The US will exert greater power across the Western Hemisphere, the State Department declared following the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a raid on Caracas.
US forces invaded the oil-rich South American country on Saturday, capturing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both were later indicted by the Department of Justice on drug-trafficking charges. Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty when they were brought before a New York court on Monday, while the Venezuelan government has denounced the raid as an “imperialist attack.”
Read more: Maduro’s kidnapping by US is ‘modern day imperialism’ – spokeswoman of South Africa’s largest union
President Donald Trump said the military action against Venezuela marked the return and expansion of the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century policy originally aimed at preventing European powers from exerting influence in the region.
This is OUR Hemisphere, and President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened. pic.twitter.com/SXvI868d4Z
— Department of State (@StateDept) January 5, 2026
“This is OUR Hemisphere, and President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened,” the State Department wrote on X on Monday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a similar warning in an interview with NBC. “This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live, and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operations for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States,” he said.
Trump said he wants American companies to gain access to Venezuela’s oil industry, which was nationalized by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez. He added that the US intends to “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” without providing further details.
