DONALD TRUMP’S bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro were not only a disgraceful assault on a sovereign nation that posed no threat to any other country. They were the first move in Trump’s plan to recolonise Latin America.

More than 100 people were killed in the attack, which involved over 150 US military aircraft, including bombers and F‑35 fighter jets. It was a clear violation of international law and a reckless act that has made the world more dangerous for everyone.

Anyone who cares about human rights, justice and the rule of law must condemn this attack, demand the safe return of Maduro to Venezuela, and the right of Venezuela to determine its own future free from foreign interference.

Trump’s assault was clearly about control of Venezuela’s oil, the largest reserves in the world. But it was not only a resource grab. It was also a power grab, and the opening move in a wider strategy to reassert total US domination over Latin America.

The scale of the US military build-up in recent months makes this clear. Tens of thousands of troops have been deployed across the Caribbean. So too the USS Gerald R Ford, the largest warship ever constructed, described by the US navy as “the most … lethal combat platform in the world.”

This is not aimed at just one government. Trump has all of Latin America in his crosshairs.

Already, he has threatened military action against Colombia and Mexico and further bombing of Venezuela if it does not give him exactly what he wants. His new sanctions to create a total oil blockade on Cuba are part of this war drive too and constitutes a war crime of collective punishment against the Cuban people.

Trump’s objective is to turn the entire region back into a colony, where the United States controls its land, resources and people, dictates who countries are allowed to buy from and sell to, and punishes those who refuse to comply.

That is why the Trump administration paraded Maduro through New York like a trophy. It was a crude display designed to send a message to the region: do as we say, or you are next.

The logic of colonial domination is spelt out clearly in Trump’s new National Security Strategy. The document explicitly revives the Monroe Doctrine, long used to justify treating Latin America as Washington’s “backyard.” It frames the western hemisphere as a zone of US control in which countries are expected to align with US interests.

The wording is chilling. The strategy states that “after years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere … and our access to key geographies throughout the region.” It describes this as a “potent restoration of American power,” noting that “the western hemisphere is home to many strategic resources” and that “the United States must reconsider our military presence in the western hemisphere … to address urgent threats” there.

But this agenda will be opposed every step of the way by the people of Latin America.

One striking demonstration of this came recently in Ecuador, where the population overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to change the country’s constitution to allow foreign military bases on its soil.

Lifting the ban would not only have reopened the door to permanent US military facilities in Ecuador that could have been used to launch attacks on neighbouring countries, including Colombia and Venezuela.

It would also have been used by Trump to claim that his military agenda, often cynically framed as part of a “war on drugs,” was backed by the people of Latin America, strengthening the push for further bases across the region. Instead, he suffered a decisive rebuke, with more than six in 10 Ecuadorians voting the proposal down.

That is one important example of the kind of popular opposition Trump will face across Latin America, precisely because his agenda directly conflicts with the wishes of hundreds of millions of people there.

Over the past quarter-century, Latin America has repeatedly elected governments committed to reclaiming sovereignty over natural resources and using this to invest in poverty reduction and social development.

Those governments have also worked to end their subordination to Washington, both through stronger regional integration and by deepening ties with the global South, particularly China and the wider Brics nations.

They even declared Latin America a zone of peace, where disputes are resolved through diplomacy, dialogue and respect for sovereignty.

None of this is acceptable to Trump, who is intent on tearing down every barrier to US domination.

As the people of Latin America, like people around the world, do not want to live as a colony that serves US interests, there are deep concerns about how Trump will impose his goals.

History shows that colonial domination is never achieved peacefully. They require military intervention, the installation of compliant governments, and the rolling back of democratic freedoms and basic human rights.

Latin America’s recent past underlines this. In the 1970s and ’80s, the United States backed Operation Condor across South America, co-ordinating military dictatorships to hunt down, torture and murder political opponents across borders.

In Central America, Washington armed, trained and financed brutal regimes and paramilitary death squads that took hundreds of thousands of lives.

The goal of this was to crush popular movements, enforce political obedience, and impose economic models that served US and elite interests.

That is the real aim of the military assault on Venezuela. It is not an attack to be seen in isolation, but the start of a new wave of colonialism.

Just as with the movements against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently Palestine, everyone who believes in peace, sovereignty and human rights must now also turn to building the widest possible movement demanding Hands Off Latin America!