{"id":56410,"date":"2026-05-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=56410"},"modified":"2026-05-13T10:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:41:20","slug":"the-caribbean-as-the-united-states-chessboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/the-caribbean-as-the-united-states-chessboard\/","title":{"rendered":"The Caribbean as the United States\u2019 Chessboard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The map of Greater North America unveiled by U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth outlines Washington\u2019s new strategic sphere of influence. Its design inevitably evokes the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, when Americans conceived of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Venezuela, and part of Colombia as their vital space. However, the construction of maritime hegemony was interrupted by several factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Trump\u2019s return to the White House, Washington has intensified its presence in the region through military operations and closer ties with countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Jamaica, which at the time condemned the authoritarian government of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. This was followed by the Shield of the Americas summit, attended by Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago to sign cooperation agreements on combating crime. At the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio strengthened dialogue with the Caribbean Community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rubio turned to this organization to ask island leaders for greater cooperation with Washington, arguing that if they prosper, the United States prospers as well. The Caribbean now plays a central role in the construction of the new hegemony inaugurated with Maduro\u2019s detention and showing continuity with the pressure exerted on Cuba. The White House does not want to repeat the mistakes of the past and now aspires to consolidate firmer control over its sphere of influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Donald Trump, who describes himself as an admirer of King Charles III, head of the Commonwealth and head of state of several Caribbean nations, stated in 2025 on his Truth Social network that he would welcome the possibility of the United States joining the organization. Newspapers such as The Times and El Mundo interpreted the proposal as a way to strengthen Washington\u2019s influence in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A look back<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since the eighteenth century, the presence of European colonial powers in the Caribbean has been constant. The United Kingdom retained territories such as Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, and Dominica, among others. Meanwhile, France maintained its overseas departments in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana, while Spain held onto its last colonies, Puerto Rico and Cuba, until the 1898 war, when they were lost to the Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From then on, the United States coexisted in the Caribbean alongside the European powers, while simultaneously supporting authoritarian governments aligned with the White House. Among them were the dictatorship of Rafael Le\u00f3nidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, the governments of Fran\u00e7ois Duvalier and Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti, and the administration of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba before the Cuban Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The logic of intervention persisted throughout the Cold War. In 1965, Dominicans attempted to restore Juan Bosch to the presidency, but the White House invaded the country to prevent it. Nearly twenty years later, in 1983, the government of Ronald Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada after Prime Minister Hudson Austin came to power through a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat. Washington argued that the new government threatened its security and, together with troops from Barbados and Jamaica, removed the coup leader from power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operation caused unease in London because then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared that the United Kingdom had not been consulted about the intervention in a Commonwealth nation. Thus, despite the fact that under the Monroe Doctrine the United States had initially advocated expelling all European powers from the continent, during the Cold War the White House drew closer to those nations and forged a strategic relationship with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Caribbean, a strategic region<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Caribbean has historically been a central piece of hemispheric hegemony, not only because it serves as the gateway for trade with Africa and Asia, but also because it allows influence to be projected toward South America. After the establishment of the socialist government led by Fidel Castro in Cuba, the United States promoted the island\u2019s isolation from countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago precisely to prevent those nations from adopting left-wing governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, Haiti represents a sensitive point. Mired in a political, economic, health, and security crisis since 2021, the country is important to the United States. The High Transitional Council, the body exercising control over the country because no elected officials remain, plans to hold elections next August 30. Although Trump has spoken little publicly about Haiti, the country\u2019s fragility makes it a vulnerable link that will face pressure to comply with Washington\u2019s designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, the Caribbean today represents one of the most geopolitically significant regions for the White House: it is the natural gateway to the continental Americas and a fundamental corridor for trade. Under a new Monroe Doctrine, Washington seeks to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle to consolidate a hemispheric hegemony that it neglected during the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington\u2019s renewed activism in the region revives the logic of the Monroe Doctrine and repositions the Caribbean as a strategic axis of its hemispheric influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":404,"featured_media":56398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16868],"tags":[17180],"gps":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-56410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-relaiciones-internacionales-en","8":"tag-ideas"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56411,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56410\/revisions\/56411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56410"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=56410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}