PANAMA CITY — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — whose department has operated under the secondary title "Department of War" since a Trump executive order last September — called on close to 20 Latin American and Caribbean governments to formally sever ties with the International Criminal Court, casting the tribunal as a threat to national sovereignty during a security summit in Panama on Wednesday.
"Not Unelected International Bureaucrats"
Speaking to members of the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition (ACCC), Hegseth argued that governments should answer to their own institutions rather than a foreign judicial body, urging the room to reject the court's attempts to "rob your governments and your courts" of sovereignty. He went further, insisting that U.S. and partner strikes on suspected traffickers would continue on Washington's own terms, telling the room the operations are "100 percent lawful under the laws of armed conflict." The remarks build on Hegseth's long-running "warrior culture" messaging, in which he has argued legal constraints leave American troops fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.
Colombia Becomes the 19th Member
Hegseth used the Panama gathering to confirm that Colombia has joined the coalition as its 19th member, five days after President Abelardo de la Espriella — sworn in August 7 following a razor-thin June runoff win over leftist Iván Cepeda — took office. Hegseth referred to the conservative leader by his campaign nickname, "El Tigre," and said Colombia had formally requested American help against narco-trafficking networks, authorizing joint military operations. Bogotá's government did not immediately confirm the announcement, though de la Espriella had signaled interest in the initiative well before his inauguration.
Hegseth also detailed how the coalition's mission has moved beyond diplomacy into joint combat operations. He credited Ecuador as the first ACCC member to carry out a combined strike alongside U.S. forces against alleged narco-terrorists, said Honduras and Guatemala had each invited American troops onto their own soil, and pointed to a new anti-trafficking partnership with Jamaica aimed at Caribbean smuggling routes. Those operational ties — layered onto the sovereignty pitch against the ICC — show how tightly military cooperation and the anti-tribunal campaign have become fused for Washington's regional partners.
Part of a Broader Assault on the Court
Hegseth's appeal is the latest piece of a monthslong White House effort to weaken the ICC, which issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war. At a Camp David cabinet meeting on July 31, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the room the tribunal had "made themselves illegitimate" by asserting jurisdiction over non-member states — prompting President Trump to interject that Rubio's real target wasn't himself but rather "Bibi and various other people," a reference to Netanyahu. Roughly 124 countries remain parties to the court's founding Rome Statute, including most of Latin America and the Caribbean — even though the United States has never joined.
Venezuela's Separate Exit
Washington's pressure campaign got an earlier boost from a track that runs parallel to, but separate from, the ACCC: in late July, Venezuela's interim government notified the United Nations of its intent to leave the ICC. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez — who assumed power after a January 3 U.S. military operation removed Nicolás Maduro from Caracas — ordered the move, and her foreign minister cited what Caracas called the court's uneven focus on the Global South. The U.S. State Department welcomed the decision, calling it a step toward dismantling the "corrupt and worthless ICC." Notably, Venezuela is not among the roughly 19 nations that make up the ACCC, and under the Rome Statute's own rules, the exit won't become legally effective until roughly a year after that notice — meaning Caracas remains, technically, a member for now. For Miami's Venezuelan and Colombian communities, the overlapping timelines still matter: both countries' governments sit inside Washington's broader regional realignment, and decisions made in Panama this week ripple directly into South Florida's diaspora politics and remittance-driven economies.
Rights Groups Push Back
Hegseth's sovereignty argument arrives as monitors document a rising toll from the campaign he's defending. The Washington Office on Latin America documented in a July 24 report that 221 people have died in 63 publicized U.S. strikes on suspected trafficking vessels since September 2025, describing several as extrajudicial killings under international law. Four American human rights organizations — the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute — sued the Trump administration on August 11, arguing that sanctions targeting ICC officials amount to a "blatantly illegal attack on international justice." It remains unclear which, if any, of the roughly 18 other ACCC members have moved toward their own ICC withdrawal, and Bogotá has yet to state a position on the question despite joining the security bloc.
A Region Also Reeling From Disaster
Hegseth's visit landed in a Colombia already consumed by crisis. A magnitude-7.4 earthquake tore through the country's western provinces on August 10 — the strongest to hit Colombia this century — killing well over 200 people and leaving hundreds more missing, according to the Colombian Association of Capital Cities. De la Espriella, barely three days into his presidency when the quake struck, was forced to lead emergency response efforts even as his government prepared to formalize its ACCC membership. The juxtaposition — a new president managing a national disaster while accepting an expanded U.S. security partnership in the same week — adds a layer of context Bogotá watchers say shouldn't be lost in the ICC headlines.
What to Watch
Panama itself offered a preview of how host governments are navigating this moment. President José Raúl Mulino, who spoke just ahead of Hegseth on Wednesday, steered clear of the ICC question entirely, framing organized crime and drug trafficking instead as the region's central threat to social stability. That approach — security cooperation first, sovereignty language second — may be the template other coalition governments lean on if pressure mounts to formally exit the court rather than simply decline to enforce its warrants. For now, Venezuela stands alone as a Latin American government that has actually notified the UN of an ICC withdrawal, leaving open whether Wednesday's appeal in Panama produces further departures among ACCC members or largely symbolic alignment.
