National Defense

Trump Admin Hints At Ground Action Against Cartels

Wikimedia Commons/Public/David B. Gleason from Chicago, Illinois, CC BY SA 2.0

A four-star U.S. general said the Pentagon may be preparing to expand its counter-narcotic mission to include ground strikes.

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander Gen. Francis Donovan told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Wednesday that he wants all options “at the table” including land strikes. His remarks come one year after strikes against drug carrying vessels in the waters surrounding Latin America and the Caribbean began.

“Do I see land strikes as options? Yes. We want all options at the table … those actions might be strikes, arrests, or the takedown of a safe house. It could even be something as routine as increasing the use of cargo scanners at border checkpoints,” he told the outlet.

The general emphasized that the goal is to put “complete systemic friction” on the cartels trafficking drugs.

The Pentagon is deploying drones to map the movement of cartels and other smuggling networks. The objective of this is to assist Latin American countries and their law enforcement in improving their anti-drug operations, the WSJ reported citing anonymous U.S. officials.

SOUTHCOM deployments are part of a larger effort to disrupt transnational organized crime networks worldwide. The Pentagon aims to use military technology and counterinsurgency techniques that warfighters like General Donovan used in the Middle East during the War on Terror, according to the outlet.

In recent months, U.S.-Latin American cooperation has significantly increased under the Shield of the Americas coalition. On Sept. 24, approximately 50 American troops and federal law enforcement partnered with Ecuadorian police in an early morning raid targeting a cocaine trafficking network with alleged ties to Mexican cartels, CBS News reported.

This operation was the first of its kind in Ecuador — with U.S. troops directly assisting in the country, per the WSJ. Military technology including drones and signal jammers were used.

SOUTHCOM counter-narcotic operations are not without controversy. Organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have categorized these operations as extrajudicial killings.