US to send Navy hospital ship to Colombia amid refugee crisis

Navy Times: The Pentagon is preparing to dispatch a hospital ship to Colombia and possibly other parts of South America to help relieve strain on health care systems overloaded by an influx of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have fled that crisis-racked nation, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday.

"It is absolutely a humanitarian mission," he told reporters returning with him to Washington after a six-day tour of South America.

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