Personnel from the 10th Mountain Division battalion, based at Fort Drum, New York, have already begun moving to a new jungle training facility in Panama. From there, military rotations will continue to Colombia and Honduras to participate in exercises with the forces of those countries.
That is the information published this Wednesday, October 14, by The New York Times (NYT). The movement of troops, if true, would fall within the framework of the Shield of the Americas initiative, a U.S.-led coalition to combat drug trafficking and terrorism in the region.
For now, these are some 600 U.S. Army soldiers arriving in Latin America to conduct exercises and training with local forces, as part of the expansion of its campaign against drug trafficking in the region, NYT reported, citing U.S. military officials whom it did not fully identify.
In Colombia, the soldiers will participate in the Southern Vanguard exercise, scheduled to begin this month. Some may also provide security for U.S. helicopters and support special operations forces advising local military personnel in actions against suspected drug traffickers, according to the officials cited by the newspaper.
The Movement of Troops Adds to the Deployment of Drones
The deployment is part of a broader strategy by Donald Trump’s government to increase military pressure on the cartels. The Pentagon also plans to assign several hundred soldiers from the same division to a new command center for operations in the Western Hemisphere, based in Miami.
The movement of these troops adds to the transfer of MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador, an action that was also first reported by the same U.S. newspaper.
According to the U.S. Air Force, MQ-9 Reapers are used primarily as a resource for gathering intelligence and, secondarily, against dynamic execution targets, that is, for carrying out bombings.
In addition, Washington is promoting a coalition of 19 regional partners to combat criminal organizations. However, only some countries, including Colombia and Honduras, have officially accepted joint operations within their territories.
The troops will initially have temporary assignments, although officials cited by the newspaper indicated that these rotations could become a more permanent presence. The Pentagon did not comment on the details of the deployment but stated that it seeks to deepen cooperation with its allies to confront criminal networks in the region.