By Phil Stewart, Ryan Patrick Jones and Doina Chiacu
MIAMI, March 5 (Reuters) - White House official Stephen Miller told a gathering of Latin American military leaders on Thursday that drug cartels can only be defeated with military force.
The comments make explicit a shift in U.S. policy under President Donald Trump that has seen the Pentagon regularly blowing up suspected drug boats, seize the president of Venezuela in January and aid Mexico last month in its operation to capture that country's most wanted cartel boss.
"We have learned after decades of effort that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem," Miller, White House homeland security advisor, told Latin American defense leaders gathered at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters.
"The reason why this is a conference with military leadership and not a conference of lawyers is because these organizations can only be defeated with military power."
Legal experts and Democrats have questioned the legality of the U.S. strategy, disputing Trump administration policy that equates drug traffickers with members of terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and Islamic State.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Florida; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Susan Heavey and Chizu Nomiyama)
