\u201cNarco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,\u201d Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media and who just ordered an aircraft carrier currently stationed in the Mediterranean to set up shop in the Caribbean. It\u2019ll meet up with 10,000 troops stationed there as part of one of the area\u2019s biggest U.S. deployments in decades, all in the name of stopping a drug epidemic that has ravaged red America for the past quarter century<\/a>.<\/p>\n This week, Trump authorized covert CIA actions in Venezuela and revealed he wants to launch strikes against land targets where his people say Latin American cartels operate. Who cares whether the host countries will give permission? Who cares about American laws that state only Congress \u2014 not the president \u2014 can declare war against our enemies?<\/p>\n It\u2019s Latin America, after all. <\/p>\n The military buildup, bombing and threat of more in the name of liberty is one of the oldest moves in the American foreign policy playbook. For more than two centuries, the United States has treated Latin America as its personal pi\u00f1ata, bashing it silly for goods and not caring about the ugly aftermath.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is known to all that we derive [our blessings] from the excellence of our institutions,\u201d James Monroe concluded in the 1823 speech that set forth what became known as the Monroe Doctrine, which essentially told the rest of the world to leave the Western Hemisphere to us. \u201cOught we not, then, to adopt every measure which may be necessary to perpetuate them?\u201d <\/p>\n Our 19th century wars of expansion, official and not, won us territories where Latin Americans lived \u2014 Panamanians, Puerto Ricans, but especially Mexicans \u2014 that we ended up treating as little better than serfs. We have occupied nations for years and imposed sanctions<\/a> on others. We have propped up puppets and despots<\/a> and taken down democratically elected governments<\/a> with the regularity of the seasons. <\/p>\n The culmination of all these actions were the mass migrations from Latin America that forever altered the demographics of the United States. And when those people \u2014 like my parents<\/a> \u2014 came here, they were immediately subjected to a racism hard-wired into the American psyche, which then justified a Latin American foreign policy bent on domination, not friendship. <\/p>\n Nothing rallies this country historically like sticking it to Latinos, whether in their ancestral countries or here. We\u2019re this country\u2019s perpetual scapegoats and eternal invaders, with harming gringos \u2014 whether by stealing their jobs, moving into their neighborhoods, marrying their daughters or smuggling drugs \u2014 supposedly the only thing on our mind. <\/p>\n That\u2019s why when Trump ran on an isolationist platform last year, he never meant the region \u2014 of course not. The border between the U.S. and Latin America has never been the fence that divides the U.S. from Mexico or our shores. It\u2019s wherever the hell we say it is. <\/p>\n Colombian President Gustavo Petro Urrego addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23 at U.N. headquarters.<\/p>\n (Pamela Smith \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the Trump administration is banking on the idea that it can get away with its boat bombings and is salivating to escalate. To them, the 43 people American missile strikes have slaughtered on the open sea so far aren\u2019t humans \u2014 and anyone who might have an iota of sympathy or doubt deserves aggression as well. <\/p>\n That\u2019s why when Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the U.S. of murder<\/a> because one of the strikes killed a Colombian fisherman with no ties to cartels, Trump went on social media to lambaste Petro\u2019s \u201cfresh mouth,\u201d accuse him of being a \u201cdrug leader\u201d and warn the head of a longtime American ally he \u201cbetter close up these killing fields [cartel bases] immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won\u2019t be done nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n The only person who can turn down the proverbial temperature on this issue is Secretary of State Marco Rubio,<\/a> who should know all the bad that American imperialism has wrought on Latin America. The U.S. treated his parents\u2019 homeland of Cuba like a playground for decades, propping up one dictator after another until Cubans revolted and Fidel Castro took power. A decades-long embargo that Trump tightened upon assuming office the second time has done nothing to free the Cuban people and instead made things worse.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n