Why Colombia Just Asked the U.S. Military to Invade
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on August 15 that Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has asked the Trump administration to extend its lethal military campaign against drug-trafficking organizations into Colombia — the world’s largest cocaine producer. Two days earlier, Hegseth held a press availability at the Jungle Operations Training Course in Panama, on a trip built around the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition. De la Espriella, seated August 7 after a runoff margin of roughly 250,000 votes, is a U.S. citizen (since 2023) and a longtime Miami resident. His predecessor, Gustavo Petro, spent 2025 in open confrontation with Washington and is now under personal OFAC sanctions. And since Nicolás Maduro’s capture on January 3, Colombian defense officials have described ELN and FARC-dissident leadership abandoning Venezuela and returning to Colombian territory as their protection collapsed.
The obvious objection is sovereignty — countries exist to keep foreign militaries out, and Petro built his presidency on saying so. But the request follows from how trafficking organizations actually hold territory: not by outfighting the state, but by buying or intimidating it. Plata o plomo works because every police officer, prosecutor, judge, and general who could act lives inside the country. Four years of “Total Peace” ceasefires left the armed groups larger, richer, and more entrenched (ACLED’s documented paradox). An external enforcer is the one input the system cannot corrupt — you cannot bribe or threaten a targeting cell that lives in Florida. The question worth watching: whether other leaders in the hemisphere read the same board, and whether the campaign’s Colombia hub — Medellín, named headquarters of the Shield of the Americas alliance on July 27 — becomes the template.
Eric Garland is an intelligence analyst with 30 years in strategic intelligence practice, personally sanctioned by the Russian Federation in May 2022 for his work on Russian intelligence operations. He is the author of the 2016 “Game Theory” thread, named by The New York Times as one of the 25 most important tweets in history.
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SOURCES
U.S. Department of War — Secretary Hegseth remarks on Colombia’s request, August 15, 2026
U.S. Department of War — Press availability, Jungle Operations Training Course, Panama, August 13, 2026 (transcript, war.gov)
U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC) — sanctions designation of Gustavo Petro et al., October 24–25, 2025
U.S. Department of Justice — drug-conspiracy charges against Nicolás Maduro; captured January 3, 2026
Infobae — Colombian defense officials on armed-group leadership returning from Venezuela, January 2026
ACLED — “Total Peace paradox” analysis, 2022–2026
MercoPress — Medellín named Colombian hub of the Shield of the Americas alliance, July 27, 2026
Islander News — De la Espriella U.S. citizenship and Miami residency, June 2026
Al Jazeera — Colombia runoff results, June 22, 2026
