SECURITYMay 25, 2026

Shield alliance targets cartels across the Americas

Alejandro Peña Esclusa

Reading time: 9 min

A new anti-cartel coalition is intensifying military cooperation in the Western Hemisphere, pressuring Mexico to support improved regional security dynamics.

This is the first in a GIS series on drug trafficking. The second is available here.

On March 7, 2026, the “Shield of the Americas” was formed, bringing together 12 Latin American countries and the United States to combat drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere. This coalition (officially the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition) marks an intensification in the fight against drug trafficking and increases pressure on Mexico to meet U.S. demands for a more robust crackdown on these criminal organizations.

At the group’s founding, U.S. President Donald Trump said Latin America’s tremendous potential could only be fulfilled if cartels and criminal gangs were defeated, adding that “the only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries.”

To combat growing security risks to democracies in the region, the agreements signed provide for, among other things: the use of lethal military force, including the use of missiles; intelligence operations, with an emphasis on the exchange of biometric data on suspects; and joint task forces between U.S. agencies and local security teams. Only right-wing presidents participated in the summit. Absent were the governments of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela, whose leftist presidents belong to the Sao Paulo Forum.

The power of drug trafficking in the region

Drug trafficking, in addition to being a business that generates enormous amounts of money, is also a form of warfare because it kills people through overdoses, especially young people. Relying on armed groups to ensure its security, it breeds violence while destroying the economy, taking over businesses of all kinds and forcing entrepreneurs to launder money. Trafficking corrupts politics, finances campaigns, buys votes and promotes a hedonistic and materialistic culture, driving the consumption of narcotics.

The White House’s new national security strategy differs significantly from the earlier policy of the presidency under the Democratic Party, which proposed combating drug trafficking through law enforcement measures alone.

In Latin America, drug traffickers exploit institutional weakness to buy off and ultimately control the state, as happened in Venezuela with the Cartel of the Suns, and as is partly the case in Colombia and Mexico, with the Gulf Clan and the Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG).

The funds generated by drug trafficking exceed the annual budgets of some Latin American countries. According to former Drug Enforcement Agency agent Martin Rodil, the Cartel of the Suns amassed $2.7 trillion. He added that, to launder drug money, the Cartel of the Suns sent invoices from the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, PDVSA, and even went so far as to buy a bank. By way of comparison, the 2025 budget for Latin America’s largest country, Brazil, was $1.2 trillion, while that of the smallest country, El Salvador, was just $11 billion.

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Facts & figures

Primary Mexican drug-trafficking connections and operations

The CJNG has armed groups that are more powerful than some Latin American armies, because they possess firearms reserved exclusively for the Mexican Army, military-style tactical gear, rocket launchers, grenades, armored vehicles, drones and other sophisticated military technologies.

Latin American drug trafficking and Islamic fundamentalism are closely linked. A DEA report revealed how the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro – head of the Cartel of the Suns – turned Venezuela into the base of operations for Iranian narco-terrorism in the Americas. The document confirmed that the Venezuelan regime not only financed Islamic terrorism but also supplied uranium for the ayatollahs’ nuclear program and served as a safe haven for Hezbollah and Hamas operatives.

In addition, Chinese drug trafficking networks have become the principal suppliers of precursor chemicals to Mexican cartels that produce both methamphetamine and fentanyl. The Treasury Department warned in August 2025 that Chinese money-laundering networks are moving billions of dollars through U.S. financial institutions for Mexican drug cartels.

The Trump administration has decided to list several Latin American drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, claiming that:

International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime, with activities encompassing: 1. Convergence between themselves and a range of extra-hemispheric actors, from designated foreign-terror organizations to antagonistic foreign governments; 2. Complex adaptive systems, characteristic of entities engaged in insurgency and asymmetric warfare; and 3. Infiltration into foreign governments across the Western Hemisphere.

Taking all these factors into account, it can be concluded that drug cartels pose a great threat to peace, stability and democracy in Latin America.

The left and drug trafficking

It is understandable that the White House chose not to invite left-wing Latin American governments to join the Shield of the Americas, given the historical ties between Marxist regimes and drug trafficking.

As author Joseph Douglass pointed out in his book “Red Cocaine,” the drug problem in the U.S. and other Western countries was (and remains) not only about crime or society, but part of a planned strategy by countries like the erstwhile Soviet Union and China. According to Mr. Douglass, the aim was to weaken people (especially youth), damage institutions and make Western countries easier to control. What he asserted in the 1990s is now a verifiable reality.

In Latin America, narco-terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) gradually evolved into cocaine cartels. In 2008, the Colombian government under former President Alvaro Uribe conducted Operation Phoenix, which resulted in the death of the FARC’s second-in-command, Raul Reyes. Following his death, Reyes’s computers were confiscated and they exposed not only the FARC’s ties to drug trafficking, but also its links to most of the leaders of the Sao Paulo Forum.

The case of the Venezuelan regime is the most scandalous, given its identification with the Cartel of the Suns, but it is not the only one. Colombian President Gustavo Petro is under criminal investigation by two U.S. federal prosecutors’ offices. Investigators are examining, among other things, President Petro’s possible meetings with drug traffickers and whether his presidential campaign solicited donations from traffickers.

Regarding Mexico, according to an investigation published by ProPublica, the U.S. government prepared a wave of sanctions, visa revocations and financial blockades against politicians alleged to have ties with drug trafficking. The report indicates that the measures would directly affect members of the Morena ruling party, including state governors and people close to former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and current President Claudia Sheinbaum. The information came from sources within the DEA and other U.S. security agencies. Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya, member of Morena party, has been accused of protecting the powerful Sinaloa cartel and helping it smuggle drugs into the U.S., allegedly taking in millions of dollars in bribes.

Why a continental military alliance?

Given that the U.S. has reclassified international drug cartels as a “national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime,” and considering both the enormous resources and sophisticated weaponry they possess, it is not possible to defeat these cartels at the national level using police measures alone. A continental military alliance is necessary, along with state-of-the-art technology – including satellite surveillance – that only the U.S. can provide.

The case of Nicolas Maduro, one of the most heavily guarded men in the world, illustrates this point. Only an operation like Absolute Resolve could capture him and bring him to justice. The U.S. is the only country with those capabilities.

Read more on Latin America by Alejandro Peña Esclusa

• China tightening its grip on Latin America
• Latin America continues its rightward shift 
• Scandals erode Sao Paulo Forum’s leftist grip

Another high-profile case is that of the late Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” one of Latin America’s most wanted criminals. Without U.S. intelligence, it would have been impossible for Mexican authorities to track him down and take him out. In Ecuador, the war on drugs is finally beginning to yield positive results thanks to cooperation from Washington.

Today’s continental military alliance against drug trafficking is possible due to the region’s shift to the right. This partnership was put into practice with the March 5 launch of the “Americas Counter Cartel Conference” at the U.S. Southern Command Headquarters, attended by defense ministers from the region. At the conference, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Latin American countries to take a more aggressive approach against drug cartels.

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