Key facts
- U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed Colombia into a military-led counter-narcotics coalition.
- Colombia's new conservative president, Abelardo De La Espriella, was inaugurated last week.
- Colombia has authorized joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks.
- The U.S. announced plans to provide $1 billion in security assistance to Colombia.
- Hegseth invoked a revamped Monroe Doctrine, calling it the 'Donroe Doctrine'.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed Colombia into a military-led counter-narcotics coalition of like-minded Western Hemisphere nations on Wednesday, following the inauguration of its conservative president last week. Ahead of a meeting with Colombia's new Defense Minister Jorge Eduardo Mora, Hegseth stated that Colombia had also authorized "joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks."
The meeting of the so-called Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition took place in Panama. Hegseth blasted the International Criminal Court and encouraged coalition allies attending the meeting to withdraw from it, comparing drug traffickers to al Qaeda or Islamic State terrorists. He invoked a revamped Monroe Doctrine, calling it the "Donroe Doctrine."
Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella's vows of a security crackdown have been embraced by the Trump administration, which announced plans to provide $1 billion in U.S. security assistance to his government. During his swearing-in address, De La Espriella vowed to "definitively eradicate the scourge of illicit crops" and committed to joining the Shield of the Americas program founded by Trump. De La Espriella has blamed his predecessor, leftist Gustavo Petro, for an expansion of armed groups.
De La Espriella's election was part of a rightward shift rippling across Latin America, with weak economies and rising crime reshaping voter priorities. In Panama, President Jose Raul Mulino called drug trafficking the biggest threat facing the region and dismissed concerns that the U.S.-led coalition could infringe on members' sovereignty, stating that transnational crime groups are the real threats to sovereignty.