U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that Colombia has officially joined the “Shield of the Americas” regional counter-cartel coalition.
The announcement, Hegseth reportedly detailed, opens the possibility for joint Colombia-U.S. strikes against narco-terrorist groups operating in Colombian territory.
Colombia officially joined the Shield of the Americas — formally known as the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C) — during a two-day meeting of the coalition hosted by Panama this week. Hegseth and Colombia’s recently inaugurated Defense Minister Jorge Mora signed the formal agreement during the Panama-hosted meeting.
Speaking to representatives of the A3C’s 19 partner members, Hegseth said that the coalition’s new motto is, “We do bad things to bad people.”
“That’s the mentality I want to have inside this room,” Hegseth said. “We’re dealing with bad people that have done a lot of bad things to a lot of good people, for a very long time. And they’re about to meet a new sheriff in town in the A3C.”
“And we mean business. Narco-terrorists… drug traffickers are hereby on notice. Under President Trump, we will make the Americas great again,” he continued. “The safety and prosperity of one will strengthen the safety and prosperity of all.”
Per ABC News, Hegseth detailed during the encounter that, through President De la Espriella, Colombia has requested that the Department of War join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, “authorizing joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks.”
Reuters reports that Hegseth answered, “Yes,” when asked if he discussed with Colombia’s defense minister joint strikes against U.S.-designated terrorist groups such as FARC and ELN.
“Designated terrorist organizations, with partnered governments, will be legitimate targets of the United States government,” Hegseth reportedly said.
The Colombian Defense Ministry detailed in an official announcement that joining A3C is part of President De la Espriella’s guidelines and reaffirms Colombia’s commitment to a coordinated hemispheric response against terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized international crime.
Any prospective decisions taken within the framework of the counter-cartel alliance, the Ministry pointed out, would strengthen international cooperation rather than replace Colombia’s own sovereign responsibility to ensure the safety of its people.
“The National Government will continue to employ all the State’s legitimate capabilities to regain and consolidate territorial control, protect communities, neutralize structures that threaten Colombians, and shut down the spaces where illicit economies thrive,” the Colombian Defense Ministry’s statement read in part.
“Colombia possesses the will, the capabilities, and the allies to confront these threats. Wherever terrorism and organized crime seek to challenge the State, they will encounter strengthened security forces, resolute institutions, and increasingly effective international cooperation,” the text continued.
Joining the Shield of the Americas initiative launched by President Donald Trump this year was one of De la Espriella’s top campaign promises. De la Espriella took office as Colombia’s head of state last week. The United States did not extend an invitation to Colombia to join the counter-cartel coalition at the time of its launch in March as the South American nation was under the administration of Marxist former President Gustavo Petro — who appeared aggravated about being left out of the group.
Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producer, has fought an intense war against narco-terrorist groups operating in its territory such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN) Marxist terrorist groups, and the Clan del Golfo, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) that often refers to itself as the “Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.”
Petro, an open advocate for the legalization of cocaine and Colombia’s first and only leftist president, took a different approach in the fight against drug trafficking than the one adopted by previous administrations. His policies, rather than help quell Colombia’s longstanding drug-trafficking problem, appeared to have the opposite effect.
According to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Colombia experienced record-breaking surges in cocaine production during the first year of Petro’s administration. More recently, reports published this month indicated that Colombia’s narco-terrorist groups experienced dramatic surges in their ranks of up to 90 percent over the past four years that Petro was in office. No less worrisome are other recent reports indicating that FARC and Clan del Golfo have now availed themselves of social media platforms to push recruitment campaigns aimed at young Colombian children and teenagers, enticing them with promises of riches and power should they join their respective organizations.
In contrast, President De la Espriella — who is still in the first week of his four year-administration and presently leading efforts in the aftermath of a devastating magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday — vowed to enact a hardline police policy against Colombian narco-terrorist groups. During the first hours of De la Espriella’s administration, Colombian security forces launched a series of military operations across Colombia, resulting in the death of a dangerous top FARC commander and the arrest several Clan del Golfo members involved in the group’s drug trafficking and financial operations.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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