The Broader Strategy Behind Trump’s Removal of Venezuela’s Maduro

With former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro awaiting trial in federal custody in New York City on narco-terrorism charges and U.S. President Donald Trump vowing that the United States will “run” the country until there is a “proper transition,” the first manifestation of a generational foreign policy shift has emerged.

Under the “Trump Corollary” to President James Monroe’s 1823 policy that declared the Western Hemisphere a distinct sphere of U.S. influence, removing Maduro from office and seizing control of Venezuela’s oil resources are among the opening salvos of a renewed focus on affairs closer to the nation’s shores, most notably and immediately in the Caribbean Basin.