WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has delivered one of the clearest statements yet about the Trump administration’s approach toward Latin America and the Caribbean, warning that Washington will not accept Russia, China or Iran expanding their influence in ways the United States considers destabilizing to the Western Hemisphere.
“Russia, China and Iran are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere and destabilize our region, in our own backyard, not under President Trump,” Rubio said on January 4, 2026.
He followed with an even more direct declaration: “This is our hemisphere.”
The comments came amid an intensified U.S. effort to reduce the presence and influence of rival powers in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Rubio’s language underscores the strategic importance the Trump administration places on the Western Hemisphere. Washington increasingly views developments in nearby countries not simply as matters of foreign policy, but as issues directly connected to U.S. national security.
Russia, China and Iran have all expanded their relationships with countries in Latin America during recent decades through trade, investment, energy cooperation, military contacts and diplomatic agreements.
Venezuela has been particularly important in this geopolitical competition. Caracas developed extensive political, economic and military relationships with Moscow, Beijing and Tehran during the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
The Trump administration has made clear that weakening those relationships is part of its broader strategy toward Venezuela.
Rubio's statement does not formally establish a new doctrine, but its language inevitably draws comparisons with the Monroe Doctrine, the 19th-century U.S. foreign-policy principle that opposed intervention by outside powers in the Americas.
The modern geopolitical environment is considerably different. China, in particular, has become one of the largest trading and investment partners for numerous Latin American and Caribbean countries, making any attempt to reduce Beijing's regional influence substantially more complicated than simply restricting a military presence.
Caribbean countries also maintain their own diplomatic and economic relationships with China and other international partners, particularly in infrastructure, trade, telecommunications and development financing.
For the Dutch Caribbean, including Curaçao, the changing geopolitical environment is particularly relevant because of the islands' location close to Venezuela and their constitutional relationship with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Curaçao is situated only around 65 kilometers from the Venezuelan coast, placing the island geographically close to one of the principal arenas of Washington's renewed strategic focus.
Rubio's remarks therefore signal more than a tougher U.S. position toward Venezuela. They point toward a broader policy in which Washington intends to pay significantly greater attention to the political, economic and security relationships being developed throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
The message from the Trump administration is increasingly explicit: the United States considers developments in the Western Hemisphere a core national-security interest and intends to challenge attempts by Russia, China and Iran to establish strategic positions close to U.S. territory.
Whether that approach develops into a clearly defined modern version of the Monroe Doctrine remains to be seen. But Rubio's words leave little doubt that geopolitical competition between the United States and other major powers is moving increasingly close to the Caribbean.