New Colombian president authorized joint operations with US to rein in cartels

Image credit: Washington Examiner · tap image for original

Colombia's new president just green-lit joint US operations against the cartels.

Summary

Colombia's new president authorized joint operations with the United States to go after cartels, the Washington Examiner reports.
The authorization includes lethal military options and names Defense Secretary Hegseth in the coverage.
Cartels move cocaine and fentanyl precursors through the same corridors that hit US streets.
Past Colombian governments mixed cooperation with political limits that left the labs standing.
A joint writ is how you treat a cartel as an armed group, not a police nuisance.

Fentanyl is a war with a product. You do not talk it down with a development grant.

Colombia asking for US joint ops is the adult version of sovereignty: invite the partner who can hit the labs.

USAID workshops did not empty a single tunnel. Aircraft and warrants might.

Should the US run joint lethal ops with Colombia against cartels?

southcom 5h

If Bogota signs the paper, you go. Cartels already act like armies.

midwest_vet 4h

We treat Mexican and Colombian gangs as a vice story. They treat us as a market.

campus_take 4h

This is another forever war in Latin America.

rule_first 3h

A forever war is what you get when you never finish the raid. A joint op is a finish.

tokyo_ally 3h

Japan watches precursor chemicals too. The Pacific is not immune.

aid_fan 2h

Crop substitution and USAID will dry up the trade.

docket_rat 2h

We tried the grant. The labs moved. Try the raid.

border_dad 90m

ICE at home and joint ops abroad are the same principle: stop the pipeline.

press_clip 70m

Examiner put Hegseth in the lede. That means DoD is in the room, not just DEA.

night_shift 40m

Sign it, hit the labs, and publish the body count of the chemicals, not the slogans.

Inspired by public posts on X — paraphrased, not attributed.