What Happened
- Following the US military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on 3 January 2026, Latin America — a continent of more than 450 million people — is grappling with the reassertion of direct US interventionism in what Trump administration officials have explicitly called the "Donroe Doctrine."
- The "Donroe Doctrine" (a portmanteau of Donald Trump and the Monroe Doctrine) explicitly updates the 19th-century principle, claiming not just the right to exclude external powers from the hemisphere but active US military intervention within Latin American states.
- A special extraordinary summit of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) was convened in response, but the body failed to produce a unified declaration condemning the US action.
- The region is deeply divided: left-leaning governments (Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua) condemned the intervention as a violation of sovereignty and international law, while right-leaning governments (Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador) expressed support for Maduro's removal.
- China and Russia both condemned the intervention; Russia's position carries particular weight given Venezuela's traditional role as a buffer state with deep Russian investment in its energy sector.
- Regional analysts note that without unity among the continent's 33 countries, Latin America lacks the institutional mechanism to effectively counter or deter US military unilateralism.
Static Topic Bridges
The Monroe Doctrine (1823) to the "Donroe Doctrine" (2026): Historical Arc
The Monroe Doctrine, announced by President James Monroe in his December 2, 1823 address to Congress, established the foundational principle of US hegemony over the Western Hemisphere. Its core assertion: European powers should not attempt to colonize or interfere in the affairs of the newly independent American states, or the US would treat such action as a threat to its own security.
- The Roosevelt Corollary (1904): President Theodore Roosevelt extended the doctrine to assert the US right to intervene in Latin American countries to stabilize their "economic affairs" if they were unable to do so themselves — providing the legal cover for a wave of US military occupations in the early 20th century.
- The Clark Memorandum (1928): The US State Department partially repudiated the Roosevelt Corollary, arguing the Monroe Doctrine did not justify intervention — a position later formalized as the "Good Neighbor Policy" under Franklin Roosevelt (1933).
- Cold War Application: The doctrine was revived during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Bay of Pigs invasion (1961), US interventions in Guatemala (1954), Dominican Republic (1965), Chile (1973 — indirect), Grenada (1983), Panama (1989), and others.
- The "Donroe Doctrine" represents a qualitative escalation: previous interventions nominally operated through proxies or multilateral frameworks; Maduro's capture was an overt, unilateral military operation against a sitting head of state.
Connection to this news: The article frames the current South American response through this historical lens — Latin American resistance to US hegemony has deep roots, but has consistently been undermined by internal divisions between ideologically aligned and opposed governments.
CELAC and the Architecture of Latin American Multilateralism
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) was established in 2011 in Caracas, bringing together all 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Crucially, it excludes the United States and Canada — distinguishing it from the Organization of American States (OAS) and framing it as an autonomous regional bloc.
- CELAC was conceived partly as an alternative to the US-dominated OAS (established 1948, headquartered in Washington DC), giving Latin America a platform where it could coordinate positions without North American veto influence.
- The OAS Charter (Article 19) prohibits intervention in the internal affairs of member states — yet the OAS has been criticized for selectively applying this principle depending on US preferences.
- CELAC has no standing military force, no permanent secretariat with binding authority, and no enforcement mechanisms — making it primarily a diplomatic forum rather than an operational collective security body.
- The bloc's ideological diversity (ranging from socialist Cuba and Nicaragua to right-wing Argentina under Milei and El Salvador under Bukele) prevents consensus on politically charged issues.
- UNASUR (Union of South American Nations, founded 2008) — an earlier attempt at South American integration that included defence coordination — effectively collapsed by 2019 after several right-leaning governments withdrew.
Connection to this news: CELAC's failure to produce a unified response to Maduro's capture illustrates the structural weakness of Latin American multilateralism — when the core challenge is ideological division rather than external threat alone, normative frameworks cannot paper over political fractures.
Sovereignty, Non-Intervention, and the UN Charter
The principle of sovereign equality and non-intervention in the internal affairs of states is the foundational norm of the post-1945 international order, enshrined in the UN Charter (Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 7). No state has the right to intervene militarily in the domestic affairs of another sovereign state, except in cases authorized by the UN Security Council under Chapter VII or in genuine self-defence.
- Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."
- The US justified its Venezuela operation under narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges filed in US federal courts — a claim of extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction that most international legal scholars find inconsistent with UN Charter obligations.
- The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and broader customary international law protect sitting heads of state from arrest by foreign powers absent UN authorization.
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) — the UN's principal judicial organ — has jurisdiction over inter-state disputes but only when both parties accept it; Venezuela could theoretically file a case, but enforcement against the US remains practically impossible.
- The UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution (with a majority but not unanimous support) condemning the intervention.
Connection to this news: The Venezuela intervention creates a dangerous precedent: if the world's most powerful military can remove a sovereign leader under unilateral criminal jurisdiction claims, smaller states across the Global South face heightened vulnerability to coercive regime change.
Key Facts & Data
- Maduro was captured on 3 January 2026 during a US military operation in Caracas.
- CELAC was established in 2011; comprises all 33 Latin American and Caribbean states (excludes US and Canada).
- The Monroe Doctrine was announced on 2 December 1823; the Roosevelt Corollary added in 1904.
- OAS (Organization of American States) was established in 1948 and includes the US and Canada.
- UN Charter Article 2(4) prohibits use of force against territorial integrity of any state.
- Latin America and the Caribbean has 33 countries and a combined population of over 650 million.
- More than half a dozen right-leaning Latin American governments (including Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador) supported the US operation.