标签： South America

One year after the U.S. military launched a lethal campaign of airstrikes targeting boats accused of trafficking drugs off Latin America’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that has killed hundreds of people, the second Trump administration is moving to expand this operation onto dry land — negotiating agreements to deploy American ground forces in partner nations across the region, a move that has already ignited fierce debate over national sovereignty and civilian harm.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the announcement last week during an official visit to Panama, revealing that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had already signed on to allow joint U.S.-local military operations against organized criminal groups on their territory. Ecuador became the first country to launch such joint missions back in March, but Hegseth’s claim of a Guatemalan agreement has been flatly denied by Guatemala City.

Speaking alongside troops during a jungle military drill in Panama, Hegseth framed the land expansion as a natural extension of the existing at-sea strikes. “Same effect on land,” he said. “And so we’re working with Ecuador. We’re working with Colombia. We’re working with partners to bring the fight to the (designated terrorist organizations) on land.”

This planned expansion marks a definitive new phase of the Trump administration’s broader regional strategy, which aims to pressure Latin American governments to align with U.S. security priorities and cement what the White House describes as “American dominance over the Western Hemisphere.” In recent months, a growing wave of Trump-aligned conservative leaders have won election across the region, giving Washington a cohort of more receptive partners to advance its agenda. But independent analysts and regional observers warn that the widening U.S. military footprint carries severe risks: mounting civilian casualties, and a widespread popular backlash against American intervention that will outlive the current Republican administration.

Michael Shifter, a leading Latin America expert at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think tank, argued the campaign is less about cooperative counter-narcotics efforts and more about projecting American power. “What’s going on is an attempt to legitimize the increased use of the U.S. military in the region,” Shifter explained. “It projects power, demonstrates military superiority and enables Washington to impose its agenda. This is not cooperation, it’s obviously a very asymmetrical relationship.”

The United States has maintained a military presence in Latin America for generations, providing allied governments with weapons, intelligence, and training to counter drug trafficking, but this history is marred by a controversial legacy of U.S. support for military coups and authoritarian dictatorships. Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, his administration has pursued the most interventionist U.S. policy toward the region in decades.

To date, the administration has blacklisted 20 Latin American criminal groups as official “foreign terrorist organizations”, deployed U.S. special forces to Venezuela to capture former president Nicolás Maduro, and embedded CIA agents in drug lab raids across Mexico. The year-long boat strike campaign has killed more than 200 people in over 60 separate attacks across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, but the administration has released little public evidence confirming that those killed were actually “narco-terrorists”, prompting widespread scrutiny of the strikes’ legality and proportionality.

William LeoGrande, a Latin America specialist at American University, noted that sustained frontline combat operations conducted jointly with local forces are a sharp break from past U.S. engagement in the region, and will test long-held regional sensitivities over national sovereignty and foreign military presence on Latin American soil. “This is new and different,” LeoGrande said.

Hegseth released few concrete details about what the planned joint operations in Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras will actually entail, including force levels, rules of engagement, or command structure. In Colombia, where Trump-backed President Abelardo de la Espriella just took office earlier this month, Hegseth raised the prospect of U.S. troops joining direct strikes against the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s last remaining large guerrilla group. According to Hegseth, de la Espriella has explicitly requested expanded U.S. military involvement. De la Espriella doubled down on this hardline position Saturday, vowing that ELN rebels would “pay a high price” for a recent drone attack on Colombian government troops.

Hegseth framed the expanded campaign by equating drug trafficking groups with the transnational Islamic extremist networks that dominated U.S. national security strategy for decades after the 9/11 attacks. “Anywhere you traffic drugs or you threaten the American people or our partners, you are a target just like ISIS or al-Qaida,” he said.

Ecuador already offers a clear preview of how joint operations function in practice. The country launched its bilateral raids with the U.S. earlier this year, even after 2025 a national referendum saw an overwhelming majority of Ecuadorian voters reject the establishment of any foreign military bases on Ecuadorian soil. A recent investigation by The New York Times found that one March strike targeting an alleged drug camp instead destroyed a working cattle farm, causing unreported civilian damage.

The push for new agreements has made the most progress among the Trump administration’s ideological allies: conservative leaders who won recent elections on promises of aggressive crackdowns on rampant violent crime. Guatemala stands out as a key exception. While its progressive government has maintained close security cooperation with Washington despite political differences, President Bernardo Arévalo has explicitly denied agreeing to joint anti-drug operations, noting that any such agreement would be illegal without formal approval from Guatemala’s congress. Honduras, Colombia and Ecuador have not responded to requests for comment on Hegseth’s recent remarks. Mexico, a critical source and transit hub for fentanyl and other illicit drugs bound for the United States, has remained outside the emerging anti-trafficking alliance. Progressive Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has maintained close security cooperation with Washington, but has repeatedly resisted mounting U.S. pressure to allow American military forces to operate against cartels on Mexican territory.

Adam Isacson, a defense analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, noted that even sympathetic right-leaning governments may ultimately balk at the terms of expanded U.S. military involvement. “Ultimately, the United States will have to define what ‘joint operations’ means in each of these countries. It may discover pretty quickly that this is something most governments — even governments on the right — are quite uncomfortable with,” Isacson said.

Regional and security experts have raised widespread questions about whether a more militarized approach will actually deliver long-term improvements in public security. Shifter argued the campaign is at least partially a public demonstration of U.S. power, coming on the heels of the capture of Maduro in Venezuela, as the Trump administration seeks to offset high-profile foreign policy setbacks in other regions, most notably the Middle East.

Other observers warn the strategy carries a high risk of civilian casualties, particularly in Colombia, where armed groups operate embedded within civilian communities and often function as the de facto ruling authority in remote regions outside government control. Jeremy McDermott, co-director of Bogotá-based investigative outlet InSight Crime, argued that large-scale military strikes are unlikely to eliminate these groups, and will instead push them to adapt in ways that harm local populations. “The U.S. bombs an ELN camp in Colombia or in Venezuela, what is the first thing the ELN are going to do? They’re going to dismantle all their camps and move into the villages and towns,” McDermott explained.

In the long term, experts warn that deeper U.S. military involvement will put regional leaders in a difficult position, forcing them to balance domestic demands for greater security against widespread public anger over the surrender of national sovereignty. This pressure could ultimately constrain even the Trump administration’s closest allies. “All of these presidents, no matter how far right they are, face pressure to do something about security and to make a show of pursuing the ‘bad guys’ who are making people feel unsafe. There is broad agreement on that,” Isacson said. “But they also know there is only so much sovereignty they can cede before public opinion begins turning against them.”

This report was coordinated by DeBre from Buenos Aires, Argentina, with additional reporting from Associated Press journalists based across the region: Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City, Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, and Astrid Suárez in Bogotá.

Just days after being sworn into office, Colombia’s newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella is turning to his U.S. political ally, former President Donald Trump, for critical economic relief following a catastrophic 7.4-magnitude earthquake that has already claimed at least 289 lives across western regions of the South American nation.

De la Espriella, who secured his presidential victory in a closely contested June 21 runoff election with public backing from Trump, has made strengthening bilateral ties with the U.S. a central pillar of his young administration. In a post shared to the social platform X on Saturday night, the new leader confirmed he had held a conversation with Trump to discuss disaster response efforts. He thanked the U.S. for the emergency assistance already dispatched, and formally asked Trump to temporarily lift punitive tariffs on Colombian exports, a move that would ease pressure on domestic business owners grappling with widespread economic disruption from the disaster.

As of Sunday, the Trump administration has not issued a public response to de la Espriella’s request. The U.S. State Department has confirmed that Washington has already committed $26.5 million in emergency aid to Colombia, including critical provisions such as non-perishable food, temporary emergency shelter, and essential medical and public health supplies.

The powerful quake struck early on a Monday morning, carving a path of destruction across western Colombia, including major urban centers like Pereira, Cali, and Quibdo. Communities along Colombia’s Pacific coastline suffered the most severe damage, prompting President de la Espriella to immediately declare a national natural disaster across affected regions.

Official government data puts the number of missing people at 143, though independent civilian-led tracking databases estimate the figure could be as high as thousands. According to the latest government updates, the disaster has injured 3,937 people, fully destroyed more than 14,700 residential structures, and left an additional 81,536 homes damaged to varying degrees. The epicenter of the quake was located in Choco, one of Colombia’s poorest and most underserved regions, exacerbating the challenges for first responders.

In Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, search and rescue teams continue to comb through collapsed infrastructure for more than 70 local residents reported missing. Even though the critical 48 to 72-hour window for finding trapped survivors has closed, rescue operations and hopes of finding people alive persist. More than 120 hours after the quake hit, Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder told reporters at the unified emergency command post that teams remain committed to their work, holding onto the possibility of unexpected outcomes. “Miracles do happen,” Eder said, adding that crews would continue operations in all areas where victims are believed to remain trapped, driven by the hope of bringing survivors out.

Just days after Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella took office, a catastrophic 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, leaving the nation grappling with one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s recent history. Now, as rescue teams wrap up their search for trapped survivors in collapsed buildings, the South American nation turns to the daunting task of rebuilding communities shattered by the quake that has already claimed at least 285 lives and upended the lives of more than 100,000 people.\n\nAccording to official government data, the disaster damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of residential properties, alongside thousands of schools, healthcare centers, and community gathering spaces across more than 400 municipalities. Four major urban centers — Cali, Pereira, Manizales, and Quibdo — bore the brunt of the damage, leaving thousands of residents homeless.\n\nFor 38-year-old Ebert Jonathan Morales, staying at a government-run shelter in Cali, the disaster wiped out nearly everything his family owned. “There is no place to live, we lost everything,” Morales told the Associated Press. He is one of more than 102,000 people displaced by the quake, which has also left nearly 4,000 people injured. While official government data puts the number of missing people in the hundreds, independent private sector analysts estimate that thousands remain unaccounted for. Morales explained that he and his wife and four children will remain at the shelter until state support arrives, saying “The earthquake destroyed several neighborhoods in the city. Many houses were damaged, and buildings collapsed. We are going to stay here until the government gives us some help, some support.”\n\nSimilar stories of displacement echo across affected regions. Olga Castro, a mother of five who is currently staying with a neighbor after losing her home, said “At least we survived, but right now we are practically on the street because we don’t have a home anymore.” In many remote and hard-to-reach areas affected by the quake, official government aid has not yet arrived, leaving residents to rely on volunteer efforts and mutual aid from neighboring communities.\n\nThe disaster has presented an immediate critical test for the new president, who was inaugurated just 48 hours before the earthquake hit. Speaking Thursday, de la Espriella acknowledged the unprecedented complexity of the crisis, announcing a national reconstruction plan that pairs government resources with private sector investment, alongside direct cash subsidies for homeless families. “We will not overcome this tragedy alone as a government,” he said. “We need the private sector to rebuild Colombia together.” The president added that all national and international donations raised for disaster response will be allocated to reconstructing critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools, residential buildings, roads, and airports.\n\nEngineering experts caution that reconstruction requires careful, systematic planning before any major work can begin. Yezid Alvarado Vargas, a construction engineering professor at Bogota’s Javeriana University, noted that a full technical assessment is required to determine which existing structures are safe to occupy, which can be repaired, and which must be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. “Before even discussing reconstruction, we must guarantee temporary housing, food, healthcare, continuity of basic services and economic support for families who lost their homes or livelihoods,” Alvarado said.\n\nLocal authorities have repurposed public infrastructure including schools, parks, and government buildings as emergency shelters, distributing tents, mattresses, and food to displaced residents. In other hardest-hit areas, residents have set up improvised street-side shelters, while hundreds of volunteer groups continue to deliver aid to the most vulnerable communities, particularly those in isolated regions.\n\nMaría Mercedes Liévano, country director for Save the Children Colombia, explained that many of the most affected regions were already facing systemic crises before the earthquake. “These are isolated, neglected territories, historically lacking in institutional support, already plagued by violence, and now they are hit by an earthquake of this magnitude,” she said. “It’s a crisis on top of a crisis, leaving the population in a situation of extreme vulnerability.” Her organization highlighted particularly severe conditions in Buenaventura, Colombia’s largest Pacific port, and Chocó department, the epicenter of the quake.\n\nAs of Friday, national and international humanitarian aid continues to flow into the country. Multiple foreign governments including Peru, China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates have pledged tons of emergency supplies and disaster relief. President de la Espriella is scheduled to travel to Quibdo in Chocó and Pereira on Friday to inspect relief efforts and monitor aid distribution, as Colombia begins the long process of recovery from the most powerful earthquake to hit the country this century.

In the wake of two catastrophic earthquakes that struck across northern South America, leaving a trail of destroyed infrastructure, fractured communities and lost lives, one seasoned photojournalist has opened up about the ethical and emotional weight of capturing disaster on camera. After two decades documenting breaking news across the region for the Associated Press, Fernando Vergara stepped back this week to share his reflections on working through physical risk and emotional distress, and the delicate balance journalists must strike when bearing witness to human tragedy.

Vergara spoke to AP Thursday while working at a Bogota aid collection center, where donations are being sorted and shipped to survivors of the August 10 earthquake that centered near Pereira, Colombia. He drew direct comparisons between the destruction he documented in Pereira and the damage he witnessed following the late-June earthquakes that hit Venezuela’s northern coastal region.

According to Vergara, the impact of the Venezuelan earthquakes was far more severe. Multiple high-rise apartment buildings collapsed in the heavily populated La Guaira state, driving a far higher death toll than the Colombian event. Photographs from the region show crumpled concrete structures, rescue teams picking through rubble pile by pile, and heartbroken relatives grieving the loss of family members. Vergara recalled the visceral, unshakable details of working in the disaster zone: streets choked with fine dust, the pervasive stench of decomposing bodies lingering in the thick, hot air, and rescue crews working around the clock under brutal, nearly impossible conditions.

In Pereira, by contrast, most damaged structures were low-rise residential buildings between one and three stories tall. Even so, Vergara documented harrowing rescue efforts, including the emotional moment 24-year-old survivor Daniela Largos Sanchez was pulled alive from collapsed rubble the day after the earthquake.

For the veteran photographer, moments like that are the ones he prioritizes capturing amid widespread chaos and grief. In his reflections shared from the earthquake zone, Vergara broke down his approach to ethical photojournalism in the wake of disaster.

“Compared to the earthquake in Colombia, the one in Venezuela was a bit stronger, considering the losses. Venezuela had many tall buildings. A lot of people were living in apartment buildings, and the number of deaths was much higher than in Colombia. Recently in Pereira, the number of deaths are lower. It remains dramatic, but the buildings there were a bit shorter. The damaged houses were one to three stories tall, compared to Venezuela, where the buildings were much, much taller,” Vergara explained.

Describing conditions on the ground in La Guaira, he said: “What I witnessed in Venezuela, walking through the streets in La Guaira, the smell of rot was overwhelming, the dust in the air and the heat made the rescue of those trapped under the rubble much more dramatic.”

Central to Vergara’s practice is a core commitment to respecting the privacy and dignity of people experiencing their worst possible moments. “What is the photograph that I, as a reporter, seek in an earthquake or in a situation of such calamity? It’s important not to disrespect the victims’ families with my photographs. On the other hand, it’s about showing the situation with great sensitivity as it unfolds and to convey a message to people with my photographs,” he said.

Amid the widespread sorrow and loss that define disaster zones, Vergara actively seeks out and captures moments of hope and joy, most of all the miracle of a live rescue. “The most important message is the rescue of a person alive during an earthquake. Seeing someone alive brings immense joy. When a rescue team, firefighters, civil defense, or even volunteers rescue a person alive, everyone embraces with happiness, and that is the happiness I seek to capture with a photograph in an earthquake,” he added.