Panama City, Panama

The president of Panama denied Thursday that US military exercises on its soil were in any way a "hostile act against Venezuela."

US forces have carried out survival and combat exercises in Panama's Darien jungle bordering Colombia this year, and at a police base on the Caribbean coast.

They have coincided with a US military deployment against drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Pacific, which Venezuela claims is really a maneuver to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro.

Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino insisted Thursday the Central American country was not "lending out its territory for any type of hostile act against Venezuela or any other country in the world."

US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in Latin America have claimed at least 76 lives since September.

Washington has provided no evidence the boat occupants were traffickers, and rights groups say the strikes are illegal even if they were.

The US military exercises in Panama were made possible by a security agreement signed by the allies in April.

It sparked protests by Panamanians who oppose any perceived infringement of their country's sovereignty after a 1989 US invasion to depose then-leader General Manuel Noriega.

The agreement allows Washington, with Panamanian authorization, to use air and naval bases for "training" purposes for a renewable period of three years.

The agreement was signed amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to "take back" control of the Panama Canal that the United States built and controlled until 1999.

"There is no unauthorized military presence in Panama," said Mulino.

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