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In March, Latin American leaders from select countries met in Doral, Florida, at the HQ of the Pentagon’s Southern Command for a meeting of the so-called Shield of the Americas, known more tellingly as the Counter Cartel Coalition. Hosts included Secretary of War (or Defense?) Pete Hegseth, Marine General Francis Donovan, who heads SOUTHCOM, and White House insider Stephen Miller.
“We have learned after decades of effort that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem,” said Miller. “Cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS and the Al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere and should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly.”
Miller, a 41-year-old career politician from California, was key in crafting the gung ho approach to the drug war for Donald Trump’s second term. This war on drugs on steroids has included designating cartels and gangs as terrorists, hitting alleged cocaine boats with missiles and plunging the CIA deeper into the fight.
The bloody campaign interweaves with a broader more-aggressive approach to Latin America, which Trump calls the Donroe Doctrine, and a harder domestic crack down on immigration, centered on ICE raids. We could call this new era of the war on drugs the “Donroe Drug War.”
While Trump was given official lame duck status by a midterm elections battering, the Donroe Drug War is far from over. On the contrary, Trump responded to defeat by promoting Miller to White House chief of staff, and Miller reportedly wants to wind down the war in Iran to secure wins in the Americas.
The U.S. military, in late October, took part in a joint attack in Venezuela on ELN guerillas, who are involved in cocaine. On Oct. 27, SOUTHCOM hit another alleged drug boat in the Pacific, claiming the missile “killed five narco terrorists” (in the Donroe rhetoric). There have now been more than 70 such strikes since September 2025, slaying at least 240 people.
Below are five points on what we can expect in Phase Two of the Donroe Drug War, as well as the push back that awaits it, in Trump’s final years in office.
1) …
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