VENEZUELA AND BEYOND: CAN TRUMP’S AMERICA WIN HEARTS AND MINDS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE? |
The optics of January 3 were undeniably cinematic. ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ — the lightning strike on Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolas Maduro and his wife to the US—was designed to project ultimate power.
It was precisely the kind of geopolitical theatre that the second Trump administration thrives upon: a demonstration of overwhelming force that resolves a complex, decade-long stalemate in a single night of shock and awe.
In Washington, the mood among supporters is triumphant; the “backyard” has been brought to heel, and the flow of vital petroleum is being “secured”.
Yet, as the smoke clears over Caracas, a critical question demands an answer.
Can a policy built entirely on naked coercion ever translate into enduring influence? In the cold calculus of geopolitics, the United States has undoubtedly won the battle for territory and resources.
But in the complex, historical tapestry of Latin America, it has almost certainly lost the war for ‘hearts and minds’.
A legacy of interventions
To understand why, one must look beyond the immediate tactical success and dissect the strategic paradigm that enabled it.
This was not merely a counter-narcotics operation; it was the violent baptism of the Trump Corollary—a hyper-aggressive mutation of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine for the 21st century.
This new doctrine fundamentally abandons the pretext of shared........