By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize I Digital 2026

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Saturday 3rd January 2026

EDITORIAL

For more than a century, the United States of America has wrapped its interventions in the language of freedom, democracy, and international order — while practicing something far older and far uglier: imperial entitlement.

The latest denunciation by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, alleging U.S. military aggression aimed at breaking its sovereignty and seizing its oil wealth, must be read not as an isolated claim, but as part of a long, uninterrupted pattern of hemispheric abuse.

When Washington violates sovereignty, it is called self-defense.

When others resist, it is called dictatorship.

When oil is involved, morality suddenly becomes flexible.

The Monroe Doctrine Was Never Dead — It Just Learned New Words

The Monroe Doctrine was never buried. It simply traded gunboats for sanctions, coups, proxies, and “rules-based order” rhetoric.

Whenever a Latin American or Caribbean nation:

• controls strategic resources,
• rejects U.S. tutelage,
• aligns outside Washington’s orbit,

the verdict is always the same: intervention is justified.

Not by international law.

Not by the peoples of the region.

But by American convenience.

Oil Changes Everything — Including Principles

Venezuela’s accusation strikes at the core truth Washington refuses to admit: oil rewrites the rules.

The same U.S. government that lectures the world on sovereignty:

• Invaded Panama and kidnapped its leader
• Destroyed Iraq over weapons that never existed
• Reduced Libya to chaos under a NATO banner
• Supported coups across Latin America for decades

And now dares to present itself as the guardian of legality.

This is not global leadership.

This is resource-driven coercion.

A Dangerous Precedent for the Caribbean

For CARICOM states, Central America, and small nations like Belize, this moment should ring alarm bells.

If sovereignty is conditional on:

• political obedience,
• economic alignment,
• or resource submission,

then no nation is safe.

Today it is Venezuela.

Yesterday it was Grenada, Panama, Haiti.

Tomorrow it could be any state that dares to say “no.”

Selective Law Is No Law at All

The U.S. invokes the United Nations Charter only when it suits its objectives — and discards it when it becomes inconvenient.

This hypocrisy:

• Erodes international law
• Fuels militarization
• Destabilizes entire regions
• Normalizes force over dialogue

And then Washington has the audacity to ask why the Global South no longer trusts its “values.”

Latin America Is Not a Backyard

The greatest insult is not the bombs, the sanctions, or the threats.

The greatest insult is the assumption — that Latin America and the Caribbean are still someone else’s backyard, still colonies in waiting, still territories to be disciplined when they disobey.

That era must end.

Not tomorrow.

Not politely.

Now.

History Is Watching — And So Are the People

Empires always believe they are the exception.

They never are.

The peoples of this region remember:

• who armed dictators,
• who crushed popular movements,
• who preached democracy while practicing domination.

The United States can continue down this path — but it should do so knowing that its credibility is already in ruins.

You cannot bomb sovereignty into submission.

You cannot steal resources and call it order.

And you cannot demand respect while denying it to others.

National Perspective Belize Editorial Position

This region does not need U.S. gunboats, sanctions, or moral lectures.

It needs respect, equality, and non-intervention.

Anything less is not leadership —

it is imperial decay disguised as policy.