The United States is pressing ahead with its effort to reassert strategic leadership in Latin America through a new security architecture unveiled by President Donald Trump, an initiative that blends counter-narcotics operations, military cooperation and geopolitical competition into a single framework.

At a summit held on March 7 at his National Doral resort near Miami, Trump introduced the "Shield of the Americas," a regional security project designed to coordinate action against drug cartels and organised crime across the Western Hemisphere. 

The gathering brought together leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, governments largely aligned politically with the Trump administration.

The initiative’s operational core is the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, a security partnership that US officials say already includes military representatives from 17 countries. Trump framed the coalition in overtly militarised terms, comparing it to US-led alliances that targeted jihadist groups in the Middle East.

“Just as we formed a coalition to eradicate ISIS, we must now do the same to eradicate the cartels,” Trump told the assembled leaders. The US president urged governments to share intelligence and coordinate operations so the coalition could directly target trafficking networks.

While Washington presented the project primarily as a security initiative, the summit revealed a broader strategic logic: reorganising hemispheric alliances around US leadership at a moment of intensifying geopolitical competition.

The Shield of the Americas reflects a shift in US regional policy that increasingly treats organised crime as both a domestic threat and a geopolitical challenge.

The Trump administration has expanded the legal and operational framework for military involvement in anti-narcotics operations. Over the past year, Washington has designated more than a dozen criminal organisations in Latin America as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, allowing US authorities to justify cross-border military actions against them.

At the same time, US forces have already stepped up operations across the region. American military strikes against vessels suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed around 150 people over the past year. Legal experts have questioned the legality of such operations, noting that international law generally prohibits armed forces from targeting civilians even if they are suspected of criminal activity.

Yet for Trump's White House, the militarisation of the anti-drug campaign is part of a broader strategic doctrine.

Officials have increasingly referred to the approach as the “Donroe doctrine”, a modern twist on the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Whereas the original doctrine was designed to prevent European colonial powers from interfering in the Americas, the updated concept focuses on restoring US preeminence in the hemisphere and limiting the influence of rival powers.

China’s growing economic presence in Latin America is central to that concern. Trade between China and the region reached a record $518bn in 2024, according to figures cited by the BBC, while Chinese lending to governments across Latin America has surpassed $120bn. Beijing is now the main trading partner for much of South America.

Trump echoed these concerns during the summit, warning that Washington would not allow “hostile foreign influence” to gain a foothold in the hemisphere.

The composition of the summit suggests that the new security architecture is also intended to reshape political alignments across the region.

The participating governments were overwhelmingly conservative or centre-right administrations that maintain close ties with Washington. Leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele stand out as key political partners for the Trump administration.

By contrast, several major regional powers were absent. Mexico, Brazil and Colombia – all ruled by leftist leaders – were not invited to the Miami gathering despite their central role in the regional drug trade.

Selective participation is yet another sign of Trump's preference for building smaller coalitions of ideologically aligned governments rather than relying on broader, internationally recognised multilateral institutions. The United States has recently withdrawn from several regional organisations while simultaneously creating new initiatives centred on security cooperation with preferred partners.

The evolving partnership between Washington and Quito illustrates just how the strategy is beginning to take shape in practice.

Earlier this month, Ecuadorian forces carried out a joint operation with US support that destroyed a training camp belonging to Comandos de la Frontera, a dissident faction of the former FARC guerrilla movement operating near the Colombian border. The strike targeted a facility capable of training dozens of fighters and involved drones, helicopters and aircraft coordinated with US intelligence assistance, according to Infobae.

The operation highlights Ecuador’s growing importance in Washington’s regional strategy. The country has become a key transit corridor for cocaine shipments moving from Colombia towards North America and Europe, a development that has fuelled a sharp increase in violence over the past decade.

President Daniel Noboa has responded by deepening security cooperation with the United States. As El País reports, Ecuadorian authorities have opened the door to expanded operational coordination with US forces despite long-standing domestic resistance to foreign military bases. 

Although voters rejected the establishment of permanent foreign installations in a 2025 referendum, the government has nevertheless authorised closer collaboration with the US Southern Command.

For Washington, Ecuador increasingly represents a testing ground for the kind of joint operations envisioned under the Shield of the Americas.

The launch of the coalition also follows a series of controversial US actions in the region.

In January, American forces participated in an operation that led to the capture of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing drug trafficking charges in a US federal court. Washington has since fully restored diplomatic relations with the interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez, whom Trump praised as a "terrific person" who is "doing a great job."

At the Miami summit, Trump also repeated his prediction that Cuba’s government was approaching collapse, arguing that the island had been fatally weakened by the disruption of Venezuelan oil supplies.

These developments suggest that the anti-cartel campaign forms part of a broader strategy in which security operations, political pressure and diplomatic realignment reinforce one another.

Despite the lofty ambition behind the Shield of the Americas, however, significant doubts remain about its effectiveness.

Drug trafficking networks in Latin America have repeatedly adapted to enforcement campaigns. Since President Richard Nixon declared the “war on drugs” in the early 1970s, successive US strategies have attempted to disrupt production, transport and distribution networks. Yet trafficking routes have continually shifted rather than disappeared.

The conspicuous absence of Mexico and Colombia from the coalition further complicates the initiative. Both countries remain central to the regional drug economy and play a crucial role in existing security cooperation with Washington.

Without their participation, analysts say, the Shield of the Americas risks functioning less as a comprehensive, long-term hemispheric strategy than as a political alliance of governments closely aligned with the Trump administration.

Even so, the initiative marks a clear shift in US regional policy, combining military coordination, ideological alignment and geopolitical competition into a framework designed to reassert Washington's influence over the security landscape of "America's backyard."