The US is planning to conduct "land" operations against drug trafficking in Latin America together with its allies in the region, in addition to those it is already conducting in international waters against vessels that Washington believes are engaged in this activity, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said yesterday, Thursday, in Panama, Focus reports.
The US under Donald Trump took over the leadership of "America's Shield" – an alliance with a publicly stated goal of combating drug trafficking, which has been joined by about twenty countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Colombia, where the so-called "hard-right" president Ambelardo de la Espriega has been in power since August 7, is also expected to join this alliance.
Hegseth said that the United States wants to develop with its allies "operational capabilities similar to those you saw in the attacks on drug-trafficking vessels" in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.