Gunboat diplomacy pressures Latin America

[Trump, from A1] please-Trump strategies, with mixed success. But Trump's transactional proclivities, mercurial outbursts and bullying nature make him a volatile negotiating partner.

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SUPPORTERS of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro rally against U.S. military activity in the Caribbean.

(FEDERICO PARRA AFP/Getty Images)

"It's all put Latin America on edge," said Michael Shifter, past president of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based research group. "It's bewildering and dizzying and, I think, disorienting for everyone. People don't know what's coming next."

In this supercharged update of U.S. gunboat diplomacy, critics say laws are being ignored, norms sidestepped and protocol set aside. The combative approach draws from some old standards: War on Drugs tactics, War on Terrorism rationales and Cold War saber-rattling.

Facilitating it all is the Trump administration's formal designation of cartels as terrorist groups, a first. The shift has provided oratorical firepower, along with a questionable legal rationale, for the deadly "narco-terrorist" boat strikes, now numbering 14, in both the Caribbean and Pacific.

"The Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere," is how Pete Hegseth, Trump's Defense secretary, has labeled cartels, as he posts video game-esque footage of boats and their crews being blown to bits.

Lost is an essential distinction: Cartels, while homicidal, are driven by profits. Al Qaeda and other terror groups typically proclaim ideological motives.

Another aberration: Trump doesn't see the need to seek congressional approval for military action in Venezuela.

"I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war," Trump said. "I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like, dead."

Trump's unpredictability has cowed many in the region. One of the few leaders pushing back is Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who, like Trump, has a habit of incendiary, off-the-cuff comments and social media posts.