Latin America and the Caribbean: Sovereign Zone or Vassal Region?

By Stephen Sefton – Sep 16, 2025

It is difficult to overstate the insanity of the ruling elites of the collective West. They have shown themselves incapable of recognizing they can no longer continue to dominate as before the governments of the majority world. For the moment, they continue acting to impose regimes that are easier to manipulate in countries susceptible to destabilization such as, in recent years, Bangladesh and now Nepal. However, in order to overthrow governments or political movements steadfast in defending the sovereignty of their countries, Western governments have had to resort to military aggression supported by regional allies and vassals, as they did successfully most recently in Syria.

In the case of West Asia, the recent attack in Qatar on the Palestinian peace negotiators calls into question to what extent the Arab countries that have collaborated until now with US regional policy will continue to do so. Now, the war projects of the collective West to overthrow the governments of Iran and Venezuela indicate growing desperation among the North American and European elites. They see their political and economic power no longer gets them what they want, so they resort to direct military aggression, for example against Iran, or indirect, against Russia.

Against Iran and Venezuela it seems that the US élites are probing levels of local support before deciding on the precise form of their military attack and launching it. This process of weighing the advantages and disadvantages and evaluating the costs and benefits of attacking Iran and Venezuela occurs within a strategic realignment of traditional US alliances around the world. Much commentary on the international situation, suggests a rationalization of political-military strategy by the ruling class towards the Western hemisphere, although the scope of that process remains to be seen.

If the Yankee elites really felt confident of their political-military power to defeat Venezuela, it is likely that they would have already used it. Last June, Iran proved categorically that Western military technology is inferior against advanced missile systems. Yemen has demonstrated how weak US naval power is against a country able to deploy even relatively modest deterrence. To date, in the Caribbean, the US navy has demonstrated only that it is capable of attacking civilian launches and unarmed fishing vessels. While Venezuela has had years to prepare and has already successfully activated its model of civic-police-military fusion equipped with modern, largely Russian, military weapons.

In any case, in the midst of this transition period in US foreign policy, it is evident that President Donald Trump is seeking to compensate one way or another for the decline, if not the collapse, of US economic power, especially with regard to China. That is why he pursues the illusion of taking control of Venezuelan hydrocarbon and mineral resources. While Venezuela consolidates its food security, successfully diversifies its economy, recovers its oil production, affirms its national dignity and defends its sovereignty, the government of Donald Trump claims that the world in general owes support to the US economy, through large investments and increased imports of US goods.

Specifically, European countries, and other vassal countries such as Japan, South Korea and Australia, have been ordered to urgently increase their military spending so as to purchase large quantities of US military equipment and arms. For their part, all the European NATO member countries have agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product. They have also agreed to buy US armaments worth tens of billions of dollars, partly to send to Ukraine but also to satisfy their demented obsession with a possible war in Europe against Russia.

Among US allies in Asia and the Pacific, Japan is in the process of increasing its military spending by 2027 by 65% compared to 2022. It is projected that the Japanese armed forces will become the third largest in the world behind the armed forces of the US and the People’s Republic of China. In 2023, US President Joe Biden praised Japan’s increased military spending because it contributed to the US policy of ”strongly opposing attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion” in the East Asian region. In fact, this refers to the US government’s cynical undeclared determination to prevent the reunification of the rebellious Chinese province of Taiwan with the People’s Republic of China.

Since 2020, the US government, in open contravention of its supposed recognition of the one-China principle, has authorized the sale of more than US$14 billion of armaments and military equipment to the Taiwanese authorities. In the same interventionist way, the US government continues to stir up tensions on the Korean peninsula. This year the South Korean government will increase its military spending by more than 8%. And although this increase does not seem very significant, from China’s perspective it is complemented by the large increase in Japan’s military spending, continued US military support to the Chinese province of Taiwan and the increase in US military cooperation with the Philippines.

In addition, South Korea, like Japan and Europe, maintains tens of thousands of US military personnel on its territory. There are almost 80,000 US military personnel in South Korea and Japan distributed among more than 40 bases. Australia is home to several US military bases including a base for nuclear armed submarines. Europe and the United Kingdom are home to more than 40 military bases with more than 65,000 US military personnel. This political-military reality shows the neocolonial dependence of the ruling elites in these rich countries on the US and explains their submissive surrender to the aggressive demands of President Trump.

The US government has pushed to the limit in order to see to what extent their counterpart governments are going to give up their countries’ national dignity and sovereignty. For decades, US governments have abused their domination of vassal countries, which they cynically call “allies”, around the world so as to harass and threaten governments and peoples who do indeed defend their sovereignty such as Democratic Korea and Iran and, even more so, Russia and China. The US armed forces organize constant provocations in the form of military exercises, permanent presence of its naval forces or aggressive patrols by its air force.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the US armed forces have always maintained dozens of military bases in the region, notably in Central America and the Caribbean. But the US Southern Command also continuously strengthens its regional presence via dozens of joint military exercises every year. This year exercises such as “Tradewinds 2025” are facilitating North American and European regional interference in the Caribbean. “Centam Guardian” in Guatemala and “Fuerzas Comando” in El Salvador facilitate US military control in Central America. “Southern Vanguard” and “Estrella Austral” unite US military forces with their counterparts from South American countries.

Now, in addition to this permanent military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, the US government is escalating its threats against Venezuela to the same levels it maintains against Democratic Korea, Iran, Russia and China through the deployment of eight warships in the Caribbean. This naval force includes a nuclear-powered attack submarine, a cruiser and three destroyers, all with guided missiles, along with three amphibious assault ships. While the pretexts of the US aggressive posture in other regions of the world revolve around false accusations of nuclear threats or territorial expansion, the pretext used against Venezuela is the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism.

This grossly disproportionate military force deployed in the Caribbean has been justified by the designation of drug trafficking as a terrorist activity. On February 25, the US government formally designated eight drug cartels in the region as terrorist organizations. The named cartels were, Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha, Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Northeast Cartel (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Gulf Cartel, and United Cartels. More recently, the Yankee authorities have reinvented the Cartel of the Suns to justify their aggression against Venezuela with the fantasy that President Nicolás Maduro has resurrected it and heads it.

So, the various false accusations, already shown to be completely false on multiple occasions in reports by the self-same US authorities and the UN, are still being used as media and political justifications for this latest Yankee aggression in our region. Of course, it is common wisdom that the largest drug trafficking cartel and the largest terrorist entity in the region has always been the government of the United States of North America. However, in the same way that the lackey governments of West Asia or Europe or East Asia serve as accomplices to legitimize the aggression of the collective West in their respective regions, in Latin America and the Caribbean, there is no lack of servile governments to support US aggression against the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro.

UN Condemns Extrajudicial Killings by the US in the Caribbean

On September 5th the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States issued a statement condemning the dangerous US military escalation against Venezuela. But, shamefully, ten CELAC member countries did not sign it. Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago abandoned any trace of national dignity, betraying the sovereignty of their peoples in favor of neocolonial submission as accomplices of the new Yankee aggression against Venezuela.

The CELAC declaration recalls that all its member countries have long agreed to maintain Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, “based on principles such as: the prohibition of the threat or use of force, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the promotion of dialogue and multilateralism, unrestricted respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of States and the inalienable right of peoples to self-determination.” These principles reaffirm the fundamental principles of the UN Charter in addition to being the common basis of the new era of international relations affirmed by the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS+ group of countries.

The great majority of the countries of the region defend these essential principles to sustain and promote peace in a new world era. By contrast, the US government and its regional vassals revert to the imperialist gunboat diplomacy of the 19th century, replicating the same failed counterproductive patterns of aggression they have tried in other regions of the world. Albert Einstein’s famous definition of insanity applies, to keep doing the same thing repeatedly always expecting a different result.

For some demented reason, the US elites think they will achieve against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela a different result from their repeated historical failures. It is not necessary to remember their resounding defeat in Vietnam, it is enough to take note of their most recent failures such as the humiliating exit from Afghanistan, their hopelessly counterproductive menacing harassment of Democratic Korea and China, and their failed aggression against Iran and Russia. For us here in Nicaragua the historic anniversaries when We Are All San Jacinto prove this reality in a very deep way. As our Co-Presidents Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario so rightly remind us: They Could Not Prevail, Nor Will They!

(Popular Resistance.org)