The Defense Department is gearing up for more attacks across Latin America as President Donald Trump escalates his military campaign against drug cartels.
Gen. Francis Donovan, the Trump-appointed four-star Marine who leads U.S. Southern Command, told the Wall Street Journal that direct strikes inside countries in the region are now among the possibilities being considered.
“Do I see land strikes as options? Yes,” he said. “We want all options at the table.”
The warning comes after more than a year of air strikes against suspected narcotrafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea that legal experts have warned likely amount to violations of international law.
Around 50 American military and law-enforcement personnel took part in raids with police in Ecuador last week against a suspected cocaine network with alleged links to a Mexican cartel, according to the Journal. Ecuadorian officials said it was the first operation of its kind involving U.S. troops there.
Washington has also helped Ecuador attack a suspected trafficking base, assisted Venezuela in an operation that killed a high-profile cartel leader, and supplied intelligence for missions in Colombia.
Donovan suggested the new strategy could range from military action to arrests and raids. “Those actions might be strikes, arrests, or the takedown of a safe house,” he said.
The campaign appears broadly designed to secure a conspicuous foreign policy win ahead of Nov. 3 midterms overshadowed by Trump’s disastrous war on Iran.
The 80-year-old president himself predicted earlier this month that the Iran conflict would finish “immediately after” the election. He has also, since launching the campaign on Feb. 28, claimed at various times the war would last a “few weeks,” was already “over,” and could stretch on “forever.”
In the seven months since it began, the war and its resulting impact on gas prices and unaffordability have driven Trump’s approval ratings to historic lows and handed Democrats an 8-point lead on the generic congressional ballot. There remains no end in sight to the conflict.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment on this story.
