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The US president announces the creation of a military coalition against drug trafficking at the inauguration in Miami of the Shield of the Americas summit with right-wing leaders of the continent
Trump: “I will take care of Cuba”
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02:00
Trump: “I will take care of Cuba”
The Shield of the Americas, the alliance of right-wing governments on the continent, is now a reality. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has inaugurated the first summit of this association of 13 countries in a ceremony at his golf club in Doral, on the outskirts of Miami, in which he announced the launch of a military coalition to fight against drug cartels in the region. He has assured that Havana “wants to reach an agreement” in negotiations with him and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and that The Castro regime is “in its last moments of life.” He has revealed that this week Washington has formally recognized the government of Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela. And he has made it clear that, despite his government’s interest in Latin America, he is not considering studying Spanish: “I am not going to learn your damn language,” he has told the leaders.
Since the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House, his Administration has devoted much more attention than its predecessors to Latin America, the region that its National Security Strategy declares a high priority in foreign policy and where Washington maintains that the United States should be the hegemonic power. This Saturday’s summit, the official presentation of the Shield of the Americas, should have been a kind of icing on the cake of this interest.
But the offensive against Iran got in the way. Trump, who had wanted to hold the leaders’ meeting at his golf club in Doral, on the outskirts of Miami, left as soon as he finished his speech, without participating in bilateral sessions or the meal honoring the visitors. He had to travel to the Dover military base, in Delaware, to participate in the ceremony to receive the bodies of American soldiers killed by an Iranian missile last Saturday in Kuwait. The event forced the development of the summit to be brought forward, compressed and accelerated.
Trump signs the Shield of the Americas agreement
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03:45
Trump signs the Shield of the Americas agreement
Trump did have time, in his speech, to reiterate, for the third time in three days, his opinion that the regime in Havana is about to fall, after having lost the economic support it received from Venezuela, and that therefore he is interested in negotiating some type of solution with Washington. “They want to reach an agreement,” he stressed. And he provided new information: for the first time, he declared that he was directly involved in those conversations along with Rubio, who he had already pointed out in previous comments is leading the contacts.
Trump has also referred to what he considers his great triumph in foreign policy in Latin America: Venezuela protected by the United States. Delcy Rodríguez “is doing a great job,” he stressed. “We are extracting enormous amounts of oil, they have more money now than they ever had.”
The Republican announced that this week, in which the two capitals have announced the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, that Washington “formally recognized the Venezuelan government.” “We have also reached a historic agreement with Venezuela on gold, which will allow our two countries to collaborate to facilitate the sale of Venezuelan gold and other minerals. They have enormous amounts of gold, good land, but they could not extract it. The system did not allow them to take advantage of the value of the land,” he added.
Despite the recognition of the Rodríguez Government, Trump has wanted to maintain bridges with the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, whose movement is considered by Washington and the European Union to be the winner of the 2024 elections: the president met with her on Friday at the White House before embarking on a trip to Miami. It was the second time that the two met face to face, after the January meeting in which she gave him her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
The presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei, participate in the summit; Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz; Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves; Ecuador, Daniel Noboa; Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader; El Salvador, Nayib Bukele; Guyana, Mohamed Irfaan Ali; Honduras, Nasry Tito Asfura; Panama, José Raúl Mulino; Paraguay, Santiago Peña, and Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, as well as the elected president of Chile, José Antonio Kast. Governments such as those of Mexico, Colombia or Brazil are left out.
During his speech, Trump also announced the creation of a new “military coalition” in Latin America, the Coalition Against Cartels in America (CCCA), to combat drug trafficking groups.
“We are going to go harder,” promised the president, who has also assured that “unleashing military power” is “the only way” to defeat the cartels. Trump has alluded to his country’s military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific against alleged drug gangs, which has killed nearly 150 people in dozens of attacks and which many experts consider illegal.
Trump’s announcement came after, in a preview of how the CCCA may act, US forces launched a joint operation with those of Ecuador to combat the drug trafficking groups that have turned the Andean country into one of the most violent in the region.
The region, Trump assured, offers “unlimited potential.” “But to achieve this we have to annihilate the cartels, and thus liberate our people. With the courage and determination of these great leaders present here, we will achieve it,” he added.
His fascination with the continent, however, has limits. By explaining that he had to leave and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio—who addressed the invited leaders in impeccable Spanish—would be the one to host the meeting, Trump was trying to make a joke. “Marco has an advantage over me, language,” he declared. “Because I’m not going to learn their damn language. I don’t have time,” he added, laughing.
The new Shield of the Americas alliance aims to be the Trump Administration’s response to other multilateral organizations already existing in the region, most especially the Summit of the Americas, which is held every three years. It also represents one more step to put into practice what the Republican Administration nicknamed the “Donroe doctrine”: that new “America, for Americans” that James Monroe proclaimed two centuries ago and in which the White House considers that The United States must be the hegemonic power on the continent.
The “Donroe Doctrine,” reflected in the National Security Strategy, declares that the American continent is Washington’s top foreign policy priority. It advocates strengthening ties with governments and personalities related to Trumpism and promoting their arrival or permanence in power. At the same time, he plans to confront those he considers hostile, to the point of depose them or threaten to do so in the cases of Venezuela and Cuba.
But it also proposes collaborating with governments of disparate ideological orientation that are willing to establish a mutually beneficial bilateral relationship. Although neither Mexico, Colombia—which holds elections this weekend—nor Brazil were at the meeting, Washington maintains fluid relations with all three. Trump has met at the White House with the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro; has invited the Brazilian, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the collaboration of United States intelligence played a role in the capture of supernarco Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes El Mencho by Mexican forces.
While the Trump Administration has boasted of its commitment to the region and organized this summit, it has also set aside its participation in other regional forums. He has withdrawn from three entities and has threatened to cut funds to other institutions.
The US National Security Strategy also specifies as one of its objectives in Latin America to eliminate, or at least reduce, China’s influence in the region, where Beijing is the main trading partner of numerous countries. Promoting business opportunities for American companies is another.
The meeting of heads of state in Doral (Miami) this Saturday takes place just three weeks before Trump’s planned trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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https://elpais.com/internacional/2026-03-07/trump-afirma-que-el-regimen-en-cuba-esta-en-sus-ultimos-momentos-de-vida-y-quiere-un-acuerdo-con-ee-uu.html
