India, Aug. 17 -- Hundreds of people have been killed in the year since the US military began bombing boats it accused of ferrying drugs off Latin America's Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

Now, the Trump administration says it is seeking to extend that lethal campaign to land, pursuing deals that would put US forces on the ground in allied nations across the region.

President Donald Trump's defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced last week during a visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the US to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil, following Ecuador, which launched similar missions with the US in March. Guatemala, however, has denied reaching such an agreement. ...