Designed to advance Trump’s “America First” vision, the new strategy marks a reorientation of his policy of recent years, which has been focused on Asia, although it continues to identify China as its main competitor.
The United States—the document states—will readjust its “global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere and move away from theaters whose relative importance to U.S. national security has diminished in recent decades or years.”
The text emphasizes the objective of strengthening U.S. influence in Latin America, where in recent months the Trump administration has been targeting alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, seeking regime change in Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela, and has expressed its intention to seize control of key resources such as the Panama Canal.
See full document here: https://es.scribd.com/document/961381456/National-Security-Strategy#from_embed
What does the United States National Security Strategy say about Latin America?
The document states that the United States will apply a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine of the 1820s, when Washington consolidated its hegemony over Europeans in Latin America, which it considered its “backyard.”
“After years of neglect, the United States will reaffirm and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to possess or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere.”
The White House does not list “non-hemispheric competitors,” but their names are obvious: China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. And in this geopolitical context, the governments of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua should be added as proxies for Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Ali Khamenei.
Washington also intends to end mass migration worldwide and make border control “the primary element of American security,” according to the document.
“We must protect our country against invasions, not only against uncontrolled migration, but also against threats.” “Cross-border threats such as terrorism, drugs, espionage, and human trafficking,” it adds.
Along these lines, a greater presence of the Coast Guard and Navy is planned for the region, as well as other military actions to “secure the border and defeat the cartels, including, when necessary, the use of lethal force.”
Original article by Gustavo Calvo y Leo Harari at En Perspectiva, December 10, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.