Between the shield and the limits of hard-line rule

Pete Hegseth’s slogan for the hemispheric coalition against drug cartels is blunt: “We do bad things to bad people.” The U.S. defense secretary, who prefers to call himself the secretary of war, is seeking to militarize the fight against drug trafficking under the Trump-Monroe corollary, including possible ground operations and a larger role for U.S. Southern Command.

The campaign forms part of the White House’s Americas Shield initiative against organized crime. The U.S. National Security Strategy identifies drug trafficking and illegal migration as two of the main threats to domestic security. The anti-narcoterrorism offensive began in the second half of 2025 with Operation Southern Spear, which the article says has left 68 drug boats sunk and 227 people dead.

For Hegseth, using force against “bad people” justifies any measure and does not harm innocents. But the article warns that an excessive U.S. role, as in the case of Venezuelan oil, could awaken an anti-imperialist movement that has been dormant for years. A U.S.-backed removal of Nicolás Maduro would once have triggered street protests across Latin America, the article says, although that has not happened so far, even amid pressure on Cuba.

The language resembles the model promoted by El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, whose crackdown on gangs and mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center, have become regional symbols. Yet the article doubts that Hegseth’s MAGA-style rhetoric will take root across Latin America. Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras and Jamaica have joined the campaign, while Guatemala’s role remains to be defined. Colombia has authorized joint operations with the United States, and Southern Command chief General Francis Donovan has met Colombian and Ecuadorian military officials in Ecuador to coordinate action along their shared border.

The regional shift to the right and public demands for tougher security have helped governments aligned with Washington take ownership of the issue. Still, the article says that grand campaign promises and hard-line speeches face serious resistance, citing the failure of Chile’s constitutional security reform as an early example.

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We do bad things to bad people.