The New Monroe Doctrine: The Avengers Have Been Summoned

Sarah Anderson | 10:49 PM on February 13, 2026
AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Welcome to "The New Monroe Doctrine," where I give you an update on what's going on in the Western Hemisphere, south of our border, especially as it relates to the United States. 

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I knew this would be a big year in the Americas for two reasons. First, I knew that Donald Trump and Marco Rubio were planning to make the countries south of our border a major focus of their foreign policy and national security plans. Second, I knew that the rightward rave the region is experiencing would likely continue. 

I just didn't expect these things to accelerate as fast as they are. We're not even halfway through February, and we're on the verge of liberating two countries that have been plagued with communism, corruption, and tyranny for decades, and voters in several Latin American countries are also fighting the good fight even harder than what was predicted just a few months ago. 

With Trump, Rubio, and other leaders, like Nayib Bukele and Javier Milei, leading the way, it really feels some days like we have our own version of the Western Hemisphere Avengers.  

The Summits    

Trump, or Captain America if we want to keep up this Avengers thing, said he'll be heading to China to meet with President Xi Jinping in April, but word on the street is that he has something much bigger planned just a few weeks beforehand. The president invited numerous leaders from Latin America to meet with him in Miami on March 7 to talk about Chinese influence in the region and, I assume, how we can work together to continue combating it. I imagine Venezuela and its relationship with China — or previous relationship — will be a hot topic as well.  

The White House hasn't made an official announcement yet, but names that are likely on the guest list include Bukele and Milei, as well as other conservative or right-leaning leaders in the region, like Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, Paraguay's Santiago Peña, Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz, and Honduras' Nasry Asfura. 

Meanwhile, the Department of War had its own summit of sorts this week in Washington, D.C. U.S. Southern Command called it a "daylong, first-of-its-kind Western Hemisphere Chiefs of Defense Conference focused on regional security cooperation against narco-terrorism and other criminal enterprises throughout the hemisphere, while also analyzing common security priorities between allies and partner nations." 

It included "leaders from 34 Western Hemisphere countries," and Secretary Pete Hegseth called on them "to unite in deterrence against bad actors who may already be operating in, or working to encroach upon, the region." Here's more:

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'We, like you, want — and will — achieve a permanent peace in this hemisphere. So, let's work together [with] our militaries: exercising, training, operations, [intelligence], access, basing, overflight, you name it — let's work together,' Hegseth told the gathered leaders.  

'To achieve these goals, we have to stand together; there's no other way to do it,' he added.

Hegseth said the War Department, under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and his administration, is prioritizing protecting the homeland and key territories throughout the hemisphere for the first time in decades. 

'The United States is asserting, reestablishing and enforcing the Trump corollary of the Monroe Doctrine,' Hegseth explained. 

Making Venezuela Great Again 

Something I've been trying to do in recent weeks is keep count of Trump's wins in Venezuela. The MSM paints such a bleak picture that I feel like I have to, or no one else will, and I think a lot of the actors involved, including the president, use some language that sometimes confuses people or makes some of us wary. I also think some on the left expected Caracas to turn into Mayberry within a few days of the capture of Nicolás Maduro, but these people have never really lived in reality.   

The biggest thing to happen this week is that Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited Caracas, and Trump's little pawn Delcy Rodríguez welcomed him with open arms. There was a band, a red carpet, and even a U.S. flag outside Miraflores Palace. He's the highest-ranking United States official to visit in nearly three decades.  

Delcy and her brother, Jorge, who both did interviews with U.S. media this week, have been reciting Trump and Rubio talking points like they stayed up all night memorizing them. But the one thing the MSM seems to be caught up on is that Delcy told NBC's Kristen Welker that Maduro is still the legitimate president of Venezuela. Go ahead and Google her name, and that's the headline you'll see from almost every outlet. They glossed over all the other stuff about cooperation and moving forward 

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Others obsessively mention that both Trump and Wright have praised her as if this is anything other than optics. They want so badly for us to believe that Trump is going to leave this woman, who, up until January 3, was just as corrupt as Maduro, in place as the future president of Venezuela and that nothing will change and that all of this was either for nothing or so Trump can have oil to line his pockets or whatever circa 2003 talking point they're using this week. 

Do not buy into this. These media know better, but they want to make Trump look bad, so they pretend otherwise. That's all it is. If Joe Biden were president, they'd be keeping little lists of wins like I'm doing. Then again, if Joe Biden were still president, by now we'd probably have rolled over and handed half the hemisphere to China, but that's a story for another day.  

Wright himself just said this week that this is just a "transitional government," not the endgame. A new government is the final step of Rubio's three-point plan. María Corina Machado, who will likely be a part of that new government, if not the leader, has said countless times that she is confident in that. 

Delcy and Jorge are doing exactly what they're told, and then they'll likely disappear when the time comes. If they didn't follow orders, they'd be in prison or dead. Make no mistake.  

Related: The Only Thing Missing Was a MAGA Hat: Venezuela’s Red Carpet Moment

So, back to the big wins in Venezuela this week. 

Oil 

The State Department announced on Friday that "The Trump Administration is rapidly implementing President Trump’s vision to reopen and develop Venezuela’s oil industry for the shared benefit of the American and Venezuelan people." That includes the  Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) issuing several general licenses in recent weeks that authorize firms incorporated in the United States to "market Venezuelan oil to buyers around the world, and largely in the United States," as well as "to sell U.S.-origin diluent – a product essential for oil production – to Venezuela. 

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The licenses also authorize "U.S. firms to provide goods, equipment, and services for the Venezuelan oil and gas industry" and "certain firms in Venezuela to expand their operations, including pursuing additional upstream oil and gas projects."  

As we know, any profit made from the oil industry will be put into a U.S. account that is managed by Scott Bessent and Rubio and will eventually be spent for the good of the Venezuelan people. 

Medicine 

Venezuela's medical system has been in shambles for quite some time, but today, the country received over 6,000 kilograms of medicine and medical supplies from the United States. Laura Dogu, the U.S. diplomat who is running the show on the ground down there right now, said it's the first of many shipments that will arrive in the days to come, and that stabilizing the medical system is extremely important at the moment. 

(The caption reads: "Another productive day here in Caracas! Today we facilitated the delivery of more than 6,000 kilos of medicines to support the recovery of the Venezuelan people.")

The Youngest Avengers

As I've mentioned several times, the Venezuelan people, especially the young college students, are getting braver and louder. On Thursday, they took to the streets to protest, demanding the release of all the political prisoners and free and fair elections. Others are starting to join them, and there is not much the regime can do. These young people have said repeatedly that they've never known anything other than Chavismo and corruption, and they demand democracy now. 

Aside from one of the leaders of the student movement, Miguelangel Suárez, being chased and harassed by what appears to be a paramilitary group, the protests were largely peaceful. I suspect they'll continue to grow. The pictures and videos on social media brought tears to my eyes. This was not possible six weeks ago. 

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The Political Prisoners 

This isn't a win, yet, but we're still working on it. There's been no big change here since my update on Wednesday. I believe we still sit at around 431 political prisoners released since January 8. Some are starting hunger strikes. Voting on the proposed amnesty bill that's currently in the Chavista National Assembly has allegedly been postponed until next week, and the families of the prisoners are, needless to say, unhappy because they were promised everyone would be released by the end of the week. 

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) talks about that here: 

A Visit From Trump?

Last but not least, both Wright and Trump himself have said that Trump will visit Venezuela at some point in the not-too-distant future. The fact that this is even being talked about is a huge win. 

Making Cuba Great Again 

I think I've done three updates on what's going on in Cuba at the moment and will continue to do so going forward. To keep this from going too long, however, I'll just post those links here so you can read them: 

This is from Saturday: Has Cuba Reached the Point of No Return?

This is from Monday: If You're Going to Leave Cuba Now, You Better Have a Boat

This is from Wednesday: All Cuba’s Allies Have Left? Good Vibes

The only major update I have on Friday is that a fire broke out at the Ñico López oil refinery in Havana this afternoon. It's said to be under control now, and last I checked, no one has announced a reason for it, but for a country that is basically out of oil, this can't be good. It sort of reminds me of the weeks leading up to the Maduro capture, when random things started catching on fire or exploding in Venezuela. Lots of conspiracy theories there, but they do make you think.  

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I hate to make light of the situation in Cuba because people are living in absolute misery, but I truly do believe that is coming to an end, and they will have Donald Trump to thank in the months ahead. They're already thanking him, from what I see on the ground through various sources. That said, my colleague, Charlie Martin, sent me this today, and it made me laugh. I hope you get a smile from it too. 

Future Avengers? 

As we've discussed, both Brazil and Colombia have presidential elections coming up this year that could be huge for those countries and for the Western Hemisphere. 

Colombia is more likely to swing back to the right — wouldn't you after four years of Gustavo Petro? — and I've had readers write in and tell me that the momentum for the Trump/Bukele/Milei-like candidate is growing quickly. His name is Abelardo de la Espriella — he goes by "el tigre" —  and he's holding these huge rallies across the country. I'll share more about that soon. 

As for Brazil, the old socialist crook Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is still leading the polls, but Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair, is consolidating the right and gaining momentum. This is definitely something to keep an eye on, and I promise I will try to do it as best I can. 

A Few Other Things...

As I'm writing this, SouthCom announced that we have blown up another narco-boat in the Caribbean Sea. 

I had a few more things I wanted to add, but I'm running late, as usual, and I'm sure our fearless editor Chris Queen is getting grumpy. Plus, these "few others things" really deserve a space of their own, so I may work on making them into their own articles this weekend.

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And it's Valentine's Day weekend, so I'm sure y'all have much better things to do than read my Western Hemisphere updates. 

Well, that's it for me. As I say, Rubio isn't handing me exclusives... yet, but he's in Germany for the Munich Security Conference this weekend, so I guess he's got better things to do. I'll see what next week brings.   

Happy Valentine's Day!  

P.S. Drop me an email if there's something in Latin America or the Caribbean you want to learn more about (the link is in my bio). I am slowly but (finally) surely getting caught up on responses from the last few weeks and months, and I promise I read them all and will respond soon...y'all have been awfully generous with emails lately, and I love hearing from you.   

P.P.S. And thanks for all the well wishes on my shoulder — I took a couple of days away from my computer last week, and it's actually feeling much better. Y'all are the best!

Donald Trump is making the Western Hemisphere great again. Here at PJ Media, we predicted it for months, and now we're watching it unfold and bringing you all the coverage without the biased lens of the MSM. 

But we can only continue with your help. Sign up to become a PJ Media VIP member and gain access to exclusive content, including foreign policy pieces you won't find anywhere else. Right now, it's super cheap if you use the code word FIGHT when you sign up — less than $20 for an entire year — plus you gain some cool perks too. Click here to get started. 

Sarah Anderson

Sarah Anderson is a Georgia-based freelance writer and journalist, specializing in foreign policy, with a passion for Latin America and the Caribbean.  

When she's not writing, you can find her chasing animals on her small hobby farm, swimming every chance she gets, traveling, gardening, reading, or yelling at a Georgia Bulldogs or Atlanta Falcons football game like any good Southerner. 

You might also catch her watching State Department briefings to unwind.  

Email Sarah at SarahAndersonatPJMedia@gmail.com.

Read more by Sarah Anderson

Category:

NEWS & POLITICS

Tags:

CUBA DONALD TRUMP MARCO RUBIO NAYIB BUKELE VENEZUELA

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