Trump vows to use US military force against cartels across Latin America

Seventeen countries, including some whose leaders did not attend Saturday’s summit, signed onto the effort in the form of a joint security declaration during a meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Southern Command announced on Thursday.

The new push, under the banner of the “Americas Counter Cartel Coalition,” comes as part of the Trump administration’s broader focus on hemispheric security as it looks to strengthen relationships with Latin American countries and reduce the influence of China, a foreign policy approach often called the “Donroe Doctrine.” It’s also focused on reducing drug trafficking and controlling the flow of migration in the hemisphere.

The proclamation Trump signed Saturday calls for coordinating with hemispheric allies to build what it describes as “the most effective fighting force” possible to dismantle cartels. Without naming China directly, it also commits to preventing “malign foreign influences from outside the Western Hemisphere” from gaining influence in the region, a pointed reference to Beijing’s growing economic and military footprint in Latin America.

“I look at our region — if I can call it that — as being very important. It’s been abandoned by the United States for so many years. You know, they went so far away they went to these far away places where they weren’t even wanted,” Trump said.

The U.S. Southern Command announced Monday that military forces had joined Ecuadorian security forces against so-called narco-terrorist organizations in the country. That was followed by what the U.S. military described as a targeted strike on Friday that involved “lethal kinetic action.”

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa was in attendance at the Saturday event, as were Argentine President Javier Milei, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and Chilean President-elect José Antonio Kast. The leaders of Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago also attended.