The Trump administration convened a meeting Oct. 26-27 of military and security officials from the 19 Ibero-American and Caribbean countries which have joined its so-called “Shield of the Americas.” The intent of the meeting was to “operationalize” the “Americas Countering Cartel Coalition against Organized Crime” (dubbed the “A3C"), which has been concocted as the pretext for deploying American troops for on-the-ground combat and establishing U.S. military bases in the territory of the nations of the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Little is known about the specifics of how the A3C is to be “operationalized.” The only official U.S. document issued on the meeting was authored by the Southern Command, which on the second day of the meeting issued a press release reporting that at the meeting, “the ministers, defense, and security chiefs from the coalition nations will review and approve a military campaign plan outlining their operational strategy and a governance charter defining how they will organize and convene as they implement the plan, support coalition priorities, and achieve shared objectives.”

The U.S. Southern Command ran the meeting, while the Dominican Republic’s government provided the veneer of “regional support.” The opening ceremony was dominated by Southern Command Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Leah Francis Campos, and Eric Geressy, senior advisor to Pete “Crusader” Hegseth, speaking as the voice of the Department of War.