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The writer is chief executive of the New America think-tank and an FT contributing editor
In his press conference following the extraction of President Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, US President Donald Trump quipped that the Monroe Doctrine should be renamed the Donroe Doctrine. It is a shift from the 19th-century notion of simply keeping others out to ensuring, as Trump put it, that “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again”.
Hemispheric dominance means taking charge of the region’s resources. In Venezuela, that means oil. Trump explained that US oil companies will move in, fix the oil infrastructure and “start making money for the country”. And, of course, for the companies. Indeed, Trump sees this restoration as restitution, describing the Venezuelan expropriation of US oil assets as “one of the largest thefts of American property” in US history.
This worldview clashes with the act of state doctrine: the precept that the “courts of one country will not sit in judgment on the acts of the government of another, done within its own territory”. The Supreme Court established this doctrine in an 1897 case that, ironically, arose from a lawsuit by a US citizen against a Venezuelan general. The court declined to review the legality of the general’s acts, on the grounds that “every sovereign state is bound to respect the independence of every other sovereign state”.
In 1964 the Supreme Court considered the doctrine again in a case arising from Cuban expropriation of US-owned sugar companies. The court found that the expropriation was an unreviewable act of state. Despite its hostility towards Cuba, the US government urged the court not to review the validity of Cuba’s acts.
We are no longer in that world. If and when the current Cuban government falls, or is pushed, scores of US companies and hundreds of Cuban-Americans will sue to get their property back. This time the executive will be supportive — not only because of Trump but due to the worldview of his chief diplomat, Marco Rubio, America’s first Latino secretary of state.
Rubio is a Floridian whose parents emigrated from Cuba in 1956. In his eyes, Miami is the financial capital of Latin America, full of wealthy Latin Americans who fled when their properties were nationalised by various populist left regimes. From this perspective, the resurrection and revision of the Monroe Doctrine is about rolling back history and reclaiming stolen property.
The leftists of Latin America have long had leagues, partnerships and alliances. Now it is the right’s turn, but via business leaders rather than juntas. Trump and Rubio are advancing a vision of a capitalist, free-market hemisphere in which the US plays regional policeman. It is a vision that will appeal to corporate leaders, markets and many among the country’s growing population of Latino voters.
As an international lawyer, I oppose the US government’s decision to send in troops to depose a foreign leader and “run” his country until the government can be reshuffled to Washington’s liking. Such a move is also the latest step in the deliberate destruction of the rules-based international order and a return to great power spheres of influence.
Yet many countries around the world think that order has long been rigged to favour the great powers, and many people in the Americas observe the complete paralysis of our regional institutions. They may protest publicly but privately celebrate Maduro’s ouster. Rubio imagines a return of wealthy elites with assets and connections across the hemisphere. Yet just as replacing a government requires dislodging an entire power structure, the current owners of expropriated property are rarely willing to give it up. Strife and turmoil lie ahead.