Cuban-American lawmakers have come out in defense of the Monroe Doctrine, the nearly 200-year-old foreign policy that aimed to prevent European powers from extending their imperial ambitions into the Americas. The doctrine has been invoked by U.S. presidents over the years to justify interventions in Latin America, most recently during the Bush administration.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), the first Cuban-American elected to Congress, said that revoking the Monroe Doctrine would “erase centuries of American resolve to protect the Western Hemisphere from authoritarian forces, foreign or domestic.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) echoed the sentiment, saying that scrapping the document would be wrong, arguing, “You cannot single out the Monroe Doctrine and then forget all the other work that we have done for centuries to support the development and the protection of freedom, the rule of law and democracy in the Western Hemisphere.”
The Republican lawmakers are pushing back against Democrats seeking to end the Monroe Doctrine, which they maintain has been used to justify oppressive U.S. interference in the region. Progressive Democrats in the House, including Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Ilhan Omar (MN) and Raul Grijalva (AZ), have received support from progressive Latinx leaders such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), in their quest to end the outdated doctrine.
“It is time to turn the page on a darker era of our foreign policy and reaffirm our commitment to self-determination and justice for all Latin American countries,” said Gabbard.
