After Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba and Nicaragua are now in the line of fire of the Trump administration. As he officially revived the Monroe Doctrine through his 2025 National Security Strategy, President Trump now wants to assert US dominance over other “problematic” regimes and countries in Latin America. The feeling left by Maduro’s capture on the international scene that the US may now do the same to other longtime rivals was confirmed today by Rep. Senator Rick Scott in an interview to FoxNews. “What they [the Trump administration] did in Venezuela is going to change Latin America. This is the start of change in Venezuela, then we are going to fix Cuba; Nicaragua will be fixed; Next year we will get a new president in Colombia. The democracy is coming back to this hemisphere,” declared the Senator from Florida in a message that will send shockwaves through the subcontinent.
Petro and Colombia in Trump’s crosshairs: a real threat?
Colombia, the historic ally of the United States in the Western Hemisphere, has now become one of its declared political rivals. Since left-wing President Gustavo Petro came to power in August 2022, relations between Bogota and Washington have steadily deteriorated. Petro, a former guerrilla member, is an outspoken critic of U.S. hegemony and imperialism, as well as Washington’s historical interventionism in Latin America.
While tolerated by Joe Biden, Petro’s political and geopolitical orientations have drawn the ire of Donald Trump since its return to the White House in January 2025. Open clashes and diplomatic confrontations between the two heads of state have led to an unprecedented deterioration in bilateral relations, culminating in Colombia being stripped of its status as an ally in the fight against drug trafficking and Petro being added to the Clinton List last year. Trump, however, has consistently sought to dissociate Colombia from its democratically elected left-wing government led by Petro.
Since the capture of Maduro, Petro is now in Washington’s crosshairs. Over the past few days, Trump has repeatedly threatened Petro, telling him to “watch his a**” and saying that a military operation in Colombia sounded “good” to him.
That said, this rhetoric should not be misinterpreted. Colombia is set to hold legislative and presidential elections in the coming months. It is highly likely that a pro-Washington right-wing candidate—such as Abelardo de la Espriella—will come to power and put Colombia back on the pro-U.S. track that has prevailed since the beginning of the century. Trump’s statements should therefore be seen primarily as intimidation, or as a means of pressure and influence over the electoral process.
In this regard, comments by Senator Rick Scott take on their full meaning: rather than “fixing” Colombia, the Republican instead speaks of installing a new president. While the kidnapping of President Petro is highly unlikely, potential ground-based military operations against guerrilla and narco-trafficking groups remain possible. Several months ago, the United States did in fact carry out multiple strikes against suspected narco-boats off Colombia’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts.
This lecture has been confirmed very recently as Trump and Petro agreed to an official meeting in Washington D.C. after their first ever phone call.
Cuba and Nicaragua, public enemies number one after Maduro’s fall
With the fall of Maduro — though not the Chavista regime — Cuba is once again at the center of attention. Ennemy of the U.S. since the 1959 revolution, Cuba has been a stronghold of opposition to U.S. imperialsim and hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba is notably one of the biggest supports and allies of the Venezuelan Chavista regime due to ideological and political proximity, providing military advisers, security and even Santería priests to the regime. During an interview to NBC News a few days ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio — himself of Cuban descent — made a threatening declaration regarding Cuba. “We are not big fans of the Cuban regime […] If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.”
Currently ruled by Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba remains in deep distress, with chronic shortages of electricity, food, and fuel. The island’s fragile energy system, heavily dependent on imported oil and aging thermal power plants, has been pushed to the brink. Beyond electricity, shortages of gasoline, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas continue to disrupt transportation, cooking, and industrial activity. Most of Cuba’s oil notably comes from Venezuela, which will be an important leverage for the Trump administration now that the U.S. claim it will control the country’s production and exports of oil.
In addition to Cuba, the Central American republic of Nicaragua—also ruled by a socialist dictatorship—is the other main target of the Trump administration and its hegemonic ambitions in the Western Hemisphere. In power since 2006, the Sandinista revolutionary leader has long been an avowed opponent of U.S. hegemony.
Since Trump’s return to office, pressure on the Sandinista regime has steadily intensified. In June 2025, the United States withdrew the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from Nicaragua, and in September 2025, the U.S. State Department designated the country as a “major drug transit country.”
Although Trump did not directly refer to Nicaragua in his statements following the capture of Nicolas Maduro last weekend, all eyes are now on the country, as the unpredictability of the Trump administration leaves the door open to every possible scenario. So what is really at stake?
How to read Trump’s threats?
The military operation in Caracas sent shockwaves across the Western Hemisphere, particularly through chanceries hostile to Washington. This is where the difficulty lies: deciphering Trump. Are these threats mere bluff, or are they warnings of actions yet to come?
Here, we venture to argue that Trump’s threats now primarily serve to bring everyone back into line—that is, to compel governments to do what Washington demands and to stop doing what it finds objectionable. While the United States has the capacity to overthrow the governments of Cuba and Nicaragua, it is unlikely to resort to such measures. “Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall,” Trump declared, adding: “I don’t think we need any action. It looks like it’s going down.”
If Trump has proven far more martial than during his 2016 presidential campaign, it is nonetheless clear that neither the American public nor the White House wishes to repeat the missteps of Iraq—namely, overthrowing a government, managing a political transition, and trying to rebuild or develop the country. As outlined in the National Security Strategy, what interests Trump is control over strategic energy and mineral resources, control of south–north migration flows, the fight against drug trafficking, and the exclusion of rival regimes and states—China, Russia, and Iran—from the Western Hemisphere. This is “Donroe”, the new Monroe Doctrine.
From this perspective, Trump’s statements toward Venezuela’s chavista regime clearly show that opening the country’s oil resources and reducing ties with U.S. rivals are sufficient—and will continue to be sufficient—to grant the regime a period of relative calm vis-à-vis Washington. In this sense, Trump’s strategy is effective: through limited but lethal use of military force, the United States signals to its rivals that it is ready to enforce its regional interests, naturally pushing these countries to act more cautiously or to make concessions, and this at the expense of the populations and political oppositions.