Trump encourages leaders to use military action to help US fight cartels

(Source: AP)

President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States and Latin American countries are banding together to combat violent cartels as his administration looks to demonstrate it remains committed to sharpening US foreign policy focus on the Western Hemisphere, even while dealing with five-alarm crises around the globe.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Guyana President Irfaan Ali joined the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Paraguay at Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort where he is also set to host the Group of 20 summit later this year.

Notably missing at the summit were Brazil and Mexico, as well as Colombia, long the linchpin of US anti-narcotics strategy in the region.

Trump encouraged the regional leaders gathered at his Miami-area golf club to take military action against drug trafficking cartels and transnational gangs that he says pose an “unacceptable threat” to the hemisphere’s national security.

“The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries,” Trump said. “We have to use our military. You have to use your military.” Citing the US-led coalition that confronted the Islamic State group in the Middle East, the Republican president said that ”we must now do the same thing to eradicate the cartels at home.”

The gathering, which the White House called the “Shield of the Americas” summit, came just two months after Trump ordered an audacious US military operation to capture Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolás Maduro, and whisk him and his wife to the United States to face drug conspiracy charges.

Looming even larger is Trump’s decision to join with Israel to launch a war on Iran one week ago, a conflict that has left hundreds dead, convulsed global markets and unsettled the broader Middle East.

Trump’s time with the Latin American leaders was limited: After, he was setting out for Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to be on hand for the dignified transfer of the six US troops killed in a drone strike on a command center in Kuwait, one day after the US and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran.

Trump called the American deaths a “very sad situation” and praised the fallen troops as “great heroes.”

With the summit, Trump aimed to turn attention to the Western Hemisphere, at least for a moment. He has pledged to reassert US dominance in the region and push back on what he sees as years of Chinese economic encroachment in America’s backyard.

Trump also said the US will turn its attention to Cuba after the war with Iran and suggested his administration would cut a deal with Havana, underscoring Washington’s increasingly aggressive stance against the island’s communist leadership. “Great change will soon be coming to Cuba,” he said, adding that “they’re very much at the end of the line.”

Cuban officials have said on several occasions that they were open to dialogue with the US as long as it was based on respect for Cuban sovereignty, but they have never confirmed that such talks were taking place.