As we have seen recently with the renamed Kennedy Center (now “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center”) in Washington DC, US President Donald Trump likes to put his name on things. This has been true mostly for buildings and entities of various kinds (i.e. the also renamed, now “Donald J. Trump US Institute of Peace,” also in Washington DC), and less so for foreign policy approaches. Yet, this is now changing, and fast.Last November, the US government released the National Security Strategy (NSS) 2025. This document announced a major foreign policy shift for the world’s leading power. Much as George W. Bush put the Middle East front and center of his foreign policy with what came to be known as the Global War on Terror (GWOT), and Barack Obama did so with Asia with his famous “pivot to Asia,” Trump has made the Western Hemisphere his number one priority. Four pages out of 29 in NSS are devoted to the Americas, more so, by far, than to any other region in the world.In NSS, the Trump administration revives the Monroe Doctrine, the 1823 statement by US President James Monroe that proclaimed, “America for the Americans,” ostensibly designed to keep European colonial powers out of the Western Hemisphere, but seen in time as a tool for US hegemony in the continent. In due course, in 1904, Theodore Roosevelt added to the Monroe Doctrine the Roosevelt Corollary, by which the United States reserves the right to intervene in the affairs of nations that are managing them in ways Washington disapproves of. This led to the exercise of what was known as “gunboat diplomacy,” and the invasion and occupation of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.Also read: Meetings, More Meetings, Social Media Flags, Trade Talks: Inside the Extensive Role of a Lobbyist in India-US RelationsTo this, in NSS, the White House has now added the Trump Corollary, which means that the United States “will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets in our Hemisphere.” And seldom had such an apparently abstract foreign policy notion seen such a quick application.On January 3, 2026, in “Operation Absolute Resolve,” US forces including 150 aircraft and members of all branches of the military attacked the Venezuelan capital Caracas, the port of La Guaira, and several other localities, leaving an estimated 80 dead, and kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. The latter were flown to the USS Iwo Jima, and then on to New York City, where they are now standing trial, facing charges of drug trafficking and other crimes.So, what else is new? For some, this is nothing but another US intervention in the long list in the US-Latin American relations. Uncle Sam has invaded and occupied countries, toppled governments, orchestrated coups and otherwise tried to bend nations to their will in the Americas for a long time. The attack on Caracas should thus merit a yawn, rather than outrage. Moreover, according to this reasoning, given the dubious democratic credentials of Maduro, his extraction from his home in the wee hours of the morning, and his having to stand trial in New York City should be celebrated.Yet, this reasoning is flawed. In the first place, it ignores the fact that the January 3 attack on Caracas was the first US military attack on the South American mainland ever. Covert US activities designed to topple presidents have, of course, been present throughout Latin America and the Caribbean for a long time. But there is a crucial distinction between covert activities and military attacks. In terms of the latter, they had been confined so far to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that sense, what happened in Venezuela entails crossing a significant threshold, one that leads us into uncharted waters.Secondly, minimising the Caracas attack ignores the fact that, far from being a one-off, this may well be a harbinger of things to come. Trump has indicated that President Petro of Colombia should “watch out,” as should President Sheinbaum of Mexico, a country Trump believes is run by the drug cartels rather than by the government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has referenced Cuba as potentially next in line, and a key demand on the Venezuelan government will be that it cut off the oil supply at reduced prices that Caracas has been supplying to Havana for decades now, and that has been a key lifeline for an island in dire economic straits.The question then becomes: will the success of Operation Absolute Resolve lead to similar actions elsewhere in the continent?Under the current circumstances, that possibility cannot be discarded. That said, the cost, both in blood and treasure, as well as in political capital, of US attempts at regime change in Mexico and Colombia, would be extraordinary. Cuba, because of its precarious economic situation, is more vulnerable, and one can imagine a strategy designed to cut off all oil to the island to push it to the brink.Also read: What the US Public Thinks About the Strike in Venezuela, According to Recent PollsIn the end, of course, we should keep in mind that the so-called “war on drugs” waged by the United States is nothing more than a ruse to dominate Latin American nations. If the United States wanted to control the demand for domestic drug consumption, it could do so. The fact that it doesn’t, preferring to focus on the supply side instead, is telling.In turn, the key point of the Trump Corollary, that is, the expelling of extra-hemispheric powers and their companies out of Latin America and the attempt to monopolise US access to the region’s key resources and strategic assets has no bearing on today’s realities. Whereas for much of its history Latin America kept international diplomatic, trade and investment engagements with merely two poles the United States, on the one hand, and a few European powers, on the other, in the new century this has changed dramatically. The irruption of the two “Asian giants” (China and India), the rise of other emerging economies and a significant diversification of the region’s international relations have mapped out a very different setting. The fact that for South America China is the number one trading partner (at $518 billion in 2024) is revealing.Turning back the clock will not work.Jorge Heine is a former Chilean ambassador to India, China and South Africa and a non-resident fellow at The Quincy Institute. His new book, The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out in an Era of Great Power Competition, co-authored with Carlos Fortin and Carlos Ominami, is published by Polity Press.