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Monroe Doctrine

Trump Helps BlackRock Buy Panama Canal Ports To Weaken China

The Donald Trump administration has made it clear that the top two priorities of the US government are to weaken China and to strengthen Wall Street. The small Central American nation of Panama has found itself at the center of Trump’s strategy. In his inauguration speech on January 20, the US president falsely claimed that “China is operating the [Panama] canal”, and he insisted “we’re taking it back”. In a press conference two weeks before, Trump implied that he was willing to use military force to take over the canal if Panama refused to give the United States effective control.

What Is A ‘Multipolar’ World?

It is now widely acknowledged that the world is multipolar. This is so uncontroversial that the Munich Security Conference chose the title “Multipolarization” for its 2025 annual report. However, there is not a common definition of “multipolarity”. The Munich Security Report noted that, while “the world’s ‘multipolarization’ is a fact”, the “international system shows elements of unipolarity, bipolarity, multipolarity, and nonpolarity”, in which “multiple order models co-exist, compete, or clash”. Governments have radically different understandings of the meaning of multipolarity.

Panama: Self-Determination And National Popular Unity

The peoples have the right to decide their own collective destiny as established by the Bandung Conference in 1955 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, which was not gratuitous but a product of the struggle of the peripheral countries for their decolonization. Amid this reality, the United States never gave up extending the Monroe Doctrine to the present day. Making the situation worse, imperial irredentism becomes explicit with President Donald Trump. The Panamanian people’s distrust of the political elite at this juncture is being reproduced in the collective imagination in a marked disinterest in Trump’s imperial irredentism.

Whether Biden Or Trump, US’ Latin American Policy Will Be Contemptible

With Donald Trump as the new US president, pundits are speculating about how US policy towards Latin America might change. In this article, we look at some of the speculation, then address three specific instances of how the US’s policy priorities may be viewed from a progressive, Latin American perspective. This leads us to a wider argument: that the way these issues are dealt with is symptomatic of Washington’s paramount objective of sustaining the US’s hegemonic position. In this overriding preoccupation, its policy towards Latin America is only one element, of course, but always of significance because the US hegemon still treats the region as its “backyard.”

Zone of Peace In Haiti And The Americas

Thank you for joining us for this critical webinar exploring the multifaceted tools of imperialism and their impact on the Americas, or rather, Our Americas or Nuestra América. This discussion will unpack how sanctions, soft power mechanisms like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID, militarization, and global banking systems are weaponized to uphold U.S. power and undermine sovereignty across the region. Panelists will analyze the historical and contemporary roles these tools play in destabilizing governments, fostering dependency, and suppressing popular people’s movements for self-determination, highlighting resistance strategies and pathways to combat imperialism and defend sovereignty while building solidarity among peoples and nations in the Americas.

Will The Cuban Revolution Survive The Storm Of 2025?

On January 1, Cuba officially joined the international grouping known as BRICS, as one of 13 nations incorporated as “partner states.” The date, which coincides with the 66th anniversary of the triumph of their revolution, could mark a turning point for the beleaguered socialist state. But unless the country’s leaders embrace a strategic fiscal shift in the face of an asphyxiating US blockade, the prospect of state collapse – and the unraveling of over a half century of revolutionary social development – can not be dismissed.

Bolivarian Diplomacy Vs. The Monroe Doctrine

This continent has been struggled over for more than 200 years. Even before Monroe’s famous speech, the idea existed that the US had some sort of right to the whole continent. The thirteen colonies achieved independence first, creating a republican system that was considered an improvement over the absolutist monarchies of Europe. For that reason, they felt destined to expand their system. From the beginning, they viewed the south of the continent as their home turf. They felt it was their “destiny” to control all the territories. However, the perspective of the incipient US republic – conceived by and for white land-owning men – starkly contrasted with the Bolivarian one.

Vijay Prashad: ‘Socialism Or Ruin’

Monroeism is barbaric. It’s brutal. Sometimes the word imperialism doesn’t capture, emotionally, how brutal imperialism actually is, how brutal, how barbaric, inconsiderate it is towards the lives of ordinary people. 50,000 people have probably already been killed in Gaza. There are 7,000 people missing. Of them, 5,000 children, 15,000 children dead in Gaza – A generation lost. That is the brutality, the callousness of imperialism. We have decided, in our text Hyper-Imperialism, to use the term hyper-imperialism to capture some of that brutality, that barbarism. You see the thing about hyper-imperialism, led by the United States, is that it is dangerous and it is decadent.

US Congressional Resolution Calls For Annulling The Monroe Doctrine

While the Monroe Doctrine ingenuously claimed to protect hemispheric independence from foreign interference, HR 943 charges that the policy has, in fact, been used as a “mandate” to give the US license to interfere in the internal affairs of other states to promote its own narrow interests. The resolution forcefully begins with noting the “massive, forced displacement and genocide of Native peoples” by the North American colonialists.  The resolution goes on to enumerate the further progression of the US imperium on the hemisphere. Back in the 1840s, the US took 55% of Mexico.

Year 2023 In Review For Latin American And The Caribbean

December 2 marked the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, which proclaimed US dominion over Latin America and the Caribbean. Left-leaning governments in the hemisphere have had to contest a decadent but still dominant USA. Challenges in the past year include a world economic slowdown, a continuing drug plague, and a more aggressive hegemon reacting to a more volatile and disputed world order. The progressive regional current, the so-called Pink Tide, slackened in 2023 compared to the rising tide of 2022, which had been buoyed by big wins in Colombia and Brazil.

200 Years Of The Monroe Doctrine

December 2, 2023 marked two hundred years since U.S. President James Monroe’s address to Congress, which came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. It has become a household name for U.S. foreign policy over the past several centuries and will likely continue to be used indefinitely into the future. Although it was periodically supplemented by other doctrines and concepts. However, it was under James Monroe when it was categorically stated “America for the Americans”, and the European powers had no business there, even though they had overseas possessions.

Activists Hold Mock Funeral On UVA Grounds For Monroe Doctrine

It was 200 years ago that President James Monroe delivered a speech that would later become the framework for the Monroe Doctrine. Activists around the world are now trying to bury the document. Some of those activists met on UVA Grounds Saturday, December 2, for a mock funeral service to put the doctrine and its ideals to rest. “This idea that somebody doing something the U.S. government doesn’t like thousands of miles away is a threat to U.S safety? That means you can go and attack Iraq and call it defensive, and this has been done for 200 years,” World Beyond War Director David Swanson said.

New Mood In The World Will Put An End To The Global Monroe Doctrine

Every day since 7 October has felt like an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with hundreds of thousands gathering in Istanbul, a million in Jakarta, and then yet another million across Africa and Latin America to demand an end to the brutal attack being carried out by Israel (with the collusion of the United States). It is impossible to keep up with the scale and frequency of the protests, which are in turn pushing political parties and governments to clarify their stances on Israel’s attack on Palestine. These mass demonstrations have generated three kinds of outcomes.

Humor In The Headlines Over China In Latin America

In a break from its hysterical coverage of the existential threat posed by Donald Trump, the Washington Post – house organ of the Democratic National Committee – cautions us of the other menace, China. “When the leader of this impoverished Central American country visited Beijing in June,” we are warned, “China laid out the warmest of welcomes.” Apparently in a grave threat to US national security, the president of Honduras attended a state banquet and actually ate Chinse food. What next for the country the Post affectionately describes as “long among the most docile of US regional partners”?

Forum: Burying 200 Years Of The US Monroe Doctrine

It’s time to bury the Monroe Doctrine and foster positive relationships across Latin America and the Caribbean. Join us at American University on Saturday, April 29th, from 10am to 5:30pm for the Forum: "In Search of a New U.S. Policy for a New Latin America: Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine," followed by an arts and culture event that night. The day before, April 28th, is an Advocacy Day in Congress, to promote policies that foster cooperation and mutual respect towards our neighbors in the South. Register now to be part of the conversation either in person or online!
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