The U.S. military is sending several hundred Army soldiers to Latin America for training and joint exercises with regional forces as the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against drug-trafficking networks, Fox News confirmed.
The force includes soldiers from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York. The first contingent from a battalion of roughly 600 troops is expected to deploy to Panama, according to The New York Times, which first reported the move.
A senior U.S. official told Fox News that the soldiers are being positioned forward under U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM, which will decide their final deployment locations.
The troops are expected to begin at a new jungle-training facility in Panama before conducting exercises with local forces in Colombia and Honduras, The Times reported.
U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Francis L. Donovan testifies during a Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 15, 2026. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
The soldiers may also assist U.S. special operations forces advising local militaries as they carry out raids targeting suspected drug traffickers, according to the outlet.
Separately, several hundred additional soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division are expected to help staff a new Western Hemisphere military command headquartered in Miami.
The deployments come as the Pentagon maintains a wider military campaign against suspected drug traffickers operating across Latin America and the Caribbean.
U.S. SOUTHCOM said it has directed USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) and USS Billings (LCS 15) to Venezuela to support State Department-led U.S. government relief operations in Venezuela. (@Southcom/X)
More than a year after the campaign began, U.S. forces have carried out dozens of strikes that have killed more than 235 people.
SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis Donovan has previously said the military was weighing potential operations against trafficking organizations on land.
“Do I see land strikes as options? Yes. We want all options at the table,” Donovan told The Wall Street Journal.
“Those actions might be strikes, arrests, or the takedown of a safe house,” he said. “It could even be something as routine as increasing the use of cargo scanners at border checkpoints.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveils Operation Southern Spear to dismantle narco-terror networks across Latin America. (Photo by Jeon Heon-Kyun – Pool/Getty Images)
Donovan said the broader objective was to impose “total systemic friction” on the cartels.
The Trump administration has also sought agreements with allied governments that could enable expanded U.S. military action against trafficking groups on land in several Latin American countries.
During an August visit to Panama, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to permit joint U.S. military operations against criminal groups inside their borders. Guatemala, however, denied that it had reached such an agreement.