Key Factors
- The U.S. is investing $11 million and embedding Inexperienced Beret trainers inside Paraguay’s particular forces by means of 2029 — its deepest navy dedication in South America exterior Colombia
- Paraguay sits on the crossroads of South America’s strongest drug trafficking networks, however critics say Washington’s actual curiosity is strategic positioning towards China and Brazil
- The deal has divided the area: supporters see a lifeline towards organized crime, opponents see the return of Chilly Battle-era navy affect over a weak nation
Paraguay hardly ever makes worldwide headlines. A landlocked nation of seven million folks squeezed between Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia, it’s principally identified — when it’s identified in any respect — for reasonable electronics markets on the Brazilian border and one in every of South America’s most entrenched ruling events.
That modified quietly in latest months. American Inexperienced Berets are actually dwelling on a Paraguayan navy base in Asunción, coaching an elite commando unit.
The U.S. Southern Command has pledged $11 million over 5 years in weapons, night-vision gear, and tactical training.
Fifty rifles, 100 pistols, and 100 night-vision units have already been delivered. The trainers belong to the seventh Particular Forces Group, the identical unit that helped Colombia dismantle the FARC.
The reason being geography. Paraguay is a freeway for cocaine shifting from Bolivia and Colombia into Brazil and onward to Europe and Africa.
U.S. Army Footprint Expands In Paraguay
Brazil’s strongest felony group, the First Capital Command, has practically 700 recognized members working contained in the nation and controls over 200 irregular border crossings.
A small Marxist guerrilla group, the EPP, nonetheless holds a former vp kidnapped in 2020. However the navy deal goes past crime-fighting.
In December 2025, Washington and Asunción signed a Standing of Forces Settlement granting American troops diplomatic immunity on Paraguayan soil.
Weeks earlier, the Trump administration lifted corruption sanctions on former president Horacio Cartes, the political godfather of the present authorities.
Paraguay additionally signed an asylum-transfer take care of Washington, and stays one in every of simply twelve international locations recognizing Taiwan over China.
Left-leaning analysts throughout the area name this a contemporary Monroe Doctrine — the USA quietly planting a navy footprint subsequent door to Brazil.
President Lula has warned that international interventions in Latin America threat inflicting extra hurt than they stop.
Paraguayan and American officers counter that no everlasting base is deliberate and that the nation merely can not struggle transnational crime alone with a navy finances the place eighty p.c goes to salaries.
What makes this story matter past South America is what it reveals about how great-power competitors really works in 2026.
Not by means of plane carriers or invasions, however by means of coaching packages, authorized frameworks, and small international locations prepared to say sure.
