US Marines to train in Panama as regional tensions rise
PANAMA CITY
United States Marines will hold a joint training exercise in the Panamanian jungle with local security forces to "strengthen regional security," Panama's government said as tensions rise between nearby Venezuela and Washington.
The exercise will take place from Oct. 9 to 29 and involve 50 Marines.
Panama does not have its own army. Its security forces are made up of the police, border police and coastguard.
The security ministry said the training aimed to "increase interoperability, improve capabilities, and strengthen regional security in one of the most demanding environments on the planet."
The announcement comes amid fears of a U.S. attack in Venezuela, which lies around 925 kilometres east of Panama, on the Caribbean coast.
U.S. President Donald Trump has sent eight warships and a nuclear submarine to the southern Caribbean as part of a stated plan to combat drug trafficking, but which appears chiefly aimed at pressuring his arch-foe Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
U.S. forces have destroyed at least three suspected drug boats in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing 14 people.
Trump has also sent 10 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, a U.S. Caribbean territory north of Venezuela.
The naval build-up is the biggest in the region since the December 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States.
The presence of U.S. troops in the Central American country has been a sensitive issue ever since the intervention to topple Panamanian leader General Manuel Noriega, which caused hundreds of civilian deaths.
