US Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Thursday met with representatives of several Latin American countries to discuss US security goals, saying that  drug cartels must be targeted more aggressively . The meeting comes as the Trump adminstration has pledged a renewed focus on Latin American, which it has described as the "Trump Corollary" to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine , which back then sought to ban European incursions in the Americas. The Pentagon-dubbed "Americas Counter Cartel Conference,"