WASHINGTON—The United States is prepared to take its fight
against drug cartels to a new level and employ a military strategy against
these organizations similar to that used for decades against groups like ISIS
and Al Qaeda in the Middle East, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned.
During an interview with CBS News, Hegseth stated that
Washington is building the Americas Cartel Coalition (A3C) in conjunction with
governments in Central and South America, with the goal of “pursuing,
defeating, and destroying” organizations considered foreign terrorist groups
and drug cartels.
The official was asked whether Americans should expect
military operations similar to those recently carried out in Venezuela and
whether these actions could extend to countries like Ecuador and Guatemala. His
response was emphatic: “Yes, they should.”
Hegseth explained that the United States will work directly
with the governments and military forces of allied countries to locate and
combat drug trafficking networks, utilizing each nation's special capabilities
as well as those of U.S. forces.
"We hunt them down in our own hemisphere, just as we
proved we were very good at doing with ISIS and al-Qaeda in the Middle East for
20 years," he stated.
The Secretary of Defense also directly compared drug
trafficking groups to international terrorist organizations. In previous
statements before Congress, he maintained that "narco-terrorists" are
"the al-Qaeda of our hemisphere" and asserted that the United States
is pursuing them with the same sophistication and precision employed against
al-Qaeda.
With this strategy, the Trump administration seeks to
transform the fight against the cartels into a regional military campaign aimed
at restoring peace to the continent, with the United States and its Latin
American allies acting in a coordinated manner against drug trafficking
organizations.