SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Well, general, thank you very much for that update. And, today is the end of a conference forum here that was meant to be and has been operational and productive. Focused on what we can do together. So, I want to thank the president of Panama, I want to thank Minister Abrego, I want to thank all of our Panamanian partners for being such great hosts here.
And for PANAMAX, which is ongoing for the first time in 14 years, live here in Panama, thousands of troops right now from many of the nations represented here. And I want to thank every single country. Sovereign, strong country, willing to step up and address this threat as a part of the America's Counter Cartel Coalition.
But before we begin, just a moment, as the Senator did, to offer my sympathy to the people of Colombia for the — for Monday's devastating earthquake that I understand was even felt here in Panama. And the Department of War, with the State Department, is mobilizing critical life-saving aid to support the Colombian government's robust response to this tragic event, just as we did in Venezuela a few weeks ago.
I also want to thank my team as well, chief — Senator Moreno, thank you for representing not only the United States of America, but this hemisphere so effectively, and being such a powerful voice in the Senate for this effort as well.
I'm grateful to be here with ministers and Chiefs of Defense, united in purpose and resolve as partners in the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, or ACCC. Just a few months ago, we laid out a shared vision for a safe, secure Western hemisphere where borders and laws are respected, and narco terrorists are brought to swift and absolute justice.
And yesterday and today, and going forward, we are gathered to take the next step in our shared fight against narco-terrorists, gang members, and drug and human traffickers – designated terrorist organizations, the ISIS and al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, no different and they should be treated as such.
It's now nearly one year since the launch of Operation Southern Spear, the first time in history that the Department of War launched a sustained military campaign against US designated terrorist organizations in our shared hemisphere. And it has been a resounding success thus far.
We've seen record drops in movements of narco vessels across major maritime corridors inside our hemisphere. Including, at a minimum, 65 percent reduction in the western Caribbean, a 60 percent reduction in the eastern Caribbean, and a nearly 50 percent reduction in the eastern Pacific in the north and south of the Galapagos Islands.
We have knocked the narco-terrorists in the maritime domain on their heels. We forced them to adjust their tactics, techniques and procedures, their TTPs, and operate outside of their comfort zones. We are retaking the open seas and our maritime borders. This is a bad time to get in a drug boat in the Western Hemisphere.
The results are historic, the United States — in the United States: fatal drug overdoses have dropped dramatically; flows of fentanyl are way down; crossings at our southwest border have dropped to zero; the murder rate in American cities is at modern all-time lows, historic drops in crime. Life-changing progress that benefits each and every citizen of the United States of America, and indeed, every citizen of your nations as well.
Now, predictably, as we like to call them, the fake news media has tried to discredit and delegitimize Operation Southern Spear. These same voices said nothing when governments allowed an unprecedented border crisis and record drug overdoses and deaths. Yet now they deny, and try to diminish, our success — our shared success.
The left-wing media wants us to return to the failed strategies of the past, when America neglected our own neighborhood and our own neighborhoods. Even as we sent our best, in our case American troops, to do nation building halfway across the world.
Globalists in Washington looked the other way while our friends and neighbors to our South were victimized by drugs, violence, mass migration, Marxism, and foreign exploitation. The Biden administration and the Democrats ignored the US southern border, openly accepting mass illegal immigration and destroying many of our great American cities — an invasion, no doubt.
Under decades of globalist neglect more than 1 million Americans died from fentanyl, cocaine and other drugs. That's more loss than the United States had suffered in any war in our 250-year history. This blatant neglect for our national security also destroyed your borders and your sovereignty and your immigration systems as well. That is why we're here today together.
Now, to be fair, I understand you may be feeling, and your countries may be feeling, and your militaries may be feeling some whiplash. Because just 18 months ago, the previous US administration under Joe Biden, especially the previous administration here at Southern Command, stood in front of you promoting priorities like gender issues, women, peace and security, or climate change or diversity — dudes in dresses. I've said this before, but the Department of War is done with that nonsense, full stop. And I assume you and your countries are as well. Real threats, real capabilities, no more leftist make believe or dress up time.
The hard-working, law-abiding people of our nations suffered together far too long. But now we are working together, we are building together and we are training together. We are killing terrorists. And we're defeating the failed and toxic ideologies of radical socialism and communism. Now, speaking of socialism, make no doubt about it, the international left, along with their enabling left-wing media, is plotting to unlawfully assert International Criminal Court jurisdiction over US and partner military personnel and operations.
To be clear, there is no legitimate basis for the ICC's lawless power grab that they will entertain anywhere they can in the world. Our efforts in this effort are 100 percent lawful under the laws of armed conflict. It's striking that this so-called court and other globalist bodies undermine our efforts but do nothing to hold real terrorists and real tyrants accountable. And that's why the ICC poses a threat to your national sovereignty, your constitutional mandates, and the national interests of your people — just as it does ours.
Our nations retain our sovereignty, and our ability to deploy our own warriors in our own defense. We will never relinquish our absolute right to defend ourselves from threats to our safeties and our citizens of my country and of your countries. We answer only to our own citizens and our own constitutions, not unelected international bureaucrats.
That's why I strongly encourage every ACCC member to leave the ICC, and reject their attempts to rob your governments and your courts of your sovereignty. I know as a soldier, I swore an oath to the Constitution, not some fake and illegitimate international court.
And in these efforts, we've already shown that deterrence works. Operation Southern Spear is a model that can be and should be followed across our hemisphere by each of you to degrade, dismantle, and destroy narco terrorist networks.
Under the leadership of General Donovan, the success of Operation Southern Spear will be transferred to the newly established Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, the action arm of US Southern Command, to continue the targeting and killing of narco-terrorists that threaten our shared backyard.
I want to commend Ecuador for its regional leadership to become the first ACCC member to partner with the United States in combined kinetic operation against narco-terrorists in Ecuador. I also want to commend Honduras and Guatemala for inviting the United States to partake in combined operations against narco-terrorists in their countries. Your people are already safer and more free for your courage and your resolve, and we look forward to working with you in killing bad guys.
Additionally, I want to thank Jamaica for working with the Department of War to create a new military partnership to cripple narco-terrorists that transit through the Caribbean. This partnership will forever change the security environment of the Caribbean.
And finally, I'm also proud to announce that Colombia will join the ACCC, becoming the 19th member. And through the newly inaugurated president, as our president likes to say, President El Tigre, Colombia has already requested the Department of War join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorizing joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks. Thank you very much.
Aggressive and concrete steps like these exemplify the types of active participation, operationally focused, we want to see from our partners that will make the ACCC a potent and lethal coalition. Yes, we have meetings; yes, we will coordinate; but ultimately this is about the operations we can conduct together jointly to protect individual sovereignty and the entirety of the hemisphere.
The Trump administration knows that a safer backyard means a safer home. You can't have prosperity without security. In fact, eventually, economic security taking hold is the long-term solution, but you need physical security to enable that economic security.
With you, with all of you, the United States will forge a safe, stable, and prosperous Western Hemisphere. We seek neither domination nor dependency, we only seek — and I know you feel this from SOUTHCOM and from the general — genuine partnership with your governments to achieve security, stability and prosperity.
Two centuries ago, the Monroe Doctrine was America's first standing — first stand against foreign meddling and exploitation in our hemisphere. The United States declared to European colonial powers that we will regard any threat against the free nations of this hemisphere as a threat to the United States itself. Well, now, under President Trump's strong, clear, and visionary leadership, we follow the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
We will defend our hemisphere from external threats to national sovereignty, whether from narco-terrorism or foreign malign actors. And we will deny adversaries the ability to position forces, or otherwise threaten capabilities, in our hemisphere.
And that's why the United States is particularly grateful for the strong leadership in Panama of President José Raúl Mulino, right here. It's my second time to Panama and the strides that we have made together over the last year, I think, are exemplary of the type of partnership we look for in this hemisphere. President Mulino has courageously rejected foreign malign coercion and boldly resisted international pressure tactics. Panama has set a strong example for rejecting threats to their sovereignty, threats to the Panama Canal and, instead, advancing US partnership on both. And with Panama and other countries, the United States will continue to lead the way.
Under President Trump, the United States War Department seeks a historic, generational investment in our military spending through a new $1.5 trillion budget. We have work to do with our Congress but, make no mistake, we will work as hard as humanly possible with Republicans and across the aisle, if we can, to deliver what is truly a necessary historic investment to ensure America remains the dominant military power on planet earth.
Thankfully, US allies and NATO likewise have vastly increased their commitment to the common defense. And we believe that ACCC members must follow this example as well.
The Department of War is willing and able to support all of you to enhance your military capabilities. But, of course, we expect substantial investment in your own abilities as well and for those to be increased on defense resources. If countries are serious about their defense, the Department of War will prioritize our efforts to enhance your capabilities and fight beside you on the battlefield. And, to reiterate, not really necessary for this group, but around the globe, President Trump does not tolerate free riding, and there are no — we're not here for games.
When we say we will dismantle the cartels, we mean it. And I know the nations of this coalition feel the exact same way on behalf of their citizens. And will take concrete steps, sometimes risky steps, courageous steps in partnership, such as reaching status of forces agreements or access basing and overflight agreements. Our citizens and our nations deserve and expect real, concrete actions.
We believe there's no time to waste and no better time than right now. And we will be with you, I pledge to you, from the White House to the Pentagon, shoulder to shoulder, every step of the way. Because, together, we are the offspring of Western civilization.
Our nations are, and will always be united by heritage, history, and geography in this new world. We share the same interests and the same civilizational soul.
And so, we all face the same essential test — whether our nations will remain western nations, remain prosperous nations, remain Christian nations under God, remain proud of our shared heritage with strong borders and prosperous people — ruled not by violence and chaos, but by law and order. Or instead, whether we are permanently torn apart by something else – narco-terrorists, violence, radical Marxism and globalist exploitation, social denigration, and so-called social justice.
We've had great collaboration in recent months. And I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting our ability to find, fix and finish narco-terrorist targets. Ultimately, that is what it is going to require — finding, fixing, and finishing narco-terrorists either unilaterally — unilaterally or bilaterally, by, with and through and together, finding, fixing and finishing narco-terrorists.
And we'll finish the job, which is why I'm proud to announce the new motto of the ACCC —maybe formal, maybe informal, I haven't decided yet. The new motto of the ACCC is we do bad things to bad people. That's the mentality I want to have inside this room. Now we're good people that do good things. But ultimately, 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 ACCC, and we mean business. Narco-terrorists, DTOs, 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. God bless you, and God bless the great citizens of your countries. Thank you very much.