Overview
- Last week in Panama, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States wants to expand its anti‑drug campaign from maritime strikes to joint land operations and named Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras as partners while Guatemala publicly denied any agreement.
- Ecuador is the clearest example of on‑the‑ground cooperation after it began joint raids with U.S. forces in March, and a New York Times probe found at least one March strike destroyed a cattle farm rather than a drug lab.
- Reporting shows more than 60 U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific over the past year have killed over 200 people, prompting questions about the legal basis for the attacks and the evidence used to label targets.
- Analysts warn that joint land raids could erode national sovereignty, increase civilian casualties where armed groups operate among civilians, and fuel domestic political backlash that limits how far regional governments can cede control.
- The push builds on Washington’s broader 2025–26 strategy of labeling criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations and using U.S. forces and intelligence across the region, a history that helps explain strong public sensitivity to foreign troops on Latin American soil.