Caracas in the 1980s:

Let me tell you about South America, though very generally, and about Venezuela. Back in the 1980's that country was the "crown jewel" of the continent. For various reasons, probably good stuff for another post, all the countries in Latin America have have been run badly for most of their histories. Simon Bolivar was the guy who liberated more than 1/2 the countries in South America from the Spaniards, who were no Magna Carta-drafters or Constitutional scholars themselves. Subsequent to these liberations, the mixed native-Spanish people have been running these semi-shitholes into the ground, pulling them out of the ground and back, in 10 - 50 year cycles. Some have been in the shithole phase for their entire histories so far - bad timing, that, huh? In general, down there, military juntas come and go, Commies take over for long periods, death squads try to get rid of the Commies, along with other people they never did like and so forth.

However, the Venezuelans had done well with their oil resources, and Caracas, the capital, was an up-and-coming modern city. The one immigrant I knew was a smart one, and did very well in the US, but saw no reason to bring anyone else from the big family up here. They were doing quite well down there. Now, that's nothing but an anecdote (if that) but I am going by the stories I was told of the place, though obviously a bit biased. As is the case throughout Latin America, there are always loads of the very poor. Who knows what would have happened if a stable government down had stayed in place in Venezuela? However, the Commies, starting with a long reign by Hugo Chavez, took over 20-odd years back, and the place eased itself ungracefully into shithole status. Could one expect anything else?

President James Monroe first articulated the doctrine on December 2, 1823, during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress (though it was not named after him until 1850). At the time, nearly all Spanish colonies in the Americas had either achieved or were close to independence. Monroe asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, and thus further efforts by European powers to control or influence sovereign states in the region would be viewed as a threat to U.S. security.

In turn, the United States would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal affairs of European countries.