As President Trump returns from China, leaving corporate media completely in the dark as to what, if anything, just happened, the Donroe Doctrine powers ahead here at home during 2026’s Year of Action. Distracted by the China spectacle, the news cycle overlooked several major developments closer to our own hemisphere. First, late yesterday, CBS reported, “Trump says U.S. has killed Islamic State leader in Nigeria”

Last night, President Trump posted that, “Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield.”

In 2023, the Treasury Department placed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki (deceased) on its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list. He was described by Biden’s State Department as a member of ISIS’s global leadership, overseeing operations and funding for ISIS’s worldwide network. The Trump Administration also identified him as involved in the regional persecution of Nigerian Christians.

“He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans,” the President tweeted. A Nigerian goverment press announcement added, “Several of his lieutenants were also killed.” So.

Also yesterday, and moving even closer to our own shores, ABC affiliate WPDE-15 reported, “Accused Tren de Aragua leader extradited to US in first-of-its-kind terrorism case.” The “war on drugs” is starting to look like more than just a slogan.

Jose Enrique “Chuqui” Martinez Flores, 24, appeared in federal court in Houston yesterday, after Colombian authorities arrested him at the FBI’s request. FBI Director Kash Patel tweeted that this case was the first time a Tren de Aragua cartel member has been extradited to the US on terrorism-related charges. In February, 2025, Trump’s executive order designated Tren as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Chuqui Flores was called part of the Tren’s “inner circle” of leadership in Bogotá, “where he oversaw criminal operations including drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and murder.” You know, a typical South American entrepreneur.

The Latin American gangs are starting to learn what happens when they cross the border and take over apartment complexes in Colorado. Three more Tren leaders remain at large on the FBI’s wanted list, with bounties of $4-5 million.

Chuqui’s case is the latest evidence of the Monroe Doctrine’s modern form, in which U.S. law enforcement agencies view the entire Americas as being within their jurisdiction, applying American law to top bad guys in our hemisphere— bad guys who are directly or indirectly causing trouble in the USA.

It is being called a historic development in US-Latin American relations. Colombia’s Embassy tweeted, “We’re seeing many countries that have not historically cooperated with things like extraditing criminals back to the U.S. or allowing, coordinating operations in their countries. That’s changing.”

Relations are “changing” for one reason. It is the fruit of the Trump Administration’s aggressive policy of policing our own hemisphere, using hard power, which works more effectively and quickly than long-term, destabilizing “soft power” games. It’s not just about pushing China and Russia out of our sandbox —though that is part of it— but also about keeping the American Hemisphere itself tidy and safe for man and child.

Yesterday, and third, the New York Times reported, “With Possible Raúl Castro Indictment, U.S. Eyes Venezuela Playbook.” Uh-oh!

The article reported that on Thursday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Cuba to “deliver a stark demand: shut down Russian and Chinese listening posts and take steps to open the economy.” One day later, “word came that federal prosecutors in Miami were working on an indictment of Raúl Castro, 92, the brother of Fidel.”

“The unstated warning could not have been clearer,” the Times explained. “Just look at what happened in Venezuela.”

In case the warning wasn’t clear enough, the Times broke it down anyway. “It cannot be lost on anyone in the Cuban government that the Trump administration used a federal criminal indictment against Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian leader of Venezuela.”

In other words, yet another Latin American communist leader is now in the DOJ’s crosshairs —not the Pentagon’s crosshairs— for violating U.S. criminal law. Another way you could look at it is that the Trump Administration is deploying Democrat-style lawfare against communists all over the American hemisphere.

The historic nature of what we’re doing cannot be understated. Rather than using classic tools of diplomacy, international aid, covert ops, and the military, the Trump Administration is doing something new: using domestic criminal laws and simply exercising jurisdiction over the whole hemisphere as though it belonged to us.

The “criminal indictment” playbook resembles a classic decapitation strike, but without the war part. After January’s Maduro operation, Latin American countries are learning that the US can reach into their countries whenever we want and pluck out the violent strongmen who have always confidently believed they can send drugs and terrorists through our formerly porous borders, co-opt our local politicians and judges, and set up shop here— without any consequences.

Well … fool around and find out. But it’s bigger than that. These “small stories” are an expression of a new hemispheric policy. We’re not just cracking down on domestic crime at home, we are policing the whole hemisphere. When you combine that with the President’s approach to Russia and China, you begin to see something immense emerging.

Trump has been very firm with Beijing and Moscow in our part of the world. He’s rudely evicted them from South and Central America, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean. But at the same time, he is also softening our positions on Ukraine and Taiwan, retreating from NATO expansionism in Europe, seeking trade deals with them, and courting both Putin and Xi with high-profile diplomatic outreach.

Wait— this is where it gets really good. Every bit of all that geoplitical reorganization is happening completely outside the United Nations’ “rules-based international order.” And we could add Trump’s remaking the Middle East in real time, the end of OPEC, and the Board of Peace.

Trump doesn’t have to “end the UN,” he is making it irrelevant. He’s not attacking the UN head-on. He’s building an expressway around the UN and strip?mining its relevance.

This week’s three stories are not just unrelated individual operations. They represent a hemispheric police doctrine nested inside a broader shift away from global hegemony toward something more like “Fortress America plus deals.” No wonder the globalists are panicking

JEEFF CHILDERS