The U.S. Army’s top commander for the Western Hemisphere described American “economic supremacy” as an overarching goal of Washington’s regional security strategy, outlining plans to expand its military footprint in Central and South America on Monday at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting.
The 2025 National Security Strategy prioritizes economic dominance in the Western Hemisphere through national security, Gen. Joseph Ryan, the commander of the U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command, said during a panel discussion with Gen. Luis Cardozo, Colombian attaché, and Vice Adm. Jo-Ann Burdian, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area Commander.
“The end state is economic supremacy for the United States,” Ryan said, later adding, “We have ceded control of that economic terrain in this hemisphere to the People’s Republic of China over at least the last two decades, and that is a major threat to our national security.”
Ryan pointed to Panama as an example, explaining how a high percentage of trade to and from the United States passes through the Panama Canal. He said the Panamanian government saw a mutual benefit in the partnership. It also allows the U.S. to “keep an eye on those states that are aligned with other adversaries in the region,” he said, such as Cuba, Nicaragua and formerly Venezuela. Lebanese Hezbollah has a presence in the area, he added.
Recently, the U.S. military co-led PANAMAX, a massive multinational exercise hosted in Panama for the first time since 2012, where forces practiced defending the Panama Canal. During the exercise, which included personnel from 19 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Colombia, troops drilled command post and field exercises.
Countering cartels
In addition to countering China, the Defense Department has railed against cartels, prioritizing counter-cartel operations in the Western Hemisphere.
Burdian said the cartels are trafficking people, narcotics and bulk cash. She characterized them as “multi-billion-dollar organizations that operate globally and are unconstrained in the ways we are — they are unconstrained financially,” she said, adding, “and they demonstrate extraordinary agility, and they certainly are unfettered by rules or basic human decency.”
Cardozo said his country — Colombia — has seen how cartels can build diverse, enormous economies.
“In Colombia, it’s not only using the drug trafficking as a main source of income, they also use illegal mining,” he said, which can destroy the environment and people’s homes, but reap huge financial rewards. “I think that’s their Achilles’ heel: the illegal financing. If we take that money away from them, they’re going to asphyxiate.”
With the Army’s logistics assistance, Burdian said the Coast Guard is working to establish an Expeditionary Cutter Squadron with two ships in Panama to conduct interdiction operations. Ryan said officials recently approved a capacity increase for Joint Task Force Bravo — a forward-deployed task force based at Soto Cano Air Base in Comayagua, Honduras — to expand the footprint over the next few fiscal years.
Ryan said the task force would receive more rotary-wing aircraft and personnel to “address some of the natural disasters and threats in the region.” Those additional resources, he said, “become absolutely critical when you’re talking about moving supplies, moving people to the point of need, and making assessments.”
Command restructure
In a major force restructure, the Army stood up the Western Hemisphere Command in December 2025, combining U.S. Army North, U.S. Army South and Armed Forces Command under a single headquarters. As its focus shifted, the Army revived its jungle school in Panama’s “Green Hell” and approved service-wide wear of the Jungle tab.
In August, U.S. Southern Command activated Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, a new headquarters to unify operations with allies and partners, including the 18 partner nations of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition. The new task force replaced Operation Southern Spear, which has destroyed scores of sea vessels as part of what the Trump administration characterizes as a counternarcotics campaign. More than 210 people have been killed in the attacks.
The strikes have drawn controversy, and the Trump administration has offered little evidence of drug-trafficking activity. The Defense Department’s inspector general launched an investigation into whether U.S. Southern Command followed protocols with the strikes, but the White House has emphatically defended the attacks.
Ryan said that joint exercises with partner forces in the region will increasingly center on counter-cartel operations.
“We are going to focus our exercise programming going forward to be really focused on those things that contribute to the counter-designated terrorist organization threat and cartel threat in the region,” he told the crowd.
Publicly available technology is fueling the cartel’s economy, the panelists emphasized.
“Make no mistake, you know, Starlink is great as long as you’re using it on your side. When it pervades to the adversary side, it becomes very difficult to counter,” Ryan said, emphasizing that the military cannot stop cartels from accessing publicly available technology.
Ryan said the intelligence is showing an increase in unmanned aerial systems for human trafficking operations, and Burdian said the Coast Guard is used to seeing homemade submersibles from the cartels coming out of riverine terrain off the coast of Colombia. But now, as the markets grow, they are seeing them move across the Atlantic.
“The greatest threat I face — the most persistent threat, frankly — is the commingling of illicit traffic or threats or another nature with legitimate traffic,” Burdian said.
Only completely closing a port can eliminate all illegal traffic, she said, but that is economically destructive.
“So, how do you know what to let in? How do you know what to keep out?” she asked. “How do I enable those commanders on scene to allow the legitimate commerce to pass in and out while at the same time, identifying and neutralizing threats before they damage the U.S. economy or kill Americans?”
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
