The American president, Donald Trumpannounced this Saturday the creation of an alliance of 17 American countries to “destroy” the continent’s drug trafficking cartels, during a summit in Miami with right-wing leaders in the region.
“The heart of our agreement is the commitment to use lethal military force to destroy these sinister cartels and terrorist networks. Once and for all, we will end them,” Trump declared to his guests.
“The leaders of this region have allowed large swaths of territory in the Western Hemisphere to come under the control of transnational gangs (…) We are not going to allow that to happen. We are going to help,” added the Republican president. “They want us to use a missile? They’re extremely precise. Whoops! We sent him straight to the living room and that’s the cartel member.”
| BREAKING NEWS: Trump on Mexico: «I really like the president (Sheinbaum). She is a very good person, she has a beautiful voice and she is a beautiful woman. I have told him: "Let me eradicate the cartels"and she says: "No, no, no, please, president"».
«I say we have to… pic.twitter.com/onqqgB9698
— Alerta Mundial (@AlertaMundoNews) March 7, 2026
Before its announcement, Trump greeted his 12 guestsamong them faithful allies like the Argentine Javier Mileythe Ecuadorian Daniel Noboa or the Salvadoran Nayib Bukelewhom he described as a “great president.”
The appointment is framed in his version of the historic Monroe Doctrine, with which he has promised to intervene to promote the Washington’s interests in the Americasincrease the country’s security and curb the influence of powers like China.
An example of this position wasThe operation by US forces that resulted in the overthrow and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduroon January 3 in Caracas, or the blockade imposed on the delivery of oil to Cuba.
The meeting also coincides with the war waged by Washington and Israel against Iran last week.
Insecurity
In addition to Bukele, Milei and Noboa, Trump received in Doral, near Miami, the presidents of Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the president-elect of Chile, José Antonio Kast.
Most of the guests share Washington’s concern about the rise of organized crime on the continent, a phenomenon that affects countries that until recently were considered quite safe, such as Chile and Ecuador, explains Irene Mia, an expert on Latin America at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
This situation has helped the Latin American right win recent elections and explains why Trump’s interventionism has generated less rejection than expected in a region with a long history of tensions with Washington, the analyst adds.
And some leaders, like Noboa, do not hesitate to strengthen ties with Washington.
The Ecuadorian president announced this week “joint operations” with the United States and regional allies against drug traffickers, which became one of the safest countries in Latin America into one of the most violent in just a few years.
A fragile balance
Beyond his ideological affinity with Trump, Some of these leaders have been able to take advantage of their good relationship with the Republican.
The Honduran Nasry Asfura received, for example, key support from the US president in last year’s elections, and in the case of Milei, his good rapport with Trump made it easier for the United States to provide support for $20 billion through a currency swap in 2025.
But this coalition of like-minded governments raises questions about its reach and durability, according to Irene Mia.
The expert points out that Washington’s proposals for America are based on a purely negative agenda. “It all comes down to the threats that the region poses to American security: migration and organized crime,” he says.
Mia also points to another weakness of this summit dedicated to the fight against cartels: the absence of Mexico – which she describes as “the executive director of the drug trafficking supply chain” – and Brazil – whose criminal groups are key to sending drugs to Europe -, governed by leftists Claudia Sheinbaum and Lula da Silva respectively.
own Trump on Saturday singled out Mexico as “the epicenter of cartel violence” that fuels “much of the bloodshed” in America. “The cartels are running Mexico. We can’t have that near us”said.
For Mia, despite this apparent good harmony between the right-wing governments of the continent and Washington, the support of these countries “is quite fragile due to the problematic relationship” between Latin America and the United States.
“It is a very delicate balance to know if the population will approve of Trump’s policy and until when,” he says.
Leave a Reply