Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth met Thursday with representatives from several Latin American countries to press for a more forceful approach to drug cartels, saying they “must be targeted more aggressively.” The session, promoted by the Trump administration as a renewed regional security focus and likened to a modern “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, sought to deepen security cooperation across the hemisphere.
The Pentagon-hosted “Americas Counter Cartel Conference” took place at U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Doral, Florida. Delegations from Argentina, Honduras and the Dominican Republic attended, alongside representatives from more than a dozen conservative governments aligned with President Donald Trump. Notably absent were major regional powers Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, each governed by left-leaning administrations.
Hegseth warned that “business as usual will not stand,” pledging U.S. support to confront cartels, restore deterrence and to “make the Americas great again.” He said the United States is prepared to confront these threats and, if necessary, act unilaterally.
Attendees responded positively to promises of increased resources for Southern Command after years of complaints about constrained support. White House Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller, a close Trump aide, argued that decades of effort demonstrate there is no purely criminal-justice solution to cartel violence and contended that military force is required. Miller described the gathering as a conference of military leaders rather than lawyers because these organizations, he said, “can only be defeated with military power.”
Miller compared drug cartels to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, saying they “should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly” as those organizations. He added that the human rights deserving protection are those of ordinary citizens, not “the savages that rape, torture and murder.”
The meeting underlined a shift toward a more hawkish U.S. posture on transnational organized crime in the Americas, but the absence of several key regional governments highlighted political divisions over strategy and sovereignty. Edited by: Wesley Dockery