United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “strongly” urged members of a Latin American anti-drug coalition to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), because it represents a “danger” to sovereignty.
“I strongly recommend to all members of the Coalition of the Americas Against Cartels (ACCC) to leave the ICC and reject its attempts to strip their governments and courts of their sovereignty,” Hegseth said this Wednesday before defense and security representatives from the region.
The so-called Coalition of the Americas Against Cartels created by Donald Trump includes 19 countries, among them Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
“The international left, along with its accomplices in the leftist media, is conspiring to illegally impose the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over the personnel and military operations of the United States and our partners,” he added.
“It is surprising that this so-called court and other globalist bodies undermine our efforts but do nothing to hold true terrorists and true tyrants accountable,” he emphasized.
“There is no legitimate basis for the ICC’s illegal power grab attempt,” declared the Pentagon chief.
The United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the court based in The Hague, created in 2002 by the Rome Statute to judge genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity when national judicial systems cannot or will not do so. Washington never ratified the founding statute, a stance shared by powers such as China, Russia, and India, although for decades it maintained a relationship of selective cooperation with the Court in specific cases.
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That distance deepened under the Trump administration, which imposed sanctions: travel bans to the United States and asset freezes against several ICC judges and prosecutors. The measures mainly responded to the court’s investigations into alleged war crimes committed by Israel, one of Washington’s main allies in the Middle East, in the Gaza Strip.
Likewise, Hegseth indicated that Washington does not rule out the possibility of a military intervention in Cuba, while stating that Havana “would do well to pay attention” to the “will” of the White House chief, Donald Trump, to “enforce the strategic prerogatives” of the North American country.
“As I have said before, and I think you have seen what has happened in other cases, all options are on the table, including military ones,” Hegseth said in statements to the media during his visit to Panama, a country where he participated in an event of the military coalition promoted by Washington against the cartels.
Immediately after, the senior official considered that the Caribbean island “would do well to pay attention to President Trump’s will to enforce American strategic prerogatives.” After that, he highlighted that, in his opinion, “no one can compare to the United States,” adding that “what foreign influence has been able to achieve in its hemisphere has been quite insignificant.”
“The Russians, Cubans, Iranians, and Venezuela… The way those countries have approached the United States and the Coalition of the Americas Against Cartels shows that they understand where the balance of power lies, especially in this hemisphere. And that, without a doubt, applies to Cuba,” Hegseth said.
It is worth remembering that last June, Trump himself referred to a possible military operation similar to those in Venezuela or Iran in Cuba. However, at that time he stated maintaining a “flexible” stance regarding Havana. “The difference is that Venezuela has oil, Cuba does not. Cuba has good properties and a beautiful coast,” the president said, affirming that Cuban authorities are “very eager” to dialogue with Washington.
