America Security News.- President Barack Obama and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, right, leave a joint news conference in Mexico City, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Credit to AP Photo

Last week, Mr. Obama returned to capitals in Latin America with a vastly different message. Relationships with countries racked by drug violence and organized crime should focus more on economic development and less on the endless battles against drug traffickers and organized crime capos that have left few clear victors. The countries, Mexico in particular, need to set their own course on security, with the United States playing more of a backing role.READ WHOLE ARTICLE HERE

The Americas Post - Does the UN have any real hope of accomplishing more than hand-wringing?

Senior United Nations officials yesterday drew the world’s attention to threats posed by transnational organized crime and drug trafficking in Central America and called for concerted global efforts to combat the scourge, which they said was spreading to other regions.

“Countries in Central America face a tide of violence, born of transnational organized crime and drug trafficking,” the President of the General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, said at the opening in New York of the United Nations General Assembly’s thematic debate on “Security in Central America as a regional and global challenge: how to improve and implement the Central American security strategy”.

The debate was aimed at highlighting the individual and collective fight of Central American Governments against transnational organized crime, the focus on that subject in the framework of United Nations policies and actions and the importance of cooperation with, and the support of, the donor community. In June last year, the region’s Heads of State adopted a Central American regional security strategy.

In his opening remarks, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “Caught between drug-producing countries in the South and some of the major consumer countries in the North, proximity has encouraged criminality in the region.”

He highlighted the fact that Central America had become the region with the highest homicide rates in the world: 39 murders per 100,000 citizens in Guatemala, 72 per 100,000 in El Salvador and 86 per 100,000 in Honduras.

Mr. Ban noted that the narcotics problem was not confined to Central America, pointing out that the region was a “bridge” to North America and that the Americas were, in general, a “staging post” for Europe, through trafficking routes in West and Central Africa.

“All of this underscores the need to go beyond a regional approach. Our world is interconnected. Our challenges are linked. Our solutions must be, too,” said Mr. Ban. “That is why, last year, I established the task force on transnational organized crime and drug trafficking. Our approach is rooted in the rule of law and respect for human rights.”

The task force was set up in March 2011 to integrate responses to transnational organized crime into United Nations activities relating to peacekeeping, peacebuilding, security and development, with UNODC and the Department of Political Affairs as co-chairs.

In his message to the thematic debate, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said that the multifaceted, interconnected nature of drugs and crime called for interregional approaches.

To help counter the threat of drugs and crime in Central America, Mr. Fedotov announced that UNODC had created a regional hub in Panama for Central America and the Caribbean which would link with a reprofiled office in Mexico and other countries in the region.

At the tactical level, Mr. Fedotov said that UNODC was establishing centres of excellence in Mexico on public security statistics and in the Dominican Republic on prison reform and drug demand reduction. The Government of Panama, with the technical support of UNODC, had also established a regional anti-corruption academy.

Mr. Fedotov announced that UNODC would soon release a threat assessment for the region to improve understanding of the situation in Central America and the Caribbean.

The Americas Post - In spite of a sex scandal, the Summit of the Americas wasn't all fun and games

In response to growing bilateral and multilateral dialogues on citizen security, Presidents Obama and Santos met today on the margins of the VI Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, and agreed to deepen coordination of ongoing security cooperation activities throughout the hemisphere and West Africa. Both presidents agreed to formalize this coordination in the form of a U.S.-Colombia Action Plan on Regional Security Cooperation. These efforts are in response to increasing insecurity generated by transnational organized crime (TOC) and draw on Colombia’s established and expanding expertise and capacity for countering this threat and shared U.S. responsibility to address the demand for illicit narcotics. The plan formalizes the security coordination and cooperation component of the inaugural U.S.-Colombia High-Level Strategic Security Dialogue (HLSSD) which took place on February 23 in Washington, D.C. The HLSSD aims to broaden the decades-long U.S.-Colombian security partnership. This new plan paves the way for future cooperation through a strategic and formal partnership. Accordingly, coordinated Colombian and U.S. law enforcement and defense support can more effectively counter the threats of transnational organized crime and strengthen partner institutions.

Action Plan on Regional Security Cooperation

The Americas Post - A Mara-Zeta alliance could soon lead to a few new tattoo designs

Guatemalan authorities have begun to see disturbing evidence of an alliance between the Mara Salvatrucha street gang and another of the most feared  criminal organizations in Latin America — a deal that could set back U.S.-backed efforts to fight violent crime and narcotics  trafficking in Central America.

Jailhouse recordings and a turncoat kidnapper describe a pact between leaders of the Maras and the Zetas, the brutal Mexican paramilitary drug cartel that now controls much of rural northern Guatemala to dominate drug-trafficking routes from South America to the United States.

In recent months authorities have seen Zetas providing paramilitary training and equipment to the Maras in  exchange for intelligence and crimes meant to divert law-enforcement attention.

Launched a decade ago by defectors from Mexico’s army special forces, the Zetas have already joined local druglords in the Guatemalan countryside and recruited Guatemalan special forces soldiers for operations in Mexico and Guatemala, officials in both countries have said.

There is some evidence that other Mexican cartels have paid Central American  street gangs to sell drugs for them. And Salvadoran authorities said they are aware of informal links between the Zetas and local Mara Salvatrucha bands paid to sell individual shipments of drugs, but officials have seen no formal alliance between the gangs.  A durable treaty with the Maras could bring the Zetas thousands  of new foot soldiers, extending the cartel’s reach into the cities of Guatemala and other countries in Central America where the Maras dominate urban slums.

Guatemalan authorities report that Zetas have trained a small group of Maras in at least one camp in Mexico. Zeta members have spoken of recruiting 5,000 more but their progress on that is unclear, officials said.

Secret recordings of jailhouse conversations between Zeta and Mara leaders mention a deal between the two groups, according to high-ranking investigators.

Previously armed mainly with handguns, Maras, recognizable by intimidating,  dark tattoos that cover swaths of their bodies and often their faces, have begun  carrying AR-15, M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles and military fragmentation  grenades.  In the city of Villanueva in January, a group of Maras armed with assault  rifles burst into a suburban disco and opened fire on a meeting of rivals,  killing five people.

The Zetas’ ultimate goal, according to analysts and  international officials, is to integrate the Maras into their network and become  the most powerful group in Guatemala — criminal or legitimate.

“The Zetas are a paramilitary organization that wants to control all the  legitimate, illegitimate and criminal activities in Guatemala,” said Antonio  Mazzitelli, regional head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Organized  Crime.

Miguel Angel Galvez, a judge who hears narcotics and organized crime cases,  said the Mara-Zeta alliance was increasingly evident in the cases he hears, and  had been documented in notebooks found on arrested Zetas that detailed payments  to Mara members.

“The Zetas come to a group like the Maras and grab total control,” he  said.

Authorities learned of the alliance after arresting 50 suspected Zeta  members linked to a May 14 massacre on a cattle farm in Petén province that left  27 people dead, 25 of them decapitated, another law-enforcement official said on condition of anonymity for his own personal safety.

The suspects were incarcerated together with Maras, and their secretly recorded conversations contained the first mention of an alliance, the official said.

The Zetas expressed the desire to completely integrate with the Zeta members  of the Mara Salvatrucha and are providing them with military training and  indoctrination in Mexican camps.  Mexican officials have dismantled Zeta training camps in the state of Nuevo  León but declined to comment on the Guatemalan claims. U.S. officials in  Guatemala also declined to comment.

The Americas Post - William R. Brownfield is trying to do more with less these days. Photo Credit: State Dept

From congressional testimony by William R. Brownfield Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Statement Before the House Appropriations Committee

Washington, DC March 29, 2012

The persistently high homicide and crime rates throughout Central America, the Caribbean, and the horrific violence inside Mexico, are symptoms of a broader climate of insecurity throughout the region, exacerbated by widespread poverty and unemployment. This is brought into focus as criminal organizations react to pressure by governments in the region with support from the United States. These threaten good governance, citizen security, and the rule of law. Absent these fundamental principles, transnational crime, gangs, and other illicit activity flourish in many countries, threatening stability and public security.

To counter these threats, this Administration has advanced an integrated approach of U.S. assistance programs, from traditional prevention, law enforcement and counternarcotics programs, to anti-corruption, judicial reform, anti-gang, community policing, and corrections efforts. We are transforming our relationship with foreign partners by moving from the traditional donor-recipient relationship to one built on equal partnerships that involve shared responsibility. We work with host nation officials and our partners in the U.S. government, as well as with other donors, such as Colombia, to strengthen the justice sector institutions, including the judiciary, police and corrections. We coordinate with others in the U.S. government who work with communities, civil society, and the private sector, recognizing that security solutions require a whole of society approach.  Governments have the responsibility to protect their citizens, to deal with crime and violence so that these issues remain or become law enforcement problems, not national security threats.

The Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), Mérida Initiative, Colombian Strategic Development Initiative (CSDI), and Caribbean Basin Security Initiatives (CBSI) embrace this approach. They are partnerships in which governments have collaborated with the United States on the development of joint programs and initiatives that are aimed at protecting citizens and strengthening the institutions responsible for ensuring citizen safety.

Support for Central America

Today, some 95 percent of the cocaine from South America destined for the U.S. transits the Central America/Mexico corridor. With these activities comes violence: Battles between criminal groups for territory and transit routes; clashes between criminals and law enforcement; and violent crime fueled by drug consumption, all with the motive of profit. In 2008, anticipating that Mexico’s efforts would result in movement of trafficking routes elsewhere, the U.S. government formed a partnership with Central American nations to enhance their security capacity. CARSI is the resulting program.

CARSI works to increase the capacity of law enforcement to combat drug traffickers and provide public security, support prevention efforts targeting at-risk youth and communities susceptible to crime and recruitment by gangs and traffickers, and strengthen justice sector institutions. While CARSI prioritizes the so-called “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where the levels of violence are most severe and stability most threatened, the program works throughout the region to improve citizen security.

Our government has committed $231 million in INCLE funding for technical assistance and training for CARSI between Fiscal Years 2008 and 2011, and we seek an additional $85 million for CARSI under the INCLE account in Fiscal Year 2012. Our programs are showing results. In a short period, crime rates have dropped where we provide targeted training, equipment, and support. For example, in Lourdes, El Salvador – where INL has a Model Police Precinct – crime rates are down 40 percent over the past year. We have similar model precincts in Guatemala and are starting others in Honduras. Our support to law enforcement is also gaining traction, with specialized vetted units, overall police reform efforts, and targeted training with our partners from Colombia and Mexico in Central America.

Governments in the region increasingly recognize the need to invest in their own security and support investments in citizen security programs, judicially authorized wiretapping programs, extradition, and asset forfeiture. Change is slow, as corruption and impunity remains widespread. We are accelerating programs, including a full-fledged Narcotics Affairs Sections in San Salvador and Tegucigalpa, and enhancing coordination across the interagency to identify opportunities and de-conflict programs.

The regional nature of transnational crime and violence has prompted  unprecedented international support for citizen security in Central America, including the Group of Friends of Central America. We are working with the Central America Integration System (SICA) to address our common challenges.

Mérida/Mexico

In Mexico we continue to see shocking killings and violence; however, the Government of Mexico, with assistance from the United States through the Mérida Initiative, has had results. The resources you have provided to the INL Bureau, approximately $1.1 billion in INCLE funds for Mérida since its inception, have helped the Government of Mexico, together with its United States partner departments and agencies, to continue turning the tables on the cartels. Funds appropriated in Fiscal Year 2012, approximately $249 million, along with our request for Fiscal Year 2013, $199 million, will ensure continued and sustainable progress. Through bilateral law enforcement cooperation, 47 high value targets have been arrested or removed in Mexico, including 23 of Mexico’s top 37 most wanted criminals, since December 2009. This aggressive and coordinated approach to dismantle and disrupt drug cartels has included an institutional focus on all elements of the justice sector and civil society. The Government of Mexico, through our Mérida Initiative is transforming Mexico’s security forces and has strengthened Mexican government institutions to confront trafficking organizations and associated crime, and maintain public trust and citizen security.

Through the Mérida Initiative, the mobility of Mexico’s security forces has increased significantly. Thanks to your support, the United States has already delivered eight Bell helicopters to Mexico’s Army (SEDENA), three Black Hawk helicopters to Mexico’s Navy (SEMAR), and four Black Hawk helicopters to Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) and its Federal Police. As a practical example of the initiative’s impact, Mérida provided Black Hawks were responsible for enabling Mexico’s high profile operations against the La Familia cartel in Michoacán in December 2010, and another operation against Los Zetas in Nuevo Leon in September 2011. Neither of these operations would have been possible without the air mobility provided and well trained Mexican personnel traveling onboard.

In another example, Mérida Initiative training, provided through U.S. agency implementers, has reached more than 52,000 federal police, justice sector officials, and state police officials providing lessons on leadership, accountability, and management. As a result of our training, and the Government of Mexico’s revolutionary reforms, the new cadre of security officers and officials is more impervious to coercion and corruption by transnational criminals and the federal government in Mexico now has its own polygraph capacity to vet personnel through two certified federal and 15 state polygraph centers.

The Mérida Initiative shows the importance of syncing our assistance in equipment and training for the government of Mexico with programs that enable Mexican communities to work with government entities to improve their security. When material resources, training, and community programs complement each other, the outcome is more successful and sustainable. Through one Mérida program, for example, our partners at USAID have delivered over 40 small grants to nongovernmental organizations that have resulted in programs for at-risk youth and other programs that reduce violence against women, improve mental health, strengthen community cohesion, and improve education. Another program through Mérida has provided classroom lessons on the culture of lawfulness and ethics to more than 600,000 students and 14,000 teachers, in some 7,000 separate schools located in 24 Mexican States.

As in other parts of the hemisphere, our strategy through Mérida was not singularly focused on cartels, but rather a long term institution building strategy in partnership with the Government of Mexico.

Colombia: An Exporter of Regional Security

Best practices learned over decades in Colombia have informed our overall hemispheric strategy. As a follow-on to Plan Colombia we have continued our partnership with the Government of Colombia to fortify the gains made over the past decade. We developed a program called the Colombia Strategic Development Initiative (CSDI), which supports the Colombian Government’s National Consolidation Plan. Today, CSDI provides for civilian institution building, rule of law, and alternative development programs, along with security and counternarcotics efforts in those areas where poverty, violence, and illicit cultivation or drug trafficking persist. We are supporting these endeavors with reduced resource levels; however, continued resources will be needed to sustain and consolidate our gains.

For example, our Fiscal Year 2013 request represents more than an $18 million reduction from our Fiscal Year 2012 INCLE enacted, and a $62 million reduction from Fiscal Year 2011 INCLE enacted. We’ve worked closely with our Colombian partners to ensure that this is not misinterpreted as a reduction in priority or partnership, but rather the appropriate evolution of our joint efforts — where we once led assistance efforts to now supporting Colombia’s sustainment and nationalization of those efforts.

Our efforts in Colombia are paying dividends regionally as well. With the capacity that the Government of Colombia built over the years, Colombia is now bolstering efforts to address similar security concerns elsewhere in the region. Colombia today is no longer just a recipient of security assistance but an exporter of it. Since 2009, the Colombian National Police (CNP), our closest partner in promoting citizen security throughout the region, has trained some 10,000 police from across Latin America in criminal investigation, personal protection, and anti-kidnapping among other critical law enforcement disciplines. Colombia’s participation throughout the hemisphere by providing training is an enormous return on our investment in that country, and is precisely the type of regional approach to security promoted by Secretary Clinton. This is a positive trend which will continue with additional partners and with ownership by governments of the region.

Support for Caribbean Nations

Drug smuggling, gangs and violent crime are also adversely affecting many countries in the Caribbean, including transnational criminals returning in a limited nature to air, maritime, and terrestrial routes in the Caribbean to traffic illicit products. Accordingly, in 2009, President Obama launched the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, which like our other initiatives, is a collaborative endeavor with various United States departments and agencies, as well as the nations in the region.

Citizen security is the single most important issue confronting the Caribbean as narcotics-driven crime and violence have reached epidemic proportions, threatening the safety and security of United States and Caribbean citizens alike.

CBSI, like each of our other major partnerships, aims to increase stability and improve security, and applies a whole of government approach to the challenges confronting Caribbean nations. We committed $48 million in INCLE funds during the first two years of CBSI for programs and equipment to support our Caribbean partners, and expect to commit an additional $30 million in INCLE funds for Fiscal Year 2012, with your support.

Our Fiscal Year 2013 INCLE request of $21 million will allow us to continue programs that strengthen Caribbean partner nation capabilities in maritime security, law enforcement, information sharing, border and migration control, transnational crime, and criminal justice.

Specifically, our programs seek to increase regional cooperation of our Caribbean partners to share law enforcement data, including ballistics imaging, airport passenger manifests, and fingerprinting, through software and training. Technical assistance will increase the ability of our partners to combat financial crimes and money laundering, while equipment and training for law enforcement personnel target narcotics trafficking on land and sea. These efforts seek to strengthen national and regional security systems throughout the Caribbean before illicit trafficking and transnational crime worsen.

The challenges in the hemisphere are vast, and insecure societies host the majority of criminals whose crimes directly threaten our nation’s security. There is no easy fix for these problems, and we will continue to evaluate  and adjust our approaches as these complex threats evolve. We focus largely on regional programs because they provide the platform for several nations to coordinate their strategy on shared challenges. Regional programs also allow us to multiply the impact and value of our assistance by syncing up with each government in the region. While these programs represent our major mechanisms for threats to security in the Western Hemisphere, they are by no means our only mechanisms. We have ongoing bilateral programs – some robust like in Peru and Haiti, and some less so, in other countries in the hemisphere.

In Peru for example, where our bilateral counternarcotics relationship has been reinvigorated by an eager and supportive administration, we have programs to increase capacity of law enforcement and programs to support a significant coca eradication effort. This is going to be an important area to watch closely, and I look forward to further discussions with the Subcommittee as our partnership continues to evolve. And in Haiti, where perhaps the absence of strong and capable government institutions had been the most striking in the Western Hemisphere, INL supports programs to improve the capacity of law enforcement as well as the judicial sector. We work with our friends in the region, particularly those with recognized competency in particular areas, to strengthen not just other countries within the Western Hemisphere, but across the globe.

The Americas Post - Biden would prefer to avoid the subject of drug legalization on his Latin trip

Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday began a tour of Latin America under intense pressure from business and political leaders to speak on a topic that no U.S. official wants to address: the decriminalization of drugs.

The presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico, suffering the consequences of a failing drug war, said in recent weeks that they would like to begin talks on legalizing drugs. Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Mexico already allow the use of small amounts of marijuana for personal consumption, while the governments of Brazil and Colombia discussed alternatives to incarceration for drug users.

Business leaders have also taken up the cause.  In February, a conference of bankers, doctors and legal experts in Mexico concluded that current drug control policies do not work and should be reformed.

“It’s a different time when heads of state speak of the need to discuss the issue in depth,” said John Walsh, specialist in drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, an independent research center. “A few years ago it would have seemed impossible.”

Dan Restrepo, top White House official for Latin American affairs,  said the vice president hopes to maintain a “substantial discussion” on security issues in Latin America, including the battles drug cartels are waging for control of the lucrative U.S. market. But he warned that American leaders should not expect a change in policy from the White House.

“The Obama administration has been clear in our opposition to the legalization or decriminalization of illicit drugs,” said Restrepo.

Biden will arrived in Mexico City on Sunday to discuss economic and security issues with President Felipe Calderon. On Monday he meets with three candidates for the Mexican presidency, who hope to take over from Calderón.

On Tuesday, Biden travels to Honduras to meet with President Porfirio Lobo, along with the presidents of El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala, whose countries face the consequences of drug trafficking.  Drug cartels there have killed tens of thousands of people, have crowded prisons, promoted corruption, influenced elections, undermined democracy and threatened their fragile economies.

“I do think that the issue of legalization is being raised by the leaders to Biden, but privately,” said Walter McKay, policy specialist for security issues in Mexico.  Over 47,500 people have been killed there since 2006 in drug-related violence.

The Americas Post - Some of the victims from the Comayagua Prison fire may never be identified

Honduran forensic specialists on Thursday began the complicated task of identifying the bodies of over 350 inmates who were burned or suffocated this week in a massive prison fire north of the capital.

Hundreds of relatives, many with faces swollen from crying, waited at the small morgue in Tegucigalpa where the forensic team, supported by Red Cross staff, worked to identify unrecognizable bodies.

The corpses of 354 prisoners and a woman who had spent Tuesday night in conjugal visit were transferred to Tegucigalpa from Comayagua prison on refrigerated trucks .

The forensic service officials took samples from groups of 10 to 15 bodies and a strong smell of putrefaction pervaded the 200 square meter room.

The cause of the fire remains unconfirmed, although some authorities report an inmate set fire to a mattress in the overcrowded prison, which held more than 800 inmates.

Upon arrival firefighters said they were not allowed to immediately enter the prison.

“We waited about 30 minutes outside while we heard shots. Then, the guards allowed us to enter and begin to douse the flames,” said Comayagua Fire Chief Leonel Silva.

Daniel Orellana, Director of Prisons now suspended by order of President Porfirio Lobo, said he was not allowed immediate access to the fire because the guards initially thought it was a mass escape attempt.

The fire exposed once again the plight of prisons in Honduras, with the world’s highest murder rate and some 13,000 inmates crammed into a prison system with capacity for 6,000.

Authorities said DNA testing to identify the bodies may take several months. El Salvador sent two forensic experts to assist, while Chile sent 14 specialists, including anthropologists, thanatologists, biochemical and forensic experts. Mexico promised five medical examiners from the attorney general’s staff as well as medical supplies.

Initial reports now indicate that approximately half the victims were awaiting trial, and had not yet been convicted of any crime.

The Americas Post - Honduran criminals won't have Peace Corps volunteers to prey on anymore

Worsening drug and organized-crime violence in Central America has forced the Peace Corps to pull out of Honduras and halt the flow of new volunteers to Guatemala and El Salvador, that organization has announced.

Last month Peace Corps officials reviewed worsening conditions and decided to withdraw all 158 volunteers from Honduras in January and suspend training for 29 recruits.  That evacuation has now been carried out.

The Americas Post - President Funes placed flowers at the monument to civilians killed in El Mazote

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes on Monday apologized for the massacre of 936 civilians in the town of El Mazote during a 1981 army counterinsurgency operation.  He acknowledged the government’s responsibility for the killings and referred to the operation as “the largest massacre of civilians in the contemporary history of Latin America.”

Government soldiers entered El Mazote on Dec. 11, 1981, in search of rebels and supporters.  Over the course of three days the troops killed anyone they could catch, including women, children and babies.

Mr. Funes’ speech marked the 20th anniversary of the 1992 peace agreement that ended that country’s 12-year civil war.   He also requested forgiveness from relatives of approximately 12,000 victims who disappeared during the conflict, which cost 75,000 lives.

A former journalist, President Funes was elected in 2009 as the candidate of the FMLN, the party of the former leftist guerrilla movement.

The Americas Post - El Salvador was more dangerous than Iraq

According to a statement released this week by the office of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, six of the 14 most violent countries on this planet are located in Latin America.

Launched by the United Nations in 2008 and now signed by 110 countries, the Geneva Declaration has the stated goal of supporting governments and civil society in their efforts to significantly reduce violence by 2015 and beyond.

“One quarter of all violent deaths were produced in just 14 countries” stated the report titled “Global Burden of Armed Violence”.  Six of those countries with the highest death rates are El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala and Belize.   The document attributed many of the deaths to armed groups involved in drug trafficking.

Violent deaths in Central America averaged 29 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by South Africa with 27.4 and the Caribbean with 22.4.  El Salvador was the most violent country on Earth, with over 60 deaths per 100k.   Between 2004 and 2009, that average was higher than Iraq, which held second place.  Brazil ranked 18th in the world for violent death rate, while in spite of its drug war Mexico came in at 51st place.