Latin America Under the Monroe Doctrine 2.0: Rival Exclusion, the Panama Canal Consolidation, and the Post-Maduro Caribbean

Abstract

The Latin America theater is the southern hemispheric flank of the Monroe Doctrine 2.0 architecture, running from the Mexican southern border through the Central American isthmus, across the Caribbean basin with its chokepoint geography and post-Maduro Venezuelan reconstruction, down through the Andean mineral spine and into the South American cone. The theater's master variable is the rate at which Monroe Doctrine 2.0 rival exclusion consolidates the Latin American substrate against the three principal non-hemispheric penetrations the post-1991 globalist era permitted: Chinese Belt and Road economic and infrastructure integration, Russian security and intelligence footholds in Cuba and Nicaragua and pre-removal Venezuela, and the broader BRICS+ institutional architecture. The exclusion is proceeding through Operation Absolute Resolve's Maduro removal, the CK Hutchison Panama Canal port sale, the Argentine realignment under Milei, the broader regional electoral pendulum toward conservative governance (Kast in Chile, Paz in Bolivia), and the March 2026 Doral hemispheric security summit institutionalizing the broader regional alignment.