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Trump encouraged regional leaders gathered at his Miami-area golf club to take military action against drug trafficking cartels and transnational gangs that he says pose an \u201cunacceptable threat\u201d to the hemisphere\u2019s national security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe have to use our military. You have to use your military.\u201d Citing the U.S.-led coalition that confronted the Islamic State group in the Middle East, the Republican president said that \u201dwe must now do the same thing to eradicate the cartels at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gathering, which the White House called the\u00a0\u201cShield of the Americas\u201d\u00a0summit, came just two months after Trump ordered an audacious U.S. military operation to capture\u00a0Venezuela\u2019s then-president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro,\u00a0and whisk him and his wife to the United States to face drug conspiracy charges.<\/p>\n
Looming even larger is Trump\u2019s decision to\u00a0launch a war on Iran\u00a0with Israel one week ago, a conflict that has left hundreds dead,\u00a0convulsed global markets\u00a0and\u00a0unsettled the broader Middle East.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s time with the Latin American leaders was limited: Afterward, he set out for Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to be on hand for the dignified transfer of\u00a0the six U.S. troops killed\u00a0in a\u00a0drone strike on a command center\u00a0in Kuwait, one day after the U.S. and Israel launched their\u00a0military campaign against Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump called the American deaths a \u201cvery sad situation\u201d and praised the fallen troops as \u201cgreat heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the summit, Trump aimed to turn attention to the Western Hemisphere, at least for a moment. He has pledged to reassert U.S. dominance in the region and push back on what he sees as years of\u00a0Chinese economic encroachment in America\u2019s backyard.<\/p>\n
Trump also said the U.S. will turn its attention to Cuba after the war with Iran and suggested his administration would cut a deal with Havana, underscoring Washington\u2019s increasingly aggressive stance against the island\u2019s communist leadership. \u201cGreat change will soon be coming to Cuba,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthey\u2019re very much at the end of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuban officials have said on several occasions that they were open to dialogue with the U.S. as long as it was based on respect for Cuban sovereignty, but they have never confirmed that such talks were taking place.<\/p>\n
Who was there<\/p>\n
The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago joined the Republican president at Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort where he is also set to host the Group of 20 summit later this year.<\/p>\n
The idea for a summit of like-minded conservatives from across the hemisphere emerged from the ashes of what was to be the 10th edition of the Summit of the Americas, which was scrapped during the U.S. military buildup off the coast of Venezuela last year.<\/p>\n
Host Dominican Republic, pressured by the White House, had barred Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from attending the regional gathering. But after leftist leaders in Colombia and Mexico threatened to pull out in protest \u2014 and with no commitment from Trump to attend \u2014 the Dominican Republic\u2019s president, Luis Abinader, decided at the last minute to postpone the event, citing \u201cdeep differences\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n
The Shield of the Americas moniker was meant to speak to Trump\u2019s vision for an \u201cAmerica First\u201d foreign policy toward the region that leverages U.S. military and intelligence assets unseen across the area since the end of the Cold War.<\/p>\n
To that end,\u00a0Ecuador\u00a0and the United States conducted military operations this week against organized crime groups in the South American country. Ecuadorian and U.S. security forces attacked a refuge belonging to the Colombian illegal armed group Comandos de la Frontera in the Ecuadorian Amazon on Friday, authorities reported.<\/p>\n
This joint fight against drug traffickers \u201cis only the beginning,\u201d said Ecuador\u2019s president, Daniel Noboa.<\/p>\n
Notably missing at the summit were the region\u2019s two dominant powers \u2014 Brazil and Mexico \u2014 as well as Colombia, long the linchpin of U.S. anti-narcotics strategy in the region.<\/p>\n
Trump grumbled that Mexico is the \u201cepicenter of cartel violence\u201d with drug kingpins \u201corchestrating much of the bloodshed and chaos in this hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cartels are running Mexico,\u2019 Trump said. \u201dWe can\u2019t have that. Too close to us. Too close to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge from China<\/p>\n
Trump made no mention of his administration\u2019s insistence that countering Chinese influence in the hemisphere is a top priority for his second term.<\/p>\n
His\u00a0national security strategy\u00a0promotes the \u201cTrump Corollary\u201d to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which had sought to ban European incursions in the Americas, by targeting Chinese infrastructure projects, military cooperation and investment in the region\u2019s resource industries.<\/p>\n
The first demonstration of the more muscular approach was Trump\u2019s strong-arming of Panama to withdraw from China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative and review long-term port contracts held by a Hong Kong-based company amid U.S. threats to retake the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n
More recently, the U.S. capture of Maduro and Trump\u2019s pledge to \u201crun\u201d Venezuela threatens to disrupt oil shipments to China \u2014 the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude before the raid \u2014 and bring into Washington\u2019s orbit one of Beijing\u2019s closest allies in the region. Trump is scheduled to travel to Beijing later this month to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n
For many countries, China\u2019s trade-focused diplomacy fills a critical financial void in a region with major development challenges ranging from poverty reduction to infrastructure bottlenecks. In contrast, Trump has been slashing foreign assistance to the region while rewarding countries lined up behind his crackdown on immigration \u2014 a policy widely unpopular across the hemisphere.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted the leaders for a working lunch after Trump left for the event in Delaware. The lunch gave Kristi Noem,\u00a0whom Trump fired as homeland security secretary\u00a0on Thursday, the chance to make her debut in her new role as a special envoy for the \u201cShield of the Americas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want our hemisphere to be safer, to be more sovereign, and to be more prosperous,\u201d Noem told the leaders.<\/p>\n
#Trump #calls #leaders #Shield #Americas #summit #militaries #drug #cartels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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