Narcoterrorism is the primary threat to stability and safety in our hemisphere, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan declared on Thursday.
President Donald Trump is hosting the Shield of the Americas Summit in Florida, bringing together about a dozen countries from the Americas to promote peace, strength, prosperity, and lawful order. Donovan spoke to the gathered American and international leaders on March 5 at the ancillary Americas Counter-Cartel Conference, discussing SOUTHCOM’s goals for the ongoing strikes against narcoterrorists.
“This is the single gravest threat to security in our region and across our hemisphere.”#SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan highlighted the devastating consequences of narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere during remarks at the @SecWar-hosted Americas Counter Cartel… pic.twitter.com/quZ1BdSubi
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) March 7, 2026
Addressing the conference, Gen. Donovan bluntly stated, “Narco-traffickers [and] drug cartels engage in campaigns of terror, violence, and corruption to enrich themselves and expand their insidious influence. They are poisoning and killing all of our nation’s citizens. These sophisticated networks flood our streets with fentanyl, cocaine, and other drugs that kill at a higher rate than any conventional war.” Fentanyl deaths more than doubled between 2019 and 2022 over the first half of the Biden administration.
Therefore, he added, “This is the single gravest threat to security in our region and across our hemisphere.” That is a point the Trump administration is hammering home right now. The strikes on criminal cartels are not just about cutting off the illegal drug trade killing tens of thousands of Americans, but about crushing a massive criminal threat to the entire Western Hemisphere.
‘Related: Pentagon Declares Counter-Cartel Conference Promotes Peace and Stability
In fact, also at a preliminary Department of War event, Trump advisor Stephen Miller made a similar point to Latin and South American leaders. He argued that “for too long, we have allowed foreign enemies, foreign adversaries, and enemy terrorist organizations to control territory and spaces in this hemisphere, where they can project power, project threats, and directly threaten the lives of your citizens and our citizens.”
He added, “The idea that we would have in this hemisphere areas that are under the physical control of foreign terrorist organizations, paramilitary organizations, is completely unacceptable. The cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS and the Al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere and should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly as we treat those organizations.”
On March 7, the day the summit officially began, the U.S. State Department promised on X, “Today’s Shield of the Americas Summit cements the commitment of 13 like-minded countries in our Hemisphere. We share a common region and now a common purpose. The Donroe Doctrine will ensure our security, sovereignty, and economic freedom.” Donald Trump likes to refer to his new Monroe Doctrine as the Donroe Doctrine.
SOUTH AMERICA STRIKE: The U.S. military carried out a targeted strike against a narco-terrorist network as part of a joint operation with Ecuador, U.S. Southern Command said
“We are bombing narco-terrorists on land as well,” War Secretary Hegseth said. pic.twitter.com/nCFj5ooWF3
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 7, 2026
Just yesterday, March 6, SOUTHCOM hit narcoterrorists in Ecuador. The operation against Iran’s Islamic regime is understandably attracting a great deal of attention, but the U.S. is fighting a conflict just as important to our future on this side of the globe also, closer to home.
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