Trump administration doubles down on military action in Latin America | Donald Trump news

As the United States-Israeli war with Iran continues to rage, Washington has vowed to send more troops and military assets to the Middle East and Tehran will expand its retaliatory strikes across the region.

But on Thursday, top officials led by US President Donald Trump shifted focus to another military front: Latin America.

After taking office for a second term, Trump has indicated that he plans to exercise US hegemony over the entire Western Hemisphere. His push for control coincided with military operations against alleged criminal networks across the region.

At Thursday’s inaugural “America’s Counter Cartel Conference,” speakers such as White House security adviser Stephen Miller assured reporters that Latin America remains a top military priority for the U.S. regardless of events in the Middle East.

“We will not cede an inch of territory in this hemisphere to our enemies or our adversaries,” Miller said, adding that “the U.S. is using hard power, military power, lethal force to protect and defend the American homeland.”

Miller maintained that there was no “criminal justice remedy” for drug cartels, which he compared to armed groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

Organized crime, he concluded, “can only be defeated by military might.”

Since Trump took office last year, his administration has applied what experts describe as a “global war on terror” approach to Latin America, including labeling drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Figures like Miller, a key architect behind Trump’s tough immigration policies, have defended the president’s military approach, which critics warn raises human rights and legal concerns.

For example, last September, the administration began targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, in what rights groups have declared to be extrajudicial killings.

And in early January, the US launched an extraordinary operation to kidnap Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. It followed a campaign of pressure against Cuba designed to weaken its communist government.

This week, on Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that Ecuador’s military had launched a joint operation “against designated terrorist organizations” in the South American country.

The announcement marks a new front for US military actions in the region, which officials said will include ground operations.

But the widening scope of Trump’s military involvement in Latin America, combined with a renewed war with Iran, has raised questions about the US’s ability to sustain such intense military activity.

Ready to commit crime alone

The “Americas Counter Cartel Conference” came as Latin American leaders arrived in South Florida to attend a regional summit hosted by Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Officials from Trump-allied conservative governments in Argentina, Honduras and the Dominican Republic attended.

But despite the support of several regional governments, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the audience that the US was “ready to take on” Latin America’s cartels and “go on crime alone if necessary.”

“However, it’s our priority — and it’s the goal of this conference — that in the interest of this neighborhood, we all do this together,” Hegseth added.

The secretary praised Trump’s take on the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which sought to establish a US sphere of influence separate from Europe in the Western Hemisphere. Administration officials have called Trump’s parallel approach the “Donro Doctrine.”

Hegseth framed the administration’s crackdown on drug-trafficking boats as a keystone of Trump’s effort to maintain regional influence.

The US military has conducted at least 44 airstrikes against ships in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in 150 known deaths.

While the identities of the victims were not released, several family members said those targeted included fishermen and informal workers.

The Pentagon chief said the approach was intended to “establish deterrence.”

“If the effect is simply being arrested and then released, that’s an effect they’ve already priced in a long time ago,” Hegseth said.

He then pointed to a “few weeks” in February in which there would be no strikes on alleged drug boats.

He said the lull in the attacks was a testament to the strategy’s success. But that pause came significantly as the US ramped up assets to the Middle East.

Emphasis on ‘heritage’

Neither Hegseth nor Miller specifically mentioned war with Iran, but the pair touched on themes present in the administration’s message about war.

Trump, for example, said the Iranian government had “waged a war against civilization itself.” Meanwhile, there are reports that US military officials have cited the biblical “end times” as a religious basis for the war.

Those criticisms reflect Trump’s embrace of Christian nationalism and what critics see as a view of America as a European-based “civilization” under threat from outside forces.

At Thursday’s conference, Miller himself cited violence in European history as justification for modern military actions in Latin America.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in European history, Miller said, “brutal methods were used to eliminate people who committed rape and murder and defied established systems of order and justice.”

He echoed Trump’s charge that Europe is facing an “erasure of civilization” as a result of left-wing leadership and immigration.

“The reason so many Western countries are struggling today is because they have forgotten the eternal truths and wisdoms they once followed,” Miller said.

Meanwhile, Hegseth described all countries as “descendants of Western civilization” during Thursday’s meeting.

The delegates present said, “Will our nations be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under God, proud of our shared heritage with strong borders and ruled not by violence and chaos but by a prosperous people by law.”

He added that foreign “aggressions” represent “existential questions” for the region, referring to China’s growing influence as an economic and political partner in America.