The United States has deployed several hundred soldiers to Latin America to conduct training with regional armed forces, as the Pentagon significantly expands its military campaign against narcotics trafficking networks, The New York Times reported.
Citing unnamed US military officials, the report stated that initial elements of a 600-soldier battalion from the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, New York, have begun occupying a newly established jungle training facility in Panama.
The personnel are scheduled to train alongside armed forces in Colombia and Honduras, with potential missions supporting US Special Operations troops advising partner units on direct counter-cartel raids.
Other division personnel will help staff a newly formed Western Hemisphere operations command in Miami.
The troop movements follow the redeployment of multiple MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador, alongside the establishment of a dedicated counter-cartel oversight office by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Southern Vanguard
The deployed soldiers will participate later this month in the Southern Vanguard joint military exercises in Colombia.
While US officials described the deployments as rotational, they acknowledged the mission could evolve into an enduring regional military presence.
Washington continues to lobby regional governments to authorise combined operations and escalate offensives against cartels, though only a few countries—including Colombia and Honduras—have formally agreed.
To date, the US military has executed 71 boat strikes across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 239 individuals it claimed, without making evidence public, were narcotics traffickers.
