HOW THE STRATEGY EXPLAINS TRUMP’S ACTIONS
For months, the Trump administration has been striking suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing dozens of people.
International law experts and human rights officials say these attacks breach international law. The US Congress has not authorised any armed conflict in these waters, yet the strikes have been presented as necessary to protect the US from “narco‑terrorists”.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has also been branded a “narco‑dictator”, though Venezuela is a minor player in the flow of drugs to the US.
On Dec 2, Trump told reporters that any country he believes is manufacturing or transporting drugs to the US could face a military strike. This includes not just Venezuela, but also Mexico and Colombia.
On the same day, Trump also granted a pardon to Juan Orlando Hernandez, Honduras’ former president. He had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for helping move hundreds of tons of cocaine into the US.
The new National Security Strategy attempts to explain the logic behind these contradictory actions. It emphasises the need to protect US “core national interests”, and stresses: “President Trump’s foreign policy is […] not grounded in traditional, political ideology. It is motivated above all by what works for America – or, in two words, ‘America First’.”
Within this logic, Hernandez was pardoned because he can still serve US interests. As a former president with deep links to Honduran elites and security forces, he is exactly the kind of loyal, hard-right client Trump wants in a country that hosts US military personnel and can help police migration routes to the US.
The timing underlines this: Trump moved to free Hernandez just days before Honduras’ elections, shoring up the conservative networks he once led to support Trump’s preferred candidate for president, Nasry Asfura.
In Trump’s “America First” calculus, pardoning Hernandez also sends a couple clear signals. Obedient partners are rewarded. And power, not principle, determines US policy in the region.
