Conservative President of Paraguay Santiago Peña on Thursday confirmed his participation at President Donald Trump’s upcoming “Shield of the Americas” Summit.
“Paraguay will be present at this important meeting, which will strengthen cooperation and joint efforts in favor of the security and stability of our nations,” Peña wrote on social media alongside a copy of the invitation.
Peña is among the first heads of state that has publicly confirmed his participation at the Summit, which will be hosted at Trump National Doral Miami on March 7. Further details of the upcoming event have not been publicly disclosed at press time.
Earlier this month, Argentine government sources told local outlets that President Trump had invited Javier Milei and other U.S.-friendly Latin American heads of state for an unnamed March 7 Summit on Florida. According to the reports, President Trump invited Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, and Honduras’s Nasry Asfura in addition to Peña and Milei.
The Costa Rican outlet The Tico Times reported on Thursday that outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves and conservative President-elect Laura Fernández also plan to attend the March 7 Summit. Chaves explained to reporters on Wednesday that “Shield of the Americas” is a U.S.-led initiative to “to shield Latin America from dangers such as narcotrafficking and targeted killings.”
“President Donald Trump invited a small group of Latin American colleagues to meet with him in Florida, at one of his hotels,” Chaves said, and detailed that about 12 to 13 counties are expected to participate.
President Santiago Peña was among the heads of state and representatives that participated in Thursday’s first formal meeting of the Board of Peace. Peña was among the first presidents to formally accept President Trump’s invitation to the international group in January.
Speaking at the meeting, Peña thanked President trump for bringing hope again.
“I think that, of the many things you [Trump] have achieved in the last 12 months as President of the U.S. I think the greatest thing — and I talk, I’m probably the youngest head of state here — is hope, President,” Peña said. “We have lost hope about solving problems for many, many decades.”
“A system that was broken, a system that was not able to bring solutions now we’re seeing that thanks to your leadership we’re solving the issues,” he continued.
Peña also met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday on the sidelines of the Board of Peace encounter in which Rubio expressed his gratitude for Paraguay’s continued support in the fight against narco-terrorism and strengthening security in the hemisphere.
“The Secretary thanked President Peña for his leadership in our region and reaffirmed the strong bilateral partnership between the United States and Paraguay. The Secretary commended continued progress on reforms to improve Paraguay’s investment climate for U.S. investors,” the State Department said in a statement.