As the United States continues launching deadly strikes on vessels it claims are connected to drug trafficking operations, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has once again described the groups being targeted as “the al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere.”
Speaking in Malaysia, Hegseth reiterated comments he has made before while defending the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against these organizations.
“These cartels are the al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder, and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security, and poison our people,” Hegseth said in an Oct. 19 post on X. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are — they will be hunted and killed, just like al Qaeda.”
Dozens of people have reportedly been killed as a result of the Trump administration’s continuing series of strikes targeting what it describes as narco-terrorist networks.
Both President Donald Trump and Hegseth have previously compared the cartels to ISIS. During remarks on October 23, Trump declared, “It should now be clear to the entire world that the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.”
Echoing that sentiment, Hegseth reaffirmed the administration’s stance:
“As the president said, this is the ISIS, this is the al Qaeda, of the Western Hemisphere,” he noted.
