The US War Zones in Latin America

In 1979, author Martin Green wrote, “If you do not acknowledge the reality of the empire, then the empire goes on without any moral supervision.”

What the US empire does in one region of the world, it does in another. While the US continues its war of aggression against Iran, we engage in acts of aggression across Latin America.

The New York Times reported on Saturday, May 30th, “The U.S. military killed three men in a strike against a boat in the eastern Pacific.” It was the fourth US military strike on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in a single week. In the past eight months, the US military killed 205 people in 62 strikes.

The Guardian wrote, “In the eight months since the airstrikes began, the US has not provided any evidence that any of the [205] victims were involved in drug trafficking.” Washington denies these human beings any due process. Instead, we blow them up into a thousand pieces and post our illegal and extrajudicial executions on social media.

This is all part of the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS). To quote the Council on Foreign Relations, the NSS is “A Plan to Dominate the Western Hemisphere.” Latin America “is rich in natural resources,” and US corporations want more access to those resources.
In essence, in order to dominate Latin America and allow US companies to plunder their resources, we must use terror and violence. Washington can’t openly announce this imperial policy. Instead, Washington hides its imperial ambitions behind fear-mongering about “narco-terrorists”.

US military operations in resource-rich countries extend to Ecuador and Haiti. The Department of War named its military cooperation with Ecuador: “Operation Total Extermination.” According to the Times, on March 6th, Ecuadorean soldiers used US-manufactured helicopters to bomb “a cattle and dairy farm.” On March 3rd, the soldiers were “interrogating workers and beating four of them with the butts of their guns.” In other words, Ecuador’s military used US weapons and US intelligence to torture and bomb innocent Ecuadorean farmers.

Ecuador’s government and military have committed serious human rights violations for years. Amnesty International recorded the “enforced disappearance of 43 people since 2023.” Yet, Washington sold helicopters and increased military aid to Ecuador.

US support for targeted attacks against civilians continues in Haiti. The US State Department gave Vectus Global, a private US military contractor, a license to operate in Haiti. Human Rights Watch documented, “at least 1,243 people were killed by drone strikes in 141 operations between March 1, 2025, and January 21, 2026 [in Haiti].”

Vectus Global was responsible for a majority of the drone strikes. This included, “The deadliest drone attack in Port-au-Prince,” that killed “eight children.” Nick Turse wrote, “President Donald Trump has turned the Western Hemisphere into a war zone.”

The Costs of War project at Brown University estimated our war zones across Latin America already cost taxpayers $4.7 billion.

Taxpayers fund the US empire’s domination of Latin America.

-Anton Porcari