United States military personnel recently began training in the Darién Jungle, in Panama, the first time this type of training has been carried out in the Caribbean country in more than 20 years.
According to information from the website specializing in military affairs Task & Purpose, American and Panamanian forces are undertaking a 21-day course that includes weapons training and survival exercises, such as water purification, building shelters and moving through dense vegetation.
Task & Purpose reported that this program is not directly related to the military operation that the United States is carrying out against vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, which Venezuela’s Chavista regime considers an excuse to remove dictator Nicolás Maduro from power.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said this Thursday (13) that the training is part of bilateral agreements signed with the United States.
“Regarding the situation in Venezuela, we have nothing to do with it, nor does Panama give up its territory for any type of hostile act against Venezuela or any other country in the world,” said Mulino at his weekly press conference, according to information from the EFE agency.
Venezuela and Panama have had diplomatic relations suspended since 2024, because the Panamanian government questioned the electoral fraud that kept Maduro in power.
In October, after the US sent the destroyer USS Gravely to Trinidad and Tobago for military exercises, Caracas accused the archipelago’s government of lending itself to a “CIA-led false flag operation” that would trigger an American invasion of Venezuela (which did not happen).
The Chavista regime suspended an energy agreement with Trinidad and Tobago and declared Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar persona non grata.
