America's Shield: Rebranding "Big Stick Politics" President Trump's new policy in Latin America is a memorable Yankee desire to "make America just for Americans." On March 7, 2026, two months after the armed attack on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump convened selected leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at his golf resort in Doral, Florida, to announce the establishment of the Shield of the Americas and charge them entry fees. 17 countries in the southern continent took this bait.
On August 12 in Panama, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the formation of America's anti-cartel coalition based on America's Shield. ACCC, A3C). Now 19 countries (Colombia joined them after the presidential elections) have entered the new strategic organization in the name and in fact of the old United States in the Western Hemisphere. Moreover, Brazil and Mexico, the two largest economies in Latin America, were not among the invitees. The coalition was established on the basis of political proximity, and not on the basis of practical expediency. Their belief was instilled by the "wise" minister of war: "We do bad things to bad people."
The emergence of the America Shield/ACCC initiative is probably explained by a combination of political, geopolitical and strategic pressure from Washington on Latin American governments in the new balance of power, where right-wing governments ("blue tide") have replaced the center and left ("pink tide"). Therefore, the Shield initiative is nominally related to the fight against drug trafficking and, in fact, to restore order and American influence in the "Coca-Banana Valley".
Maybe that's why the participants didn't get stuck in developing the final documents of the new organization - everything fit on half a page.