America’s Cartel War Just Got INSANE

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Become a Member Today and Unlock EXCLUSIVE Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKfak8fBm_Lhy4eX9UKxEpA/join  The United States is overhauling its war on drugs, shifting from targeting cartel kingpins to dismantling corrupt political networks across Latin America. Through joint military operations in Colombia and high-profile legal indictments of Mexican officials, Washington is building a regional security net to choke off cocaine supply chains. Discover how this strategy aims to dismantle drug cartels while simultaneously countering China's growing geopolitical and economic influence in South America.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - US Pivots Strategy in Decades-Long War Against Cartels 02:03 - US Targets Political Infrastructure Enabling Cartel Operations 03:50 - Colombia's New President Espriella Launches Joint US Operations 04:54 - Historical Evolution of Colombia's Coca Trade and Guerilla Warfare 08:06 - Surgical Strike Operations Capture High-Level Venezuelan Gang Leaders 09:25 - Multi-National Security Agreements Net Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela 10:46 - Mexican Cartels Expand Coca Cultivation and Fentanyl Trafficking 12:56 - DOJ Indicts Corrupt Mexican Governors and Officials 14:13 - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Denounces US Indictment Campaign 15:38 - Countering China's Belt and Road Initiative in Colombia 16:47 - Securing Colombia's Untapped Critical Minerals to Cut Out Beijing  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/7YF7Q54N

Transcript

00:01It's no secret that America's decades-long war against South American drug cartels hasn't gone as well as it would

00:08like.

00:08The problem has always been the vacuum left behind.

00:11When one cartel falls, another gang takes its place, and the drug trade never seems to slow down.

00:18It's clear by now that firepower alone isn't enough to solve the problem.

00:22So the US is taking a different approach.

00:25It's found a genius way to take the cartels out for good, as the focus is now being placed as

00:31much on politicians as it is on drug lords.

00:34Colombia and Mexico are the keys.

00:37But there is a player thousands of miles away that the US is also looking to counter as it takes

00:43its cartel war to the next level.

00:45What we're seeing right now is a complete change in American strategy.

00:49In the past, the US has focused on the big drug busts and the arrests or killings of kingpins.

00:55It was the classic decapitation strategy.

00:58Cut off the head of the beast and the beast falls.

01:01Only it never quite worked out the way the US wanted.

01:04Decades of busts and kingpin destruction haven't reduced the drug flow from South America into the US in any appreciable

01:11way.

01:11There have been declines as Insight Prime points out.

01:15Work on Colombia done in 2025 led to 445.9 tons of cocaine being seized in that year, which was

01:23a 59.4% increase over the previous year.

01:26While this sounds like a lot, there is still plenty of cocaine entering America.

01:29In a July 27 report, the Washington Post noted that cocaine production, particularly in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, has reached

01:37an all-time high between 2014 and 2024.

01:41Areas under coca cultivation, coca being the plant that is the natural source of cocaine, tripled in size to over

01:473,800 square kilometers, with cocaine manufacturing quadrupling to 4,100 tons.

01:55Attempting to stop cocaine at its cartel source wasn't working.

01:58Neither was trying to seize cocaine, either in the country of origin or while it made its way to the

02:03US.

02:04Before we go on, we are real people, producing researched and fact-checked military reporting.

02:09If you want to support that, subscribe, share your thoughts below, and consider becoming a member for exclusive content we

02:15don't publish publicly.

02:16So America has escalated its war against the cartels.

02:19The seizures and attacks on the cartels aren't stopping, but now the US is taking on the political systems that

02:25enable the cartels to operate the way that they do.

02:28In some cases, this involves taking on corrupt politicians directly.

02:32In other cases, the US is working alongside governments, creating joint task forces with military involvement to tackle the cartels

02:39in their home countries.

02:40But in all cases, we're seeing a shift to focusing on politics over firepower.

02:45A hint of this came on August 27th.

02:48That's when Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the US had worked alongside Puerto Rico to indict 81 alleged drug

02:55gang members belonging to the local Los Bayadeo gang, alongside complementary operations in Ecuador as part of a joint crackdown.

03:02Puerto Rican police officers have already arrested 70 members of Los Bayadeo cartel as part of the joint operation, and

03:09more are likely to follow.

03:10But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

03:12The US is laser-focused on two countries, Colombia and Mexico.

03:17However, the way that it's dealing with the cartels in those countries is very different.

03:20We'll start with Colombia.

03:22It was only a year or so ago that the US labeled Colombia as a country that was failing to

03:26cooperate in the drug war.

03:27A BBC report from September 2025 reported that this statement was made as part of an annual examination of relationships,

03:35where the US formally certifies whether several countries are fully cooperating with American efforts to wipe out the drug trade.

03:41Colombia was on the edge.

03:43The US didn't cut aid, but it was added to America's list for the first time since 1997.

03:48Fast forward to 2026 and everything has changed.

03:51Colombia has a new president, the right-wing Abolado de la Esprilla.

03:55And he has already made it very clear that he will be approaching Colombia's rebel and criminal groups differently.

04:02Esprilla's predecessor, Gustavo Petro, attempted to solve Colombia's drug problems by bringing the offending groups to the negotiating table.

04:09Esprilla believes that cooperation with the US is the key.

04:12The change happened fast.

04:14Less than a week after his August 8th swearing-in ceremony, Esprilla confirmed that Colombia would start taking part in

04:20joint military operations with the US.

04:23On August 27th, Colombia's new president approved the extradition of five members of rebel groups, all of whom were wanted

04:29by the US on drugs charges.

04:31Esprilla also ordered Colombian forces to kill the leader of the FARC rebel group and signed up for the America

04:36Counter Cartel Coalition, all within three days of entering office.

04:40The US clearly had all of this planned out.

04:43Just hours after Esprilla was sworn into office, the US pledged $1 billion as part of a security package that

04:49would help Colombia's new president achieve our shared goals.

04:53In an instant, the new US approach became clear.

04:56Don't butt heads with Colombia's administration.

04:58Instead, find a politician with similar goals and views, support that politician, and then use the new relationship to achieve

05:05what needs to be achieved with the cartels and rebel gangs.

05:08If you're wondering why the US couldn't do all of this before, it's about more than differing political affiliations.

05:13Yes, the Trump administration can work more easily with a right-wing government, especially one led by a man who

05:19seems to mirror many of the goals that the administration has for Colombia.

05:22However, Colombia's drug issues are deep-rooted and could never have been solved by the previous approach of targeted strikes

05:28against cartels and kingpins.

05:30These issues date back to the 1960s, which was a time when those living in Colombia's rural areas were extremely

05:36poor, and massive stretches of land were owned by a small class of elites.

05:41Owned but not well controlled, Colombia's geography makes it difficult for any one group to exercise full control over everything.

05:48And when rebel groups started appearing in the 1960s and 70s on both sides of the political spectrum, they soon

05:54found that there was one product that they could grow that would keep them funded, coca.

05:58By the 1980s, Colombia's rebel groups had also become drug gangs, able to operate in their country by protecting trafficking

06:05routes that were difficult to access.

06:07We could say a lot more about how the war on drugs in Colombia was really more of a civil

06:11war that almost led to the country's collapse.

06:13But the key point made here is that cocaine became big business among many rebel groups, making it extremely difficult

06:19to focus on a single enemy responsible for the flood of drugs into the US.

06:24Cocaine became everything to these groups.

06:26It financed their rebellions against whatever causes they wanted to see destroyed.

06:30It's this reliance on cocaine as a funding mechanism that led to the record levels of cultivation we mentioned.

06:36Colombia saw the biggest increase with a 24% rise in coca production between 2021 and 2025, with almost two

06:44thirds of coca crops being planted in Nariño, Putamayo and Norte de Santander.

06:49The latter is on the Venezuelan border, with the other two locations being on the border with Ecuador, smart positioning

06:55for drug gangs that want to quickly shift their product into other countries before the authorities can do anything about

07:00them.

07:00To counter this problem, the US started lending military support, and in some ways it achieved results.

07:06The Medellin and Cali cartels that dominated Colombia's drug trade in the 1980s were dismantled, culminating in the infamous tracking

07:13down and killing of Kingpin Pablo Escobar.

07:15Cooperation ran deep under the Bill Clinton administration.

07:19The CIA helped with bombing campaigns and special forces soldiers were often sent into Colombia to advise on and conduct

07:26missions.

07:26The Colombian military even started to retake territory from the rebel groups responsible for its cocaine trade.

07:32But there was a problem – the vacuums left behind.

07:35What happened is that Colombia became more stable and less violent.

07:39However, its drug trade didn't go away.

07:41Instead, what were once large cartels fragmented into smaller criminal organizations against which it was much harder to launch military

07:49campaigns.

07:50That's why Petro took his negotiating approach.

07:53Petro's strategy seemed sound on the face of it.

07:55But what it communicated to this newer generation of smaller drug gangs was that engaging in their work would result

08:02in little more than a slap on the wrist as long as they remained peaceful.

08:06Groups once focused on violence instead became more concerned with profit, and it's a lot harder for the US and

08:11its allies to justify bombing these sorts of groups into oblivion.

08:15Hunting down the kingpins had worked, but it only created new problems.

08:19There are parallels between the new US strategy and the one it had taken in the past.

08:23Political allegiances are in place once more, and money is being sent to Colombia to tackle the drug problem.

08:29The joint operations between the US and Colombia also seem to mirror those of the past.

08:33However, the approach now is more surgical.

08:36Smaller guerrilla factions have to be taken down, and that's what Espriera is aiming to do with America's help.

08:41We're already seeing the results.

08:43Beyond what we mentioned earlier, August 29th saw Colombian forces capture the leader of the Venezuelan drug gang, Trenda Aragua.

08:50Luis Saul Perez Nieto's arrest marks a new level in the US war on cartels in Colombia, and it's a

08:56new level that involves enhanced cooperation between not just militaries, but law enforcement.

09:01The US Drug Enforcement Agency worked alongside the Colombian police for this arrest, and the odds are that we're going

09:06to see a lot more of that to come.

09:08But there's much more to this strategy. Production has to be squeezed, and Mexico has to be dealt with.

09:13There is also that other player, thousands of kilometers away, that lies at the root of what the US really

09:18wants to achieve in Colombia.

09:20But before we dig deeper, this is a reminder that you're watching The Military Show.

09:24If you haven't subscribed yet, now is the perfect time to hit the button and enable notifications.

09:30America's goal in Colombia now isn't just to cooperate inside Colombia.

09:34We mentioned the increase in coca production and how it focused on border regions.

09:38Peru is another nation that shares a border with Colombia, beyond Ecuador and Venezuela.

09:43And cartel operations can easily be shifted into any of these nations if the US does what it needs to

09:48do,

09:49which is to squeeze production along with arresting the traffickers.

09:52The US knows that, so it's building alliances or conducting regime change in other South American nations to widen its

09:58net.

09:58We saw that earlier in 2026 when the US ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

10:04We're now seeing the US signing oil deals with Venezuela and will likely see joint operations to deal with drug

10:10gangs announced soon.

10:11Such operations already exist in Peru.

10:14That nation granted US troops access back in December 2025, which means that those soldiers will be able to work

10:20with Peruvian authorities to put the squeeze on coca production.

10:23And on March 3, US and Ecuadorian forces launched joint operations named Operation Total Extermination, again focusing on drug trafficking.

10:33We're seeing a joint operations sweep take place, or more accurately, a net that has been widened so it not

10:39only covers Colombia,

10:40but many of the nations into which drug traffickers could go if they're squeezed out of Colombia.

10:45Alliances are being built with the intention of leaving traffickers with nowhere to go.

10:49However, there is one country that is still giving the US problems, Mexico.

10:54The issues with the crackdowns in Colombia during the 1990s, and the issue that we still see today,

10:59are that when traffickers lose the Colombia option, they often migrate north into Mexico.

11:03There they become a more immediate problem to the US.

11:07Mexico borders the United States, which means the drugs and violence are closer than ever.

11:11While drug trafficking problems in Mexico are nothing new,

11:14with the country having long been a source of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine,

11:18as well as a transit point for cocaine,

11:20the explosion of cartel activity in the country can be traced back to the 2000s,

11:25and has led to many once popular tourist destinations becoming no-go zones for many American travelers.

11:30When the Colombian cartels were broken apart,

11:33much of the drug trafficking infrastructure that existed in Colombia also migrated north to Mexico.

11:38What this all means is that it's not just distribution that is the problem in Mexico anymore.

11:43Cultivation has also moved closer to the American consumer.

11:47France 24 highlighted this back in March 2023, noting that coca production had been rising in Mexico,

11:53especially as demand for the synthetic drug fentanyl increased.

11:56Mexico's coca fields are still in their relative infancy.

11:59The four years up to 2023 had seen authorities destroy about just 0.36 square kilometers of coca fields,

12:06which is nothing when compared to what we see in Colombia.

12:08But the fact that these fields exist at all tells us that a shift is underway.

12:13As the US works with Colombia and the nations that border Colombia to eradicate the drug gangs there,

12:18Mexico looks like the natural place for those groups to head.

12:21Of course, the US trying to operate inside Mexico to take down the cartels is nothing new.

12:25But the twist we're seeing in the strategy now is the targeting of politicians.

12:30In places like Colombia, the US is working alongside governments to achieve its goals.

12:34In Mexico, America is cracking down by focusing on the political class that it believes makes the country's drug trade

12:40possible.

12:40This crackdown started in the summer of 2025.

12:44What were once campaigns against drug kingpins with names like El Chapo morphed into America focusing on the politicians who

12:50are willing to take payments from these types of drug lords, enabling them to operate.

12:54The US even claims that the cartels have created groups with the sole intention of getting officials elected who have

13:00already been corrupted by cartel money, CNN reports.

13:03The Trump administration has responded to this problem by taking away visas and indicting politicians.

13:08Up to mid 2025 alone, the US took away the US visa of Baya California governor Marina del Piar Avila

13:15Almeida.

13:16America also indicted Ruben Rocamoya, who is the sitting governor of Sinaloa, which happens to be home to one of

13:22Mexico's most notorious cartels.

13:25This was uncharted territory at the time, and it's a strategy into which the US is leaning further in 2026.

13:30By April, the US Department of Justice announced the unsealing of indictment charges against nine current or former Mexican officials,

13:38on top of Sinaloa's governor.

13:40Though Moya hasn't been arrested yet, America's approach has caused chaos.

13:44Moya left office in the wake of the American indictment, returned on August 21, and then promptly left again as

13:50he faced scathing criticism, particularly from members of his own party, Morena.

13:55This is precisely what the US wants to see in Mexico. If it can't attack the country's cartels directly with

14:00help from its government, which happens to be left wing, then it will go after the politicians it believes enables

14:05those cartels.

14:06The White House may be using its indictments to tackle a corrupt political system or to influence who governs in

14:12key regions of Mexico.

14:13Either way, it's making life hard for the cartels that relied on these corrupt officials to enable their operations.

14:19There has been blowback to America's strategy. Relations between the US and Mexico are at their breaking point, especially as

14:25President of Mexico, Claudia Scheinbaum, is claiming that US strategies used in Mexico are a threat to the country's sovereignty.

14:32Let's be clear, first they come for some, then for others, until officers of the Department of Justice decide elections

14:38in Mexico, Scheinbaum declared in a June speech as she defended the indicted Rocker.

14:43That speech ultimately didn't matter. Rocker is out of office and his own party has turned its back on him.

14:48For the US, this is all about toppling dominoes. If Mexico won't take part in the sort of joint operations

14:54seen in Colombia, then America will take a different approach to hurt Mexico's cartels.

14:58And the US knows that there is a distinct possibility that it could start flipping Mexican politicians to its cause.

15:05We've already seen hints of that, with the political backlash to Rocker trying to retake his position.

15:10Do you remember Marina del Piar Avila Almeida, the governor who had her US visa revoked?

15:15She is one of around 50 Mexican politicians who have faced the same fate, and she is also allegedly on

15:20tape speaking to people she thought were FBI agents,

15:23saying that she was willing to cooperate by telling the US everything that she knows to avoid being indicted.

15:28This is a pressure campaign being exerted by the US on Mexico.

15:32Perhaps the ultimate goal is to cajole the Mexican government into working alongside the US, as directly as the likes

15:38of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia now.

15:41Speaking of Colombia, we return to that nation to cover the other party.

15:44The party that is thousands of kilometers away, and perhaps the party that the US hopes it can really hurt

15:50with this new version of its cartel crackdown, China.

15:53What does China have to do with the cartels?

15:55It's not so much about the cartels themselves as the pivot that Colombia has been making toward China.

16:01America's quarterly reported on this pivot back in June 2025, noting that the previous May had seen former President Petro

16:08announce that Colombia was joining China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is China's main development program.

16:14Colombia also applied to and officially joined the initiative's new development bank in mid-June 2025.

16:20China has also become the top lender to Colombia for infrastructure projects, financing around $3.5 billion worth of projects

16:27as of March 2026.

16:28The US paid attention to all of these moves, and its efforts to build closer ties with Colombia's new government

16:34are as much about countering China as they are about dealing with the cartels.

16:37It's a two birds, one stone strategy.

16:40If the US can help Colombia deal with its cartel problems, it can also guide Colombia away from China, allowing

16:46the US to exert more of its geopolitical power in South America.

16:50Beyond influence, there are also the minerals. As the International Trade Administration points out, Colombia is home to vast amounts

16:57of largely unexplored and untapped mineral wealth.

17:00Coal, oil, and emeralds are just the start. There are minerals like copper, graphite, nickel, and a host of rare

17:06earth minerals.

17:07Suddenly, the reason why China wants to build ties with Colombia becomes clear.

17:11For the US, having some form of control over these minerals is key to its Colombia strategy, not least because

17:17it can keep China away if it's able to form a minerals deal of its own.

17:20The problem all parties face is the difficult Colombian geography we mentioned earlier.

17:25Many of the mineral-rich areas of Colombia are under the control of armed gangs, so the strategy becomes clearer.

17:32The US provides the sort of direct help that China can't to clear out those gangs.

17:36In return, it gets a cut of the minerals, either the profits generated or the minerals themselves, and it cuts

17:42China out of the deal.

17:43The US weakens China, reduces its own dependence on Chinese goods, and goes a step toward overcoming the drug issues

17:49that plague South America and, by extension, the US.

17:53None of this is good for the cartels, be they in Colombia, Mexico, or elsewhere.

17:58Pressure is being placed on their operations from more directions than ever before, and it's an approach none of them

18:03would have expected.

18:04The Mexican drug cartels in particular might have expected a more direct fight with the US military rather than the

18:09loss of the political figures they influence.

18:11You can find out how we think that war might have gone by watching our video.

18:15But before you go, everything you see here is researched, verified, and produced by real people.

18:20If you value that, subscribe, comment below, and consider becoming a member for access to exclusive content.

18:26And thank you for watching.

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