WASHINGTON — Several hundred U.S. Army soldiers are heading to Latin America for jungle and partner-force training, the clearest sign yet that a drug-trafficking campaign that has killed more than 235 people in dozens of strikes may be moving onto land.
The soldiers are from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, and are being forward-staged under U.S. Southern Command, which will decide where they are ultimately used, a senior U.S. official told Fox News. They will go first to a new jungle training facility in Panama, then train with local forces in Colombia and Honduras, and could support U.S. special-operations personnel advising militaries that carry out raids on suspected drug traffickers. Several hundred more 10th Mountain soldiers are expected to help staff a new Western Hemisphere military command in Miami.
What is being assembled is the groundwork for operations ashore. Southern Command’s commander, Gen. Francis Donovan, has said land operations are under consideration, with options that include strikes, arrests or taking down a safe house, and has described the goal as “total systemic friction” for cartels, according to Fox. The administration is also pursuing agreements with allied nations that could allow such operations on land.
The consent behind those agreements is the weak point. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in August, during a visit to Panama, that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow joint operations against criminal groups, Fox News reported. Guatemala has denied reaching any such agreement. Washington has announced a partner’s permission that one of the named governments says it never gave.
The campaign itself is more than a year old. U.S. forces have conducted dozens of strikes, killing more than 235 people, Fox reported. TEH has reported on a strike on a suspected narco vessel that left survivors adrift in the Pacific.
Separately, Southern Command has directed two Navy ships, the USS Fort Lauderdale and the USS Billings, to Venezuela to support State Department-led relief operations.
Fox’s report gives no cost, no timeline beyond the first deployment to Panama, and no account of congressional or legal review of a move onto land.
