U.S. National Security and Latin America

President Trump will host a Shield of the Americas summit in Doral formalizing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s hemispheric "Donroe Doctrine" initiative—backed by cabinet officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Kristi Noem—and attended by representatives from more than a dozen conservative governments, where leaders signed a joint security declaration promising "cutting‑edge" strategies to defeat narco‑terrorist cartels and curb illegal migration. On March 6, SOUTHCOM said U.S. forces, at Hegseth’s order and at Ecuador’s request, conducted a joint U.S.–Ecuadorian "lethal kinetic" strike on an alleged narco‑terrorist supply complex in Ecuador — an operation Hegseth posted on X and officials described as part of the multilateral Shield of the Americas campaign.