What US Militarisation of Latin America Could Look Like

The United States is building a wider military presence across Latin America under the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition, and the region may be heading toward a familiar form of pressure from Washington. Launched by President Donald Trump in March, the coalition has seen US forces strike vessels suspected of drug trafficking while American officials deepen ties with Latin American militaries.

The ACCC includes 17 Latin American and Caribbean nations: Argentina, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Guatemala, Paraguay, Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Peru. Venezuela is not officially a member, but appears to have opened its territory to US operations. That informal participation completes what the article calls the “Andean arc,” covering the region’s cocaine production and many of its organised crime groups.

But the coalition’s remit reaches beyond narcotics. Trump has said it will counter “malign foreign influences from outside the Western Hemisphere,” a veiled reference to China. The coalition’s creation in Florida, two months after a US army ground operation in Venezuela that deposed President Nicolas Maduro, is presented as another sign of Washington’s broader ambitions.

On August 4, US Southern Command announced the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force. It is intended to coordinate US military operations with allies and partners, strengthen regional security and respond rapidly to crises. The task force will integrate command and control of the ACCC’s 18 members, including the United States.

Recent operations offer a glimpse of the renewed force projection. In June, Trump said on Truth Social that the US army, working with Venezuelan authorities, carried out an air strike in Bolivar state against Hector Guerrero Flores, leader of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. The article argues that more US involvement and larger defence budgets would reduce social spending, weaken democratic outcomes and bring more violence and instability, reviving the Monroe Doctrine in what it calls the Trump Corollary.