As part of his quest to restore U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, President Donald Trump is hosting Latin American leaders at his golf resort in Doral Saturday for a summit dubbed the “Shield of the Americas.”
The name of the gathering is supposed to reflect Trump’s vision for U.S. national security strategy to put a greater emphasis on the Western Hemisphere, as he looks to leverage U.S. military and intelligence assets unseen in the region since the end of the Cold War. Leaders from 11 Latin American countries will attend the summit.
The main objective of the Shield of the Americas will be to combat organized crime, dismantle drug cartels and trafficking networks. The Administration is also looking to strengthen the border and coordinate efforts to address illegal immigration in the region.
Embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was named “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas.” Her new role was announced Thursday when Trump revealed Noem’s ouster from Homeland Security.
Noem said she will attend the first Shield of the Americas summit and that Trump will announce “a big agreement” that will detail “how we’re going to go after cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere.”
Who will be attending
The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago have confirmed they will take part in the gathering at the Republican president’s Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort where he is also set to host the Group of 20 summit later this year.
The idea for a summit of like-minded conservatives from across the hemisphere emerged from the ashes of what was to be the 10th edition of the Summit of the Americas, which was scrapped during the U.S. military buildup off the coast of Venezuela last year.
Host Dominican Republic, pressured by the White House, had barred Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from attending the regional gathering. But after leftist leaders in Colombia and Mexico threatened to pull out in protest — and with no commitment from Trump to attend — the Dominican Republic’s president, Luis Abinader, decided at the last minute to postpone the event, citing “deep differences” in the region.
The Shield of the Americas moniker is meant to speak to Trump’s vision for a “America First” foreign policy toward the region that leverages U.S. military and intelligence assets unseen across the area since the end of the Cold War.
But notably missing will be the region’s two dominant powers — Brazil and Mexico — as well as Colombia, long the linchpin of U.S. anti-narcotics strategy in the region.
Richard Feinberg, who helped plan the first Summit of Americas in 1994 while working at the National Security Council in the Clinton White House, said the contrast could not be starker.
“The first Summit of the Americas, with 34 nations and a carefully negotiated comprehensive agenda for regional competitiveness, projected inclusion, consensus and optimism,” said Feinberg, now professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. “The hastily convened Shield of the Americas mini-summit conjures a crouched defensiveness, with only a dozen or so attendees huddled around a single dominant figure.”