Reyna-Ganteaume, de Alba & Virgil: WHAT NEXT FOR VENEZUELA UNDER THE “DONROE DOCTRINE”?

Irene Horejs in conversation with Mariano de Alba, Feliciano
Reyna-Ganteaume, Roxanna Virgil


WHAT NEXT FOR VENEZUELA UNDER THE “DONROE
DOCTRINE”?





In cooperation with the Reseach Group Latin America/University of
Vienna and Österreichisches Lateinamerika Institut





On January 3rd  2026, the US launched a military attack
against Venezuela´s capital Caracas and captured president
Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Little later, US President Trump
announced the detention of Maduro for his alleged involvement in
“narco-terrorism”. Underlining somehow the renewed US aspiration
for hegemony in the region, he also announced the US would “run”
Venezuela, seize its oil exports and manage oil revenues “for the
good of the American and the Venezuelan people”.





Although clearly in breach of international law, critique of the
US attack was rather timid both within the US and among the
international community. The EU issued a flaw statement
reinstating the need for respect to international law in very
general terms and Latin-American countries remained divided on
the issue.


Many Venezuelans living outside the country reacted joyful in
hope for regime change and the end of political repression and
the deep humanitarian crisis in the country which had pushed 8
million Venezuelan into exile, mostly in neighboring countries
and the US.





Yet, President Trump sidelined Peace Nobel Prize winner Maria
Corina Machado and Delcy Rodriguez, Vicepresident of Nicolas
Maduro was sworn as Venezuela’s new president leaving the
government of the country largely unchanged and many questions
about the US plans for Venezuela so far without clear answers.
What comes next for Venezuela – is there any hope for regime
change, for political prisoners, for humanitarian relief and
economic recovery? What does this renewed hegemonic US policy –
called by some “the Donroe-doctorine” mean for the region, in
particular for “Venezuela´s allied like Cuba and Nicaragua?





Panelists:


Roxana Vigil, international affairs fellow at
the Council on Foreign Relations, former director for Andean
affairs at the National Security Council, Washington,
online 





Mariano de Alba, Venezuelan lawyer specialized
in international law Associate Fellow at the International
Institute for Strategic Studies, London; former expert on
Venezuela for the International Crisis Group.





Feliciano Reyna-Ganteaume, Venezuelan human
rights activist, member of the coordination platform of
humanitarian NGOs and co-author of various reports on the human
rights situation in Venezuela for the UN Human Rights Council





Moderator:
Irene Horejs, Former EU Ambassador, curator at
the Bruno Kreisky Forum specialized on Africa and Latinamerica as
well as development and humanitarian policy