US Defense Secretary Warns ICC Could Investigate Latin America Anti-Drug Campaign

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on August 13 that the International Criminal Court (ICC) could investigate US military operations in Latin America, including strikes targeting vessels suspected of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean Sea. Human rights groups have previously condemned these airstrikes as extrajudicial killings.

Speaking at an event in Panama, Hegseth pledged to strengthen the military alliance formed in March with several Latin American countries that targets drug gangs, which the Trump administration has labeled “narco-terrorists.”

The same day, Hegseth announced that Colombia, under newly elected right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella, would become the 19th nation to join the alliance, known as “Shield of the Americas” or the Anti-Drug Coalition of the Americas (ACCC).

Hegseth called on all alliance members to refuse recognition of ICC jurisdiction, amid the Trump administration's efforts to “neutralize” the international court. He accused “the international left, along with the complicit left-wing media, of conspiring to illegally impose ICC authority over the military forces and operations of the US and its partners.”

“It must be made clear that there is no legal basis for the ICC's unlawful power grab that they will attempt wherever they can around the world,” Hegseth said. “Our efforts are entirely lawful under the law of armed conflict.”

However, these statements contradict the views of many experts and human rights organizations, which have condemned US strikes on suspected drug smugglers as flagrant violations of international law. A July report by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) documented at least 221 deaths from US strikes since September 2025. The authors described these killings as “killings under domestic law and extrajudicial killings under international human rights law.”

Monitors also pointed to the high likelihood that civilians, including fishermen, passengers, and victims of human trafficking, may have died in the attacks.

For his part, Hegseth claimed the campaign had succeeded in bringing “record reductions in drug vessel movements through major maritime corridors” in the Western Hemisphere. According to him, figures showed declines of “at least 65% in the western Caribbean, 60% in the eastern Caribbean, and nearly 50% in the eastern Pacific.”

“We have made the narco-terrorists at sea back off,” he said.

So far, the ICC has not announced any investigation into US military activities in Latin America.

Expanding joint operations

The Pentagon chief also welcomed the prospect of more joint military operations with alliance member countries, following a March campaign with Ecuador to combat drug crime. Amnesty International previously reported that civilians in that South American nation had suffered attacks and abuses during the US-Ecuador joint operation.

Hegseth said Honduras and Guatemala were also “inviting the US to participate in coordinated counter-narcotics operations in their countries.” He also said Colombia under de la Espriella had offered the US Defense Department “to join Colombia in the fight against narco-terrorism, allowing joint military operations to destroy terrorist networks.”

The US State Department previously announced it would provide de la Espriella, who was sworn in last week, with a “security package” worth $1 billion to help Washington and Bogota achieve “shared goals.”

De la Espriella, who faces a deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Colombia this week, pledged in his inaugural address to wage a “total war” against organized drug crime and rebel groups.

The trend toward a more militarized approach to Latin America coincides with a series of Trump-backed right-wing candidates winning elections in the region. Besides de la Espriella, these include Honduran President Nasry Asfura and Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, along with Javier Milei (Argentina), Daniel Noboa (Ecuador), and Nayib Bukele (El Salvador) winning in recent years.

Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino, who spoke before Hegseth, also showed a stance closely aligned with the Trump administration on security issues, despite Trump's earlier threat to seize control of the Panama Canal after taking office.

“Our first enemy is drug trafficking. The drug traffickers and the organized crime branches that come with it,” Mulino said at the event. “There will never be lasting peace. If this enemy grows stronger, they will tear our society apart.”

Meanwhile, Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez maintained close ties with Washington following the US abduction of former leader Nicolas Maduro, an action experts called a flagrant violation of international law. Rodriguez recently said Caracas would proceed with an earlier decision to withdraw from the ICC.

The US military approach is part of the Trump administration's broader strategy to assert Washington's hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Officials have repeatedly championed a new version of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which US officials call the “Donroe Doctrine.”