US Army to stage counter-drug training exercises in South America

The Army is looking to refocus its U.S. Southern Command exercises to focus on counter-cartel operations, Gen. Joe Ryan, who heads Army Western Hemisphere Command, said Monday at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The move is part of the nascent command’s mission to build a “theater Army,” Ryan said, above and beyond the largely partner training and disaster response missions its U.S. Army North and South predecessors maintained. 

“I think what you're going to see ,where we've perhaps done some exercises in the past that were relationship-building exercises to a point, we are going to focus our exercise program going forward to really be focused on those things that contribute to the counter designated terrorist organization threat and cartel threat in the region," he said.

Ryan said the review was directed by SOUTHCOM’s commander, Marine Gen. Frank Donovan, “to better align with current federal priorities and strategy.”

Those priorities include the latest National Defense Strategy’s shift that puts defending the homeland at the top of the list, with the Western Hemisphere as the Pentagon’s priority theater, a concept dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine.”

That focus on SOUTHCOM gave rise to the administration’s strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. 

“Make no mistake; these are designated terrorist organizations," Ryan said. "They are global economic syndicates that have created a business model that is survivable, has survived over decades, and will continue to survive unless we disrupt the economic side of it."

At the same time, the Army is also beefing up its ability to do the legacy mission of crisis response in SOUTHCOM, Ryan said. The service recently got approval to move more aviation assets and personnel down south, to help move people and supplies.

"We're going to grow that footprint down there, where it's a relatively modest footprint to date, given the responsibilities it's tended to, and we're going to give them more aircraft, more crews, more maintainers here over the next couple of fiscal years, to help them address some of the natural disasters and threats in the region," Ryan said. "Because those things become absolutely critical when you're talking about moving supplies, moving people to the point in need, and making assessments."