BEIJING, China (Xinhua) — With regard to the latest political turmoil in Latin American countries, observers have pointed their fingers at the United States, saying Washington has a hand in it but in a more disguised way than ever.

“Monroeism is not dead, but has transformed into neo-Monroeism which appears to be more concealing,” said Guo Cunhai, a researcher of the Institute of Latin America at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“The United States has never ceased its endeavour to disturb the development process of Latin American countries,” he said.

Over the weekend, Venezuelans marched en masse in Caracas to protest the interference of the United States and the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) in the internal affairs of Venezuela.

Last week, OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro called to invoke the organisation’s Democratic Charter to suspend Venezuela from the organisation for alleged human rights violations and lack of democracy of the government.

“Venezuela is a free and sovereign country. And after 17 years of revolution we are freer, more independent, and more sovereign than ever. We are particularly careful as a people of sovereignty and independence, with the ability to solve our problems,” said Eduardo Pinate, a leader of the demonstration.

The protests coincided with a special declaration of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) expressing solidarity with Venezuela.

During its seventh summit in Havana on Saturday, the ACS urged Venezuela’s opposition to hold dialogue in order to ease the growing tension.

Guo believes the crisis in Venezuela has its inner causes but the shadow of the United States is omnipresent. The United States has been allegedly sponsoring the Venezuelan opposition and encouraging local media to zoom in negative reports on the ruling party.

Maduro accused the opposition of promoting violence and seeking a coup with the help of the United States.

The Venezuelan government claimed that the United States even schemed an assassination attempt on opposition leaders so as to impute the crime to the government during the 2013 general elections.

In Brazil, the United States took a more canny way. Rostislav Ishchenko, president of Russia’s Centre for Systems Analysis and Forecasting, said Washington is a main force behind the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as it has long resented the policies of Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

In Bolivia, President Evo Morales suffered his first direct electoral defeat in a decade in power this February when voters narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have let him run again in 2019.

Morales has accused the opposition and the US Embassy in Bolivia of standing behind the ploy of discrediting him by attacking his private life.

The United States has a long history of trying to dominate Latin America as shown in its attempts to overthrow Cuba’s revolutionary regime in 1961 and the military intervention in Grenada in 1983 and invasion of Panama in 1989.

Even though US Secretary of State John Kerry told the OAS in 2013 that his country was opting to abandon the long-prevailing Monroe Doctrine in a major policy shift, analysts believe that the United States is continuing to meddle in the affairs of Latin America under the banners of social progress, democratic management and alleviating poverty.

The fifth US President James Monroe established the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 with an aim to keep European colonial powers out of the region. However, the tenet has later been invoked by various US presidents to exert dominance in the region.