Hegseth welcomes Colombia to counter-drug alliance after its election

PANAMA CITY, Aug 12 – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed Colombia on Wednesday into a military-led counter-narcotics coalition of like-minded Western Hemisphere nations following the inauguration of its conservative president last week. Ahead of a meeting with Colombia’s new Defense Minister Jorge Eduardo Mora, a retired major general, Hegseth said Colombia had also authorized “joint military operations to destroy terrorists and terror networks.” The meeting of the so-called Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition took place in Panama, whose canal became an early focus of President Donald Trump’s Latin America policy. That U.S. policy has expanded dramatically since then with the launch…