US SENDS HUNDREDS OF TROOPS TO LATIN AMERICA FOR ANTI-DRUG TRAINING

Wed 21 October 2026:

Pentagon Expands Counter-Trafficking Campaign with New Deployments

The United States is sending several hundred soldiers to Latin America to train alongside regional militaries as the Pentagon steps up its efforts against drug trafficking organizations, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Citing US military officials who spoke anonymously, the report said the first members of a 600-soldier battalion from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, have started arriving at a new jungle training site in Panama.

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Training Planned in Colombia and Honduras

The unit is expected to conduct later training with forces in Colombia and Honduras and could assist US Special Operations troops who are advising partner militaries on raids targeting suspected traffickers.

Additional soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division are scheduled to staff a new Western Hemisphere operations command based in Miami, the officials said. The moves follow the recent relocation of several MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador, as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s creation of an office to manage counter-cartel operations.

Deployment Size Draws Notice

Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said he could not remember a US deployment in the region of comparable scale outside of invasions or disaster response.

The soldiers are set to join a Colombia exercise called Southern Vanguard later this month. Officials described the rotations as temporary but said they could evolve into a longer-term US presence.

Pressure for Joint Operations and Shift to Land Targets

Washington has urged regional governments to intensify campaigns against trafficking groups and allow joint operations. Only a small number of countries, including Colombia and Honduras, have formally agreed. Gen. Francis Donovan, head of US Southern Command, has stated that operations will expand from strikes on boats to targets on land.

The military has conducted 71 boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 239 people it has claimed, without providing evidence, were traffickers.

Concerns Over Legality and Escalation Risks

Legal experts have described the strikes as unlawful, and human rights organizations have cautioned that strikes on land could increase the chance of civilian deaths.

Some senior US officials have expressed worry that the administration has not defined a clear objective, the report said. One official cautioned that an attack on US troops could lead to escalation and pull already stretched forces further into another conflict.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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