At the “Americas Counter Cartel Conference” in Miami, Hegseth suggested that the United States would unilaterally pursue military operations in Latin American countries if their governments refused to help.
As the United States military remains engaged in combat operations against Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called upon Latin America to take a larger role in combating the region’s drug cartels.
“America is prepared to take on these threats and go on the offense alone if necessary,” the defense secretary said in a speech at US Southern Command in Miami, according to the Associated Press. At least 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries sent representatives to the 2026 Americas Counter Cartel Conference.
For years, the United States has spent billions of dollars providing military aid to many countries, and Hegseth suggested that he expects more for the money that Washington has sent.
“Business as usual will not stand,” the military chief said.
Hegseth also said that US President Donald Trump’s attempt to confront the violent cartels conforms to the long-standing Monroe Doctrine, which was originally to counter European incursion into the Americas after much of Latin America gained independence from Spain following the Napoleonic Wars. Hegseth described the new take to be the “Donroe Doctrine.”
His words were echoed by Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has been seen as the “key architect” of the counter-narcotics operations.
“Cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS (Islamic State group) and al-Qaeda of this hemisphere and must be treated just as ruthlessly,” Miller said during the conference.
“What we have learned after decades of effort is that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem,” Miller said. “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.”
Trump Wants to Put “War” in the War on Drugs
Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, the administration has suggested that Washington is engaged in an “armed conflict” with the cartels and other criminal organizations. It led to the US removing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro from power in early January, while the US has carried out strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats, sinking at least 44 to date.
Already, some experts in the region suggest that direct military action may not be effective against the cartels, as they are not governments that can be removed from power.
“Military power alone is not sufficient to deal with this challenge,” warned David Marques, program manager at the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety. He told The Guardian that narco-trafficking consists mostly of transnational supply chains, not a single entity.
“If the fight is not multi-dimensional, it will be fruitless, and will produce only death and spectacular, politically ‘sellable’ actions, but very little efficiency in tackling the business that is supposedly being targeted,” Marques said—pointing to the efforts by the Mexican military, which have engaged in combat operations with cartel forces, but failed to destroy the groups.
“The US created the concept of the ‘war on drugs’ in the past, and no longer uses that framing internally—look at how it has handled cannabis, for example—but continues trying to impose it externally with an interventionist zeal,” Marques concluded.
Other experts on the region have stated that the US cannot win simply by taking out cartel leaders, and that equating it to ISIS or other terrorist groups doesn’t address the problem. There is also the worry that confrontation could backfire.
“Without strong rule-of-law institutions and civilian oversight, militarizing the fight against cartels can weaken the very institutions needed to defeat them,” Rebecca Bill Chavez, president of the Inter-American Dialogue and a former deputy assistant defense secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, told the AP.
Latin America Has Fought Against the Cartels Before
As previously reported, Mexico knows firsthand what an armed confrontation with the drug cartels could look like. Shortly after he was elected in late 2006, Mexico’s then-newly elected President Felipe Calderón launched an all-out war on drugs, which included dispatching 6,500 Mexican Army soldiers to end drug violence.
Instead of curbing the drug trade, the war resulted in a bloodbath across northern Mexico. In the nearly two decades since that operation began, the cartels’ influence has expanded beyond Mexico’s borders. Unlike past organized crime syndicates that largely tried to avoid “civilian” casualties in the United States, as it would be bad for business, the Mexican cartels have shown no such concerns—and indeed are notorious for violence in the territories they operate from.
The final consideration is whether this is actually what Americans want.
Trump, Miller, and Hegseth can paint this as saving American lives and stopping crime on America’s streets, but the solution could be worse than the problem. Trump campaigned on ending America’s forever wars—but a direct attack on the cartels would require boots on the ground and ignite a conflict that could truly drag on forever, as Mexico’s drug war has.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines, and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks at the Pentagon on December 17, 2025. Hegseth has advocated pursuing unilateral military action against drug cartels in Latin America. (Shutterstock/Mason Lawrence)
