US expands military campaign against drug cartels in Latin America

The US is sending hundreds of soldiers to Latin America as the Pentagon widens its campaign against drug traffickers, The New York Times reported.

A 600-strong battalion is reportedly being deployed to Panama; the head of a research group that tracks such deployments said he could not recall one “that ever came close to 600 except for contingencies like invasions or natural disasters.”

President Donald Trump has made fighting cartels a priority of his second term, but US strikes on alleged drug traffickers have done little to dent the global cocaine trade, with shipments rising to record levels. Washington’s policy “is more about visibility and narrative… than one that genuinely disrupts organized crime,” an expert told The Wall Street Journal.