LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Trump administration has a new name for its aggressive policies in the Western Hemisphere, including military attacks on alleged drug smugglers and threats of regime change in Venezuela. His administration is reaching back two centuries and calling this Trump's version of the Monroe Doctrine. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre is following all this and is with me in the studio now. Good morning.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: OK. So for those of us who have forgotten U.S. history here, just give us a refresher on the Monroe Doctrine.
MYRE: So U.S. President James Monroe proclaimed this doctrine in 1823, saying European countries should not interfere in the Western Hemisphere, that this is a U.S. zone of influence. Now, any number of U.S. presidents have cited the Monroe Doctrine. For example, Teddy Roosevelt...
FADEL: Yeah.
MYRE: ...Who oversaw the building of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s. As we know, the U.S. carried out many military and political interventions. In the 20th century, though, in recent decades, the U.S. approach has been a little less heavy-handed.
FADEL: And to say the least, not all of these interventions have been successful. What is Trump's version of this doctrine?
MYRE: Well, we've been seeing it really since the beginning of this term. He's threatened or imposed actual tariffs against major trading partners from Mexico to Brazil. The U.S. is waging this ongoing military strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and there's this major U.S. naval and troop presence. It's really the largest in decades, and it's accompanied by threats to oust Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro. Here's Christopher Hernandez-Roy with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
CHRISTOPHER HERNANDEZ-ROY: The use of hard power, the use of economic power to achieve objectives is something that is more consistent with a sort of a Monroe Doctrine-type of approach to the region, and I think that's what we're seeing.
MYRE: And the Trump administration made this explicit last week when it released the national security strategy. Now, this document marks a major change in the overall U.S. approach to the world and to Latin America, in particular. It says, prominently, quote, "we will assert and enforce a Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine."
FADEL: How is the overall strategy being received in the region? I mean, there are the questions of the legality around these attacks, but particularly the idea that the U.S. military might attack Venezuela directly.
MYRE: Yeah. A Brazil research group, AtlasIntel, recently conducted a very detailed survey across the region and found that 53% of Latin Americans would support a U.S. military intervention. Now, in contrast, polls in the U.S. have found a much lower level of support among U.S. citizens, where there's only around 30% who say they support U.S. military action. Now, these findings surprise Hernandez-Roy.
HERNANDEZ-ROY: It kind of flips what you would expect on its head, where you'd think that there would be more support in the U.S. for removing a dictator than support among Latin Americans, given the long history of U.S. interventionism.
MYRE: So when it comes to Trump's approach to the region, he's also - Hernandez-Roy has also made the point that a number of countries like Mexico have opted for compromise rather than confrontation.
FADEL: Right.
MYRE: No one really wants to be the country having a showdown with the Trump administration.
FADEL: You mentioned that the original Monroe Doctrine was designed to stop other countries from influencing geopolitics in the hemisphere. So what's the goal here? Will Trump be able to stop or reverse the influence of powers like China in Latin America?
MYRE: Well, Leila, that's a tall order. And here's a pretty remarkable statistic - China is now the leading trade partner of every country in South America, except Colombia, where it's second to the U.S.
FADEL: Wow.
MYRE: China has made tremendous economic inroads with Latin America. Trump wants to boost the U.S. role, but some of his policies can be counterproductive. When he placed huge tariffs on China, China responded by halting the purchase of U.S. soybeans and began buying them in Argentina. So getting tough with Latin American countries could have unintended consequences.
FADEL: That's NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you, Greg.
MYRE: Sure thing, Leila.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILL FRISELL'S "MONROE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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