The Trump administration has put its hemispheric security doctrine into full effect in Venezuela, ordered a sweeping naval blockade of sanctioned oil tankers and designated the government of Nicolás Maduro as a foreign terrorist organization — a dramatic escalation aimed at stifling the regime’s main source of revenue and confronting what the White House calls a growing threat of cartel-driven “drug terrorism” and foreign influence in the region.
Announcing the move on social media, Trump said Venezuela is now “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” an attack on an oil sector that accounts for about 88% of the country’s export revenues.
The administration’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) places the Western Hemisphere at the center of U.S. national security planning, viewing regional instability, mass migration, cartels and foreign influence as direct threats to U.S. security. Although the document does not mention Venezuela by name, the framework positions crises such as Venezuela’s collapse as crucial to protecting what the strategy calls America’s “immediate security perimeter.”
MADURO’S FORCES UNDER RENEWED INVESTIGATION AS TENSIONS RISE IN THE US: ‘A FORT BUILT ON SAND’
According to the NSS, U.S. policy toward the hemisphere is now focused on preventing large-scale migration, countering “narco-terrorists, cartels and other transnational criminal organizations” and ensuring that the region remains “reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and deter mass migration.” It also promises to affirm a “Trump corollary” of the Monroe Doctrine aimed at blocking “hostile foreign incursions or ownership of key assets” by strategic competitors.
A senior White House official said the Western Hemisphere chapter is intended to “reaffirm U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” by strengthening regional security partnerships, curbing drug flows and preventing pressures that fuel mass migration. The official said the strategy situates the hemisphere as a fundamental element of U.S. defense and prosperity.
Newly released footage shows US forces securing a Venezuelan oil tanker. (@AGPamBondi via X)
“In less than a year, President Trump has ended eight wars, convinced Europe to take greater responsibility for its own defense, facilitated the sale of US-made weapons to NATO allies, negotiated fairer trade deals, destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities, and more.” The strategy, she added, is intended to ensure that “America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history.”
Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute, said Venezuela illustrates why the hemisphere is now being treated as America’s “first line of defense.”
“The Maduro regime functions as a narco-dictatorship closely linked to criminal cartels, now considered foreign terrorist organizations, and supported by China, Iran and Russia,” she said. “Confronting this criminal regime is about keeping poison out of our streets and chaos off our shores.”
MADURO’S FORCES UNDER RENEWED INVESTIGATION AS TENSIONS RISE IN THE US: ‘A FORT BUILT ON SAND’
President Donald Trump signs a series of executive orders at the White House on January 20, 2025. Trump’s new National Security Strategy puts the Western Hemisphere at the center of US security planning, a senior official said. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
She called the NSS “the most radical and long-awaited change in American foreign policy in a generation,” arguing that instability in Latin America is now reaching the United States “in real time” through waves of migration, drug trafficking and foreign intelligence networks.
Some analysts warn that the strategy’s sharper stance could become destabilizing if pressure escalates to a confrontation.
Roxanna Vigil, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the road ahead depends heavily on how strong the administration’s approach becomes. “If it moves toward escalation and conflict, that means there will be very little control,” she said. “If there is a power vacuum, who will fill it?”
HEGSETH POINTS BIG INCREASE IN DEFENSE SPENDING, REVEALS NEW DETAILS ABOUT TRUMP’S ANTI-NARCOTERRORISM OPERATIONS
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. (AP)
Vigil warned that without a negotiated transition, a sudden collapse could lead to results “potentially worse than Maduro’s.” She said armed groups, hardline regime actors and cartel-linked networks would all vie for power, with potential spillover effects in a region already under pressure from mass displacement.
Jason Marczak, vice president of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, said the NSS underscores why the administration views Maduro’s continued rule as incompatible with its regional priorities.
“All these goals cannot be achieved as long as Nicolás Maduro or anyone else remains in power,” he said, noting the strategy’s focus on migration, regional security and countering foreign influence. “Venezuela is a conduit for foreign influence in the hemisphere.”
The US will seize tens of millions of Venezuelan oil after intercepting a tanker, the White House says
In this April 13, 2019 file photo, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks, flanked by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, right, and General Ivan Hernandez, second from right, head of both the Presidential Guard and Military Counterintelligence in Caracas, Venezuela. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)
Marczak said Venezuelans were “ready for change” in the 2024 elections, but warned that replacing Maduro with another insider “doesn’t really achieve anything.” He argued that only a democratic transition would allow Venezuela to reenter global markets and stabilize the region.
Both Marczak and Vigil noted that the danger extends beyond Maduro and extends to the criminal ecosystem and foreign partnerships that sustain his rule. Without a negotiated transition, Vigil says, the forces most likely to gain the upper hand are those that already control the area: militias, cartel-affiliated groups and pro-Chavista power brokers.
Ford-Maldonado said the reality is precisely why the administration’s strategy elevates Venezuela’s crisis within the broader Western Hemisphere doctrine.
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Military attacks on ships suspected of drug trafficking have killed about 37 people since September. (Ministry of War)
“Confronting a narco-regime allied with foreign adversaries does not distract from America First – it is the clearest expression of it,” she said. “What is ultimately being defended are American lives, American children and American communities.”
The administration’s adoption of a “Trump corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine signals a more assertive U.S. stance toward the hemisphere, portraying Venezuela not only as a humanitarian or political crisis but also as a critical test of the strategy’s core tenets: migration control, anti-cartel operations, and limiting the reach of foreign adversaries. Within this framework, experts say the consequences of inaction could create security risks that extend far beyond Venezuela’s borders.
