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Monroe Doctrine 2.0 https://t.co/LPOYhIvsje
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Monroe Doctrine 2.0 https://t.co/LPOYhIvsje
(1/2) Empire’s Workshop, Crude Interventions, and the New Struggle for Venezuela: U.S., China, Russia, and the Fight to Lock Down the Hemisphere
Greg Grandin’s Empire’s Workshop argued that Latin America was the testing ground where Washington refined the tools of modern empire with sanctions, covert wars, regime destabilization, and the ability to fold raw power into the language of democracy. Garry Leech’s Crude Interventions showed how U.S. foreign policy cannot be separated from oil, with military campaigns and financial pressure used to guarantee access to hydrocarbons and maintain the global dollar order. When read together, these books describe with eerie precision the storm now unfolding around Venezuela.
The U.S. is not treating Venezuela as a peripheral crisis but as a hinge point for the Western Hemisphere. Washington knows that in a Fourth Turning moment, when institutional and monetary systems globally are under stress, it cannot afford to let rivals exploit instability in its own backyard. This is why the narrative of a drug war has given way to a broader strategic frame: cartels as shadow sovereigns, controlling not only narcotics but also ports, trucking fleets, pipelines, minerals, and even migration flows. By designating them as terrorist entities, sanctioning their banks, and targeting their logistics networks, the U.S. is asserting that migration, minerals, and energy corridors fall under national security, not law enforcement.
Here Grandin’s thesis is alive: Latin America once again becomes the workshop where imperial methods are refined. But Leech’s oil centric warning is also central: this is not ultimately about law enforcement, it is about restructuring energy and financial flows to ensure they remain under U.S. command. Guyana’s new oil reserves, Venezuelan offshore rigs, and cartel linked extortion of refineries are treated as strategic arteries of the global economy. Washington’s military patrols in the Caribbean, sanctions on narco linked banks, and crackdowns on illicit shipping are less about Maduro than about guaranteeing that adversaries cannot disrupt or capture these arteries.
China and Russia complicate this picture. Beijing has become Venezuela’s primary creditor and economic lifeline, providing billions in loans, supplying oil and goods to circumvent U.S. sanctions, and securing new deals to develop oil fields that could generate over $1 billion in investment by 2026. Beyond Venezuela, China is now the leading trading partner for much of South America, backing infrastructure projects from Brazilian ports to Chilean energy grids. Its strategy is patient, embedding influence through debt, trade, and long term supply chains.
Russia, by contrast, plays a narrower but sharper role. Its influence rests on military and security cooperation. In 2025, Moscow and Caracas signed a new strategic partnership, followed by the opening of a Kalashnikov ammunition factory in Venezuela. Russia also positions itself as lender of last resort, offering oil swaps and financial lifelines despite sanctions. On the information front, it aligns with Maduro’s worldview, using state media to amplify narratives of resistance against U.S. imperialism. Its objective is less about economic penetration than about ensuring the U.S. faces constant friction in its own hemisphere. Continued on page 2….. tweet
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Monroe Doctrine 2.0: The Hemisphere as Strategic Depth Again
If you strip away the slogans and look at the pattern of U.S. behavior in South America, it’s clear this isn’t a scattered drug operation or a dispute with one government. It’s a coordinated effort to reassert control over the Western Hemisphere at a moment when the global system is strained and outside powers including China, Russia, and even Iran are expanding their influence in the region.
Washington has rewritten the threat map. Cartels are no longer framed as criminal gangs but as shadow sovereigns that run ports, smuggling corridors, fuel theft, illicit mining, and migration routes. Once they’re categorized as national security threats through terrorist designations and expanded authorities, the U.S. can deploy a much wider toolset. That shift explains the military footprint now surrounding Venezuela with carrier groups, aerial patrols, interdictions, missile strikes on cartel linked vessels, and expanded CIA authorities. Publicly it’s counter narcotics, but the operational scale makes it clear this is strategic pressure.
The clash with Venezuela fits that logic. The U.S. claims to be targeting narco terror networks, but the naval deployments, sanctions, covert activity, and strikes on ships signal a broader goal which is preventing China and Russia from turning Venezuela into a durable platform for energy, debt, and military influence. Maduro’s defiant rhetoric, mass mobilization, and accusations of regime change plots show how seriously Caracas is taking the escalation. At the same time, the U.S. has floated ultimatums and backchannel offers, hinting that both coercion and negotiation are in play.
How This Connects to a New Monroe Doctrine
The original Monroe Doctrine warned European empires not to interfere in the Americas. Today the threat isn’t colonial flags, it’s external leverage systems like Chinese loans, ports, power grids, lithium concessions, Russian arms deals, Iranian intelligence networks, and the cartel economies that allow all three to operate beneath formal diplomacy. Influence now flows through supply chains, digital infrastructure, and commodity corridors. Monroe 2.0 is about sealing off those points of entry.
That is why Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia matter so much. Venezuela is the hinge because of its giant reserves and long standing ties to Beijing and Moscow. Guyana is the hedge: a booming offshore oil basin dominated by U.S. operators. Colombia is the platform: geographically positioned between the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Panama Canal, making it essential for intelligence, logistics, and interdiction. Together they form the strategic triangle the U.S. is trying to secure before rivals establish deeper footholds.
China plays the slow game with ports, energy grids, lithium, rare earths, state loans, long term supply contracts. Russia plays the sharper one with arms, training, intelligence cooperation, symbolic military access. Iran moves through asymmetric channels and non state actors. To Washington, this is exactly the type of outside interference the modern doctrine is supposed to block.
What Happens Next
Expect continuous naval and air presence in the Caribbean and Atlantic corridors. Expect more sanctions, bank designations, and interdictions aimed at cartel logistics and foreign facilitators. Expect pressure on governments flirting with Chinese port or telecom deals. Expect migration to be treated as a security variable directly linked to cartel control. And expect continued use of limited military force when Washington believes cartel networks are enabling rival influence.
In simple terms, the U.S. is rebuilding a modern sphere of influence to prevent outside powers from turning the hemisphere into a pressure point during a global transition. This isn’t about one leader or one crisis, it’s about who shapes the next system and whether the Western Hemisphere stays under U.S. command when it arrives. tweet
Monroe Doctrine 2.0: The Hemisphere as Strategic Depth Again
If you strip away the slogans and look at the pattern of U.S. behavior in South America, it’s clear this isn’t a scattered drug operation or a dispute with one government. It’s a coordinated effort to reassert control over the Western Hemisphere at a moment when the global system is strained and outside powers including China, Russia, and even Iran are expanding their influence in the region.
Washington has rewritten the threat map. Cartels are no longer framed as criminal gangs but as shadow sovereigns that run ports, smuggling corridors, fuel theft, illicit mining, and migration routes. Once they’re categorized as national security threats through terrorist designations and expanded authorities, the U.S. can deploy a much wider toolset. That shift explains the military footprint now surrounding Venezuela with carrier groups, aerial patrols, interdictions, missile strikes on cartel linked vessels, and expanded CIA authorities. Publicly it’s counter narcotics, but the operational scale makes it clear this is strategic pressure.
The clash with Venezuela fits that logic. The U.S. claims to be targeting narco terror networks, but the naval deployments, sanctions, covert activity, and strikes on ships signal a broader goal which is preventing China and Russia from turning Venezuela into a durable platform for energy, debt, and military influence. Maduro’s defiant rhetoric, mass mobilization, and accusations of regime change plots show how seriously Caracas is taking the escalation. At the same time, the U.S. has floated ultimatums and backchannel offers, hinting that both coercion and negotiation are in play.
How This Connects to a New Monroe Doctrine
The original Monroe Doctrine warned European empires not to interfere in the Americas. Today the threat isn’t colonial flags, it’s external leverage systems like Chinese loans, ports, power grids, lithium concessions, Russian arms deals, Iranian intelligence networks, and the cartel economies that allow all three to operate beneath formal diplomacy. Influence now flows through supply chains, digital infrastructure, and commodity corridors. Monroe 2.0 is about sealing off those points of entry.
That is why Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia matter so much. Venezuela is the hinge because of its giant reserves and long standing ties to Beijing and Moscow. Guyana is the hedge: a booming offshore oil basin dominated by U.S. operators. Colombia is the platform: geographically positioned between the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Panama Canal, making it essential for intelligence, logistics, and interdiction. Together they form the strategic triangle the U.S. is trying to secure before rivals establish deeper footholds.
China plays the slow game with ports, energy grids, lithium, rare earths, state loans, long term supply contracts. Russia plays the sharper one with arms, training, intelligence cooperation, symbolic military access. Iran moves through asymmetric channels and non state actors. To Washington, this is exactly the type of outside interference the modern doctrine is supposed to block.
What Happens Next
Expect continuous naval and air presence in the Caribbean and Atlantic corridors. Expect more sanctions, bank designations, and interdictions aimed at cartel logistics and foreign facilitators. Expect pressure on governments flirting with Chinese port or telecom deals. Expect migration to be treated as a security variable directly linked to cartel control. And expect continued use of limited military force when Washington believes cartel networks are enabling rival influence.
In simple terms, the U.S. is rebuilding a modern sphere of influence to prevent outside powers from turning the hemisphere into a pressure point during a global transition. This isn’t about one leader or one crisis, it’s about who shapes the next system and whether the Western Hemisphere stays under U.S. command when it arrives. tweet
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