Drago Doctrine 1902

a political principle formulated in a note dispatched by the Argentine foreign minister L. M. Drago (1859-1921) on December 29 to the State Department of the USA regarding the Venezuelan crisis of 1902-03. The Drago Doctrine proposed that states not use armed intervention against other states to collect debts arising from government loans. Formally addressed only to the European powers, the Drago Doctrine was also directed against the USA, which had repeatedly used armed intervention against the countries of the Caribbean. The Drago Doctrine was supported by the Latin American countries, but the USA succeeded in fundamentally modifying it to allow for armed intervention if the debtor state does not carry out the decision of an arbitration commission.