Without consequence, the Trump Administration began 2026 with a continued assault on the international and domestic norms that define our rights-based systems both at home and abroad. The Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and residents continue to be violated and has resulted in dozens of domestic deaths including two human rights defenders and the pursuit over 700 lawsuits according to Bloomberg News against the Trump Administration.
Beyond our borders, in the supposed name of fighting narcoterrorists threats to U.S. national security, the U.S. has kidnapped a sitting president - Nicolas Maduro and his wife though the focus has been on controlling Venezuela’s oil - and since September 2025 has targeted alleged drug-carrying boats, committing over 150 extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific, without consequence. Strikes stopped for a period in February while the U.S. shifted focus to the Middle East. However, the strikes have begun again along with the launch of the Shield of the Americas, a multinational military cooperation initiative started by Trump and representing an expansion of Operation Southern Spear launched by the U.S. Defense Department in September 2025.
The Shield of the Americas is not to be confused with the OAS-aligned Summit of the Americas or the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission’s (CICAD’s) Group of Experts on Maritime Narcotrafficking. Both are long established regional spaces in which the regional heads of state participate to tackle challenges faced by the hemisphere, including specifically drug trafficking. The Shield of the Americas, comparatively, consists of only 12 other countries in the region, all of which Trump is politically aligned. Although the Trump administration has previously threatened to leave the Organization of American States (OAS) all together, the administration began 2026 emphasizing the importance of the OAS to regional stability and to a proper transition of power in Venezuela.
Coincidentally, the next host for the Summit of the Americas which occurs every three years, the Dominican Republic, in consultation with the U.S. decided to postpone the convening to 2026. It was supposed to take place in December 2025 in Florida. The Dominican Republic did participate in the Shield of the Americas summit in March 2026. Will it replace the Summit of the Americas?
- From the Summit website: The participants of the Summits of the Americas Process are the Heads of State and Government of the hemisphere and their delegations. In addition, the heads of the institutions of the Joint Summit Working Group (JSWG) participate as observers. The institutions comprising the JSWG are: the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Bank (WB), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Special guests include representatives of civil society organizations, youth, indigenous peoples, workers, academia, and the private sector among others.
Trump is asserting a new world order. Coined the Donroe Doctrine, the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine (announced in a December 2025 Presidential Message) has signaled thus far an intended expansion of U.S. federal authority not only beyond our borders, but within our cities and states - all under the banner of defending U.S. national security.