By invading Venezuela, President Trump has just lit America's eternal exploding cigar.
For more than 175 years – since then USA conquered half of Mexico — Almost every president has interfered in Latin American affairs while telling the rest of the world to stay away.
We helped overthrow democratically elected leaders And supported the murderous powers that be. Trained death squads and suggested helping beloved allies. Implemented an economic blockade and encouraged American companies to treat the region's wealth and its workers like a cookie jar.
From the Mexican-American War to the Bay of Pigs Invasion, from the Panama Canal to NAFTA, we have looked after ourselves in Latin America, even wrapping our actions in the banner of charity.
It rarely ended well for anyone, especially us. Many of the leaders we brought to power became despots whom we tolerated until they exhausted themselves, e.g. Panama Manuel Noriega. The political upheaval we helped create forced generations of Latinos to migrate to Northfundamentally changing our country, although too many Americans think people like my family had to stay in their ancestral homes.
So Trump was at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday and insisted that capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife American troops was a military action as brilliant and significant as D-Day. He also announced that the US would “run the country” and virtually performed his strange “YMCA” dance the idea of making money from Venezuelan oil.
His message to the world: Venezuela is ours until we say so, just like the rest of Latin America. And while both allies and enemies still didn't get the hint, Trump announced a revamped Monroe Doctrine, the idea that The US can do whatever it wants in the Western Hemisphere. – called the Donro Doctrine.
Because of course he did.
No one in Washington should be more versed in this horrific story than Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cubans who fled the island when it was ruled by a U.S.-backed caudillo. Fulgencio Batista.
Rubio grew up in exile, where Batista's replacement, Fidel Castro, remained in power for decades despite a US embargo. As one of the U.S. senators from Florida, Rubio represented millions of Latino immigrants who fled civil wars waged by the United States.
And yet he's from Trumpworld biggest fan for regime change in Latin America, helping torpedo the president's anti-intervention pledge as if it were drug boat off the coast of South America.
On Saturday, Rubio watched silently as Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “watch your ass.” When it was Rubio's turn to answer questions from reporters, he said Cuba's leaders “should be concerned” and warned the rest of the world: “Don't play games with this president in power because it won't end well.”
There are few people in Latin America who are more reviled than sold – sale. Betraying one's country for personal or political gain is an original sin, dating back to the tribes who allied with the Spanish conquistadors to destroy oppressive empires, only to suffer the same sad end themselves. Sold dominated the history of the region and contributed to its development, and the leaders – the Mexican Porfirio DiazSomoza from Nicaragua, Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic – more than happy to take sides Yankees at the expense of their compatriots.
Rubio belongs to that long, dirty line-up – and in many ways he's the worst sold of them all.
Then-Sep. Marco Rubio (R-FL) (left) listens during the 2016 presidential debate with candidate Donald Trump.
(Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press)
I still remember the fresh-faced idealistic guy trying to pass bipartisan amnesty bill in 2013. Although he was too right-wing for my taste, he seemed like a Latin American politician who could thread the needle between liberals and conservatives, gringos and us.
It was wonderful to see him shout about Trump's boorishness when the two competed against each other in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. He told CNN's Jake Tapper in words that sound more prophetic than ever: “There will be a lot of people in the coming years… who will have to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump, because it's not going to end well, one way or another.”
The thirst for power, alas, can corrupt even the most idealistic hearts. Rubio ultimately endorsed Trump in 2016, backed Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and said at the 2024 Republican National Convention that Trump “didn't just transform our party, he inspired a movement.”
Rubio's boot-licking reward? He determines our foreign policy, which is like putting an arsonist in charge of a fireworks stand.
I'm sure this is all perceived by the Venezuelan diaspora as left-wing talk, many of whom rejoiced at Maduro's fate from Spain to Mexico, from Miami to Los Angeles. Only deluded silly could support what Maduro has done in Venezuela, which has been a prosperous country and a relatively stable US ally for decades while the rest of South America lurched from one crisis to another.
But for Trump, overthrowing Maduro was never about the well-being of Venezuelans or the establishment of democracy in their country; it was about securing a foothold for expanding American power and enriching the United States.
Meanwhile, his deportation Leviathan absorbed tens of thousands of illegal Venezuelans and canceled temporary protected status hundreds of thousands more.
Back in 2022, when Rubio was still a senator, he advocated granting Venezuelans the right to temporary protected status, which is granted to citizens of countries deemed too dangerous to return. At the time, Rubio argued that “failure to do so will result in a very real death sentence for countless Venezuelans who have fled their country.”
Now? At the May press conference he claimed that 240 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador earlier in 2025, “they weren't migrants, they were criminals,” although the Deportation Data Project found that only 16% of them had a criminal conviction.
Rubio has long since transformed himself into a modern man. Simon Bolivara Venezuelan who led the liberation of South America from Spain and has since become a hero to many Latin Americans.
But even Bolivar knew he was skeptical of American hegemony, writing in an 1829 letter that the United States “seems destined by Providence to become a plague.” [Latin] America with suffering in the name of Freedom.”
Plague, your name is Marco Rubio. By encouraging Trump to launch an unrestrained attack on Latin America, you are starting the same old song about US intervention that binds your family and my family. Allow Maduro's cronies to remain in power if they play along with you and Trumpeven though they rigged the 2024 elections, this proves that you are as supportive of the Venezuelan people as Maduro.
Sold.
