The Trump administration has launched a new initiative aimed at protecting the United States from drug cartels, mass migration, and Chinese influence across Latin America.
The new initiative was announced when President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was firing former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and putting her in charge of the Shield of the Americas program.
Under this initiative, the White House will collaborate with governments of Latin American nations to go on the offensive against transnational criminal organizations and hostile state actors in the western hemisphere.
From The Hill:
The regional coalition of countries in Latin America will work together on ideology and policy initiatives that help secure the Western Hemisphere, according to the White House.
The Shield of the Americas will be guided in part by the president’s foreign policy initiatives dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine,” fashioned after the Monroe Doctrine. The administration has described the doctrine as enlisting “established friends” in the Western Hemisphere to pursue U.S. aims and expanding ties by “cultivating and strengthening new partners.”
Since Trump returned to office last year, he directed the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” announced plans to “take back” the Panama Canal, and pushed efforts to acquire Greenland and make Canada the 51st state.
A summit making the Shield of the Americas official is set to take place this weekend in Miami, and it may largely focus on counterterrorism measures in the region as a group of Latin American leaders assemble on American soil.
In a post on X, Noem said that in her new role as special envoy, she looks forward to working with federal agencies “to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren.” She said she “will be able to build on the partnerships and national security expertise, I forged over the last 13 months as Secretary of Homeland Security.”
Thank you @POTUS Trump for appointing me as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas. @SecRubio and @SecWar are incredible leaders and I look forward to working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) March 5, 2026
Noem will work with the State Department, the Pentagon, and friendly governments to build out the program’s structure and coordinate efforts to crack down on cartels while limiting China’s footprint in the region.
I look forward to working with Kristi Noem as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas — our new security initiative comprised of 13 countries.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) March 5, 2026
Kristi has achieved incredible results as Secretary of Homeland Security and will be a tremendous asset in our effort to promote…
This comes as Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in April. Last year, the White House captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States to stand trial for a slew of crimes.
During a speech at the Americas Counter Cartel Conference on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth affirmed that the U.S. “will dismantle narco-terrorist networks in this hemisphere, and we will deny access to the state adversaries who support them.”