Counter Cartel Coalition: 19 Nations Draft a Campaign Plan
The Americas Counter Cartel Coalition met in Santo Domingo on a campaign plan. We compare official boat-strike claims with the public record.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Oct. 30, 2026 — Defense and security leaders from 19 Western Hemisphere nations met here this week to turn an anti-cartel alliance launched in March into a military campaign. At the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition forum on Oct. 26–27, they worked on an operational campaign plan and a governance charter, according to U.S. Southern Command. SOUTHCOM said on X that the leaders “reviewed and approved” both documents, UPI reported. Neither text has been published.
The meeting came as the U.S. strike campaign at sea keeps growing, and as the official case for its results rests on figures that independent government reviewers have not been able to check. This article lays out what the coalition agreed, how its membership has shifted, and how the official claims compare with the public record.
Who met and what they set up
Dominican President Luis Abinader addressed the forum, joined by Marine Corps Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the SOUTHCOM commander, and Eric Geressy, senior advisor to the secretary of war for strategy. The Dominican presidency said Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Carlos Antonio Fernández Onofre opened the conference and described the coalition as “independent but complementary” to the Shield of the Americas, the wider political grouping of the region’s governments.
According to the Department of War, the plan and charter are meant to set how members share intelligence, coordinate and carry out combined operations. The coalition says it will go after “criminal enablers,” the networks that supply money, logistics, weapons and corrupt officials to traffickers. The department called the forum the coalition’s “third major milestone” this year.
Geressy used his opening remarks to frame the threat in counterterrorism terms. “Transnational cartels are violent extremist organizations. They operate as the al-Qaida and ISIS of the Western Hemisphere,” he said. He also warned that cartels now use “lawfare,” the use of courts and legal claims, to “attempt to paralyze our decisions,” and told partners that their commanders “will be shielded” when they operate alongside U.S. forces.
Timeline: from Miami to Santo Domingo
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | U.S. military begins lethal strikes on suspected drug boats (Operation Southern Spear) | CRS |
| March 5, 2026 | Coalition launched at SOUTHCOM headquarters in Miami; 16 countries sign a joint security declaration with the United States | CRS, Department of War |
| May 9, 2026 | 55 strikes and 194 known deaths, as reported | CRS |
| August 2026 | Coalition meets in Panama City; Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere replaces Joint Task Force Southern Spear | Department of War, UPI |
| Sept. 22, 2026 | 15 governments, including Colombia, pledge asset freezes and visa curbs against 24 criminal groups | State Department |
| Oct. 26–27, 2026 | 19 nations meet in Santo Domingo on a campaign plan and charter; a strike in the Eastern Pacific kills five | SOUTHCOM, UPI |
The membership has grown and changed. According to the Congressional Research Service, Colombia and Mexico did not join at the March launch, and their presidents said they had not been invited. Colombia did sign the State Department’s Sept. 22 joint statement, which commits members to asset freezes, visa restrictions and liability for material support to the listed groups.
Official claims and the public record
| Measure | What officials say | What the record shows |
|---|---|---|
| Trafficking routes | Corridors “degraded” 64% in the western Caribbean, 58% in the eastern Caribbean and 40% on the Galápagos axis (Geressy, Oct. 27) | March testimony cited 30% and 25% drops in vessel movements in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific (CRS) |
| Drug seizures | Strikes are deterring traffickers (March testimony, per CRS) | CBP cocaine seizures from September 2025 to April 2026 similar to or slightly above earlier years (CRS) |
| Measures of success | Not published | SOUTHCOM “could not publicly release its measures of effectiveness,” per the Lead Inspector General (CRS) |
| Cost | Not addressed at the forum | $647.0 million obligated from September 2025 through March 2026 (Lead Inspector General, via CRS) |
| Strikes and deaths | Five killed on Oct. 27 (SOUTHCOM) | 72nd known strike, with at least 243 killed since September 2025 (UPI tally) |
The newer figures are higher than the March ones, but they also measure something different. “Degraded corridors” is not a defined public metric, and the department did not say how it was calculated.
Analysis: a coalition built around a disputed campaign
The Santo Domingo meeting shows Washington trying to make its maritime strike campaign multinational. A signed campaign plan and charter would give partner militaries a formal role in intelligence sharing and combined operations, and Geressy’s promise that partner commanders “will be shielded” speaks directly to the legal risk they would carry. That risk is real. UPI reported that Ben Saul, a United Nations special rapporteur, has said there are reasonable grounds to believe the strikes amount to the crime against humanity of murder, and some families say those killed were fishermen or farmers. The coalition’s framing of legal challenges as enemy “lawfare” will not settle those questions in partner countries’ own courts.
The evidence gap is the second weakness. CRS reports that SOUTHCOM has not released its measures of effectiveness, that seizure data show no clear drop in cocaine moving north, and that Gen. Donovan testified that traffickers are shifting west into the Pacific and toward aircraft and shipping containers. Higher route-reduction percentages, offered without a method, do not close that gap. Mexico’s absence also leaves a major neighbor outside the military coalition. In an address to regional defense chiefs at the March conference, Pete Hegseth said America is “prepared to take on these threats and go on the offense alone, if necessary,” while adding that the conference’s goal was to “do it together.” The Santo Domingo plan is the test of that preference.
What to watch
- Publication of the campaign plan or charter, and whether any partner’s legislature is asked to approve it.
- The first combined strike or interdiction carried out under the coalition’s name.
- Whether Mexico or Colombia joins the military coalition, not just the Shield of the Americas statements.
Sources
- U.S. Southern Command: Dominican Republic hosts hemispheric forum on operations to counter cartels (Oct. 27, 2026)
- U.S. Department of War (via PUBT): Western Hemisphere nations meet to advance anti-cartel campaign plan (Oct. 29, 2026)
- Congressional Research Service: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Western Hemisphere: Issues for Congress (R48960, May 26, 2026)
- UPI: SOUTHCOM strike kills five as coalition meets (Oct. 28, 2026)
