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The decision triggers fears that the U.S. might return to a pattern of military interference in the region that dates to the Monroe Doctrine.
Aug. 10, 2025Updated 10:49 a.m. ET
Just a decade ago, the era of U.S. wars, coup plots and military interventions in Latin America seemed to be ebbing when the Obama administration declared that the Monroe Doctrine, which long asserted U.S. military supremacy in the Americas, was dead.
Now this cornerstone of foreign policy is roaring back to life, resurrecting fears over U.S. military interference in the region after President Trump ordered the Pentagon to use military force against certain Latin American drug cartels.
Leaders in the region are still trying to decipher what Mr. Trump’s order could mean. Mexico and Venezuela, two nations where the administration has designated cartels within their borders as terrorist groups, seem especially vulnerable.
But up and down much of Latin America, any whisper of reviving such actions could also unleash a chain reaction resulting in a surge in anti-American sentiment. The news of Mr. Trump’s order has already intensified a wariness against intervention from abroad, even in Ecuador and other countries plagued by violent drug wars in recent years.
“I’m a right-wing conservative, so I want armed citizens and the military actually shooting,” said Patricio Endara, 46, a businessman in Quito. “But I wouldn’t agree with having foreign soldiers in Ecuador.”
That skepticism draws from the bitter memories left by the long record of U.S. military interventions in the region, whether through direct or indirect action, as during Colombia’s long internal war.
