The Monroe Doctrine was inaugurated in 1823 by US President James Monroe to police the waters of the Caribbean and Latin America as ‘America’s Backyard’ – and 201 years later, Washington still insists the entire region must always bow to that imperial dictate.
The Doctrine is defined as: ‘A United States foreign policy position’ that supposedly ‘opposes European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere…’
It also holds that ‘Any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas’ by ‘foreign powers’ is ‘a potentially hostile act against the United States.’
The last two centuries have seen the Doctrine applied through numerous military interventions in the wider region to ‘promote’, ‘protect’ or ‘defend’ ‘US interests’ in its ‘backyard’.
The US dispatched troops (at least) twice to Hispaniola – Haiti (1905) and the Dominican Republic (1965) and Washington supported the failed Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion of Cuba in 1961.
The US also financed the ‘Contra’ war against the Nicaragua Revolution in 1982-83 and invaded Grenada (1983) and Panama (1989).
And Washington supported the armed overthrow of Chile’s Salvador Allende by General Augusto Pinochet (1973), promoted the right-wing opposition in Jamaica against the Michael Manley administration (1976-80), supported the military coups in Honduras that deposed President Manuel Zelaya (2009) and in Bolivia that overthrew President Evo Morales (2019).
The US has never stopped trying to effect regime change in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was elected President in 2000 – and since then, against his elected successor Nicolas Maduro, supporting failed constitutional and military coups, with hundreds of inhuman sanctions against both Venezuela and Cuba.
The Doctrine was floated yet again earlier this month, when the U.S. Navy deployed warships and aircraft to track Russian naval vessels heading to Cuba.
Unidentified ‘US officials’ told ‘The Miami Herald’ (on June 12, 2024) the Russian vessels had sailed “less than 30 miles off South Florida’s coast” on May 11, 2024, to engage in “a set of extensive military air and naval exercises…”
The American deployment included three guided-missile destroyers — ‘USS Truxtun’, ‘USS Donald Cook’ and ‘USS Delbert D. Black’, Coast Guard cutter ‘Stone’ and a Boeing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft.
The American official said the US craft would adopt “whatever the necessary posture is to track and to monitor” the Russian naval detachment…”
The article quoted “a U.S. Northern Command official” as also saying: “While the Biden administration has said it is not concerned by the Russian activity, it has nevertheless authorized the deployment…
“In accordance with standard procedures, we’ve been actively monitoring the Russian ships as they transit the Atlantic Ocean within international waters.”
As a result, the official assured, “Air and maritime assets under U.S. Northern Command have conducted operations to ensure the defence of the United States and Canada.”
The Northern Command official admitted that “Russia’s deployments are part of routine naval activity which pose no direct threat or concern to the United States” and had “remained in international waters…”
The official was also quoted saying: “At no point have the ships or submarine posed a direct threat to the United States.”
The Russian naval craft would also pay a planned visit to Venezuela and the US official anticipates “The regional exercises will culminate in worldwide naval exercises by Russia that will include deployments from the Caribbean to the South Pacific.”
The visiting Russian craft were in Cuba for a week (June 12-19) and the Venezuelan training ship ‘AB Simón Bolívar’ would also visit Santiago de Cuba, the nation’s second-largest city, June 15-19.
But, even before the Russian or Venezuelan ships arrived, the mainstream international media were hyping-up 21st Century Cold War hysteria and harping-back to the so-called 1962 ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’.
Routine peaceful visits by Russian and Venezuelan craft to Cuba were presented as somehow testing or provoking the USA and Canada, thus why the US also quickly and quietly dispatched a naval submarine to its Guantanamo Base in Cuba.
Like the Russian crafts’ peaceful visits, Canada also dispatched ‘HMCS Margaret Brooke’, a patrol vessel of the Royal Canadian Navy, was also due in Havana for the week ending June 17.
The article said Canadian navy ship’s visit “highlighted the 50th anniversary of cooperation ties between Cuba and Canada” and “manifested the two nations’ continuing bilateral collaboration for the maintenance of peace in our region.”
However, a Reuters report on June 17, 2024, offered an additional reason.
Pressed by opposition legislators about the dispatch of the naval vessel to Cuba while the Russian crafts were there, Canada’s Defence Minister Bill Blair said:
“The deployment sends a very clear message that Canada has a capable and deployable military and we will not hesitate to do what is required to protect our national interest.”
He added, “Canadian Armed Forces will continue to track the movements and activities of the Russian ships…”
However, Canada’s adoption of the same stance (of treating the region as part of its backyard too) also ignores the 20th and 21st Century demands of the majority of the region’s sovereign nations that the Caribbean Sea be regarded, treated and respected as a Zone of Peace.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have all (especially since the naked US-led invasion of Grenada by US troops under a Caribbean fig leaf) ceaselessly demanded that peace be allowed to prevail in this region.
But, in pursuit of Washington’s doctrinaire Monroe policy, the US Southern Command continues to police the Caribbean Sea, while the Northern Command polices the Atlantic.
The recent European Union (EU) elections results caused serious political alarm across the continent, while the US elections in November can see the Biden administration opting to flex its muscles in Washington’s ‘backyard’ (including in Haiti again).
Meanwhile, Planet Earth continues to see how the Monroe Doctrine’s 21st Century application is no-less a real threat to regional peace today than 201 years ago.