The Democrat's South America Policy is a Continuation of the Monroe Doctrine

The democrats are pushing to continue America's long standing policy of regime change in Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Note: This is part three of a three-part series on the Democrat’s foreign policy platform. You can read part one on their support for the proxy war in Ukraine here and part two on their pro-war Middle East platform here

In their recently released platform, the democrats have vowed to continue the brutal sanctions and interference in Venezuela and Nicaragua where the U.S. has for a long time wanted to overthrow Nicolas Maduro and Daniel Ortega. In their platform, they say:

President Biden is also supporting human rights and fundamental freedoms as people across the region pursue a more just and prosperous future. Under President Biden, the United States negotiated the release of ten American hostages from Venezuela, reinstated sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector in response to President Nicolás Maduro failing to commit to free and fair elections, and cracked down on Nicaragua for repression of their population and abuse of migrants.

Far from supporting human rights, the Democrats proposed policy of more sanctions and interference will cause more suffering and destabilization in these countries leading to civilian deaths and causing an even larger migrant crisis.

The Democrats Want to Place Murderous Sanctions on Venezuela and Back a New Coup.

In the platform, the democrats brag that Biden “reinstated sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector”. This is not something anyone with a conscience should ever brag about. A 2019 study from economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs found that in one year these sanctions killed 40,000 people. Another study from Alfred de Zayas, a former UN rapporteur on human rights found that the sanctions have killed 100,000 people in total.

The massive bombshell on the effect of U.S. sanctions in Venezuela came from a 2022 study by Francisco Rodriguez, a well-regarded opposition economist in Venezuela. In his study, Rodriguez proved that Venezuela’s oil production crashed at the exact time new rounds of U.S. sanctions were imposed. 

Pictured Above: A graph from Rodriguez’s study showing the oil production crash in Venezuela correlating with U.S. sanctions.

According to Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on sanctions, the sanctions on Venezuela have mostly negatively affected people in “extreme poverty, women, children, medical workers, people with disabilities or life-threatening or chronic diseases, and the Indigenous populations”. Douhan also reported that the sanctions deprive Venezuelans of basic necessities such as “machinery, spare parts, electricity, water, fuel, gas, food, and medicine”.

A recent report in the Washington Post found that Trump was warned that increased sanctions on Venezuela would cause a massive migrant crisis, but he imposed them anyway.

The Democrats proposed policy of imposing more sanctions on Venezuela will only lead to more deaths, more innocent Venezuelan civilians suffering, and an even larger migrant crisis.

The Democrats Want to Replicate the Venezuela Strategy in Nicaragua

In their platform, the Democrats push for replicating the same murderous Venezuela strategy in Nicaragua saying they want to “crack down on Nicaragua for repression of their population and abuse of migrants.” They claim this is because of repression from the government of Nicaragua but in the same section they brag about supporting Haiti’s repressive government saying

his (Biden’s) Administration has also played a critical role in supporting Haiti’s stabilization efforts, becoming the largest financial sponsor to the Kenyan Multinational Security Support mission that is countering gang violence in the country

According to Human Rights Watch Haiti’s government is “tarnished by credible allegations of corruption, support to criminal groups, and human rights violations”.

The reality is the U.S. government attempted a “Maidan” style coup against their longtime enemy Daniel Ortega in 2018. As reported by anti-Ortega academic Benjamin Waddel, the CIA cutout N.E.D. (National Endowment for Democracy) funded 54 anti-Ortega projects between 2014 and 2017. Wadell reported that “the U.S. government actively helped build the political space and capacity in Nicaraguan society for the social uprising that is currently unfolding.” and that it “laid the groundwork for insurrection”.

The insurrection Wadell is talking about was a violent coup attempt in 2018 against Ortega that led to beatings and torture of Nicaraguans who were accused of being Sandanista sympathetic. When this soft coup attempt failed to overthrow Daniel Ortega the U.S. imposed multiple rounds of Venezuelan-style sanctions on Nicaragua in 2019, 2022, and 2024.

The point of these sanctions is never to affect the government of a targeted country but to instead keep the population as miserable as possible in the hopes that they will rise up and do regime change against the targeted government.

Just like with Venezuela the sanctions the democrats are bragging about in their platform will just further harm the most vulnerable people in Nicaragua and spur a larger migrant crisis.

The Democrats are Pushing the “Monroe Doctrine”

In their South America platform the Democrats are making it clear that they support the longstanding “Monroe doctrine” by pushing for murderous sanctions on Venezuela and Nicaragua and more regime change policies against governments the U.S. does not like. Their support for regime change and sanctions in Venezuela and Nicaragua is just another example of how the democrats have adopted neocon ideology all across the world.