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Strikes on Ecuador, Shield of the Americas, and the Trump Corollary

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A speaker addresses an audience at the Shield of the Americas event, with flags in the background and a prominent White House seal displayed.Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and President Trump announce the Shield of the Americas, a new multinational effort to use military force to counter drug cartels. Photo courtesy of the White House via screengrab.

On March 3, 2026, the United States and Ecuador launched joint military operations targeting drug trafficking organizations the Trump administration has designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, including Los Choneros and Los Lobos. According to U.S. Southern Command, American Special Forces are advising and supporting Ecuadorian commandos conducting raids against suspected drug facilities and trafficking sites across multiple provinces.

U.S. personnel are providing planning assistance, intelligence, and logistical support but are not believed to be directly participating in the raids. The announcement included video of helicopters and aerial surveillance imagery, indicating the start of coordinated anti-cartel actions on the ground.

The Ecuador deployment represents a possible expansion of U.S. anti-cartel operations from maritime interdiction onto land targets. Since September 2025, U.S. forces have carried out dozens of strikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific under Operation Southern Spear.

Ecuador has become a key partner in these efforts under President Daniel Noboa, who has pursued a hardline security strategy to address rising cartel violence and record homicide rates. Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine, it has become a major transit hub for drugs originating in Colombia and Peru. Noboa welcomed the partnership, saying it marked a “new phase” in the fight against drug trafficking and illegal mining.

The country’s role as a transit hub and its government’s willingness to cooperate with Washington made it a natural entry point for the administration’s more militarized approach to counter-narcotics operations in the region.

The Ecuador operation came four days before President Trump hosted leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean at Trump National Doral Miami on March 7, 2026, to launch the Shield of the Americas coalition. The summit was convened as a direct alternative to the traditional Summit of the Americas. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Kristi Noem hosted leaders from 12 nations: Argentina, El Salvador, Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Paraguay, Honduras, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia, and Chile. Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, the region’s three largest powers, did not attend, signaling a divide between the coalition and the region’s larger, more left-leaning governments.

At the conclusion of the summit, participating nations signed the Doral Charter, establishing the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition. Attendees included Argentine President Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, Ecuador’s Noboa, and Chilean president-elect José Antonio Kast, several of whom have embraced hardline policies on crime and migration.

The coalition targets three primary threats: transnational cartels, foreign encroachment, and mass migration. Trump told attending leaders that military force was necessary to destroy gangs such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13 and indicated that the United States could strike cartel leaders with missiles if partner nations requested assistance.

He criticized regional governments that have allowed gangs to control territory and called for stronger cooperation to dismantle cartel networks and restore state authority. Rubio stated that security is the foundation for economic progress and that the initiative would focus on concrete actions rather than symbolic gatherings.

On the question of foreign influence, Trump warned against hostile outside powers gaining a foothold in the Western Hemisphere, a reference widely understood to target China’s growing presence in the region. Chinese trade with Latin America reached roughly $518 billion in 2024, and Beijing has financed major infrastructure projects and extended billions in loans across the hemisphere.

The administration is pushing coalition partners to limit China’s role in ports, energy projects, and strategic infrastructure and is working to replace Chinese-built ports, 5G networks, and subsea cables while redirecting critical mineral supply chains toward the United States and its allies.

On migration, the initiative envisions a hemispheric enforcement posture designed to stop flows before they reach the U.S. southern border. Noem cited the deportation or removal of more than three million migrants over the past year as evidence that stronger border enforcement has freed resources for regional partnership and economic development. She praised security reforms under Bukele and economic policies under Milei as models for the kind of regional cooperation the administration is seeking to expand.

Noem was appointed Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas immediately after her removal as Secretary of Homeland Security. She is tasked with overseeing deportation logistics and negotiating security treaties with coalition partners, maintaining continuous engagement between summits.

The administration frames the initiative as a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, reasserting U.S. primacy in the Western Hemisphere and committing to prevent outside powers from controlling strategic assets such as the Panama Canal. The approach echoes what officials describe as gunboat diplomacy, citing the military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a recent precedent.

U.S. military leaders have also met with counterparts from across the hemisphere in recent weeks to expand cooperation against drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations, and the Ecuador deployment signals the possibility of additional joint military operations against cartels in other partner countries.

The post Strikes on Ecuador, Shield of the Americas, and the Trump Corollary appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Politics

For the Second Time in a Week, NATO Forces Intercept Iranian Missile Entering Turkey Airspace

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13 hours ago

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March 10, 2026

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Iranian ballistic missiles are targeting everyone around them.

NATO is getting into the action.

As the military conflict between US-Israel and Iran progresses in an ever-more-brutal way, the Islamic regime of the mullahs continues to strike everyone around it – friend or foe.

As much as the civilian leadership apologizes for the attacks on neighboring countries, nothing has really changed.

Now, even NATO member Turkey has started to get targeted.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization ‘stands ready’ to defend its members’ territory, it said, after Iranian ballistic missiles entered Turkish airspace.

Ankara said today (9) that it shot down a second missile in a week.

Euronews reported:

“NATO forces have intercepted an Iranian missile heading to Türkiye for the second time in less than a week, as US-Israeli strikes on Iran throw the wider Middle East into conflict.”

Both the Turkish Ministry of Defense and NATO spokesperson confirmed the incident.

The intercepted Iranian ballistic missile was reportedly headed toward Turkish airspace close to the Syrian border.

“According to NATO sources, there is as yet no indication Turkey is triggering formal proceedings within the alliance to initiate action against Iran.”

Watch: Erdogan criticizes Israel ‘pitting brother against brother’.

Read more:

Israel and US Forces BEGIN Massive Strikes on Iranian Oil Depots and Refineries in Major War Escalation — Iran Fires Missiles at Haifa Refinery in Retaliation (VIDEO)

The post For the Second Time in a Week, NATO Forces Intercept Iranian Missile Entering Turkey Airspace appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Bill Maher Slams Kamala Harris Over Comments Against Iran Strikes: ‘Who Knows More About What the American People Don’t Want?”

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13 hours ago

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March 10, 2026

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Bill Maher  – Screencap of Twitter/X video.

During his opening monologue on Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher slammed Kamala Harris for her stance on the current conflict in Iran.

The Gateway Pundit reported that the United States and Israel launched ‘Operation Epic Fury’ against Iran last weekend.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was eliminated in a joint military operation conducted by Israel and the United States. At least 40 other senior Iranian regime leaders were also killed in the strikes.

Harris can’t keep her stance straight on Iran straight.

In October 2024, when asked which foreign country she considers the be our greatest adversary, the failed presidential candidate Harris responded, “Well, there are different reasons we should, um, we should be thoughtful about each. Most recently, I think there’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran.”

“I mean, look, Iran has American blood on their hands.”

On Sunday, Harris flip-flopped saying, “Donald Trump has dragged us into a war the American people don’t want.”

Following news of the strikes, Harris wrote on X, “Donald Trump is dragging the United States into a war the American people do not want. Let me be clear: I am opposed to a regime-change war in Iran, and our troops are being put in harm’s way for the sake of Trump’s war of choice.”

Maher slammed Harris, noting, “Kamala Harris made a statement. She said, ‘This is a war the American people don’t want.'”

“Who knows more about what the American people don’t want?”

“She’s right. Like 6 out of 10, the American people don’t want this war. Okay, it doesn’t mean they’re right. We’ll see. What’s bizarre is, Don, I’m one of the few people on your enemy’s list who is backing you on this, we’ll see.”

“And yet today, today, this is today, March 6th, at 8: 50 AM, he tweets about the war, ‘There will be no deal until we have unconditional surrender.'”

“Important statement to be put out.”

Watch:

The post Bill Maher Slams Kamala Harris Over Comments Against Iran Strikes: ‘Who Knows More About What the American People Don’t Want?” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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JUST IN: Arizona Senate President Confirms “the FBI Has the Records” After FBI Seizes Maricopa County Election Records in Criminal Probe

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14 hours ago

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March 10, 2026

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Ballot counting at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix – photo by Jordan Conradson

The FBI has reportedly expanded its investigation into election fraud in Maricopa County, Arizona, obtaining election records through a subpoena in the state’s largest county. 

This comes after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem traveled to Arizona last month, just weeks after the FBI executed a search warrant in Fulton County, investigating fraud in the 2020 election.

Arizona State Senator Jake Hoffman at the time had teased a major breakthrough in Arizona’s elections, saying he’d been in contact with the Department of Homeland Security for the “last 72hrs,” adding, “Stay tuned America.”

JUST IN: DHS Sec Kristi Noem in Maricopa County for “Georgia-Like” Event with Election Officials, John Solomon Says – AZ State Senator: “Stay Tuned America” (VIDEO)

Now, the FBI has quietly seized Maricopa County election data and voting records via a grand jury subpoena, according to Just the News.

The probe reportedly involves allegations from the 2024 election that Runbeck Election Services, the private company that provides ballot printing and mail-in ballot services in 31 states and 54% of the nation’s voters, allegedly commingled voted ballots with blank ballots in multiple states. US Rep. Abe Hamadeh previously alerted the Department of Justice to these findings and demanded an investigation.

This also comes after the 2020 and 2022 elections, during which hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots were counted without chain-of-custody documentation and with mismatched signatures.

Per Just the News:

The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury probe, said FBI agents are receiving gigabytes of electronic election data from Maricopa County, about a month after the bureau first disclosed an investigation into election irregularities by raiding a warehouse near Atlanta and seizing ballots from the 2020 election conducted in Fulton County, Georgia’s largest metropolis.

...

Sources said the FBI is likely to execute searches and subpoenas in other states beyond Georgia and Arizona in coming weeks.

The bureau has been coy about the full extent of its probe, but the unsealed affidavit from its raid of Fulton County’s election center made clear the bureau is looking at possible violation of federal laws that require election administrators to follow state laws when sending out and counting ballots.

FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans told the court the bureau has "substantiated" some major irregularities in how votes were counted in Georgia's largest urban area in the aftermath of the 2020 election and is probing whether those failures were intentional efforts to violate federal election law.

Trump shared the report on Truth Social, commenting, "Great!!!"

Arizona State Senate President Warren Peterson further confirmed that the investigation is ongoing. "Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County. The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news," he said on X.

This is a developing story. 

The post JUST IN: Arizona Senate President Confirms “the FBI Has the Records” After FBI Seizes Maricopa County Election Records in Criminal Probe appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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