Little by little, piece by piece, America is becoming surrounded by hostile regimes to the south. They cozy up to Iran, they are supported by Russia, they are funded by China.

Because of Jack Kennedy’s lack of nerve Cuba has been a thorn in our side for over six decades and once almost brought the world to nuclear war. Nicaragua forgot the 80s and elected Daniel Ortega back into power, whereupon he gradually turned the country back into a socialist authoritarian state. Venezuela turned a left wing military coup under Hugo Chavez into long term socialist tyranny. And now, there is another nation to add to this sorry list.

This one is personal for me, as it is the home of my ancestors and I have relatives who still live there. One of the things, aside from the beaches and our…ahem…cough…er…entrepreneurial spirit, I liked most about being of Colombian heritage is that we had never elected a left wing national government. Not once. Well, that changed last week when Maduro pal and Ortega crony Gustavo Petro was elected president of Colombia. And people wonder why I revere Augusto Pinochet.

Things don’t happen in a vacuum. So why are three, now soon maybe four, communist regimes within geopolitical shouting distance of the Rio Grande? Easy. Democrats put them there and kept them safe.

The New York Times gave Castro legitimacy and Kennedy choked at the Bay of Pigs. Obama visited that prison island and praised it. Reagan clipped Sandinista wings in Nicaragua and subsequent Democrat administrations let them grow back. Venezuela acts as a base for Russian and Chinese influence in the Americas and we turn a blind eye. And this latest setback? Why? Because the time is right.

The global left saw Afghanistan last year, they witness the American presidency as farce, and they know their well wishers control the current US federal government. They saw their chance and they took it and now we are losing our own backyard.

Why does this matter when inflation seems so much more important right now? Because like their American Democrat allies, the ultimate goal of the Latin American left is to destabilize Mexico. Democrats and the left want to make the current border situation seem like a trickle. They want tens of millions of political refugees fleeing a communist Mexico to flood our border and change the entire American southwest.

Could that backfire, as these people wouldn’t be too keen on socialists of any sort? Perhaps over time. But the immediate strain on services and the political fallout would be disastrous for us. Just what Democrats and Latin American communists want, an America whose basic nature is irrevocably changed from the vision of the Founders to the travesty of modern day identity politics.

We dare not let that happen. We must do more to ensure our safety in the Americas. We must act, rather than always react. We must, as concerns Russia and China, dust off the Monroe Doctrine and do it soon. The alternatives are far worse.