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WAR AT SEA As tensions mounted with Venezuela over Washington’s military buildup in the Caribbean, a U.S. Marines V-22 Osprey took off from a base in Puerto Rico. President Trump declared war on cartels smuggling drugs into the U.S. by boat from countries like Venezuela.
constitutes a war against our country. “We are not going to tolerate you
sending these weapons and these drugs into our country,” he added. “And we know the Maduro govern- ment is very much behind it.” Ryan C. Berg, director of the Ameri-
cas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, tells Newsmax U.S. leaders appear to be weighing a “paradigm shift” away from Europe and Asia that focuses in- stead on defending the U.S. homeland, and promoting peace and security in the Western Hemisphere. Berg says Latin American nations,
which have long cried out for more at- tention and economic development from prior administrations, are final- ly being heard under Trump. Trump was unable to push Maduro out in his first term — now he’s adopting new tactics. There’s been growing inside-the-
Beltway talk in recent weeks of a new U.S. strategy that would shift the focus away from distant lands half a world away in favor of developing and de- fending nations in the Western Hemi- sphere, including Latin America. “Our friends in the hemisphere
have asked us for a long time to pay more attention: They say, ‘You ignore us, the president doesn’t visit, the sec- retary of state doesn’t visit.’ “Now,” Berg says, “the region has
the attention of this administration in a major way.”
76 NEWSMAX | DECEMBER 2025 | MAKING WEST GREAT | Under the new paradigm, the prior-
ity for economic and military assistance could shift. This would be especially good news for long-neglected nations in Central and South America. Countries throughout the region
clearly see Trump’s intervention as a major opportunity. “It’s surprising, isn’t it?” says Berg.
“We’re openly taking out drug boats from the Southern Caribbean, and yet there’s been an overwhelming amount of support from Caribbean countries that are heavily impacted by drug traf- ficking and violence.” Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, and the
Dominican Republic have all declared the Venezuelan cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations “constituting a threat to the national population, the established order, and the sovereignty and integrity of the State.” Ecuador has played a leading role
as well. Leaders from Guyana, Trini- dad and Tobago, and Jamaica have all voiced support for the administration’s war on the drug cartels. So, after decades of being relegated
to the geopolitical shadows while U.S. leaders concentrated on Cold War con- flict zones and the global war on terror, America’s neighbors to the south sense they finally have a chance to step into the spotlight. “I think the Trump administration has paid more attention to Latin Amer-
ica in its first year in office than many administrations do in four or even eight years,” comments Berg. The ultimate fate of Trump’s vi-
sion to make the Western Hemisphere great again may depend on whether his diplomatic efforts in Ukraine and the Middle East succeed in bringing a last- ing peace there. If they do, it will free up the diplomatic, military, and economic resources that are needed to dispel the drug traffickers and to revive and re- form the region. But for that to happen, Trump clear-
ly believes Maduro must go. And Berg points out that Trump’s $50 million bounty could convince someone in the Venezuelan military that life would be a lot better if Maduro were gone. Trump’s shift to annihilate the car-
tel drug runners, rather than have the Coast Guard intercept and apprehend them, is not without controversy. GOP Sen. Rand Paul, for example,
has called the strikes illegal, insisting that Congress should approve military action; “the president shouldn’t do this by himself.” In the meantime, however, Trump’s
de facto war continues unabated, and no one can say how long Maduro, who says any U.S. boots on the ground would touch off a massive insurgency, can hold out. But Berg suggests the clock is ticking. “We know he’s under a lot of pressure,” says Berg. “We know he’s watching the B-52s and F-35s as they fly close to Caracas.”
DEFENSE/MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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