US Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth met Thursday with representatives from several Latin American countries to press for a more aggressive approach against drug cartels, saying they “must be targeted more aggressively.” The meeting, framed by the Trump administration as a renewed regional focus and compared to a modern “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, aimed to strengthen security cooperation in the hemisphere.
The Pentagon-hosted “Americas Counter Cartel Conference” at US Southern Command headquarters in Doral, Florida, included delegations from Argentina, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, alongside representatives from over a dozen conservative governments allied with President Donald Trump. Major regional powers Colombia, Brazil and Mexico did not attend; those countries are governed by left-leaning administrations.
Hegseth warned that “business as usual will not stand,” pledging US support to combat cartels, restore deterrence and “make the Americas great again.” He said the US is prepared to confront these threats and, if necessary, act alone.
Attendees applauded promises to provide additional resources to Southern Command after years of complaints about limited support. White House Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller, a close Trump aide, told the conference that decades of effort show there is no purely criminal-justice solution and argued cartels can only be defeated with military power. He said the event was a conference of military leaders rather than lawyers because these organizations “can only be defeated with military power.”
Miller equated drug cartels with terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and the “Islamic State,” saying they “should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly” as those groups. He added that the human rights to be protected are those of ordinary citizens, not “the savages that rape, torture and murder.”
Edited by: Wesley Dockery