SEOUL, April 15 (AJP) - The January storming of Venezuela by United States naval forces and the subsequent apprehension of Nicolas Maduro was not merely a regime-toppling maneuver to secure the world's largest crude reserves. It marked the definitive end of Washington's reliance on global oil markets and the birth of an energy-independent, self-sustaining continental fortress.
Speaking at this year's Latin Forum on Wednesday, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Professor Emeritus Kim Won-ho, from the Graduate School of International and Area Studies, framed the attack not as traditional American foreign policy, but as the installation of a radical new governance model. After addressing an audience of diplomats and scholars through a keynote speech, he told AJP his belief that "President Trump is laying a foundation to turn the United States into a self-sufficient 'Technate'."
To understand the gravity of this pivot requires an examination of the 1930s and 1940s. Technocracy proposes that modern industrial society is too complex to be managed by elected politicians or the unpredictable fluctuations of price-based economics. Instead, the movement advocated for a system governed by engineers and technical experts who distribute resources based strictly on energy calculations. The ultimate objective was the creation of a "Technate," a singular, geographically self-sufficient bloc spanning North America where political borders dissolve into a streamlined resource engine.
The execution of this blueprint is driven by the bitter lessons of Trump's first term. Kim noted in his keynote that during the first term, the president was often "thwarted by the professional bureaucratic class," which he characterized as the "deep state." This internal resistance from career officials effectively stalled the administration's most ambitious structural changes.
Returning to power, Trump has shifted to a systemized inner circle. Kim explained that by "wielding Schedule F to purge the career diplomats and civil servants," the administration is removing the "institutional brakes" that once held it back. This process is designed to create what Kim described as a "frictionless domestic machine" capable of executing grand strategy without internal dissent.
The historical DNA of this vision entered the administration through Elon Musk. Kim detailed the lineage of Musk’s maternal grandfather, Joshua-Norman Haldeman, who was a "prominent leader in the Canadian branch of the technocracy movement in the 1940s."
While the billionaire spectacularly departed the administration in mid-2025 following a bitter public feud with Trump, his ideological blueprint remains deeply embedded in Washington's trajectory. Kim argued that the former advisor viewed the consolidation of North American resources as a "necessary terrestrial prerequisite" for expanding this administrative model beyond Earth, citing the mogul's stated vision that "he will establish technocracy on Mars."
Economic siege targets Havana as Rubio anchors regional policy
While the administration demonstrated a willingness to use military force to secure Venezuelan energy assets, Kim argued that Washington's approach to Cuba relies on a "strictly non-kinetic set of levers." This localized strategy is driven largely by Marco Rubio. The secretary of state, as Kim pointed out, has used his personal history as a descendant of Cuban immigrants to the U.S. to oversee a "campaign of intense economic and political pressure" specifically tailored to the communist regime of the island.
Kim explained the logic behind this strategic divergence: "Because Cuba lacks the massive crude reserves that made Venezuela a technical priority, the strategy shifts from military seizure to systematic strangulation". By cutting off financial lifelines and isolating the government, the administration intends to "collapse the regime from within." According to Kim, this calculated approach ensures that Havana can eventually be "integrated into the new continental bloc" without diverting the military resources required to manage the newly secured energy supply chain in the south.
The influence of the secretary ensures this regional framework is designed to outlast current diplomatic cycles. Speaking to AJP on the sidelines of the event, the scholar emphasized the long-term trajectory of this policy: "It is not certain whether the Republicans would secure the next presidency or not, but if the Republicans do, then Trump's steps to change the U.S. into a self-sustaining technate are likely to be carried on by his predecessor."
The forum, which drew a gallery of some 100 diplomats and scholars to the region northwest of Seoul, was jointly hosted by the Korean Council on Latin America and the Caribbean and the Korea Foundation.
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