Consumer confidence is falling. The national debt is $38 trillion and rising like the yodeling mountaineer in that game of “The Price is Right.” Donald Trump's approval ratings are falling and America is growing restless as 2025 draws to a close.
What should an aspiring strongman do to shore up his regime?
Attack Latin America, of course!
American warplanes have bombed small ships in international waters off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia since September with extrajudicial zeal. The Trump administration has claimed that those ships were full of drugs manned by “narcoterrorists” and has released videos of each of the 10 ships, and counting, that it has incinerated to make the actions appear as normal as a mission in “Call of Duty.”
“Narcoterrorists trying to bring poison to our shores will not find safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has just ordered an aircraft carrier currently stationed in the Mediterranean to be installed in the Caribbean, posted on social media. He will join 10,000 troops stationed there as part of one of the largest U.S. deployments to the area in decades, all in the name of stopping a drug epidemic that has devastated red America for the past quarter century.
This week, Trump authorized covert CIA actions in Venezuela and revealed that he wants to launch attacks against ground targets where, according to his people, Latin American cartels operate. Who cares if the host countries will give permission? Who cares about American laws that say only Congress (not the president) can declare war on our enemies?
After all, it is Latin America.
Military buildup, bombing, and threatening more in the name of freedom is one of the oldest measures in the American foreign policy playbook. For more than two centuries, the United States has treated Latin America like its personal piñata, foolishly criticizing it for goods and not caring about the unpleasant consequences.
“It is common knowledge that we derive [our blessings] “Of the excellence of our institutions,” James Monroe concluded in the 1823 speech that established what became known as the Monroe Doctrine, which essentially told the rest of the world to leave the Western Hemisphere to us. “Shouldn't we then take whatever measures are necessary to perpetuate them?”
Our 19th century wars of expansion, official and otherwise, gained us territories where Latin Americans lived (Panamanians, Puerto Ricans, but especially Mexicans) who we ended up treating as little better than serfs. We have occupied nations for years and imposed sanctions on others. We have propped up puppets and despots and overthrown democratically elected governments with the regularity of the seasons.
The culmination of all these actions was the mass migrations from Latin America that forever altered the demographics of the United States. And when those people – like my parents – came here, they were immediately subjected to a racism ingrained in the American psyche, which then justified a Latin American foreign policy inclined toward domination, not friendship.
Nothing strengthens this country historically like hitting Latinos, whether in their ancestral countries or here. We are the perpetual scapegoats and eternal invaders of this country, and harming gringos (whether by stealing their jobs, moving into their neighborhoods, marrying their daughters, or dealing drugs) is supposedly the only thing on our minds.
That's why when Trump ran on an isolationist platform last year, he never referred to the region; of course not. The border between the United States and Latin America has never been the fence that divides the United States from Mexico or our coasts. It's where the hell we say it is.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro Urrego addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 23 at UN Headquarters.
(Pamela Smith/Associated Press)
That's why the Trump administration is banking on the idea that it can get away with its ship bombings and is eager to escalate the situation. For them, the 43 people that US missile strikes have so far killed in the open sea are not human, and anyone who may have even an iota of sympathy or doubt also deserves aggression.
So when Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the United States of murder because one of the attacks killed a Colombian fisherman with no ties to the cartels, Trump took to social media to criticize Petro's “fresh mouth,” accuse him of being a “drug kingpin” and warn the head of a former U.S. ally that “you better close these death camps.” [cartel bases] immediately, or the United States will close them and it will not be done well.”
The only person who can lower the proverbial temperature on this issue is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who should know all the bad that US imperialism has caused in Latin America. The United States treated Cuba, his parents' homeland, like a playground for decades, propping up one dictator after another until Cubans rebelled and Fidel Castro took power. A decades-long embargo that Trump reinforced upon taking office for the second time has done nothing to free the Cuban people and, on the contrary, has made things worse.
Instead, Rubio is the instigator. He is pushing for regime change in Venezuela, befriending the self-proclaimed “world's coolest dictator” Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and applauding Trump's missile attacks.
“Simply put, these are drug trafficking ships,” Rubio told reporters recently with Trump at his side. “If people want to stop seeing drug ships explode, they should stop sending drugs to the United States.”
You may be wondering: Who cares? Cartels are bad, drugs are bad, right? Of course. But all Americans should stand up every time a suspected drug ship leaving Latin America is destroyed without questions or evidence. Because every time Trump violates another law or rule in the name of defending America and no one stops him, democracy erodes a little more.
After all, this is a president who seems to dream of treating his enemies, including American cities, like drug ships.
Few will care, unfortunately. After all, it is Latin America.
