The New Monroe Doctrine: Time to Kick China Back to Earth (And Make It Stay On Its Side)

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.

Kick China Back to Earth (and Make It Stay on Its Side)

China's been embedding itself in Latin America and the Caribbean for years. Decades, even. We know this. We know that during four years of whatever you want to call the Joe Biden administration, it got even worse. While Congress was arguing over pronouns and gender ideology, and the president was alienating our allies in the region, like Nayib Bukele; bending over for our adversaries, like Nicolás Maduro; and, well, probably taking lots of naps, China was setting up shop in countries from Cuba to Chile under the guise of diplomacy and economics.

Thankfully, Donald Trump is wide awake and paying attention, and we've seen signs that China is losing in the Western Hemisphere over the past year. In 2026 alone, there have been at least two major developments. The first is the United States arresting Maduro and, essentially, taking over Venezuela. Maduro and China were tight, and he provided them with cheap oil. He was also billions of dollars in debt to them. Now, they're not getting cheap oil and no one is paying that debt.

More recently, in Panama, the government officially took back control over two important ports along the Panama Canal, after the country's Supreme Court ruled that the long-running concession held by a Hong Kong company was unconstitutional. China is big mad and has threatened retaliation this week, but Panama's president, José Raúl Mulino, shrugged it off, saying, "They need us more than we need them."

On March 7, President Trump is hosting several United States-aligned leaders from the Americas for a big anti-China powwow in Miami. I do not know who all is on the guest list, but I have seen the presidents of Costa Rica and Paraguay's personal invitations, and I can imagine it's the usual suspects — Bukele, Javier Milei, etc., along with some of the newer conservative leaders in the region. It sounds as if the president wants to make sure everyone is on the same page before he visits Beijing at the end of the month.

And now, even Congress is stepping up. On Thursday, the bipartisan House Select Committee on China released a 36-page report called "Pulling Latin America Into China's Orbit: How the PLA Weaponizes the Ground Architecture of the Space Silk Road in Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile."

Essentially, what it discovered is that through its sketchy Belt and Road Initiative, China is building a network of space-related facilities in these countries, pretending that it's merely civilian or scientific cooperation. But in reality, they serve dual purposes, and they're helping the People's Liberation Army (PLA) with surveillance, intelligence gathering, and plans to dominate global space activities.

That includes spying on the United States. The Latin American geography helps China overcome "blind spots" when spying on U.S. satellites, missiles, and other assets that it might miss when doing so from the East.

There are at least 11 facilities in the five countries mentioned in the report, including ground stations for satellite control, radio telescopes, and laser ranging sites. Argentina's Espacio Lejano station in Neuquén is, perhaps, the most notable.

🚨New @ChinaSelect report | China is using Latin America as a launchpad for military space operations. What looks like civilian cooperation is actually part of a PLA-linked global network tracking satellites and monitoring adversaries.

At least 11 Chinese-linked sites across… pic.twitter.com/koIarFiW9O
— Select Committee on China (@ChinaSelect) February 26, 2026

Select Committee Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) calls it a major threat to our national security. The committee says it also "boost[s] the PLA's warfighting capacity."

"So much of daily American life depends on satellites in the skies above us, and that’s why China's space operations are of serious concern. China is only investing in space operations in Latin American to advance its agenda and undermine America in space," he said. "President Trump has acted decisively on confronting China’s malign influence in the Western Hemisphere, and our allies should act promptly on the recommendations in this report and stop the expansion of China’s space infrastructure."

The committee offers up these policy recommendations:

NASA should review cooperation with host countries to ensure there are and have been no violations of the Wolf Amendment’s prohibition on bilateral cooperation with China and Chinese-owned companies.
Congress should consider updating the Wolf Amendment to close a growing loophole that allows prohibited bilateral cooperation with the PRC to continue under the guise of nominally multilateral arrangements.
U.S. agencies should re-evaluate space, defense, and advanced technology cooperation with countries that host PRC-linked space infrastructure, with a focus on mitigating risks to U.S. systems, data, and personnel.
The U.S. Government should establish the explicit goal of halting the expansion of PRC space infrastructure in Latin America, and ultimately seek to roll back and eliminate PRC space capabilities in the Western Hemisphere that threaten U.S. interests.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this. The good news is that the leadership in Argentina and Bolivia is aligned with the U.S. The leadership in Chile will be next month when the new president is inaugurated. We run Venezuela at the moment. And Brazi... well, Brazil is a problem, but it has elections coming up in October that could go in any direction.

Any Lawyers Out There Willing to Work Pro Bono?

Speaking of Maduro, you have to wonder what life is like for him in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn these days. Imagine spending a decade holding a country hostage, pretending to be its president, living high on the hog with hundreds of millions of dollars that you stole from the people or earned in the drug trade, and now you're eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a jail cell where you spend 23 hours a day, tucked somewhere between Luigi Mangione and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Actually, given how much Maduro is into music and dancing, he may be enjoying himself, given the number of singers and rappers housed at that facility, but it's my understanding that he's kept in solitary confinement. Either way, CNN calls the place loud, dark, and overcrowded — a far cry from Miraflores Palace.

But back to the point. Maduro can't pay for his lawyer.

Maduro's lead attorney, Barry Pollack, says the Trump administration is violating Maduro's Sixth Amendment right to counsel by blocking Venezuela's government from funding his legal fees via sanctions and that he "lacks his own funds" and "cannot otherwise afford counsel."

According to Pollack, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) initially granted both Maduro and his wife licenses to allow Venezuela’s government to pay for their defenses on January 9. Less than three hours later, however, the government amended the license it had granted to Maduro, revoking authorization of the receipt of defense costs from the Venezuelan government.

In reality, Maduro is quite wealthy and has loved to show that off, despite claiming that he just lived on his poor little presidential salary that his wife would spend before it even hit his bank account, but too much of his money is either hidden offshore and would probably trigger more sanctions or forfeiture if liquidated or tied up in state funds that are already sanctioned.

Maduro has never been the brightest bulb in the box. If the New York Times' "sources" are to be believed, in his final weeks in Venezuela, he had no idea what was coming. It says that even when the U.S. arrested him on January 3, many thought it was an internal coup and not an external raid.

"Mr. Maduro knew that spies were working against him and feared betrayal from inside his ranks. Yet, in late December, he told friends and allies he still had time to negotiate a deal to stay in power, or leave office at a time of his choosing," the article says.

Evidently, during their last phone call in late November, Trump told Maduro he had a strong voice. Maduro told Trump he should see him in person, all cleaned up and showered, and Trump invited him to Washington. Maduro thought it was a trap, so he suggested a meeting at a neutral location, but Trump said no.

"Mr. Maduro thought his folksy banter had won over an American president known for an unguarded communication style, the people familiar with the call said. The Venezuelan leader, they said, thought he had bought himself time to negotiate an agreement, bolstering his belief that the American military buildup in the Caribbean was a pressure tactic to force a deal."

Turns out, Mr. Maduro was wrong. Never underestimate Donald Trump.

A Few Other Things...

1. In a major shift, after nearly two decades, Bolivia has reopened its doors to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). One of the coolest things about these new partnerships in the Caribbean and Latin America is how willing they are to work with us on stopping drug trafficking and cartel crime. If we could get Colombia and Mexico on board, it'd be amazing.

2. Speaking of Mexico, the biggest news out of the hemisphere this week was that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka "El Mencho," the leader of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) was killed, and violence broke out across the country.

3. Pop star Camila Cabello got a lot of hate from the left in our country this week when she denounced the Cuban regime. I wouldn't normally point this out or even care, but I think it's awesome that she stood up for what's right, even if it wasn't popular with the Hollywood crowd or many of her fans.

4. The Venezuelan Media Obviously Forgot to Read the Huffington Post and actually covered Trump's State of the Union speech this week. That's a huge sign that people are losing their fear to speak up in that country.

5. During the State of the Union, Trump reunited a former Venezuelan political prisoner and presidential candidate with his niece. It was a great moment, even if I don't necessarily agree with this guy's politics. No one should be in prison for being a political candidate.

6. The Cuban regime claimed it killed four people in a shootout with a Florida speedboat on Wednesday. While it has been confirmed that at least two people aboard were U.S. citizens, there are still a lot of holes in the story.

7. The fastest-growing place for tourism in the Western Hemisphere is... El Salvador. Bravo to Bukele for topping yet another list.

8. Marco Rubio attended CARICOM meetings in Saint Kitts and Nevis this week, where he also met with many leaders from Caribbean nations, and hopefully spoke to them about what we can do about China's hold on some of those islands.

The U.S. has long been Caribbean nations’ most reliable partner. In today’s meeting with Caribbean Community leaders we reaffirmed our shared commitment to greater security in the region. pic.twitter.com/L27rUiU0gc
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) February 25, 2026

9. Here are a few more Cuba and Venezuela updates from this past week. I was hoping to dive into some other countries, especially Nicaragua, but between recovering from my flu or whatever it was, the State of the Union, and Cuba and Venezuela being the attention hogs they are lately, I didn't get a chance. Maybe next week.

I have to admit that Trump's saying we could see a "friendly takeover" of Cuba got me a bit excited today. I know the president sometimes says things that need a bit of clarification, but I'm hoping he was being literal here and something is in the works. I see no problems with this whatsoever.

.@POTUS: "The Cuban government is talking with us, and they're in a big deal of trouble, as you know. They have no money, they have no anything right now... and maybe we'll have a friendly takeover of Cuba... We have people living here that want to go back to Cuba..." pic.twitter.com/VrnzsXjO0v
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 27, 2026

Someone made a funny video of what that might look like, which I thought I'd share (make sure you watch until the end):

…..el final no tiene precio 🤩 pic.twitter.com/1ktKrU901R
— Cuban Miracle (@CubanMiracle) February 18, 2026

Well, that's it for me. As I say Rubio isn't handing me exclusives... yet. But if he's in the midst of a "friendly takeover" of Cuba, I'll wait a little bit longer.

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).

Thanks for all the well wishes last week! I am over whatever sickness I had and back to mostly normal operating capacity (and still trying to get through all of my emails).

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