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Hegseth fez a declaração durante um discurso no Panamá, enquanto se comprometia a fortalecer uma coalizão militar lançada em março com vários países da América Latina para combater os cartéis de drogas, que a administração do presidente dos EUA, Donald Trump, rotulou de "narco-terroristas.
On Wednesday, Hegseth said Colombia, under newly elected right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella, would become the 19th country to join the so-called Shield of the Americas, also known as the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (ACCC) or “A triple C”.
He called on all members of the coalition to reject the ICC, an appeal that comes amid an “all of government” effort by the Trump administration to “disable” the international tribunal.
Hegseth claimed that “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”.
The statements run counter to the position of many prominent rights experts and organisations who have decried US strikes on alleged drug smugglers as blatant violations of international law.
Um relatório publicado pelo Escritório de Washington sobre a América Latina em julho documentou que pelo menos 221 pessoas haviam sido mortas nos ataques dos EUA desde setembro de 2025.
Os autores descreveram os assassinatos como "homicídio segundo a lei doméstica e execuções extrajudiciais segundo a lei internacional de direitos humanos.
Monitors have noted a high likelihood that civilians, including fishermen, passengers, and victims of human smuggling, may have been killed in the attacks.
Hegseth, meanwhile, said the campaign has been a success, resulting in “record drops in movements of narco-vessels across major maritime corridors” in the Western Hemisphere.
That included “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”, Hegseth said.
To date, the ICC has not announced any investigations into US military actions in Latin America.
O chefe do Pentágono também saudou a perspectiva de mais ações militares conjuntas com membros do Southern Shield, após uma operação conjunta com o Equador em março que teria como alvo traficantes de drogas.
Amnesty International has said that civilians in the South American country faced attacks and abuses under the US-Ecuador campaign.
On Wednesday, Hegseth said that Honduras and Guatemala were “inviting the United States to partake in combined operations against narco-terrorists in their countries”.
He also said Colombia, under de la Espriella, had already requested that the US Defense Department “join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorising joint military operations to destroy terrorist terror networks”.
De la Espriella, whose country this week was rocked by a deadly magnitude 7. 4 earthquake, used his inauguration on Friday to pledge an “all-out war” on organised drug crimes and rebel groups.
A abordagem cada vez mais militarizada em relação à América Latina tem se alinhado com a eleição de uma chapa de candidatos de direita apoiados por Trump na região.
Além de De la Espriella, eles incluem o presidente hondurenho Nasry Asfura e a presidente peruana Keiko Fujimori, bem como as eleições nos últimos anos de Javier Milei, da Argentina, Daniel Noboa, do Equador, e Nayib Bukele, de El Salvador.
Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez has also remained closely aligned with Washington in the wake of the US abduction of former leader Nicolas Maduro, another action experts have called a blatant violation of international law.
She has recently said Caracas will move forward with a previous decision to withdraw from the ICC.
The US military approach comes amid a wider strategy by the Trump administration to assert Washington’s dominance over the Western Hemisphere. They have repeatedly touted a new iteration of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which US officials have dubbed the “Donroe doctrine”.
Fontes
Informação baseada em material público de Al Jazeera, reescrito pela redação ULTRA NOTÍCIAS.
