PANAMA CITY – A group of US soldiers carries out survival maneuvers and combat tactics in the Panamanian jungle, at a time when the United States increased its naval presence off the coast of Venezuela.
A dozen soldiers, armed with assault rifles, await orders with Panamanian police officers to assault a bunker at the former US military base in Sherman, located at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. Minutes before, they received instructions in English translated into Spanish in the small facility identified as “jungle survival school.”
Panama, with its canal as a strategic axis, has seen the transit of missile ships and destroyers heading to the Caribbean in the last six weeks. The former base, now Panamanian police headquarters, functions as a joint training camp between US and Panamanian forces.
This year’s course expanded survival training toward jungle tactics and tracking, according to Puerto Rican Col. Ada Cotto, commander of the U.S. contingent.
“Anti-narcotics operation”
These exercises are taking place while the Caribbean remains a scene of tension between the United States and the Maduro dictatorship. In August, Washington deployed an anti-narcotics operation with eight warships in international waters of the Caribbean, near the Venezuelan coast, after accusing the Venezuelan regime of leading drug cartels.
Although Colonel Cotto assures that “we are not preparing for anything” and that the training is “transparent and at the invitation of the government of Panama,” the naval deployment shows Washington’s pressure on an isolated regime accused of drug trafficking.
The bilateral agreement signed in April allows the deployment of US troops in Panama for training for three extendable years, consolidating strategic cooperation against a Venezuelan regime increasingly cornered internationally.
