In a setting reminiscent of the darkest days of the National Security Doctrine , President Javier Milei participated yesterday in Miami in the “Shield of the Americas” summit. Convened by Donald Trump , the event was not a traditional diplomatic forum, but rather the birth certificate of a regional military coalition designed by and for the interests of the White House.

Drug Trafficking as a Trojan Horse

The central theme of the alliance is the eradication of the cartels through the use of “lethal military force.” However, behind the rhetoric against organized crime lies Trump’s true geopolitical strategy : the criminalization of South American nations—producers of the raw materials demanded by the world’s largest consumer market, the U.S.—to justify interference in their armed forces.

For Argentina, this "aid" is not without cost . The pact seeks to definitively displace China's influence in the region and ensure preferential access for US corporations to critical resources: lithium, oil, and food .

The Danger in the South Atlantic and Antarctica

This unrestricted alignment of the Milei administration —who was the only regional leader to officially support the US attacks against Iran —has direct consequences for our southern sovereignty :

A Fractured Block

The summit made the ideological divide on the continent clear. While Milei, Nayib Bukele (El Salvador), and Santiago Peña (Paraguay) celebrated their membership in the "Board of Peace," regional powers such as Brazil (Lula), Mexico (Sheinbaum), and Colombia (Petro) were excluded or chose not to participate, rejecting a strategy that revives the logic of the "Cold War" on Latin American soil.

"Leaders in this region allowed large swathes of territory to go unsupervised... We're not going to allow that to happen," Trump declared in Miami.

This statement is a confession on his part: for the Republican leader, the territorial sovereignty of southern countries is a "lack of oversight" that the US must correct.

The Return of the Viceroyalty

Milei 's participation in the "Shield of the Americas" marks a point of no return in Argentine foreign policy. By accepting the use of lethal force and foreign intervention under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, the national government not only ignores the structural causes of drug consumption in the North, but also hands over the keys to the South Atlantic to a power that has historically viewed South America as its "backyard."