The power of the international community to fight for democracy and against security threats is being put to the test in the case of Venezuela. Despite sanctions and a major US-led international coalition that includes the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU), Nicolas Maduro’s government is determined to remain in power without offering anything to Change.

Maduro has appealed to its allies to help protect its turbulent government, particularly Russia, Iran and China.

U.S. military sources reported that on 24 March, 100 Russian military and some 35 tonnes of military equipment arrived in Venezuela. Military analysts rightly observed that such a Russian deployment is very similar to Russia’s show to save another ally desperate for a popular uprising: Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Russia has seen Venezuela for a long time as a global strategic ally in what Putin’s regime sees as a global chess game whose main adversary is the United States.

Russia is now well positioned in Syria and Assad is entirely dependent on Russia for its survival. Israel is an American ally, but even Israel resorts to Russia in the present circumstances. Last week, the body of an Israeli soldier who disappeared in Syria since 1982 was returned to Israel thanks to Russian intervention. This act infuriated the Syrians and Iranians and shows how far Russia has consolidated its power and influence in a region where Russia was believed to have been eliminated for a long time. Israel also negotiates with Russia to ensure its support. The Russians were smart enough to support Israel’s security needs by allowing Israel to prevent Iran from consolidating its presence in Syria and also impeding Hezbollah’s armament. Russia is smart enough to be on good terms with Israel. As a result, Russia’s power is actually growing in the region.

Russia’s strong defense of a dangerous dictator in the heart of the Western Hemisphere seems to repeat the case of Syria: that is, the regime will be saved at all costs and, in turn, will help a repressive set of regional regimes to survive.

Russia has a number of good allies in Latin America, mainly Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia. If Russia did what it did in the Middle East, it can also do so in Latin America.

Likewise, Iran’s second-largest airline, Mahan, has started direct flights to Venezuela.

As the White House pointed out, commercial needs do not justify those flights. This means that these flights can lead to members of the newly sanctioned Iranian Revolutionary Guard or Hezbollah fighters and armaments. Taking into account the fact that Iran and its representative terrorist groups are involved in a large number of countries in the Middle East (including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen), this intervention shows how important survival of Maduro is for the Islamic Republic. The money generated by the drug business has provided a financial boost to Iran and the subversive activities of its representatives in the Middle East. Iran does not want to lose Venezuela, which is an important narcoestado and facilitator of the Iranian narcoactividades. That is why Iran may be willing to deploy more of its fighters in Venezuela even though they are already scattered in several Middle Eastern countries.

And then we have China. According to Admiral Craig Faller, China began a sophisticated campaign of misinformation blaming the United States for the recent blackouts that had devastating effects on the Venezuelan people and their economy. China had awarded Venezuela more than USD 30 billion in loans. If the Chinese only seek the payment of Venezuelan debt, they would not care if the president is Juan Guaido or Nicolás Maduro. However, China’s preference for ripeness is clearly motivated by strategic considerations aimed at counteracting the power of the United States in the region. The fact is that the Chinese government has also provided military supplies and personnel to Venezuela in support of the government.

Maduro’s speech about being willing to negotiate is nothing more than a plan to buy time, while Russia, China, and Iran try to secure their power. No one should be deceived about their motives.

The permanence of the mature regime is a geopolitical challenge for the United States. The recent decision to sanction shipping companies that transport oil to Cuba is a good measure. Sanctions should be increased more and more. But that may not be enough. Russia, China, and Iran must leave the Western Hemisphere. Their presence weakens further and jeopardizes the region.

What is worse is that the action of these three powers can lead the United States to something that has so far been averted: military intervention.

To avoid a military confrontation, we must adopt a policy of naval blockade which I suggested in a recent article. More recently, Jed Babbin, former deputy secretary of defense for President George H. W. Bush, took another step. In Babbin’s own words: “The last time we applied the Monroe doctrine was in 1962, when the Soviet Union put nuclear-capable missiles in Cuba. The resulting Cuban missile crisis brought us closer to nuclear warfare than ever before, but the Soviets receded. The Russian-Iranian effort to settle in Venezuela is no less than a violation of the Monroe doctrine (…) Trump can, for example, order a Venezuelan air and sea blockade to prevent Russia and Iran from developing their power there. (…) Time is not on our side. The more we wait to take decisive action against Russia and Iran, the more difficult it will be to expel them from Venezuela. And, sadly, expelling them is our only option. “

Indeed, a naval and air blockade would serve to mitigate the presence of the three countries mentioned. There are no flights or shipments in and out of Venezuela. The Monroe doctrine, which in the early NINETEENTH century declared Latin America as a sphere of American influence, is not a reflection of America’s imperialist ambition. It is now a national and regional security imperative.

The author is a consultant and specialist in the Hemispheric Security project by the Security Policy Center in Washington, DC. He is a Ph.D. in sociology, collaborator in several American think tanks and adjunct professor of political science and sociology at Florida State universities. He is the author, among other books, of Latin America in the post-Chávez era: The threat to security in the United States.