The United States and nearly 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries signed an agreement on Thursday, March 5, to combat “narco-terrorist” groups at the inaugural ‘Americas Against Cartels’ conference in Miami, where representatives from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil were conspicuously absent.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth read the joint statement that “reaffirms relations” between Washington and its neighbors, “respecting sovereignty” and “recognizing the strategic importance of the hemisphere,” where they seek to “promote peace through strength.”
Gathering in the Americas against cartels
LIVE: @SecWar and @CENTCOM commander, Adm. Brad Cooper, conduct a press conference at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. https://t.co/f0KGGCvMQY
– Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) March 5, 2026
“And it declares our intention to expand multilateral and bilateral cooperation to enhance security in the hemisphere, cooperated in governmental border security efforts, combating ‘narcoterrorism’ and drug trafficking, securing critical infrastructure and other areas to be determined,” he added.
The agreement commits the nations “to address future threats to mutual interest and join together to combat ‘narcoterrorism’ and other shared threats in the Western Hemisphere,” according to the secretary.
Hegseth led the conference at the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) headquarters in Doral, South Florida, where he brought together representatives from nearly 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
The conference, which brought together “like-minded” governments and excluded nations such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Nicaragua, comes as a preamble to the ‘Shield of the Americas’ summit that President Donald Trump will host on Saturday in Miami with Latin American right-wing leaders.
The Pentagon chief warned that Washington is ready to launch a military “offensive” against the cartels on its own, urging Latin Americans to fight the “narco-terrorists”.
While Stephen Miller, Trump’s national security advisor, called for fighting drug traffickers as if they were terrorist groups such as ISIS (Islamic State) or Al-Qaeda, in addition to asserting that illegal immigration is a “form of terrorism”.
The meeting comes days after the first joint U.S.-Ecuador military operation against “narco-terrorist” organizations in the South American country, following a visit by Francis Donovan, commander of Southcom.
In addition, the Trump Administration has bombed 44 vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Pacific and Caribbean since last September, leaving at least 150 dead, under Operation ‘Southern Lance’.
Filed under: Americas vs. cartels
With information from EFE
