DORAL, Fla.—U.S. President Donald Trump on March 7 welcomed his Latin American allies to Florida for a summit focused on addressing regional issues and announced a new military coalition to combat drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere.

“On this historic day, we come together to announce a brand new military coalition to eradicate the criminal cartels plaguing our region,” Trump said at the summit.

He said that the new partnership, called the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, will leverage military resources, including the possible use of missiles, to combat the cartels.

The heads of state of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago attended the summit, the White House said.

The event, called the Shield of the Americas Summit, took place at Trump National Doral Club in Miami and was the first such regional meeting to bring together, as the State Department described them, “like-minded allies” in the Western Hemisphere.

“We’re going to be doing some incredible things together,” Trump told the leaders.

All countries in attendance are governed by right-wing or center-right parties; left-leaning governments such as Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico did not participate in the summit.

On March 5, Trump announced that outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will lead the effort as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.

During his remarks, Trump criticized previous U.S. administrations for abandoning the Western Hemisphere.

“They went so far away,“ Trump said. ”They went to these faraway places where they weren’t even wanted.”

The Donroe Doctrine

In its national security strategy released in November 2025, the Trump administration made the Western Hemisphere its top priority, stating that it was a “great American strategic mistake of recent decades” to allow “non-Hemispheric competitors” to take hold in the region.

The Trump administration compared its new policy to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, a U.S. policy that told European powers to stay out of the Americas.

After that, some media outlets began calling it the “Donroe Doctrine,” and the Trump administration adopted the term.

“It is a doctrine we will not allow hostile foreign influence to gain a foothold in this hemisphere that includes the Panama Canal,” Trump said.

He did not explicitly mention China during his speech, but over the past two decades, China has become a dominant force in Latin America and the Caribbean; trade between China and countries in the region surpassed $500 billion in 2024. In countries such as Brazil and Peru, China has replaced the United States as a key trading partner.

In recent years, more than 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries have joined Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. As a result, China has secured hundreds of infrastructure projects, gaining control of assets such as ports throughout the region.

In January, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, effectively ending Venezuela’s relationship with China. Last week, Trump suggested that Cuba might be next.

“Cuba’s at the end of the line,” Trump said at the event.

He said that the regime in Havana is negotiating with him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“But our focus right now is on Iran,” Trump said.

The summit comes amid a tense geopolitical backdrop, as the conflict in Iran is entering its second week.

On Feb. 28, Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of top leadership figures were killed in the U.S.–Israeli military operation. Since then, Tehran has carried out a series of retaliatory attacks across the region.

The Hezbollah terrorist group, an Iran proxy, has networks in Latin America and, for years, used the Western Hemisphere for money laundering, fundraising, and terrorism.

US Offers Military Training

During the event, Trump signed a proclamation formally creating the new military coalition.

“Every leader here today is united in the conviction that we cannot and will not tolerate the lawlessness in our hemisphere any longer,” Trump said.

“You have some great police, but they threaten your police, they scare your police,” Trump said, referring to drug cartels.

“You’re going to use your military. In many cases, our forces have already been working closely with yours, and the United States looks forward to deepening and expanding that cooperation in the months ahead.”

The U.S. Southern Command announced recently that Ecuadorian and U.S. military forces conducted joint operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in Ecuador as part of the U.S. effort to fight narco-terrorism.

The proclamation states that the United States will train and mobilize the militaries of partner nations to help dismantle cartels.

According to the proclamation, the United States and its allies should prevent external threats, including malign foreign influences from outside the Western Hemisphere.

Seventeen countries are signatories to this partnership.

The leaders who attended the Miami summit are Argentine President Javier Milei, Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Chilean President-elect José Antonio Kast, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Dominican President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, Ecuadorian President Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Honduran President Nasry “Tito” Asfura, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino Quintero, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, and Kamla Persad-Bissessar, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Eva Fu contributed to this report.