Defense Secretary Hegseth announced expansion of unauthorized boat-strike campaign to land operations in Latin America

On August 13, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced during a visit to Panama that the Trump administration is seeking to extend its lethal boat-strike campaign against alleged drug traffickers onto land, saying the U.S. would bring "the same effect on land" it has used against suspected narcotics vessels. Speaking at a military drill in the Panamanian jungle and to journalists during the trip, Hegseth said Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil, following Ecuador, which had already launched similar joint raids with the U.S. in March 2026. Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo publicly denied that his government had agreed to any such joint operations, stating they would be illegal without congressional approval.

The announcement extends a campaign that, since September 2025, has killed more than 200 people in over 60 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific without congressional authorization, a war-powers resolution, or public evidence that those targeted were "narco-terrorists." No new authorization from Congress was sought or obtained for the land-based expansion Hegseth described. A New York Times investigation cited in AP's reporting found that one of the joint U.S.-Ecuador strikes in March 2026, aimed at an alleged drug lab, instead destroyed a cattle farm.

Hegseth gave few details of what the joint land operations would involve, but in Colombia — where Trump-backed President Abelardo de la Espriella took office this month — he raised the prospect of U.S. forces joining strikes against the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's last major guerrilla group, saying de la Espriella had requested greater U.S. military involvement. "Anywhere you traffic drugs or you threaten the American people or our partners, you are a target just like ISIS or al-Qaida," Hegseth said. Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador did not respond to requests for comment on Hegseth's remarks.