctioned a Brazilian judge who oversaw the prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.
“We’ve seen in this first year of his administration in general a far more concerted agenda to promote right-wing governments in Latin America and to damage left-wing governments in Latin America,” said David Smith, an associate professor at the University of Sydney’s US Studies Centre.
Trump’s War On BRICS
Venezuela has for years tried to become a full member of BRICS. Caracas was conducting its oil trade in Yuan and other non-dollar currencies, further antagonizing the US.
The military operation in Venezuela also carries a subtle message for the BRICS countries, which often claim to speak for the Global South.
The ineffectiveness of the BRICS in mounting any credible opposition to the US’s naked aggression in Latin America highlights the limits of BRICS power.
It is noteworthy that BRICS is not a formal military alliance. Unlike NATO, the BRICS countries are not bound by treaty to come to each other’s defense.
In fact, the BRICS countries have mostly relied on international law, multilateral institutions, and diplomatic engagements, rather than on military guarantees, to preserve strategic autonomy.
In an era where the US is openly justifying its imperialistic designs under the Monroe Doctrine, is invading sovereign countries without any provocation, and openly threatening nearly half a dozen more countries, the relevance of a BRICS-like grouping is open to question.
Notably, Trump has imposed some of the highest tariffs on the BRICS countries.
Russia is already one of the most sanctioned countries on earth due to its war in Ukraine. India and Brazil have both been slapped with 50% tariff. China has 47.5% tariff imposed on its trade.
Meanwhile, the US has also imposed 30% tariff on South Africa and suspended aid after alleging systematic “White Genocide” in the country.
It is hard to miss that Trump is systematically targeting BRICS countries on various pretexts. However, whether these efforts will succeed in breaking the alliance is uncertain.
Will BRICS must formulate a new strategy to counter the US’s overtly imperialist foreign policy. Can India and China really overcome their differences?
Latin American countries are an important constituency for the BRICS; it can not afford to remain silent when the US treats them as its backyard.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
