Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and White House advisor Stephen Miller signaled a radical departure from decades of regional policy on Thursday, telling a gathering of conservative Latin American leaders that the era of treating drug cartels as a law enforcement issue is over.
Speaking from the U.S. Southern Command headquarters, Hegseth unveiled what officials are calling the “Trump Corollary” to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine.
The updated policy, dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine,” asserts U.S. military dominance over the Western Hemisphere and warns that Washington is prepared to “go on the offense alone” to dismantle criminal networks it now classifies as foreign terrorist organizations.
The “Americas Counter Cartel Conference” drew representatives from Argentina, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and over a dozen other right-leaning governments.
However, the region’s largest powers—Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia—did not send delegations, highlighting a growing ideological rift between the Trump administration and the left-leaning governments currently leading those nations.
Hegseth framed the mission in existential terms, suggesting that a shared “Christian heritage” in the Americas is at stake. “Business as usual will not stand,” Hegseth warned. “If the consequence was simply to be arrested and then released, well, that’s a consequence they’d already priced in a long time ago.”
The shift toward “hard power” was echoed by Stephen Miller, a key architect of the administration’s security policies. Miller told attendees that drug cartels should be viewed no differently than al-Qaeda or ISIS.
“The reason why this is a conference with military leadership and not a conference of lawyers is because these organizations can only be defeated with military power,” Miller said. He argued that cartels must be treated “just as brutally and just as ruthlessly” as global terrorist cells, explicitly rejecting a “criminal justice solution” to the drug crisis.
The conference comes during a period of intense military activity for the administration:
- Ecuador Operations: On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced joint strikes with the Ecuadorian military against “Designated Terrorist Organizations.”
- Maritime Strikes: The U.S. has conducted 44 aerial strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific since September, resulting in roughly 150 deaths.
- Political Pressure: Since January, the U.S. has pursued the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and intensified a campaign to weaken the Cuban government.
Despite the ongoing conflict with Iran in the Middle East, Miller assured reporters that Latin America remains a top priority. He pledged that the U.S. would not “cede an inch of territory” in the hemisphere to adversaries.
To support this surge, the White House promised a significant infusion of resources to Southern Command, which has historically complained of being underfunded compared to commands in the Middle East and Europe.
Hegseth concluded the summit by stating the ultimate goal is to “restore deterrence” and “make the Americas great again.”
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