Female and male soldiers of the U.S. Army as well as the Colombian Army are training through mid-November in Colombia at the annual exercise Southern Vanguard, including jungle warfare, handling of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), maritime interception actions, cyber warfare, and security measures. About 400 Colombians and 350 Americans are participating. Although the year is not over yet, the current edition of the exercise series is running under the designation Southern Vanguard 2027, after Southern Vanguard 2026 already took place in Peru several months earlier.
The 41st exercise of the long-running series would otherwise not be particularly noteworthy, but it is part of the new U.S. concentration on its Latin American backyard. An expression of this focus, which is codified in the National Defense Strategy of the Trump administration from the previous year. By late 2025 the U.S. Army had already stood up its new Western Hemisphere Command to lead operations in this geographic area. This also includes a stronger emphasis on jungle warfare capabilities.
Increased Focus on Jungle Warfare Training
In August 2025 the Jungle Operations Training Course in Panama (JOTC-P) was revived and the number of participants increased. They learn in Phase 1 of the course basic skills from predominantly Panamanian instructors, such as machete handling, fire-making, drinking-water procurement, and shelter-building. In Phase 2, predominantly U.S. instructors teach small-unit tactics including ambushes, wounded-person evacuation, and movements on the water. Phase 3 comprises combined operations with reconnaissance and assault missions, culminating in the endurance test “Green Mile.”
Colombian soldiers are also expected to participate soon in the course known as the “Green Hell.” Recently Colombia had already participated in the multinational PANAMAZ exercise for the defense of the Panama Canal Zone. The countries are also members of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C), launched on March 7, widely known as Shield of the Americas (SotA). In this, the U.S. works with 17 Latin American partners with the aim of further combating transnational crime, especially against drug cartels.
Indirect Link Between Southern Vanguard and China Policy
Notably, the new National Defense Strategy prioritizes defending U.S. territory and the Western Hemisphere against containment by strategic competitors such as Russia and China, while exercises like Southern Vanguard are also framed as countering Chinese influence in Latin America. Thus, General Joseph R. Ryan, commander of the Western Hemisphere Command, stated in October that the “economic dominance” of the U.S. in the region is a primary objective of American security planning.
Over the last two decades, control of the economic terrain there has been ceded to the People’s Republic of China, which poses a grave threat to national security. The discussion in the U.S. touched, among other things, on Chinese port concessions at both ends of the Panama Canal, which Panama had reversed earlier this year. From the conservative side, China is also criticized as a producer of precursors for the fentanyl painkiller, which significantly contributes to the American drug problem. This is, however, often mixed with topics such as drug enforcement and customs policy by the Trump administration.
