IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 943 

Calling for the annulment of the Monroe Doctrine and the development 

of a ‘‘New Good Neighbor’’ policy in order to foster improved relations 

and deeper, more effective cooperation between the United States and 

our Latin American and Caribbean neighbors. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 19, 2023 

Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ (for herself, Mr. CASAR, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, 

and Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois) submitted the following resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the 

Committees on Financial Services, and Ways and Means, for a period to 

be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 

concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Calling for the annulment of the Monroe Doctrine and the 

development of a ‘‘New Good Neighbor’’ policy in order 

to foster improved relations and deeper, more effective 

cooperation between the United States and our Latin 

American and Caribbean neighbors. 

Whereas, 200 years ago, President James Monroe announced 

that the United States Government would actively oppose 

any interference by European powers in the affairs of 

independent Latin American and Caribbean countries 

‘‘for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in 

any other manner their destiny’’; 


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Whereas, over time, this policy, referred to as the ‘‘Monroe 

Doctrine’’, came to be interpreted by many United States 

policymakers as a mandate for United States interference 

in the affairs of Latin American and Caribbean countries 

in order to protect and promote United States economic 

and political interests, irrespective of tangible threats 

posed by foreign powers; 

Whereas following a period of western expansion of the 

United States, resulting in the massive forced displacement and genocide of Native peoples who originally inhabited much of North America, United States political 

and business leaders took an increasingly active interest 

in the acquisition of raw materials and in investment opportunities in other parts of the Western Hemisphere; 

Whereas, after annexing the territory of Texas, the United 

States invaded Mexico militarily in 1846 and, after defeating the Mexican army and occupying Mexico City, acquired 55 percent of Mexico’s territory through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 1848; 

Whereas, in 1898, the United States invaded Puerto Rico 

and Cuba during the Spanish-American War and continues to maintain control of Puerto Rico as well as a 

piece of territory in Guanta ́namo, Cuba, to this day; 

Whereas, from 1898 to 1934, the United States conducted 

military interventions in Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, 

known as the ‘‘Banana Wars’’, in order to advance American financial interests that often came at the expense of 

United States support for dictatorships and flagrant 

human rights violations; 


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Whereas, in 1904, President Teddy Roosevelt established the 

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, whereby the 

United States could intervene to ensure the protection of 

United States interests and those of foreign creditors in 

the region, and declared that the United States could exercise ‘‘international police power’’ in ‘‘flagrant cases of 

such wrongdoing and impotence’’; 

Whereas, in 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the establishment of a ‘‘Good Neighbor’’ policy 

toward the region that sought to emphasize nonintervention, noninterference, and trade in contrast with the previous policy of using military force to advance United 

States interests; 

Whereas, in 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed the 

National Security Act which created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and authorized the agency to begin 

covert action in the region; 

Whereas, in 1953, following Guatemalan President Jacobo 

Arbenz’s actions targeting United States corporation 

United Fruit Company, President Dwight D. Eisenhower 

authorized the CIA to begin Operation PBSuccess, a 

multimillion-dollar project investing in ‘‘psychological 

warfare and political action’’ that led to the coup against 

President Arbenz in 1954; 

Whereas, in 1961, the United States covertly financed opposition leaders and began seeking military leaders to support the eventual 1964 coup against Brazilian President 

Joao Goulart which resulted in a 21-year military dictatorship in Brazil; 

Whereas the Organization of American States (OAS), 

headquartered in Washington, DC, and funded in large 


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part by the United States Government, remained largely 

silent and inactive with regard to the many egregious 

abuses perpetrated by United States-backed rightwing 

dictatorships during the decades of the Cold War; 

Whereas, in 1962, the United States imposed a full embargo 

on Cuba, still in place today, which led to tens of billions 

of dollars in capital losses for the island country; 

Whereas following the election of Chilean President Salvador 

Allende in 1970, United States President Richard Nixon 

directed the CIA to spread propaganda aimed at preventing Allende from taking power, and later, actively 

worked with and supported Chilean military leaders that 

carried out the 1973 coup of President Allende resulting 

in a 15-year-long military dictatorship in which at least 

40,000 people were tortured and more than 3,000 killed; 

Whereas, from 1975 to 1980, the United States actively supported Operation Condor, a coordinated campaign of political repression and state terrorism that saw the United 

States work closely with military governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, 

and Uruguay to help kidnap, torture, and kill people who 

had left their home countries in exile; 

Whereas following a regional debt crisis sparked in part by 

historic Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) vastly expanded its lending portfolio in Latin America; 

Whereas the IMF, whose largest shareholder is the United 

States, promoted austerity, deregulation, and other structural reforms that resulted in stagnant economic growth 

in much of Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, following two decades of strong economic growth; 


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Whereas, in 1983, under the false pretense that the safety of 

600 United States medical students in Grenada was 

under threat, President Ronald Reagan authorized the 

military invasion of the island country, a move condemned as a ‘‘flagrant violation of international law’’ by 

the United Nations General Assembly; 

Whereas, in the 1980s, the Reagan administration supported 

security forces in Guatemala that perpetrated a genocide 

against Mayan indigenous peoples, according to the Commission of Historical Clarification; death squads in El 

Salvador; rightwing paramilitary militias (Contras) in 

Nicaragua; and participated in efforts to coverup egregious crimes perpetrated by Central American security 

forces, such as the massacre of 6 Jesuit priests and 2 

other unarmed civilians by an elite United States-backed 

battalion in El Salvador; 

Whereas the United States-backed ‘‘dirty wars’’ of Central 

America triggered a major wave of migration from El 

Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua to the United 

States in the 1980s and early 1990s; 

Whereas the CIA covertly financed units of the Haitian military, whose officers led a violent coup d’e ́tat in 1991 that 

overthrew the country’s first democratically elected President, and then continued to support individuals involved 

in death squads that targeted supporters of the ousted 

President; 

Whereas, beginning in 2000, the Bush administration blocked 

development and humanitarian assistance to the Haitian 

Government and provided financial support to opposition 

groups culminating in another coup against the elected 

President in 2004; 


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Whereas, starting in 2000, the United States provided billions of dollars of funding to Plan Colombia, a joint 

counter narcotics and counter insurgency initiative which 

resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, massive 

human rights abuses perpetrated by military and paramilitary forces, and the forced displacement of millions of 

mostly Afro-Colombian and indigenous civilians, while 

failing to reduce the production and trafficking of cocaine; 

Whereas the United States-backed drug war, along with economic displacement attributable in part to United Statessponsored free trade agreements, resulted in another 

major wave of migration from Central America and Mexico during the first two decades of the 2000s; 

Whereas, from 1941 to 2003, United States Navy operations 

in Vieques, Puerto Rico, caused the death of civilians and 

high rates of lethal illnesses to the population; 

Whereas, in 2002, the United States Government provided 

funding and other support to political actors that carried 

out a short-lived coup against the democratically elected 

Government of Venezuela, and subsequently expressed 

support for the coup; 

Whereas, following the 2009 coup in Honduras, the United 

States continued to support the country’s illegitimate 

government by providing, between 2009 and 2016, an estimated $200,000,000 in military and police aid to Honduran security forces engaged in violent extrajudicial 

killings and other human rights crimes targeting protesters, activists, land rights advocates, and other civilians opposed to the regime; 


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Whereas in a 2013 address to the OAS, Secretary of State 

John Kerry declared that the ‘‘Monroe Doctrine era is 

over . . . The relationship that we seek and that we have 

worked hard to foster is not about a United States declaration about how and when it will intervene in the affairs of other American states. It’s about all of our countries viewing one another as equals, sharing responsibilities, cooperating on security issues, and adhering not to 

doctrine, but to the decisions that we make as partners 

to advance the values and the interests that we share.’’; 

Whereas, in 2014, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announce the thawing of and eventual normalization 

of relations between the United States and Cuba; 

Whereas, in 2017, President Donald Trump threatened to invade Venezuela militarily and imposed broad unilateral 

sanctions against the country; 

Whereas, in 2019, United States National Security Advisor 

John Bolton announced, ‘‘Today we proudly proclaim for 

all to hear: the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well.’’; 

Whereas the migration of Cubans and Venezuelans to the 

United States has increased dramatically since the imposition (and reimposition) of broad economic sanctions 

against these countries; 

Whereas, in late 2019, a military coup was staged against the 

elected Government of Bolivia following unfounded claims 

of electoral fraud made by an OAS Electoral Observation 

Mission, while the subsequent coup government received 

support from the Trump administration and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro; 

Whereas President Trump reversed the Obama administration’s policy of normalization with Cuba, imposed new 


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sanctions, and, as one of his last acts in office, put Cuba 

back on State Sponsors of Terrorism list without justification; 

Whereas the United States Government has failed to apologize for its past support for military coups in the region; 

Whereas Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions found in United States-backed free trade agreements allow multinational corporations to sue governments before panels of corporate lawyers based on claims 

that regulatory frameworks, including those designed to 

protect workers and the environment, will lead to future 

losses, and whereas thus far Latin American and Caribbean countries have been sued a total of 346 times under 

ISDS provisions, more than any other region of the 

world; 

Whereas a United States-based company has filed an ISDS 

claim against the State of Honduras for nearly 

$11,000,000,000 in alleged future losses, more than a 

third of the country’s yearly economic output, as a result 

of the Honduran Government’s announcement that the 

company can no longer continue to operate as a ZEDE, 

a territorial area largely governed and controlled by private investors developed under former President Juan 

Orlando Herna ́ndez, who is now awaiting trial in the 

United States on charges for drug trafficking; and 

Whereas President Biden has expressed his strong opposition 

to ISDS provisions and to their inclusion in future trade 

agreements: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 


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1 (1) in order to send a strong signal to the re2 gion that the United States Government wishes to 

3 turn the page on a long era of political and military 

4 interference in the region, the Department of State 

5 should formally confirm that the Monroe Doctrine is 

6 no longer a part of United States policy toward 

7 Latin American and the Caribbean; 

8 (2) in place of the Monroe Doctrine, the Fed9 eral Government should develop a ‘‘New Good 

10 Neighbor’’ policy, designed to foster improved rela11 tions and deepen more effective cooperation with all 

12 the countries of the hemisphere, with measures that 

13 include— 

14 (A) developing, jointly with the Depart15 ment of the Treasury, the United States Trade 

16 Representative, the Department of State, and 

17 the United States Agency for International De18 velopment, a new approach to promoting devel19 opment based on a respect for the integrity of 

20 sovereign economic development plans of the re21 gion’s governments, support for equitable and 

22 sustainable economic transitions through tech23 nology transfers and new forms of climate fi24 nance that prioritize grantmaking and 

25 concessional lending; 


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1 (B) terminating all unilateral economic 

2 sanctions imposed through Executive orders, 

3 and working with Congress to terminate all uni4 lateral sanctions, such as the Cuba embargo, 

5 mandated by law; 

6 (C) working with Congress to develop leg7 islation that triggers an automatic review of bi8 lateral assistance to a government whenever 

9 there is an extraconstitutional transfer of 

10 power, until the United States and a majority 

11 of regional governments determine that the new 

12 leadership is legitimate under that country’s 

13 constitution; 

14 (D) proceeding with the prompt declas15 sification of all United States Government ar16 chives that relate to past coups d’e ́tat, dictator17 ships, and periods in the history of Latin Amer18 ican and Caribbean countries that are charac19 terized by a high rate of human rights crimes 

20 perpetrated by security forces; 

21 (E) working with Latin American and Car22 ibbean governments on a far-reaching reform of 

23 the Organization of American States to— 

24 (i) ensure accountability surrounding 

25 any potentially unethical or criminal activiVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:00 Dec 19, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR943.IH HR943

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1 ties in which the Secretary General or 

2 other senior officials have been involved; 

3 (ii) ensure full transparency sur4 rounding the financial and personnel deci5 sions taken by the Secretary General; 

6 (iii) establish an ombudsman’s office 

7 that is fully independent from the Sec8 retary General; 

9 (iv) ensure that the Office of Amer10 ican States electoral observation division is 

11 independent from the Secretary General 

12 and appointed by a majority of Office of 

13 American States members; and 

14 (v) ensure that the Inter-American 

15 Commission on Human Rights and its 

16 rapporteurs are financially independent 

17 from the Secretary General’s Office; 

18 (F) working with Congress to secure 

19 major, recurrent contributions to the Amazon 

20 Fund; 

21 (G) supporting democratic reforms to the 

22 International Monetary Fund, World Bank, 

23 Inter-American Development Bank, and other 

24 international financial institutions to ensure 

25 that the developing countries of the region are 


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1 able to play an equitable role in shaping the 

2 lending and grantmaking policies of those insti3 tutions; 

4 (H) supporting regular issuances of Inter5 national Monetary Fund Special Drawing 

6 Rights to help avert balance of payments dif7 ficulties and to promote greater fiscal space for 

8 regional governments, thereby allowing them to 

9 expand investments in health care, education, 

10 economic development, and in climate adapta11 tion and mitigation programs; and 

12 (I) supporting the creation of a Loss and 

13 Damage Trust, under the auspices of the 

14 United Nations, to support climate action in de15 veloping countries, and working with Congress 

16 to secure major, recurrent contributions to this 

17 fund; and 

18 (3) the United States should work with regional 

19 bodies such as the Community of Latin American 

20 and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Caribbean 

21 Community (CARICOM), the Union of South Amer22 ican Nations (UNASUR), the Southern Common 

23 Market (Mercosur), and other groups to increase co24 operation around the major challenges of our time, 

25 including the response to climate change, inequality, 


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1 arms trafficking, tax evasion, illicit financial flows 

2 (particularly those derived from drug trafficking), 

3 the protection of workers’ rights, and promoting the 

4 rights of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendent 

5 communities. 

Æ 


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