Comment: As Trump blows up so-called narco-trafficking boats, he uses an old corrupt playbook on Latin America.

Consumer confidence is falling. The national debt is at $38 trillion and climbing like the yodel climber in the game “The Price is Right.” Donald Trump’s approval ratings are falling and the United States is growing increasingly restless as the end of 2025 approaches.

What should an aspiring strongman do to support his regime?

Attack Latin America, of course!

Since September, U.S. warplanes have bombed small ships in international waters off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia with extrajudicial zeal. The Trump administration claimed the ships were filled with drugs and manned by “narcoterrorists” and released videos of each of the 10 boats it incinerated to make the actions seem as normal as a mission in “Call of Duty.”

“Narcoterrorists who intend to bring poison to our shores will find no refuge anywhere in our hemisphere,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has just ordered an aircraft carrier currently stationed in the Mediterranean to relocate to the Caribbean, said on social media. It will host 10,000 troops stationed there as part of one of the largest U.S. deployments to the region in decades, all in the name of stopping a drug epidemic that has ravaged Red America over the past quarter century.

This week, Trump authorized covert CIA actions in Venezuela and revealed he wanted to launch strikes against land targets where his people believe Latin American cartels operate. Who cares whether the host countries will give permission? Who cares about American laws that say only Congress – not the president – ​​can declare war on our enemies?

This is Latin America, after all.

The military buildup, bombing, and threatening to do more in the name of freedom is one of the oldest measures in American foreign policy. For more than two centuries, the United States treated Latin America like its personal piñata, denigrating it for its goods and not caring about the horrific consequences.

“Everyone knows we’re drifting [our blessings] of the excellence of our institutions,” James Monroe concluded in the 1823 speech that outlined what became known as the Monroe Doctrine, which essentially told the rest of the world to leave the Western Hemisphere to us. “Should we not, then, adopt whatever measures may be necessary to perpetuate them?

Our wars of expansion in the 19th century, official or not, brought us territories where Latin Americans lived – Panamanians, Puerto Ricans, but especially Mexicans – whom we ended up treating like serfs. We have been occupying countries for years and imposing sanctions on others. We have propped up puppets and despots and overthrown democratically elected governments with the regularity of seasons.

The culmination of all these actions was the mass migrations from Latin America that forever changed the demographics of the United States. And when these people – like my parents – arrived here, they were immediately subjected to a racism deeply ingrained in the American psyche, which then justified a Latin American foreign policy focused on domination, not friendship.

Nothing historically unites this country like sticking it to Latinos, whether in their ancestral countries or here. We are the perpetual scapegoats and eternal invaders of this country, and harming gringos—whether by stealing their jobs, moving into their neighborhoods, marrying their daughters, or smuggling drugs—is supposed to be all we care about.

That’s why when Trump ran with an isolationist agenda last year, he never talked about the region – of course not. The border between the United States and Latin America has never been the barrier that separates the United States from Mexico or our shores. This is where we say it.

This is why the Trump administration is banking on the idea that it can get away with its boat bombings and salivating at the prospect of escalation. To them, the 43 people killed so far by U.S. missile strikes on the high seas are not humans — and anyone who might have an iota of sympathy or doubt also deserves assault.

That’s why, when Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the United States of murder because one of the strikes killed a Colombian fisherman with no ties to the cartels, Trump took to social media to slam Petro’s “fresh mouth,” accuse him of being a “drug leader” and warn the leader of a longtime U.S. ally that he “better shut these battlegrounds down.” [cartel bases] immediately, otherwise the United States would close them for its benefit, and that would not go well.”

The only person who can lower the temperature on this issue is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who should know all the harm that US imperialism has caused to Latin America. The United States treated his parents’ homeland, Cuba, like a playground for decades, supporting one dictator after another until Cubans revolted and Fidel Castro took power. A decades-long embargo that Trump strengthened during his second term did nothing to liberate the Cuban people and instead made the situation worse.

Instead, Rubio is the instigator. He is pushing for regime change in Venezuela, alongside self-proclaimed Salvadoran “the coolest dictator in the world” Nayib Bukele and applauding Trump’s missile attacks.

“At the end of the day, they’re drug boats,” Rubio recently told reporters with Trump at his side. “If people want to stop seeing drug boats explode, stop sending drugs to the United States. »

You might ask yourself: who cares? Cartels are bad, drugs are bad, right? Of course. But every American should object every time a suspected drug ship from Latin America is destroyed without any questions asked or evidence provided. Because every time Trump violates a new law or norm in the name of defending the United States and no one stops him, democracy erodes a little more.

After all, this is a president who seems to dream of treating his enemies, including America’s cities, like drug boats.

Few people will care, unfortunately. This is Latin America, after all.