President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at a ‘Shield of the Americas’ Summit on Saturday in Doral, Florida, an event that is billed by the White House as a ‘historic’ grouping of over 17 Latin American countries that are committed to cooperating with the U.S. in taking on the cartels and securing the American border following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Trump will host heads of state from 12 nations across the Western Hemisphere, according to a White House official.

They are:

• Argentinian President Javier Milei,
• Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz Pereira,
• Chilean President-elect Jose Antonio Kast
• Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles
• Dominican Republic’s President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona
• Ecuadorian President Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín
• El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele Ortez
• Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali
• Honduran President Tito Asfura
• Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino Quintero
• Paraguayan President Santiago Peña; and the
• President of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar

“On Saturday, the point of this newfound Latin America Summit is to promote freedom, security and prosperity in our region,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing this week.

“The President will be speaking with the leaders of this country who have really formed a historic coalition to work together to address criminal, narcoterrorist gangs and cartels encounter illegal and mass migration into not only the United States but the western hemisphere, which remains a key and top priority of this President,” she added.

Trump’s relationships with some Latin American leaders have turned tense at times and his policies have drawn criticism. Some leaders criticized the U.S. raid that captured Maduro as an attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty. Trump has also been critical of Mexico’s efforts to fight drug cartels and traded barbs with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. However, following the Jan. 3 Venezuela raid, the two leaders appeared to have patched up their differences. Trump invited Petro to the White House and the two issued complimentary statements.

The summit has shifted in prominence after Trump announced he was removing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from her post and shifting her to a new role as a special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas.”

Noem emailed DHS staff overnight on Thursday, informing them that her official final day at the department will be March 31 and writing, “In my new role, I will be able to build on the new partnerships and national security expertise I forged over my time as Secretary of Homeland Security.”

The summit also comes amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has resulted in major movements in the U.S. energy markets.

To combat the spikes in crude oil prices, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday on Fox that the U.S. was “drilling expeditiously here at home” and tapping into the new markets in Venezuela.