Pentagon Resources Go Far in Latin America

The Pentagon’s record-setting $1.5 trillion budget request is the first under the Trump Administration’s new National Defense Strategy (NDS). The NDS made waves for putting security in the Western Hemisphere alongside protecting the homeland as the military’s top priority. This raised concerns that Hemispheric defense would divert scarce resources away from other priorities, such as deterring Beijing. The new budget request demonstrates that those fears were unfounded and relatively small amount of defense spending focused on Latin America goes a long way in advancing U.S. national security close to home.

These operations are relatively low-cost in military terms, and over time they can deliver significant returns on investment. Over the past year, the Trump Administration's focus on security cooperation in the Western Hemisphere has supported Mexican operations against Jalisco Cartel boss El Mencho and other cartel leaders, helped stem the tide of armed groups that have significantly increased violence in Ecuador, and reinvigorated stalled counternarcotics cooperation in Colombia. With significant security challenges in Venezuela alongside a post-Maduro political transition and growing criminal networks in the Southern Cone, there are opportunities to strengthen partnerships across the region.

Even when the Pentagon undertakes significant operations in the hemisphere, the strategic benefits far outweigh the budgetary bill. For example, the entire estimated cost of Operation Southern Spear (the 2025 U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean) and Operation Absolute Resolve (the operation to capture Maduro) is $4.7 billion. In other words, for less than half a percent of annual defense spending, the U.S. military captured Nicolas Maduro in the middle of Caracas, enforced U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan oil and halted China’s discounted oil purchases, and set up an oil quarantine on the Cuban regime. That's money well spent.

As Congress evaluates the defense budget request, members should work with the Administration to ensure SOUTHCOM and other components are effectively resourced to protect U.S. national security across the Western Hemisphere. Other areas of the national security budget are also essential for these goals, including security assistance and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement programs at the State Department. These programs provide flexibility to support willing and effective partners in Latin America that are taking serious steps to degrade criminal groups.

In the 2022 NDS, the Biden Administration did not mention the national security threat posed by drug cartels to the homeland and only discussed the Western Hemisphere in one paragraph sandwiched between the Middle East and Africa. Four years later, the Trump Administration has taken a different approach and demonstrated how to strengthen Hemispheric defense without breaking the bank. That’s why the FY27 defense and national security budget process provides an opportunity to set the conditions for long-term security gains in Latin America.

Connor Pfeiffer is senior director of government relations at FDD Action and a former congressional staffer who worked on Western Hemisphere policy in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.