Washington’s counter-narcotics push is expanding as Colombia’s new conservative government backs deeper security cooperation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has floated the possibility of joint strikes with Colombia against armed groups, as Washington welcomed the country into a military-led counter-narcotics coalition.
Speaking at a gathering of the U.S.-led Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition in Panama, Hegseth said Colombia had authorised “joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks.”
Asked whether he had discussed joint strikes with his Colombian counterpart against groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) and remnants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Hegseth replied: “Yes.”
“Designated terrorist organisations, with partnered governments, will be legitimate targets of the United States government,” Hegseth said, including in Colombia.
President Donald Trump’s Latin America policy has expanded sharply beyond its early focus on the Panama Canal. Reuters reported that more than 200 people have been killed since the launch of U.S. military strikes on suspected drug boats last September.
Critics say the U.S. strikes amount to war crimes worthy of the International Criminal Court. Hegseth rejected the criticism, attacked the court and urged coalition allies in Panama to withdraw from it.
He compared drug traffickers to al Qaeda and Islamic State, and invoked a revamped Monroe Doctrine, saying the United States would defend the hemisphere from narco-traffickers and what he called foreign malign influence.
Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella’s promised security crackdown has been embraced by the Trump administration, which has announced plans to provide $1 billion in U.S. security assistance to his government.
During his swearing-in remarks on Friday, De La Espriella vowed to “definitively eradicate the scourge of illicit crops” and committed Colombia to joining Trump’s Shield of the Americas programme.
De La Espriella has blamed his leftist predecessor Gustavo Petro for an expansion of armed groups. His election forms part of a rightward shift across Latin America, where weak economies and rising crime have helped hard-right candidates gain traction.
Colombia’s new Defence Minister, Jorge Eduardo Mora, said the country could play a critical role against narco-traffickers on both its Pacific and Caribbean coasts.
One U.S. official said the new security partnership was expected to surpass cooperation under Plan Colombia, the U.S.-Colombia anti-narcotics initiative launched in the early 2000s.
Panama President Jose Raul Mulino told the meeting that drug trafficking was the biggest threat facing the region and dismissed concerns that the U.S.-led coalition could infringe on members’ sovereignty.
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