Last week, approximately 350 US military personnel joined more than 400 Colombian soldiers for a weeks-long military exercise. The joint training program, “Exercise Southern Vanguard 2027,” comes as the Pentagon has been working to pivot toward prioritizing defense of the US Homeland and the Western Hemisphere.
The exercise, which is expected to run until mid-November, includes jungle warfare, counter-IED tactics, maritime interdiction, cyber warfare, ground security, and medical evacuation. Colombian Brig. Gen. Edilberto Cortés welcomed US soldiers and touted the “long strategic partnership” of the two nations.
That relationship has grown much closer since the summer, when the “Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled ‘outsider'” Abelardo de la Espriella was elected president. He campaigned on cracking down on drug cartels and rebels with the military, and Southern Vanguard is part of his work to keep that promise.
Southern Vanguard is hosted by the Colombian Army and led by the US Army Western Hemisphere Command. The Western Command was established last year as part of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s directive to build a leaner, more lethal force.
During a US Army conference in October, the commander of US Army Western Hemisphere Command, Gen. Joseph Ryan, said “economic supremacy” in the entire hemisphere was part of his mission. “We have ceded control of that economic terrain in this hemisphere to the People’s Republic of China over at least the last two decades, and that is a major threat to our national security.”
Ryan said the US military intended to “expand its footprint” in Central and South America. This, combined with Hegseth’s vow earlier this year to secure “Greater North America,” is Washington’s new grand strategy in the Western Hemisphere.
The relationship between the US and Colombian militaries has involved more than training exercises. The US has been assisting both Colombia and Venezuela, which share a 1,378-mile-long border, in targeting the National Liberation Army (known in Spanish as the ELN). The ELN is a Colombian leftist rebel group and alleged cocaine trafficker that President Espriella has vowed to crush.
The ELN has historically used Venezuela as its strategic depth. In January, however, the US military abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and made Secretary of State Marco Rubio the de facto overlord. With both the Colombian and Venezuelan governments aligned with D.C., the fight against the ELN has become more coordinated.
On October 30, the US military assisted Venezuela in conducting a drone strike on a group of ELN members near the Colombian border, killing approximately 23 people. On Saturday, the ELN launched its own drone attack on a Colombian military base, killing at least three soldiers. Escalation seems unavoidable given the positions articulated in Bogotá, Caracas, and Washington.
