The US will pay for this error

My assessment of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is largely negative, but not all the actions of his administration were bad ones. One of the best was his promulgation of his Good Neighbor Policy in 1933. The US had spent over thirty years intervening in the politics of Latin America, mainly for terrible reasons. Most of these interventions and military actions were on behalf of Wall Street and the banking system, both US and European banks. His relative, Theodore Roosevelt, years earlier, had issued the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which pretty much rationalized routine interference in the internal affairs of countries south of the border. The actual idea behind the original Monroe Doctrine was a good one, to keep the damn Europeans out of our back yard as much as possible. If banks and brokerage houses want to make reckless and risky investments in Latin America and the Caribbean, they should “eat” their losses. Instead the US Navy and Marine Corps became regular invaders of many small countries south of us as a kind of collection agency. After he retired in the early thirties, Marine Corps Major-General Smedley Butler admitted freely (and deplored) his role as a “high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers.”

While the US has not had a perfect record of following the Good Neighbor Policy, we made fewer interventions in the region, like Lyndon Johnson’s invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and Clinton’s 1994 invasion of Haiti. However, there were a huge number of interventions from 1898 to 1933 and there was at least some restraint after the Good Neighbor Policy. By not treating our neighbors in Latin America as friends and partners, Trump wants to bring us back to the bad old days of 1898-1933.

I see the hand of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in this. Rubio is said to have the president’s ear. If there is anything almost worse than a Cuban Communist it’s probably the typical anti-Castro Cuban. Rubio is also hyper-aggressive on Ukraine and Israel. He lied to Congress during his confirmation hearings when he said he would administer an America First foreign policy.

Right now in Latin America there are large numbers of new right-wing anti-Marxist populist leaders taking power. A populist-nationalist, Jose Antonio Kast, will be inaugurated in March after 30 years of Leftist governments in Chile. Noboa in Ecuador and Pena in Paraguay have been elected recently. Even Bukele in El Salvador, a man of the moderate Left, has done a great job of destroying the gangs. Trump’s invasion of Venezuela will embolden the far-Left in the Latin world and these positive changes will be challenged by a resurgence of Marxism. This will, of course, bring real suffering caused by irresponsible governments. If Latin-America goes downhill, it will make our border harder to control.

The US should be the friend of Latin American countries, shielding them from both powers outside the Western Hemisphere and exploitation by Wall Street and the “City of London.” The US has a vested interest in the progress of our southern neighbors. By focusing strictly on US-Venezuelan relations and ignoring the regional consequences of our actions, Trump and Rubio have done severe damage to our country’s good name in the region that will take 20 years to undo.