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President Donald Trump is presiding this Saturday over the summit called "Shield of the Americas" at the Trump National Doral resort in Miami, gathering leaders from 12 Latin American and Caribbean nations to formalize a regional coalition against drug trafficking, cartels, illegal migration, and transnational organized crime.
The White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, announced the event last Thursday and described it as a historic initiative. "The president will engage in dialogue with the leaders of these countries, who have formed a historic coalition to work together to address illegal and mass migration, as well as the threat of criminal gangs, drug traffickers, and terrorists," Leavitt stated.
Among the attending leaders are Javier Milei (Argentina), Nayib Bukele (El Salvador), Daniel Noboa (Ecuador), Santiago Peña (Paraguay), Luis Abinader (Dominican Republic), José Raúl Mulino (Panama), Rodrigo Chaves (Costa Rica), and Nasry Asfura (Honduras), as well as representatives from Trinidad and Tobago and Bolivia. Also attending is José Antonio Kast, the president-elect of Chile, who will take office on March 11, becoming the first far-right leader in that country since the return to democracy.
Left or center-left governments in the region are deliberately excluded: Mexico (Claudia Sheinbaum), Colombia (Gustavo Petro), Brazil (Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The ideological division in the hemisphere is thus clearly outlined.
Kristi Noem, who has just left the Department of Homeland Security, has been
The summit takes place at a time of maximum U.S. pressure on the region. On January 3, 2026, U.S. special forces carried out Operation 'Absolute Resolution' in Venezuela, capturing Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who were taken to New York to face charges of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. The Wall Street Journal described that operation as a direct warning to Cuba.
Regarding the island, Trump was explicit in statements to CNN on Friday: "We are very focused on this right now. We have plenty of time, but Cuba is ready after 50 years". The day before, speaking to Rubio at the White House, he had been even more direct: "Your next project will be Cuba. It's waiting."
The leader also noted that the Cuban regime "desperately wants to make an agreement" and announced that he will put Rubio in charge of those negotiations. "I'm going to put Marco there and we'll see how it goes," he stated.
The summit follows the suspension of the Summit of the Americas scheduled for November 2025 in the Dominican Republic, a diplomatic vacuum that the Trump administration is now exploiting with this parallel initiative of like-minded countries to consolidate its leadership in the Western Hemisphere.
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