Americas
Trump encourages Latin American military action against cartels amid operations in Ecuador
Stars and Stripes
March 7, 2026
President Donald Trump signs a proclamation committing to countering cartel criminal activity at the Shield of the Americas Summit, Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Trump National Doral Miami in Doral, Fla. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP)
President Donald Trump said at a regional summit in Doral, Fla., on Saturday that the U.S. and Latin American countries are collaborating to combat cartels and encouraged the use of military force.
“The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries,” Trump said at the “Shield of the Americas” summit. “We have to use our military. You have to use your military.”
Citing the U.S.-led coalition that confronted the Islamic State group in the Middle East, the Republican president said that ”we must now do the same thing to eradicate the cartels at home.”
The summit came a day after U.S. Southern Command said it supported Ecuadorian forces in operations against “Designated Terrorist Organizations” within the country.
“This collaborative and decisive action is a strategic success for all nations in the Western Hemisphere committed to disrupting and defeating narcoterrorism,” Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the commander of SOUTHCOM, said according to a command post on X.
Another post from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, which featured a video of the mission, said it was conducted “at the request of Ecuador” and targeted “a narco-terrorist supply complex.”
Ecuadorian authorities said Ecuadorian and U.S. forces attacked a refuge belonging to the Colombian illegal armed group Comandos de la Frontera in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
According to a video posted on social media by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, the camp served as a rest area for the group’s leader, known as “Mono Tole,” as well as for “training narcoterrorists.”
Operations in Ecuador were first announced Tuesday.
Trump also said the U.S. will turn its attention to Cuba after the war with Iran and suggested his administration would cut a deal with Havana, underscoring Washington’s increasingly aggressive stance against the island’s communist leadership. “Great change will soon be coming to Cuba,” he said, adding that “they’re very much at the end of the line.”
The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago joined the Republican president at Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort.
The idea for a summit of like-minded leaders from across the hemisphere emerged from the remnants of what was to be the 10th edition of the Summit of the Americas, which was scrapped during the U.S. military buildup off the coast of Venezuela last year.
Notably missing at the summit were the region’s two dominant powers — Brazil and Mexico — as well as Colombia, long the linchpin of U.S. anti-narcotics strategy in the region.
The summit came days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke at a Thursday conference hosted by U.S. Southern Command, also in Doral.
“America is prepared to take on these threats and go on the offense alone if necessary,” Hegseth said at what the Pentagon billed the first “Americas Counter Cartel Conference.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.