Peña Esclusa at Foro Madrid: From Hemispheric Security to Ibero-American Integration
Hemispheric Security, Brazil, and Ibero-American Integration
On September 3, 2026, the 5th Regional Meeting of Foro Madrid was held in Santiago, Chile. Alejandro Peña Esclusa participated as a panelist in the session entitled “The New Role of the United States in Ibero-America,” moderated by Venezuelan journalist Orlando Avendaño.
The panel also featured Brandon Judd, U.S. Ambassador to Chile; Mike González, Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation; and Eric Farnsworth, partner at Continental Strategy and former official at the White House, the U.S. Department of State, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The following is an edited version of Peña Esclusa’s remarks during the meeting.
Drug Trafficking as a Form of Warfare
Orlando Avendaño: Alejandro, the developments we have analyzed point to a significant setback for the São Paulo Forum’s project, a subject you have studied for so many years that you have probably become one of its foremost experts. The new U.S. foreign policy, accompanied by the advance of right-wing forces in the region—driven to a large extent by Javier Milei’s victory—has contributed to marginalizing that project.
However, there is still a perception that politics moves like a pendulum and that, in a few years, those forces could return to power. Is their return inevitable? How can the current shift be consolidated so that it endures beyond the Trump administration and does not depend on who occupies the U.S. presidency? Ultimately, what must be done to ensure that this transformation of the hemisphere is stable and lasting?
The great achievement of the Shield of the Americas and the new U.S. National Security Strategy is their recognition that drug trafficking constitutes a form of warfare and therefore cannot be confronted solely through law-enforcement measures. It is a form of hybrid warfare that destroys institutions, corrupts states, and causes more casualties than many conventional conflicts.
The designation of drug-trafficking organizations as terrorist organizations activates more effective legal, financial, and military mechanisms to combat them. This new approach has made it possible to act against figures and structures that for years appeared untouchable, from Nicolás Maduro to the major cartel leaders. Defeating these organizations is an indispensable condition for consolidating the process of political recovery currently taking place across the region.
Brazil, the Decisive Challenge
The main remaining obstacle lies in Brazil. To consolidate the Shield of the Americas, democratic and conservative forces must win the upcoming Brazilian elections. Brazil is not just another country: it is the largest and most populous nation in the region, one of the world’s ten largest economies, and it shares borders with ten South American countries. Its political orientation can determine the balance of the entire hemisphere.
Lula da Silva has been unwilling to bring Brazil into the Shield of the Americas. There are several reasons for this. First, he is one of the founders of the São Paulo Forum and has maintained a longstanding relationship with the forces that make up that organization. Brazil’s actions during the Honduran crisis involving Manuel Zelaya are just one of numerous examples of that political solidarity.
Second, during Lula’s successive administrations, the relationship between Brazil and China deepened dramatically. Since he first came to power, bilateral trade has increased seventeenfold, and Brazil’s trade with China came to double its trade with the United States. That economic dependence has acquired a clear geopolitical dimension.
Third, Lula reacted negatively to the U.S. decision to treat the Comando Vermelho and the Primeiro Comando da Capital, two of Brazil’s most powerful criminal organizations, as terrorist organizations.
Finally, he participated as a central figure in the Global Progressive Mobilization summit held in Barcelona, which was aimed at internationally coordinating the progressive response to Donald Trump’s policies.
For these reasons, the Brazilian election will be decisive. Without Brazil, consolidating a common security architecture will be far more difficult; with Brazil, the Shield of the Americas could acquire a truly continental dimension.
Por estas razones, la elección brasileña será decisiva. Sin Brasil resultará mucho más difícil consolidar una arquitectura común de seguridad; con Brasil, el Escudo de las Américas podría adquirir verdadera dimensión continental.
From Security to Prosperity
The fundamental question is how to prevent the region from continuing to swing indefinitely from one political tide to another. Today, we have a historic opportunity unlike any we have had in a century: to transform this new hemispheric security environment into economic integration and lasting prosperity.
Ibero-America can constitute a common market of approximately 600 million people, most of whom speak closely related languages and share cultural roots and a Judeo-Christian vision of society. That scale represents enormous economic, political, and strategic power. Harnessing it would allow us to revitalize our economies, attract investment, and provide better opportunities for our people.
Previous efforts—such as Mercosur or the Andean Pact—failed to achieve full integration because integration cannot exist solely on paper or through trade agreements. It requires physical integration: railways, highways, river systems, energy networks, ports, and pipelines that effectively connect our countries.
For decades, drug trafficking and guerrilla groups made such infrastructure impossible. Roads, pipelines, and other strategic projects were attacked, sabotaged, or subjected to extortion by armed organizations. The security provided by the Shield of the Americas can create the conditions necessary to overcome that obstacle and move toward genuine integration.
Security is not an end in itself. It must pave the way for economic development and, through it, for solutions to the everyday problems faced by our people: better jobs, healthcare, and education. Just as the Shield of the Americas requires cooperation from everyone, economic development must also be a shared undertaking.
The combination of the new U.S. policy, the electoral victories of the right, and a growth program based on an Ibero-American common market can turn our region, as has been said at this meeting, into the continent of hope.
Venezuela: Stability, Legitimacy, and Transition
Orlando Avendaño: Alejandro, is the job done in Venezuela?
A momentous change has taken place in Venezuela, but there is still a risk that must be addressed. Venezuelans welcomed with satisfaction and gratitude the impeccable Operation Absolute Resolve, which culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro. However, that support does not mean that the Venezuelan people accept the interim administration headed by Delcy Rodríguez and linked to Diosdado Cabello.
Those of us who suffered persecution under Chavismo cannot ignore that reality. In my case, I spent a year imprisoned in El Helicoide and was persecuted for ten years by the apparatus built by Chávez and continued by Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and Delcy Rodríguez. As an analyst, I understand that some of these actors may prove functional during a provisional stage; as a Venezuelan and as a victim, I also understand the profound rejection they provoke.
That rejection constitutes a political risk. At certain moments, wounds, indignation, and passions can prevail over strategic reasoning. Therefore, provisional stability must lead unequivocally to a democratic transition, rather than to the permanence of the structures responsible for the country’s destruction.
A Debt of Gratitude to Chile
My presence in Santiago also holds profound personal significance. During the 4th Regional Meeting of Foro Madrid, held in Paraguay, I thanked the Paraguayan Congress for its efforts on behalf of my release. At this fifth meeting, I would like to express the same gratitude to the Chilean Congress.
While I was imprisoned in Venezuela, the Chilean Congress approved, almost unanimously, a resolution calling for my release. Members of parliament from Chile and other countries in the Americas also traveled to Venezuela to directly demand my release from Hugo Chávez’s government. That solidarity was extremely important to me and to my family.
Throughout all these years, I had never had the opportunity to come to Chile in person. Today, at last, I am able to do so and to express my gratitude for that resolution and for the commitment of those who defended my freedom when I needed it most. I am deeply happy and grateful to be here.
