Where is the next objective in Latin America for Trump? The U.S. plan is laid out in the 2025 National Security Strategy

It was never just about Venezuela. It was about South America as a continent, the place about which Trump believes he deserves jurisdiction and somewhere that should allow itself the immeasurable benefits the United States can offer. And by benefits, I mean money.

According to Ben Norton, a political analyst and journalist, the United States military strike in Venezuela marks a dramatic escalation in Washington’s regional policy, raising concerns about further imperial encroachment and strategic ambitions beyond so-called security goals. Norton argues that the action is not an isolated incident but part of a broader push by Donald Trump’s United States to assert dominance throughout Latin America.

In the early hours of the operation, US forces carried out a precision strike that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. This unprecedented move has been characterised by proponents in Washington as a measure against alleged corruption, drug trafficking and threats to regional stability.

“The US seeks to forcibly impose its hegemony in the entire western hemisphere”

However, critics have sharply rejected this narrative, calling it everything except ‘batcrap crazy’. According to Norton, the operation reflects long-standing ambitions by US policymakers to control the political and economic direction of the Western Hemisphere, as they appear to believe they deserve.

Writing on social media, he says: “The US seeks to forcibly impose its hegemony in the entire western hemisphere, reviving the colonial Monroe Doctrine... The plan is for US corporations to control all of the region’s strategic natural resources, including critical minerals and rare earth elements. The US wants to create a new supply chain in the western hemisphere that cuts out China, to prepare for future conflict with Beijing.

“Moreover,” he adds, “the US empire seeks to control all of the strategic infrastructure in the region."

“Washington could even blackmail Latin American governments”

He recalls how Trump has “already forced Panama to pressure the Hong Kong company that owned ports surrounding the Panama Canal to sell them to Wall Street giant BlackRock” in a strategy that is set to “brazenly threaten Latin American countries to force China to sell any investments it has in infrastructure projects.”

Norton believes that it is “likely” that the next target for the United States is Peru’s Port of Chancay, which he calls “one of the most important ports in the region.”

A region built by China, he argues that “Washington could even blackmail Latin American governments to force them to impose restrictions on Chinese investment.”

And the terror doesn’t stop there. “Trump and Marco Rubio want to carry out similar imperialist regime-change wars on Nicaragua and Cuba,” he writes, adding that “Rubio has dedicated his entire career to overthrowing their socialist revolutions,” calling it a “political crusade” for him.

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The leader of the Free World wants to “impose right-wing US puppet regimes in every country in Latin America, which will obediently serve the interests of Washington and Wall Street, and sell off their assets to US investors.” Welcome to 2026.

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