Colombia's new conservative president made good on a top campaign promise by joining the 19-nation Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, a move that opens the door to joint U.S.-Colombian military strikes against narco-terrorist groups.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Colombian Defense Minister Jorge Mora signed the formal agreement Wednesday during a two-day coalition meeting in Panama, Breitbart News reported. The signing brought the world's top cocaine-producing nation into the Shield of the Americas initiative, a regional alliance President Trump launched in March, after Colombia had been deliberately excluded under its previous leftist government.
Hegseth did not hold back when he addressed the 19 partner-member representatives gathered in Panama. He described the coalition's new motto in blunt terms:
"We do bad things to bad people."
He then laid out the stakes in plain language:
"That's the mentality I want to have inside this room. We're dealing with bad people that have done a lot of bad things to a lot of good people, for a very long time. And they're about to meet a new sheriff in town in the A3C."
When reporters asked whether the United States and Colombia had discussed joint military strikes against the FARC and ELN, two Marxist terrorist organizations that have operated inside Colombia for decades, Hegseth answered with a single word: "Yes." He went further, telling Reuters that "designated terrorist organizations, with partnered governments, will be legitimate targets of the United States government."
Colombia's recently inaugurated President Abelardo De la Espriella requested through the Department of War that the U.S. join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorizing joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks, ABC News reported. De la Espriella, a conservative who took office on August 7, had made joining the A3C one of his central campaign pledges.
The Colombian Defense Ministry released its own statement reinforcing the commitment. It declared that "the National Government will continue to employ all the State's legitimate capabilities to regain and consolidate territorial control, protect communities, neutralize structures that threaten Colombians, and shut down the spaces where illicit economies thrive."
The ministry added a pointed warning aimed at the armed groups that have plagued the country for decades:
"Colombia possesses the will, the capabilities, and the allies to confront these threats. Wherever terrorism and organized crime seek to challenge the State, they will encounter strengthened security forces, resolute institutions, and increasingly effective international cooperation."
That kind of language would have been unthinkable from the previous Colombian government. Hegseth, who has faced Democratic impeachment threats and political headwinds in Washington, now has a concrete diplomatic achievement to point to: the hemisphere's biggest narco-state voluntarily asking for American help and signing on the dotted line.
Colombia was not invited to join the A3C when Trump announced the coalition at a summit in March. The reason was straightforward: the country was then governed by Gustavo Petro, its first leftist president, who took a sharply different approach to the drug trade than any of his predecessors.
Petro publicly advocated for the legalization of cocaine. In a six-hour live session in February 2025, he defended the drug as "not worse than whiskey." He appeared aggravated about being excluded from the Shield of the Americas summit when it launched in March, but his own policy record made the exclusion inevitable.
The results of Petro's permissive stance were measurable. A United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report found record-breaking surges in cocaine production during the first year of his administration. Reports published in early August documented that Colombian narco-terrorist groups experienced dramatic surges in their ranks, up to 90 percent growth over the four years Petro held power.
Three groups in particular expanded their reach. The FARC and ELN, both U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, continued to operate across Colombian territory. The Clan del Golfo, which also calls itself the "Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia", was designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in December 2025. Reports indicated the group had been using social media platforms, including TikTok, to recruit minors.
That was the security landscape De la Espriella inherited when he took office on August 7. The scale of the problem he walked into, a 90 percent growth in terrorist ranks, record cocaine output, armed groups recruiting children online, explains why his government moved so fast to join the A3C and invite American military cooperation.
De la Espriella did not wait for the Panama signing ceremony to signal a change in direction. During the first hours of his administration, Colombian security forces launched military operations that killed a top FARC commander and arrested several Clan del Golfo members. The new president acted even as his country was reeling from a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Colombia on August 10, just three days after his inauguration.
The contrast with Petro's tenure could not be sharper. Where Petro floated drug legalization and bristled at being left out of a counter-cartel alliance, De la Espriella requested joint military operations with the United States within his first week in power. Where narco-terrorist groups grew by as much as 90 percent under the previous government, the new administration began targeting their leadership before the ink on the inaugural address was dry.
Hegseth framed the broader coalition effort in terms that echoed Trump's domestic messaging. He told the A3C representatives that "narco-terrorists... drug traffickers are hereby on notice. Under President Trump, we will make the Americas great again. The safety and prosperity of one will strengthen the safety and prosperity of all."
For Hegseth personally, the Panama agreement represents a tangible win at a time when his critics in Washington have tried to define his tenure by controversy. Despite reported tensions over munitions shortfalls and political pressure from both parties, prediction markets have continued to give him strong odds of remaining in his post. A formal counter-narcotics pact with the hemisphere's largest cocaine-producing nation is the kind of result that is difficult to dismiss.
Several important details remain unresolved. The precise terms of the agreement Hegseth and Mora signed, including what authorities it grants, what limitations it imposes, and what legal framework governs joint operations on Colombian soil, have not been publicly disclosed. Whether joint strikes against the FARC, ELN, or Clan del Golfo have been formally authorized, planned, or scheduled, or whether Hegseth's confirmation amounts to a statement of intent, is also unclear.
The identities of all 19 A3C partner members have not been publicly listed in the available reporting. And while the Colombian Defense Ministry's statement struck a forceful tone, whether it constitutes a formal legal authorization for joint military operations, or a diplomatic and political declaration, remains an open question.
None of that changes the basic trajectory. Five months ago, Colombia was on the outside of the counter-cartel coalition looking in, governed by a president who wanted to legalize cocaine. Now it is a formal member, its defense minister is signing agreements alongside the U.S. Secretary of War, and its new president is actively requesting American military involvement on his country's soil.
Elections have consequences. In Colombia, the consequence of electing a conservative who ran on law and order was a government that started targeting terrorist commanders on day one and joined an international counter-cartel alliance within a week. The people living under the grip of the FARC, the ELN, and the Clan del Golfo are the ones who stand to benefit, and they waited four long years for a government willing to fight back.
