As tensions mount in the Caribbean and Ibero-America about a possible U.S. military assault on Cuba, the Pentagon is bragging that it is preparing to carry out more aggressive military action with 20 nations in the region—either with partners or unilaterally—to wipe out drug cartels. On March 17, in testimony delivered to the House Armed Services Committee Joseph Humire, Acting Assistant Secretary of War for Homeland Defense and Americas Security, announced that the joint U.S.-Ecuadorian military operation against “Designated Terrorist Organizations” launched on March 3 in Ecuador and titled “Operation Total Extermination,” was “just the beginning” of similar operations to take place with partner countries. Seventeen nations in the Western Hemisphere have reportedly signed security agreements with the U.S.
Many of these agreements were signed at the meeting of the Anti-Cartel Coalition, hosted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth which met on March 5 in Doral, Florida followed by the March 7 “Shield Over the Americas” conference in the same city, headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command. The planned military operations are described as an expansion of Operation Southern Spear, which has targetted alleged cartel boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, so far killing 160 civilians and providing no evidence of their drug ties. But according to The Intercept on March 23, Southern Command commander Gen. Francis Donovan told a Senate Armed Forces Committee on March 19 that an even larger campaign is in the works. “Boat strikes are not the answer,” he said. “What we’re moving for right now might be an extension of Southern Spear, but really a counter-cartel campaign process that puts total systemic friction across this network.… I believe these kinetic [boat] strikes are just one small part of that.”
In his House committee testimony, Humire said that the Pentagon was currently focused on partner-led deterrence operations, but he didn’t rule out unilateral U.S. military strikes across the region. The early-March U.S.-Ecuador operation, which also breached the Colombian border, was “setting the pace for regional, deterrence-focused operations against cartel infrastructure throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,” he explained. During the hearing, Humire was asked if any of the partner nations had expressed reservations about sovereignty concerning U.S. military operations conducted in their countries. He insisted that all partners said they wanted this support and are “looking for this.” However, The Intercept notes that the statement they all signed, “is astonishingly vague and offers little of substance on this subject.”
