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Donald Trump changed the channel from Iran to the western hemisphere on Saturday, convening a gathering of Latin American leaders at his Miami-area golf club to discuss regional interests and establishing what he called a “counter-cartel coalition”.
“Just as we formed a coalition to eradicate Isis, we now need a coalition to eradicate the cartels,” he told 12 regional leaders gathered at what the White House called the “Shield of the Americas” summit.
“We must recognize that the epicenter of cartel violence is Mexico,” where “the cartels are fueling and orchestrating much of the bloodshed and chaos in this hemisphere.”
Kristi Noem, who stepped down as DHS secretary on Thursday, making her the first cabinet secretary to leave the second Trump administration, spoke later in the afternoon in her new role as US special envoy to the coalition.
“This is intended to be a group that works together to ensure we’re defending our own sovereignty, we’re each defending our own security and economic prosperity,” Noem said, adding that the organization would be a “powerful example to the rest of the world about what’s possible”.
Noem made no mention of her swift transfer of roles but pointed to her experience in securing the US borders. “Now that America is secure, and our borders are secure, we want to focus on our neighbors and help our neighbors with their borders and the challenges they have.”
Trump gathered the summit of leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago, just two months after a US military operation to capture Venezuela’s then president, Nicolás Maduro, who is awaiting trial on drugs and weapons conspiracy charges in the US.
Less that two weeks ago, US law enforcement provided intelligence assistance in a raid in Jalisco, Mexico, to capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho”, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) and one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers. El Mencho was wounded in the shootout and died while being transported to Mexico City.
Trump complimented Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who was not present at the meeting, but still maintained that the cartels “are getting worse and taking over the country. The cartels are running Mexico. We can’t have that. Too close to us, too close to you.”
He also complimented Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president, who has offered “to collaborate” with the Trump administration. “She’s doing a great job working with us,” he said. Last week, the US legally recognized the Venezuelan government.
Trump repeated his prediction that Cuba, which had been dependent on Venezuelan oil, is now facing collapse. “We’re looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba,” Trump said, asserting that the Caribbean nation was “at the end of the line”.
“They have no money, they have no oil, they have a bad philosophy and bad regime,” the US president said, but also said the regime wanted to negotiate with the US. “Cuba is in its last moments of life as it was but it will have a great new life”.
Trump offered what may be the political through-line in US policy toward its neighbors, otherwise known as the “Donroe doctrine”, toward regional cooperation and to counter Chinese economic and political interests. “We will not allow hostile foreign influence to gain a foothold in this hemisphere that includes the Panama canal,” he said.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, thanked Trump for making the western hemisphere a priority and complimented the regional leaders as not only allies but friends. In what came as a dig at the UK for its weak response in supporting the US strikes in Iran, Rubio said:
“At a time when we have learned that an ally, when you need them, may not be there for you, these are countries that have been there for us,” he said, adding: “We want you to see that when you are a friend and ally to the United States it is a good thing and it is reciprocated back the other way.”
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that the US had for too long been focused on borders in far-flung places “and not our own borders, our own western hemisphere”.
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