The “Global War on Terror” was characterized by open-ended commitments, the erosion of civil liberties in partner nations, and the destabilization of entire regions under the banner of security.
The early events, Maduro’s arrest on narco-terrorism charges, the Cuba designation as terrorist and cartel kingpin, unaccounted extra judicial killings at sea, are consistent with the GWoT‘s opening phase.
As the US pivots to a “Hemispheric War on Cartels,” via “Operation Total Extermination” whose blueprint are outlined in an official document which suggests that Latin America is set to inherit the same neocolonial legacy of permanent military presence and strategic, economic subordination that defined the last two decades in the Middle East.
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The Department of War’s (DoW) 2026 posture statement, delivered by Acting Assistant Secretary Joseph M. Humire, outlines a fundamental restructuring of US defense priorities centered on the “American homeland and hemisphere first.”
While framed as a defensive strategy to counter narco-terrorism and seal borders, an analysis of the operational methods, strategic language, and geopolitical objectives reveals a blueprint for sustained, intrusive intervention across Latin America and the Caribbean. By explicitly applying the lexicon and legal frameworks of the Global War on Terror, pretty much like “kinetic strikes,” “designated terrorist organizations,” and “coalition of the willing”, to cartels and hemispheric adversaries, the United States is establishing a precedent for extra-jurisdictional military action and overlordship.
If this counter-cartel strategy follows the trajectory of the counter-terrorism legacy, it will result in a neocolonial design characterized by permanent military access, sovereignty erosion for partner and targeted nations, and the subordination of regional stability to US strategic and economic dominance via a Washington Consensus all the while the cartels will thrive like ISIS has done thanks to the US. Thus, as the US counter-cartel campaign mirrors the US counter-terrorist legacy, we can expect a neocolonial design on the region for carving a Unipolar sphere of influence in the western hemisphere.
Cartel Labels as a Gateway to Unilateral Military Action
The most significant shift documented in the posture statement is the formal conflation of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) with terrorist entities, enabling the application of counter-terrorism authorities in the Western Hemisphere. The document details 45 “lethal kinetic strikes” conducted since September 2025 against vessels tied to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang now designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) but that according to Interior Minister Diodaso Cabello – before Maduro’s abduction a year ago – the gang was already wiped out in 2023.
This mirrors the post-9/11 paradigm where the “terrorist” label served to circumvent traditional constraints on the use of force and via this invocation of the FTO framework, the Department of War justifies unilateral actions that transcend law enforcement. The statement notes that operations like “Operation Southern Spear” (OSS) have shifted drug trafficking routes “eastward through Venezuela and Guyana into Suriname”. However, in the counter-terrorism legacy, such shifts were used to justify expanding the battlespace. We can anticipate that if cartels relocate operations, the US will cite “sanctuary” arguments to pursue them into new territories, demanding expanded basing rights or conducting cross-border operations without the consent of fragile governments, thereby treating Latin American nations as a contiguous battlespace rather than a collection of sovereign states.
Institutionalizing a Permanent Military Footprint Through “Burden Sharing”
The document emphasizes “burden sharing” and “partnership,” but a deeper reading reveals a strategy of institutionalizing a permanent US military presence under the guise of capacity building. The operationalization of the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition is presented as a cooperative effort as eighteen nations convened at the inaugural Americas Counter-Cartel Conference at SOUTHCOM, where they signed a joint declaration committing to collective intelligence sharing, border security, and operational coordination to dismantle cartel networks. Leaders from across the hemisphere issued a unified warning that cartels must be treated as terrorist organizations and that confronting this transnational threat requires shared regional action. Yet, the conditions attached to this coalition are explicitly neocolonial in nature with partner nations expected to align their defense postures with US priorities, accept US-led operational planning, and provide access to key terrain.
This is most evident part in the document is the Panama Canal section, the DoW cites successes such as Panama withdrawing from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and expelling a Chinese firm from port operations, replacing it with “US subsidiaries.” Simultaneously, the US has established a Joint Security Cooperation Group (JSCG) on the Pacific side and a Jungle Operations Training Course (JOTC) on the Atlantic side. This creates a permanent, bilateral security architecture that protects US commercial interests under the guise of counter-cartel cooperation. The pattern replicates the “enduring bases” established in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were initially sold as temporary training missions. Given the legacy of counter-terrorism, we can expect these “cooperation groups” and “training courses” to evolve into de facto US forward operating bases, locking Panama, Puerto Rico and similar nations like Ecuador and Paraguay, where new Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) are being signed, into a long-term security dependency that prioritizes US economic and strategic dominance over national sovereignty.
Furthermore, the post-“Operation Absolute Resolve” (OAR) strategy in Venezuela, where a military operation supported the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, is evidence of a dangerous precedent in the use of US military power to effect regime change or enforce US judicial rulings. The subsequent “Stabilization” phase, led by the State Department but supported by the DoW, involves “leveraging the private sector” to rebuild the economy. Historically, such “stabilization efforts” in counter-terrorism theaters such as Iraq, Afghanistan (before US pullout), Libya and Syria resulted in a restructuring of local economies to favor US corporate interests and the imposition of governance structures compliant with US strategic goals. In Venezuela, this suggests a model where military intervention clears the path for economic neocolonialism, restructuring the nation’s oil and private sectors to benefit US stakeholders.
The counter-cartel campaign is being built using the same legal frameworks and methods that defined the GWoT. So, if the GWoT’s trajectory is any guide, these patterns will produce similar long-term consequences of military entrenchment, sovereignty erosion, and destabilization that ultimately empowers the very actors the campaign claims to target.
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Miguel Santos García is a Puerto Rican writer and political analyst who mainly writes about the geopolitics of neocolonial conflicts and Hybrid Wars within the 4th Industrial Revolution, the ongoing New Cold War and the transition towards multipolarity. Visit his blog here.
He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Featured image is from the author
