Top Pentagon Official Doesn't Rule Out Using Ground Forces To Take On Cartels

A top Pentagon official didn't rule out the possibility of using ground troops to take on cartels in Latin America.

Speaking during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Joseph Humire, acting assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said the actions that have already taken place are "just the beginning."

He was referring to the dozens of strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that have taken place so far this year, killing over 150 people.

Democrats questioned the goals of the attacks, claiming it could lead to another "forever war" that has no end date, according to Politico. They also questioned whether the strikes effectively reduce the flow of drugs reaching the U.S.

Humire defended the actions, saying "deterrence has a signaling effect on narco-terrorists, and raises the risks with their movements."

President Donald Trump and other officials have been eyeing increased operations in the region. The president told Latin American counterparts earlier this month that the U.S. government "will do whatever is necessary to defend our national security."

"The epicenter of cartel violence is Mexico. The Mexican cartels are fueling and orchestrating much of the bloodshed and chaos in this hemisphere," Trump said during the Shield of the Americas Summit. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum did not take part in the event.

The topic was most recently part of the public conversation after the killing of ersation with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump about the operation that killed Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," the longtime leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

He also sought to take steps regarding the matter during the Shield of the Americas Summit, signing a proclamation saying that "criminal cartels and foreign terrorist organizations in the Western Hemisphere should be demolished to the fullest extent possible consistent with applicable law."

The document goes on to say that the U.S. and its allies "should coordinate to deprive these organizations of any control of territory and access to financing or resources necessary to conduct their campaigns of violence."