TO A MILITARY DICTATORSHIP: Donald Trump corrected the president of El Salvador on national television yesterday. The president congratulated 47 for reducing illegal immigration on the Southern border by 95%. Trump said it was fake news, the actual number being closer to 99.1%. Yet, yet, DT sent out a memo on Friday authorizing the military to take full control of the border. WHY?

“Guys and gals of my generation have spent decades in foreign countries guarding other people’s borders. It’s about time we secure our own,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. 

Donald Trump has ordered the military to take control of federal lands along the border to deter what the president has deemed an “invasion” of illegal immigrants and cartel activity – a move that continues to push his crackdown on immigration.

“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats,” a Friday presidential memo reads. “The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past.”

Thousands of U.S. troops were already at the border before the order, but Friday’s action spells out in more detail some of the new powers Trump wants the military to use along the frontier line, including temporarily detaining migrants and building new barriers. Trump’s order mentions soldiers deploying to the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide strip of federal land running across the borderlands of California, Arizona and New Mexico, and suggests the military will keep expanding its presence going forward. – Independent –

POSSE COMITATUS: The memo also confirms what CNN reported last month was in the works: plans for the military to take command of a swath of territory along the border by designating federal lands as a military installation.

Migrants who cross in this area would be put into “holding” for trespassing onto a military property, CNN previously reported, until the Department of Homeland Security could arrive to pick them up and deport them — putting the military in the position of effectively detaining migrants, something that is traditionally a law enforcement function. The military is prohibited from carrying out domestic law enforcement under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, but by describing the zone as a “holding” area, DoD could feasibly circumvent that law.

The memo explains that the four agency heads will “initially implement this memorandum on a limited sector of federal lands” designated by Hegseth. However, at any time, Hegseth can “extend activities” under the memo to additional federal lands along the border.

The memo further states that, “members of the Armed Forces will follow rules for the use of force prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.” -CNN –

THE MONROE DOCTRINE: These are dangerous times for Mexico and Latin America. The signs of a strategic and military buildup are clear: the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America”, the labelling of eight Mexican cartels as terrorist organisations, the stepping up of CIA secret drone missions deep inside Mexican territory, the deployment of a Stryker Brigade combat team to the border, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s declaration that “all options are on the table”.

The deployment of troops and the escalating rhetoric are creating the conditions for a US military incursion into Mexico. If one does take place, it would fit neatly into the long history of US aggression against its southern neighbour and Latin America as a whole, which began 200 years ago with the so-called Monroe Doctrine.

In 1823, then-President James Monroe put forward a policy, which under the guise of opposing European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere, sought to solidify US supremacy over the region.

The doctrine served as a springboard for US imperial expansion over Mexico’s northern territories during the Mexican-American war (1846-1848), when the US carried out a massive landgrab, taking over lands that are part of today’s states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming.

Then the US army used the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) as an excuse to invade its southern neighbour two more times.

The doctrine served to justify the US invasion of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Cuba, as well as various covert interventions throughout Latin America.

Today, as the US faces challenges to its global hegemony from China and Russia in the Americas, a Monroe Doctrine redux is emerging as an ad hoc justification for re-asserting US dominance over the region. – Al Jazeera –

INSURRECTION ACT: Will US President Donald Trump announce martial law type order after invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807? Rumours are circulating online President Donald Trump will “invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807” and “impose martial law” on April 20. And this stems from an Executive Order which the President signed on January 20- Inauguration day what hinted at the possibility ‘within 90 days’.

The Insurrection Act of 1807, which is rarely invoked, gives the president authority to federalize the National Guard or use the federal military as civilian law enforcement to quell unruly demonstrations or other civil unrest. Under the Insurrection Act of 1807, the President of the United States has the authority to deploy the military and the National Guard in specific circumstances to enforce federal law. This act empowers the military to take necessary action to quell rebellions, uprisings, or acts of violence and resistance, even when such actions are carried out by citizens.

It also gives the US President – the commander-and-chief of the US armed forces – complete powers to decide if, when, and where to deploy US troops within the United States of America. – Economictimes.com –

Apr 15, 2025 2:47:17 pm