Gen. Francis Donovan said U.S. Southern Command wants to keep land strikes, arrests and raids among the options available against trafficking networks as the Pentagon expands surveillance and operational cooperation with Latin American governments.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Pentagon’s expanding campaign against drug cartels in Latin America could eventually include strikes or raids on land, according to the commander of U.S. Southern Command, who said military planners want to preserve a broad range of options as Washington intensifies its counter-narcotics operations across the region.
Gen. Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command, told the Wall Street Journal that operations on land should remain available as the military looks for additional ways to disrupt cartels and smuggling organizations.
“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,” Donovan said.
His comments do not amount to an announcement that the United States has authorized a new campaign of unilateral ground strikes against cartels. Rather, Donovan described possible tools that could be used as the Pentagon develops a broader strategy against trafficking organizations operating throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
The four-star general, whose military biography details extensive experience in special operations and overseas combat commands, said the objective is to create “complete systemic friction” for organizations moving narcotics, weapons, money and other illicit goods through the Western Hemisphere.
That approach represents a further evolution of a U.S. military role that has expanded substantially over the past year.
American forces began conducting strikes against vessels suspected of carrying drugs in waters around Latin America and the Caribbean roughly a year ago. Since then, the Pentagon has increasingly combined maritime operations with intelligence gathering, surveillance, training and direct cooperation with security forces inside partner countries.
The Pentagon is now deploying drones to map the movements of cartels and other trafficking networks, according to U.S. officials cited by the Wall Street Journal.
The intelligence gathered from those flights is intended in part to help Latin American governments identify trafficking routes, locate suspected criminal facilities and improve their own operations against organized crime.
The military is also applying technology and techniques developed during two decades of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to organized crime networks in the Western Hemisphere.
Donovan and other military officials are seeking ways to disrupt not only individual drug shipments but the larger system that allows cartels to operate, including transportation routes, communications, logistics, financing and safe houses.
That effort has increasingly moved beyond operations at sea.
On Sept. 24, approximately 50 U.S. military personnel joined more than 300 Ecuadorian police officers in a series of raids targeting an alleged cocaine trafficking network connected to Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG.
Ecuadorian authorities said the operation involved U.S. troops and the Drug Enforcement Administration and resulted in more than 30 arrests, according to CBS News.
Ecuadorian police also publicized the operation, which took place across several cities and targeted suspects accused of helping move cocaine from Colombia through Ecuadorian ports to international markets.
Military capabilities used in the operation reportedly included drones and equipment capable of interfering with electronic signals.
The raids marked one of the most direct examples to date of American military personnel participating inside Ecuador in an operation against an alleged trafficking organization.
U.S.-Ecuador security cooperation has expanded rapidly under Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and President Donald Trump, with Washington supplying equipment, intelligence, training and military support as Ecuador confronts powerful criminal organizations tied to regional cocaine trafficking. Human Rights Watch has documented that growing partnership and said U.S. support has increasingly included direct military assistance.
The broader regional effort is also being coordinated through the Shield of the Americas initiative, under which participating governments have pledged increased cooperation against transnational criminal organizations and threats to regional security.
The Trump administration has increasingly treated major cartels and trafficking groups as national security threats rather than solely as law enforcement targets, creating a larger operational role for the Pentagon alongside the State Department, Justice Department, Drug Enforcement Administration and partner governments.
SOUTHCOM is responsible for U.S. military operations and security cooperation across most of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Under the emerging strategy, U.S. military capabilities can be used to identify trafficking organizations, track their movements and provide intelligence to local forces, while partner countries carry out many of the arrests and seizures.
Donovan’s remarks indicate that military planners do not want that framework to prevent more direct action when Washington and partner governments determine it is necessary.
Possible measures could range widely, from additional border inspection equipment and intelligence support to coordinated arrests, raids against safe houses and strikes on cartel facilities.
The precise legal and operational circumstances under which American forces could conduct strikes on land remain unresolved publicly.
Operations conducted with the consent of a host government present different legal questions from unilateral U.S. military action on another country’s territory, and Donovan did not announce a specific planned strike or identify a country where such an operation would occur.
The Pentagon’s expanding role has nevertheless generated criticism from international human rights organizations.
Human Rights Watch has raised concerns about abuses and a lack of transparency surrounding the growing U.S.-Ecuador security partnership, including partnered operations in which Ecuadorian forces allegedly committed arbitrary detention and torture. The organization has called for greater congressional scrutiny of the American role.
Amnesty International has separately condemned U.S. strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels, describing such attacks as extrajudicial executions and arguing that suspected traffickers should be dealt with through law enforcement rather than military force.
In a more recent examination of an Ecuadorian fishing vessel that disappeared during U.S. counter-narcotics operations, Amnesty reiterated its position that the policy of attacking suspected drug boats at sea amounts to unlawful extrajudicial killing.
U.S. and partner governments maintain that the operations are aimed at increasingly violent transnational criminal organizations responsible for narcotics trafficking and other threats.
The disagreement is likely to become more significant if Washington moves from maritime strikes and partnered raids toward direct attacks against cartel targets on land.
For now, Donovan’s comments signal that SOUTHCOM does not want such operations ruled out in advance.
Rather than limiting the campaign to destroying suspected drug vessels or intercepting narcotics at sea, the command is building an approach intended to disrupt trafficking organizations across multiple stages of their operations — from surveillance and border crossings to communications networks, safe houses and distribution routes.
That strategy is already producing a larger American military presence alongside Latin American security forces.
Whether it develops into direct U.S. strikes against cartel targets on land will depend on decisions not yet publicly announced, but Donovan made clear that he wants that option to remain available.
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