The Shield of the Americas: a summit of nations on their knees

by Jim Hodgson

Leaders of a dozen Latin American and Caribbean nations spent a few hours last week with President Donald Trump at one of his golf courses near Miami. This was the launch of the “Shield of the Americas,” a bloc of right-wing governments that have pledged to join Trump’s war against so-called “narco-terrorism.”

The spectacle recalled for me a 1992 film, El Viaje (The Journey), by Argentinian director Fernando “Pino” Solanas. It won prizes at film festivals in Cannes and Havana, and I saw it in Toronto.

El Viaje satirizes the way Latin American governments in the 1980s and 90s knelt before the rich countries for the sake of debt forgiveness, implementing austerity programs that harmed their own people. One scene (above right) shows a meeting of the Organización de Países Arrodillados (the Organization of Countries on their Knees). You can see a clip on Facebook.

In Miami, the leaders plainly knew that their face time with Trump was squeezed out from his preoccupation with his ill-conceived and unpopular war on Iran. They even applauded his insults: “I’m not learning your damn language,” said Trump. “I don’t have time.”

Beyond the farce, however, there is harsh reality to be faced. 

Trump called for an “anti-cartel coalition” that would use military might to “eradicate” drug cartels. A day earlier, his “war secretary,” Pete Hegseth, warned representatives from 16 countries in the region that if they didn’t adopt more aggressive strategies against drug cartels, the Trump regime would do it for them. Hegseth urged the countries to remain “Christian nations, under God, proud of our shared heritage with strong borders,” and not to be led astray by “radical narco-communism, anarcho-tyranny… and uncontrolled mass migration.”

Since his return to power 14 months ago:

Trump’s threat at the summit to “take care of” Cuba drew an immediate response from Havana. President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X:

“The little reactionary and neocolonial summit in Florida, convened by the United States and attended by right-wing governments from the region, commit themselves to accept lethal use of U.S. military force to resolve internal problems of order and tranquility in their countries.”

Díaz-Canel said the summit was an attack on the 2014 proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, a declaration signed in Havana (photo above by René Pérez Massola.) The summit, he added, also attacked “aspirations for regional integration” and was “a sign of their willingness to subordinate themselves to the interests of the powerful nation to the north.”

Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, said the Miami summit was “a clear and dangerous setback in the long and difficult process of independence for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

In his speech, Trump said that Mexico was the “epicentre” of drug-trafficking. The cartels, he said, “are getting worse and taking over the country. The cartels are running Mexico. We can’t have that. Too close to us, too close to you.”

Hours later, President Claudia Sheinbaum, pleaded for “cabeza fría” (cool heads) as Mexico determines its next moves – all (like Canada) under the pressure of new free trade talks with the United States.

A few days before the summit, Costa Rica’s president-elect, Laura Fernández, called Mexico “a reference point for where we do not want to go” regarding violence, organized crime and drug-trafficking. She was the minister of national planning and economic policy under the out-going president, Rodrigo Chaves. Chaves attended the Sheild summit, not Fernández, but her comment got attention in Mexico.

In an editorial, the daily newspaper La Jornada said that if Fernández wants to avoid the suffering experienced in Mexico over the past two decades, she should bear in mind that the crisis of insecurity was launched by a politician of the same ultra-right current that she represents. After his election in 2006, President Felipe Calderón began Mexico’s war on drugs by:

“opening the country to U.S. spy agencies, subordinating national interests to those of Washington, ignoring the social and economic roots of the crime phenomenon, and declaring a war against his own citizens. The violence of the state became a criterion for measuring success. The lessons of the Calderón years are important to for the other governments (and the governed) that still see or pretend to see the White House ‘war on drugs’ as an offensive against criminal structures and not the mechanism of imperial domination that it is.”

Canada must reject U.S. coercion against Cuba and countries that would help

by Jim Hodgson

Canada must condemn the ongoing U.S. embargo against Cuba, say two coalitions of Canadian non-governmental organizations (including churches, trade unions, aid groups and human rights defenders).

The Americas Policy Group (APG) and Common Frontiers wrote Feb. 20 to Prime Minister Mark Carney,Foreign Minister Anita Anand, and Secretary of State (International Development) Randeep Sarai. Their letter condemned the new “coercive measures” – threats of higher tariffs – announced by the Trump administration that make it harder to get food, medicine and fuel.

Before I go too far into this, here’s an action you can take. (And thank you if you already did so!) The Canadian Network on Cuba has worked with MP Alexandre Boulerice to promote an important on-line petition to the members of Parliament. (Once you have signed, be sure to respond to an email asking you to confirm your signature.)

Text of the letter is available in English, French and Spanish.

The English version follows below: 

February 20, 2026

Re: CANADA MUST REJECT UNLAWFUL U.S. COERCIVE MEASURES TO WITHHOLD FUEL FROM CUBA AND EXPEDITE HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

Dear Prime Minister Mark Carney, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Secretary of State (International Development) Randeep Sarai:

The Americas Policy Group (APG) and Common Frontiers, coalitions formed by dozens of respected Canadian civil society organizations, are deeply concerned about the human rights impacts of a U.S. executive order imposing a fuel blockade on Cuba. We call on Canada to immediately reject this dangerous, coercive action which is incompatible with principles of sovereignty, non-intervention and self-determination, essential for a democratic, equitable and peaceful international order.

A month ago, our coalitions called on the Government of Canada to unequivocally condemn U.S. attacks and threats of intervention in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba as violations of the United Nations Charter and longstanding international norms. We warned about the implications of U.S. security policy that promises to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine,” a doctrine used in the past to justify brutal interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In October 2025, United Nations member states at the General Assembly voted for the 33rd consecutive time for an end to a decades-long U.S. embargo against Cuba, which has caused enormous hardship and scarcity for the Cuban people. This is reaching crisis proportions as a result of an executive order signed by President Trump on January 29 authorizing the imposition of trade tariffs on any country that directly or indirectly provides oil to Cuba.

UN human rights experts have stated “there is no right under international law to impose economic penalties on third States for engaging in lawful trade with another sovereign country.” The UN experts conclude that the imposition of a fuel blockade on Cuba is “a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order.”

Member organizations of the Americas Policy Group and Common Frontiers have a long history of cooperation with Cuban civil society organizations and are hearing from them about the impacts of blocking oil supplies to their country. Cuba is highly dependent on imported fuel for essential services, including electricity generation, hospitals, health services, water and sanitation, public transportation, food production and distribution. Moreover, Cuba has been experiencing a deepening socio-economic crisis due to a 60-year financial and trade blockade by the United States, as well as the impacts of increasing extreme weather events. U.S. unilateral measures of economic and political coercion deliberately seek to deepen the suffering of the Cuban people to force regime change. We condemn these measures in the strongest possible terms and are horrified by the collective punishment of the civilian population that we are witnessing.

As an illustration of the dire situation on the ground, the Secretary General of the Provincial Union of Public Administration Workers of Havana shared this message with us: “Our members are experiencing firsthand the effects of the measures taken to prevent fuel from entering the country. For example, our municipal services have been affected; services that are vital to the population like solid waste collection. Without fuel we have no way to collect the garbage. The population, along with municipal workers, are doing everything we can to prevent consequences such as an epidemic or the spread of diseases. We will not give up.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has sounded the alarm about other consequences and reiterated his call “to lift unilateral sectoral measures, given their broad and indiscriminate impact on the population.” As the High Commissioner has reported, intensive care units, emergency rooms, and ambulance services are compromised, as are the production, delivery, and storage of vaccines, blood products, and other temperature-sensitive medications. Power cuts are undermining access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. The fuel shortage has also disrupted the rationing system, the regulated basic food basket, and social protection networks, including school meals, maternity homes, and nursing homes. Vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected. The right to life and the ability to enjoy many other rights are in jeopardy.

Our coalitions are heartened by Canada’s long, highly respected history of independent foreign policy towards Cuba and uninterrupted diplomatic relations with the country since 1945. This includes the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act (FEMA), Canadian legislation that protects Canadian sovereignty and commercial interests from U.S. laws and policies that try to impose their jurisdiction inside Canada. We also welcome Canada’s past support for multilateral efforts to end the unjust U.S. economic embargo, such as repeated votes in the United Nations General Assembly condemning the blockade. We call for this principled stance to be upheld and strengthened.

Without delay, we urge the Government of Canada to:

  • Publicly and unequivocally condemn the ongoing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, including coercive measures announced by the Trump administration that threaten access to the necessities of life: including food, medicine and fuel.
  • Reaffirm Canada’s commitment to the UN Charter, international law, and the human rights obligations Canada has willingly undertaken, including respect for sovereignty, self-determination and the rights to food, health, and wellbeing.
  • Deepen bilateral humanitarian cooperation with Cuba, including direct Canadian assistance to alleviate suffering among the civilian population.
  • Work with regional allies – including at the UN and in other spaces for multilateral action – to end the oil blockade and other punitive economic measures against Cuba, as well as to expand access to humanitarian supplies.
  • Reject all threats of intervention or coercion against countries in the Americas and promote peace, diplomacy, dialogue and regional stability, in accordance with Canada’s stated values and international obligations.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss our recommendations with you and stress that while humanitarian relief is urgently needed, access to fuel and respect for sovereignty are indispensable.

Sincerely,

Americas Policy Group Steering Committee

Common Frontiers Steering Committee

The Americas Policy Group (APG) is a national network of Canadian civil society organizations working for human rights and social and environmental justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. It brings together international development and humanitarian NGOs, human rights organizations, labour unions, faith-based and solidarity groups, and research institutions.

Common Frontiers is a national coalition composed of labour, environmental, faith based and social justice organizations focused on the Americas. We amplify the struggles of organizations and communities with which our members hold long-term relationships throughout the region, and who work to defend democracy, human rights, labour rights, strong public services and the environment.

As Haiti’s transitional government comes to an end, the U.S. flexes its muscles

by Jim Hodgson

In April 2024, I welcomed the formation of Haiti’s transitional council (known as the CPT). It was the product of negotiations among a broad spectrum of Haitian political parties and civil society organizations, including the business sector.

Within a month, fractures that would block steps toward a new election became apparent. And efforts to create conditions for an election were undermined by a rapid and ongoing increase in neighbourhood-based gang violence – despite the presence of UN-backed soldiers and police.

The mandate of the CPT expired on Saturday, Feb. 7, which also happened to be the 40th anniversary of the fall of the Duvalier family dictatorship. 

The transition ceremony Feb. 7: Haitians are “anti-constitutionally governed” (AlterPresse)

A U.S. warship and two Coast Guard ships sit in the Port-au-Prince harbour and a military plane was on the ground at the international airport. As many as 1.4 million people are displaced by gang violence. The political in-fighting rages.

In moments like this, I try to look at a variety of media sources to understand what is going on. The one I trust most is AlterPresse, a civil society initiative that emerges from among the groups that have worked for decades for a better future for people afflicted by poverty and violence. Haitian elites and their neoliberal allies abroad, meanwhile, seem determined again to impose a new totalitarian state, which is a predator state (like that of Duvalier) safe only for the rich and their cronies.

In the absence of any elections, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé (a businessman named to the post by the CPT in November 2024) will hold on to power beyond the CPT’s expiry. He will rule like former de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry did from July 2021 through February 2024: a head-of-government without a head-of-state or Parliament. 

Accountability? Only to the foreign governments that have backed him: the United States, France and Canada.

Left: Statement by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand. Right: Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils Aimé and Canadian ambassador to Haiti André François Giroux (Le Nouvelliste).

In several recent public statements, U.S. authorities affirmed their support for Fils-Aimé. He is presented as the key figure capable of ensuring institutional continuity. They particularly emphasize his role in building a Haiti that is “strong, prosperous, and free.”

But it is those ships in the Port-au-Prince harbour that remind Haitians that pleasant statements barely mask the history of U.S. hard power in Haiti. 

AlterPresse: strong signals from the United States and uncertainty about the transition in Haiti.

“The naval presence appears to provide the latest proof of Washington’s willingness to use the threat of force to shape politics in the Western Hemisphere,” Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told AP News. Arrival of the ships comes during a months-long build-up of U.S. military force in the Caribbean – already used against Venezuela on Jan. 3. 

An essential historical overview

Gotson Pierre, editor at AlterPresse, wrote Feb. 5 (text is translated and lightly-edited for clarity and length):

For many observers, these developments cannot be understood without a historical overview of relations between Haiti and the United States. This history is marked by repeated interventions, both military and political.

From the occupation of 1915 to 1934, with its devastating human, economic, and institutional consequences, to the [interventions in 1994 and 2004], and including the massive deployment of troops in 2010 following the earthquake, the United States has played a central role in major Haitian crises. Added to this are non-military political interventions, notably during the 2010-2011 elections, and more recently, the case of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Many analysts also believe that regional bodies such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of American States (OAS) operate within a framework heavily influenced by Washington. 

Haiti maintains a complex relationship with the United States, characterized by geographical proximity, strategic interdependence, and asymmetrical power dynamics. This proximity … continues to influence the country’s political trajectory.

On the eve of February 7, 2026, amid institutional uncertainties, increased international pressure, and a reinforced military presence, the equation remains unresolved. The coming days will reveal whether these signs signal a simple continuation within established frameworks or a new phase of political realignment under strong external influence.