This week marks an anniversary that Washington would probably prefer to pass unnoticed. Because one year ago, the first U.S. military campaign in decades began in Latin America. President Donald Trump no longer wants speeches, warnings, ultimatums, or even military exercises.
The drills are over. The United States is about to launch a real military campaign, with real deaths and consequences that no one can measure. Because, remember, military actions take on a life of their own, making them simply impossible to predict.
The first anniversary mentioned at the beginning will take place this week.
On September 2, 2025, a U.S. missile struck a speedboat in the Caribbean. On board were 11 people huddled together while leaving Venezuela. Nine died in the first attack. Two survived, clinging to the wreckage. Forty-five minutes later, another missile killed them.
That was the beginning. Since then, the Pentagon has been operating quietly, following a logic that is no longer one of interdiction, but of annihilation.
As of the morning of August 31, 2026, when this column was written, the United States had already sunk 69 boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. 227 people have died in those operations. None were identified. None had judicial proceedings. None had publicly available evidence showing they were trafficking drugs at that moment.
But the machinery is already running. And now comes what is truly concerning: the expansion of U.S. military operations onto the mainland and the subsequent destruction of targets on land. Operations similar to those already taking place against speedboats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
The two most important questions that remain today are: Where will they begin? And how long will the wolf keep howling and biting?
Washington’s New War, Without Trials, Names, or Restraints
The United States changed the way it confronts drug trafficking across the continent. It did so without announcing it, without public debate, and without congressional approval, under a legal framework that Washington fiercely defends but that causes concern throughout the rest of the world.
The Department of Justice and the Pentagon justify these lethal operations on three pillars:
- Collective self-defense: A memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel states that the U.S. is acting under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. According to Washington, narcoterrorism constitutes a continental aggression that authorizes the use of lethal force in international waters.
- Law of Armed Conflict: By designating cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the U.S. government declared that we are living through an “internationally expanding armed conflict.” Under this premise, the laws of war apply, meaning that killing combatants is considered legal.
- Bilateral treaties: In countries such as Colombia and Ecuador, agreements now exist allowing joint intelligence and tactical operations, involving U.S. forces and forces from the host country.
The result is brutal: Because the cartels have no legal defense. And now there are many more cartels and criminal organizations that have emerged.
The Department of Defense, along with the Department of State, has identified nine different cartels as organizations controlling, on the Mexican side, the passage and government of the entire border region between the United States and Mexico. It was only a matter of time before Washington demanded that they be removed, at any cost.
This explains why, before Trump returned to the White House, there were four cartels designated as terrorist organizations; today, that number has grown to 24.
Why Are These U.S. Military Operations a Direct Threat to Mexico?
Because what began at sea will move onto land. And when that happens, the margin for deadly error will increase. In this war, only one side wears uniforms, and in situations involving weapons and military equipment, anything can happen.
The people who disappeared at sea did not even realize when they were blown apart.
The cartels do not have satellites, drones, or cruise missiles. They have nowhere to hide because during an operation against them, at Langley, the CIA headquarters, and at the Pentagon, officials will be watching satellite-generated images of the moment they are destroyed. The “combatants” may not even realize what happened to them.
In international waters, the international community insists that suspicious boats should have been intercepted, not destroyed. Now, do you think anyone will demand due process when attacks take place against cartels on land?
Perhaps there will be complaints when missiles land near families, neighbors, workers, or anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby.
But just like with the boat operators, no one will bother proving whether those killed were drug traffickers or fishermen.
The wolf has arrived.
Many experts in Washington are already saying it openly: “This campaign will include ground attacks against the cartels.”
Donroe Doctrine: Washington’s New Policy for the Continent
The White House has named this strategy the Donroe Doctrine. It is the new U.S. military compass for Latin America: turning the fight against drug trafficking into a national security priority and expanding the American influence envisioned by Donald Trump throughout the hemisphere.
First, they created the Joint Task Force Southern Spear. Today, that has evolved into something much larger: the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force.
Five countries joined: Ecuador, Jamaica, Honduras, Guatemala, and Colombia. All of them, with the exception of an undefined agreement with Guatemala, authorized joint military operations within their territories.
Mexico was not invited, but that does not mean it is outside the equation. On the contrary; it is at the center of the map.
The Armed Wing of U.S. Southern Command
General Francis Donovan, responsible for this new force, made it clear: The new Donroe Doctrine and the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force, JTF-WHEM, will be the “action arm” of Southern Command.
Its mission: to impose “total systemic friction” against any threat perceived in the hemisphere. Any threat, including cartels, including their networks, including those who happen to be nearby.
This is no longer a project. It is an operation already underway.
Last week, Southern Command reported another attack in the Eastern Pacific: another drug-smuggling boat destroyed, with two occupants killed.
Write it down in the record, because it was the first official operation of the new Joint Task Force.
The wolf, the wolf… is no longer a threat. The wolf is already here, and it has already begun operating.
Source: tvazteca
