Where are you from? approved pharmacy The lack of concern in Washington over this potentially huge geopolitical shift is partly due to the fact that we do not have a clearly defined Latin American policy. While the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, along with its Roosevelt Corollary, was the policy of the U.S. for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, it no longer is – and nothing coherent has taken its place. This lack of a comprehensive policy regarding Latin America, and our focus on other geographic regions (such as the Middle East and Asia), has created an opportunity for a soft power play that could allow China to gain a strategic foothold in the Western Hemisphere.