The National Interest - The Venezuela Strikes Are the Beginning of a New Western Hemisphere - January 5, 2026 - By: Eric Farnsworth

 The National Interest 

The Venezuela Strikes Are the Beginning of a New Western Hemisphere

January 5, 2026

By: Eric Farnsworth

Following the release of the National Security Strategy and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, the way is open for a more robust US Western Hemisphere policy.

President Donald Trump’s stunning grab-and-go operation on January 3 against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, which delivered the dictator to New York to face charges for illegal narcotics trafficking, is the curtain raiser for both the new year and the new National Security Strategy. The NSS is arguably the first foreign policy vision statement since World War II to emphasize the Western Hemisphere’s core strategic importance. It also declares a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, rejecting drug trafficking, irregular migration, and the influence of outside powers like China. The Venezuela strike is its dramatic launch. 

Commentary has ranged from celebration to alarm, but objectively, recognition of the fundamental importance of the Western Hemisphere to US security and economic interests is long overdue. Lack of attention has been a bipartisan lament for years, and the administration is right to highlight and center the Americas.

And none-too-soon. In recent years, cartel violence fueled by the drug trade has exploded across the region. Venezuela has produced the largest humanitarian disaster in the modern history of Latin America, and China has reprogrammed the hemispheric economy toward Beijing with both commercial and strategic implications. This can’t all be laid at an inattentive Washington’s doorstep, although benign economic neglect coupled with lectures about predatory elites has done little to advance primary US interests.

The good news—and it is very good news—is that democracy remains strong across the region. In country after country, tired prescriptions and those who promote them are being rejected in favor of leaders willing to take bold steps to improve personal security and economic well-being. The new year will see elections in the Bahamas, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and presumably Haiti; only Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela deny their citizens the right to change rulers peacefully. 

As the region shifts away from failed policies, leaders increasingly see Washington as a partner and want more, not less, engagement, just as the administration seeks to prioritize the hemisphere. It’s a historic confluence of interest. That’s not to say Washington has a free hand in the region, or that goodwill cannot be squandered; attitudes about the Venezuela operation continue to evolve. But over the longer term, pursuing a mutually-rewarding partnership is the answer.