The Americas Security News.- President Fernandez de Kirchner in front of Falkland Malvinas Islands painted like the Argentine national flag

According to The Sunday Times, Argentina is developing missile technology that could threaten the Malvinas/Falkland Islands.

The british newspaper has learnt that military scientists in Argentina are building a rocket capable of being fired into space to an altitude of about 250 miles. Experts believe such technology could, in time, develop into a missile with a range of up to 372 miles.

This would put it easily within range of the Falklands, which are about 300 miles from the Argentine mainland, and could transform the balance of power in the south Atlantic.

Lord West, the former security minister and first sea lord, said he believed the only logical reason to develop such technology was to threaten the Malvinas/Falklands.

Crime in Brazil

Recent surveys reflect public safety has not been the priority of the current Brazilian government. The surveys are talkinf about little investment public safety, high rates of crime and homicide, low percentage of homicides cleared by the justice system, increased sense of insecurity of the population, according to an article published by 180graus.com

The article says that a survey by the website Open Accounts about public spending on public safety, points out that the 3.1 billion in planned budget for public safety in 2012, only 738 million reais (23.8% of total) was used by the federal government.

According to the survey, the pending on the purchase of new vehicles, equipment and infrastructure improvements, such as prisons and police departments, although it was higher than in 2010 and 2011, is far less than that applied in 2007 (R $ 1.2 billion).

Excessive bureaucracy, the systemic failings of the various organs of government and lack of commitment results are the main factors for the low investment of resources in the area. Furthermore, by constitutional provision, the federal government maintains some distance from the public safety issue, since the control of the military and civil police is the responsibility of the states. With this, the difficulties in applying the resources demonstrate the need to review assignments of the central federal government in Brasilia, states and municipalities.

Brazil is considered the second most violent country in the world, based on figures relating to intentional lethal crimes. Annually about 50 thousand Brazilians are victims of homicides in Brazil. Of these, on average, only 8% the police get the criminals and far fewer get to be tried and convicted. The impunity rate reaches the level of 92%, according to the article.

Nevertheless, Brazil supposedly can not be regarded as a country of  impunity, because it has the third prison population in the world, second only to China and the United States, and one of the fastest growth rate of incarceration in the world. In 1995 there were 160 000 prisoners and currently are 540 000.

The Americas Security News.- Vice President Joe Biden and the gun control panel. Photo Credit AP Photo/Susan Walsh

The Obama administration is considering funding many more police officers in public schools to secure campuses, a leading Democratic senator said, part of a broad gun violence agendathat is likely to include a ban on high-capacity ammunition clips and universal background checks.

The school safety initiative, one of several under consideration, would make federal dollars available to schools that want to hire police officers and install surveillance equipment, although it is not nearly as far-ranging as the National Rifle Association’s proposal for armed guards in every U.S. school. READ MORE HERE

Two faces, same coin, the Zetas. Heriberto Lazcano, alias Z-3; Miguel Treviño, alias Z-40

Regardless of the veracity of the current rumors that Mexico’s feared Zetas organization has split into pieces, the organization’s breakup is a foregone conclusion given the group’s local revenue streams.

Recently a US law enforcement source told APthat Zetas second-in-command Miguel Angel Treviño, alias  Z-40,  has successfully taken over control of the entire group, displacing Heriberto Lazcano, alias Z-3,  it’s long-time number one. READ MORE HERE

This week, the two countries signed Memoranda of Understanding with UNODC that will see the establishment of CCP Joint Port Control Units in Port Georgetown (the John Fernandes Port) and Nieuwe Haven Port respectively.

The Caribbean has become increasingly vulnerable to the illicit flow of drugs from South America to North America and Europe via maritime containers, particularly as Latin American States tighten border control and security. Given their geographic location, the Guyana and Suriname container trade faces significant threats from transnational organized crime.

The Joint Port Control Units in the two countries will strengthen the control of containers entering and leaving the ports, improve the coordination, analysis and exchange of information in real time, share human and technical resources to avoid duplicity of activities and facilitate safe foreign commerce. Container inspection in the two ports will be carried out by a team trained and equipped to work together to systematically target high-risk containers with minimal disruption to the free flow of legitimate trade.

A two-week training programme will be conducted for Guyanese and Surinamese officers drawn from relevant government agencies from 1-12 October, and it is expected that the Joint Port Control Units in both countries will commence operations in mid-October. Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are also expected to establish similar units later this year.

READ MORE HERE

Chavez and Ahmadinejad. Photo Credit Elmer Martinez AFP Getty Images

During the last six months, Iran is developing an offensive in Latin America.  Tehran views the latinamerican region as one of the main points to overcome its increasing international isolation due to its nuclear program.

The Iranian strategy is comprehensive. For example, a few weeks ago, the inhabitants of Quito were surprised by the appearance of  street billboards calling to commemorate a new anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.

the posters read “a lifetime dedicated to the people and the revolution”.

During the event, held on 31 May in the Auditorium of the National Council of Pichincha with the presence of Iranian diplomats, Khomeini was compared to the latinamerican independence hero Simón Bolivar.

The event was broadcasted by Hispan TV, a satellite TV channel that the Iranian regime inaugurated last December, which broadcasts news in Spanish on a 24 hours a day  basis and whose main target is the Latin American audience.

Another way of showing the Iranian involvment in the subcontinent are the Iranian diplomacy,  who have increased their activity and presence in the region. In  the case of Bolivia,  Iran has 145 diplomats accredited, more than the rest of the diplomatic corps in La Paz.

Spain, with all its historical relationship with Iran  has  between 8 and 10 Iranian diplomats.

The estimated number of Iranian diplomats accredited in Venezuela is even greater than in Bolivia.

Another important step taked by Iran is the several visits of  Iranian officials to Latin America that are constant and often are accompanied by economic benefits for the countries visited.

Recently over a week ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended  a Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro and then started with a mini tour in South America,  announced a few days in advance.

It is the second visit of the Iranian President in six months and the fourth in the same period of a senior Iranian top government official.

Last January, Ahmadinejad visited Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba and Nicaragua. In May it was the turn of the vice president, Ali Saeidlo, who made the same tour also including Bolivia.

In Managua, Iranian officials announced the cancellation of debt of Nicaragua with Iran.

Days before the Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi visited Bolivia , who opened the Defense College of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the regional integration organization that emerged on the personal initiative of Hugo Chavez. About Vahidi weighs an international warrant for his involvement in the bombings in 1992 and 1994 in Buenos Aires against the Embassy of Israel and Argentina Jewish Mutual, which caused a total of 115 dead.

In their travels, Vahidi was accompanied by Iranian representative Kanbiz Jalali, head of the Directorate General for Latin America created by the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Jalali is a  diplomat with extensive experience in the region.

Tehran is focusing on military and defense issues. In less than 24 hours has signed a military assistance pact with Bolivia. Also the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez admitted the announcement  that Venezuela is building drones under the supervision of Iranian engineers.

Ramin Keshavarz, a leading member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is responsible for overseeing the project.

One the other hand, Brazil is not so enthusiastic about Iran . President Rousseff refused to meet privately with Ahmadinejad, despite Iran’s insistence.

Brazil is not the only obstacle. Colombia is also resisting Iran´s “charme” offensive, while in Argentina the Iranian official representation only adheres to senior diplomats, due to the arrest warrant that Justice has issued Argentina against senior Iranian officials , including Vahidi and Ali Rafsanjani, due to the bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires (AMIA).

However, this diplomatic chill has not stopped the trade between the both countries, that has gone from zero to $ 400 million in just four years, or since 2010 Iran is the second world soybean buyer Argentina.

The Americas Post - This guy doesn't look very happy about being mistaken for the son of a drug lord

Mexican authorities confirmed that a man arrested earlier this week and initially reported to be the son of fugitive drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman is in fact another individual.

“After conducting the necessary tests to determine their identities, we found that (the two suspects presented to the media Thursday) are Felix Beltran Leon and Kevin Daniel Beltran Rios, ages 23 and 19, respectively,” the federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Friday.

“On June 21, members of the Navy Secretariat presented two people, one of whom was believed to be Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar,” Chapo’s son, the AG’s office said.

The men were arrested on charges of “organized crime, possession of firearms for exclusive use of the army, navy and air force, and transactions with illicitly acquired funds,” it added.

Without providing further details on the suspects, the AG’s office said the ongoing investigation will support the allegations against them.

A source with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said earlier Friday that the young man initially identified as Chapo’s son was in fact an individual named Felix Beltran Leon.

That detainee “is one of the bosses who sells drugs for Chapo’s son in (the western state of) Jalisco,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Several hours earlier, a woman identifying herself as Elodia Leon Vega told reporters in Guadalajara, Jalisco’s capital, that her son, Felix Beltran Leon, had been wrongly identified as the drug kingpin’s relative.

“They’re badly confusing him,” she said in the company of her attorney, rejecting any link between her son and Guzman’s family.

Both said the 23-year-old suspect was born in Los Angeles and is the half-brother of the other detainee, Beltran Rios, for whom they provided no details.

Chapo Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, tops the list of Mexico’s 37 most-wanted criminals and is on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people.

He was captured in Guatemala in 1993 and extradited to Mexico, where he was convicted and sentenced to prison. But the drug lord escaped from a maximum-security prison in 2001 and has since built his Sinaloa cartel into Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization.

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 - This semi-submergible drug boat was sunk by US and Honduran forces in March

As recently reported in the New York Times, Honduras is the newest front in America’s drug war.  Recent anti-narcotics operations in Mexico have forced over 90 percent of US-bound cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela through Central America. Over 30% of it passes through Honduras, which as a result now has one of the highest homicide rates on the planet.

The latest offensive illustrates the new US emphasis on discrete missions with small numbers of troops, partnerships with foreign military and police forces, and limited goals, whether targeting insurgents, terrorists or criminal groups opposed to American interests.

Using lessons learned in Afghanistan and Iraq, the mission here has been adapted to rules of engagement barring American combat in Central America.  In past operations, helicopters ferrying Honduran and American antinarcotics squads were based in the capital, Tegucigalpa.  New forward outposts patterned on those in Iraq and Afghanistan now allow for much faster response times to interdict drug runs.

American troops here cannot fire except in self-defense, and are forbidden to respond with force even if Honduran or Drug Enforcement Administration agents are in danger. Within these limits, the military provides personnel, aircraft and logistical support that Honduras, the State Department and D.E.A. cannot.

American ambassador Lisa Kubiske, who is responsible for coordinating the complex blend of interagency programs, also oversees compliance with human rights legislation. She describes the Honduran armed forces as “eager and capable partners in this joint effort.”

The Americas Post - With over a quarter million assault rifle rounds you can do a lot of damage

Mexican customs agents have seized 268,000 rounds of assault rifle ammunition that an American transported in a semi-trailer across the border into Ciudad Juarez.

Spokesman Angel Torres of the Attorney General’s Office in Ciudad Juarez, , said that the 37 year-old driver, a native of Dallas, was arrested on suspicion of trying to bring in the munitions from the city of El Paso. The driver is in custody while charges are being considered.

Torres said the agents discovered the trailer cargo when it was subjected to a gamma ray search that revealed metal boxes full of bullets hidden under wooden pallets.  The ammunition is suitable for AR -15 and AK-47 assault rifles, commonly used by drug cartels.  Prosecutors said the seizure of ammunition is the largest recorded in the border city of Ciudad Juarez in recent years.

Denis Mekenye, operations manager at Demco Arlington freight company in suburban Dallas, said today that driver Jabin Bogan made ​​”an honest mistake” when he made ​​a wrong turn that ultimately led him to Mexico.

Mekenye claimed the shipment was destined for Tennessee Ammunition in Phoenix.