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The US is deploying several hundred soldiers to Latin America to train with regional forces as the Pentagon expands its campaign against drug trafficking groups, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The report, citing US military officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first elements of a 600-soldier battalion from the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, New York have begun moving into a new jungle training facility in Panama.
According to the report, the unit is expected to later train with forces in Colombia and Honduras and could support US Special Operations troops advising partner militaries on raids against suspected traffickers.
Other 10th Mountain soldiers are also set to staff a new Western Hemisphere operations command in Miami, according to the officials. They follow the recent transfer of several MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador and the creation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of an office to oversee counter-cartel operations.
Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said he could not recall a US deployment in the region approaching that size outside of invasions or disaster response.
The soldiers are due to take part later this month in a Colombia exercise known as Southern Vanguard. The rotations are temporary but could become a more permanent US presence, officials said.
Washington has pressed regional leaders to intensify offensives against trafficking groups and permit joint operations. Only a handful of countries, including Colombia and Honduras, have formally agreed. US Southern Command chief Gen. Francis Donovan has said operations will expand from boat strikes to land targets.
The military has carried out 71 boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 239 people it has alleged, without presenting evidence, were traffickers.
Legal experts have called the strikes unlawful, and human rights groups warn that land strikes could raise the risk of civilian casualties.
Some senior US officials have voiced concern that the administration has not set out a clear objective, the report said. One official warned that an attack on US troops could prompt escalation and draw already strained forces deeper into another conflict. Source: Anadolu.
