The Americas Post - The alleged Chilean spy is the one wearing the Jack Daniels t-shirt

Peru’s government said Wednesday it is investigating an alleged Chilean spy arrested in the vicinity of a military airbase in the north, in a case that could cast a shadow over relations between Lima and Santiago.

Defense Minister Alberto Otárola, said when Luis Maximiliano Seraín was arrested he had in his possession a CD,  a USB memory stick and “some writings” that are being investigated by the local public prosecutor.

“From what we know he is a Chilean citizen who was arrested near the barracks of El Pato military base in Talara.  I can not provide or confirm more details because I repeat is in full investigation,” Otárola told journalists.

In 2009, Peru and Chile engaged in a diplomatic row after the arrest of a Peruvian Air Force officer, who was accused of sending classified information to Chile.  After a year of research, a military court in Peru convicted the officer, formerly employed in the Peruvian Embassy in Santiago, to 25 years in prison.

This new espionage case involving Chile, a major investor in Peru, comes at a time when both South American countries are in international court disputing differences in their maritime boundaries.

Chilean government spokesman Andrew Chadwick said in Santiago they are fully confident that the person arrested in Peru has no link with Chilean state activities.

“We are absolutely clear on the country’s foreign policy in relation to our neighbors.  We never want to risk any type of situation that could harm our relations,” he said.

“As a government we deal with these situations calmly and wisely,” he added.

Relations between Peru and Chile, both major mineral exporters, have gone through ups and downs since they fought a war in the late nineteenth century.  Despite the friction, trade links and business between the two countries have grown rapidly in recent years.

The Americas Post - A demonstrator's poster shows how many years each hostage has been held by FARC guerrillas. Photo Credit: AFP

FARC guerrillas on Wednesday postponed releasing six Colombian soldiers held for over a decade, claiming that the area where the prisoners were to be freed has been occupied by government troops.

“The area we had chosen for the release of prisoners of war captured in battle has been unfairly militarized by the Government of Colombia, which forces us to defer the operation,” the rebel group said in a statement released on the internet.

The FARC, weakened by a military offensive supported by the U.S. but still able to execute high-impact attacks, announced in December the release of six of the 11 Armed Forces personnel held for more ten years, but the delivery has not yet been finalized.  Late last year other hostages were killed by rebels during combat with the Army,  which had discovered FARC encampments in the jungle.

President Juan Manuel Santos questioned the position of the FARC, considered by U.S. and European Union as a terrorist organization and said the government did not know the hostages were in that area.

“By God, no more tricks and deceit.  We do not even know where the hostage are. They have not given coordinates. Release them now,” Santos said through his Twitter account.

However, the Armed Forces admitted operating throughout the country in fulfilling the mission of pursuing the illegal armed groups.

Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, accused the rebel group of playing with the hostages and their families as part of a strategy to gain political prominence nationally and internationally and clean up its criminal image.

“These people once again demonstrates the lies they tell and how deeply and permanently they play with the Colombian people,” said the official.

The guerrilla organization have held up to 60 hostages at times, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans, who they sought to exchange for imprisoned guerrillas.

But many were rescued by the Armed Forces and others escaped or died in the jungle. Some have been released by the FARC in phases during recent years.

“As soon as the insanity that has gripped Nariño Palace (the Presidency) abates, we will make a new attempt for you to receive those who will be released,” added the FARC.

The Americas Post - This was the last face ever seen by a minimum of 75 murder victims

Police in northern Mexico have captured a suspected member of the Zetas drug cartel, who confessed to killing at least 75 people, authorities announced Monday.

Elizondo was captured Jan. 20 in the town of Salinas Victoria, but authorities postponed announcing his arrest in order to verify details of his confession, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said.

Domene said the 35-year-old suspect told investigators he had worked in the region over three years and that his duty was killing members of the rival Gulf drug cartel en route to the towns of Cerralvo and General Trevino.

Elizondo and other gunmen last January started pulling passengers off buses as they arrived at Cerralvo’s bus station, Domene said. They were among at least 92 bus passengers the Zetas are accused of killing in three attacks in January and March 2011.

Elizondo was famous “for torturing, maiming and then killing his victims,” Domene added.

Last year, authorities in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas exhumed 193 bodies from unmarked graves in the town of San Fernando. Security forces were led to the site by Zetas who confessed to kidnapping and killing bus passengers in the area.

The exact motive for the bus abductions is undetermined. Prosecutors  suggested the gang may be recruiting at gunpoint or killing suspected rivals aboard the buses.

Northeastern Mexico has been inflamed by a turf war between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas since their 2010 division.  Over 47,000 people have been killed nationwide since President Felipe Calderon launched his December 2006 crackdown against drug traffickers.

The Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank,  reported Monday that $872 billion in proceeds from crime flowed out of Mexico between 1970 and 2010.

The Americas Post - Yes, U.S. Marine Generals carry their own rifles. Photo Credit: USMC

President Barack Obama has chosen a Marine to run U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean out of the Southern Command in Miami.

The new Southcom leader is Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, who enlisted in 1970 and was followed by both sons to the Corps as well.  The youngest, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, was killed on patrol in Afghanistan in 2010.

The Pentagon announced Kelly’s promotion in a brief statement Friday afternoon.  Pending the required Senate confirmation, there was no immediate word on when he would succeed Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, the current commander.

Over six feet tall and in his 60s, Kelly is currently senior military advisor to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, served multiple deployments in Iraq and worked as a Defense Department representative on Capitol Hill.   He commanded troops in Fallujah, Iraq, and at one time  had tens of thousands of Americans and Iraqi soldiers under his command.  A 1976 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, he joined the Marines before going to the university, served for two years as an enlisted infantryman out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., and left as a sergeant.

Sources were unable to confirm whether Kelly previously served in the Caribbean and Latin America.  More than 1,000 Defense and other government employees work out of Southcom headquarters in Doral, which he has been chosen to run, on a range of Defense projects from humanitarian relief operations to the detention center at Guantánamo.  Southcom also runs regional training exercises that team up U.S. forces with foreign armies and navies, which senior Pentagon officials have pointed to as the future of a  downsized U.S. military force across the globe.

The Americas Post - This bridge is covered, but what about the other 1,600 kilometers?

Colombia and Peru have agreed upon a plan to combat criminal organizations on their common border, the defense ministers of the two countries announced to the press after a Wednesday meeting in Bogota.

“Colombia and Peru have decided to aggressively confront organized crime which respects no borders, such as drug trafficking and illegal logging and mining,” said Peruvian Defense Minister Alberto Otalora.  He spoke at a press conference accompanied by his Colombian host and counterpart, Juan Carlos Pinzón.

“Organized criminals on our borders are hereby notified that Colombia and Peru, as of this moment, will increase joint activities not only to combat organized crime, but to achieve concrete results in the shortest time possible,”  Otálora said.

In addition, Peru agreed to lead the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on the issue of combating transnational crime.  For Peru, “crime has no boundaries” and therefore is seeking cooperation with “brother countries”, said Otalora.

The Peruvian Minister announced “a new era of defense relations between our countries”, while stressing the traditional “good relationship” between the two nations.

Pinzon said, for his part, that “the relationship of Colombia and Peru is not only friendly and formal, but means a permanent presence of Peruvian officers working with Colombian officials, and the presence of Colombian officers working with the Armed Forces of Peru” .

The ministers agreed to take joint action against criminal groups in the border area ”in the coming months”.

Security operations will be accompanied by social initiatives for the people on both sides of the 1,600 km long border,  the Colombian minister stressed.

To assess the situation, the two ministers agreed to meet again in March at the border, and hope that this meeting will also be attended by Minister of Defence of Brazil, Celso Amorim.

Industrial cooperation in defense matters was another issue discussed.

“Colombia has been experiencing major developments in its military industry, and is fully prepared to offer it to friendly countries, like our Peruvian brothers,” said Pinzon.  He mentioned that Lima has already made “small” purchases from Colombia, but gave no more details.

Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia, alias “The Architect,” was killed Friday during an air and ground operation in Canatlan, Durango state. The action began with a firefight at a ranch, army spokesman general Ricardo Trevilla announced at a news conference.

According to Trevilla, he was “one of the main lieutenants of Joaquin Guzman Loera alias ‘El Chapo.’”

Another gunman died in the raid and 11 others were arrested, Trevilla said. Three soldiers were also wounded.

The army said Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia took over as assistant to the fugitive head of the Sinaloa drug cartel after his brother, Felipe Carbrera Sarabia or “The Engineer,” was detained in December.

The northern states of Durango, Sinaloa and Chihuahua are known as the “Golden Triangle,” a key area of production of Mexican opium and marijuana.

The CIA Director visited La Macarena in the state of Meta, center of Colombia. He met with the Defense Minister and Military Commanders of the Colombian Armed Forces.

Colombia’s government today praised U.S. support for strengthening systems of technical (Sigint) and human intelligence (Humint)  in the fight against illegal organizations like FARC operating in this South American country.

“With the support of the U.S. government we are strengthening our systems of technical and human intelligence,” said Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, through a statement.

He added that “there must be no place in Colombia where terrorists and criminals can hide undetected.”

Minister  Pinzon and Director of the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) United States, Gral. David Petraeus, visited La Macarena last Friday in the southern province of Meta, one of the areas where the illegal groups and drug traffickers operate.

With these meetings Colombia “will continue to strengthen cooperation ties between the two countries and strengthen the commitment to continue fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational crime,” said the Defense Ministry statement.

The Americas Post - FARC may be weakened but they can still mess up your travel plans

Air operations in a wide region of southwestern Colombia were delayed on Saturday following an attack by FARC guerrillas against a radar antenna system key to commercial aviation, said that nation’s Civil Aviation authority.

One policeman was killed in the attack by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) launched on Friday night above Santa Ana, in the department of Cauca.  He had been guarding aviation facilities, officials said.

“Aeronautical communications in the southwest of the country have been disrupted temporarily by a terrorist attack against civilian facilities”, said a statement from Civil Aeronautics.

Although the FARC have been weakened by a military offensive bringing death to several commanders and the desertion of thousands of its fighters, the attack proved that the rebel group still has the capacity to carry high-impact operations.  The guerrillas fired homemade missiles, gas cylinders filled with explosives, and attacked troops stationed in the area with bursts of rifle and machine gun fire.

The radar damaged by the attack covers 300 kilometers and not only controls commercial flights,  but also supports the armed forces against drug trafficking in the southwest airspace.

“Repairing the radar will take several months.  We do not know whether to reduce the number of flights, but there will be delays, “said the director of Civil Aeronautics, Santiago Castro.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has demanded that the FARC release all hostages, suspend hostilities and lay down their weapons for negotiations, conditions that the guerrillas have rejected as a surrender.  He called the attack on the radar installation affecting thousands of travelers “the ultimate demonstration of weakness and despair” by the guerrillas.

The Americas Post - Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher speaks to congress. Photo Credit: CBP

The U.S. Border Patrol is preparing to implement tougher punishments on undocumented immigrants entering the United States from Mexico, to change the revolving door policy that has been in place for years.

Instead of simply being sent back across the border to try again, immigrants captured on the U.S. side will now face harsher consequences for illegal entry.  These range from inconveniences like being bused hundreds of miles away to distant border crossings, to aggressive prosecution for criminal offenses in the United States or by Mexican authorities upon their return.

Young, first-time illegal aliens may be allowed a “voluntary return” option without facing criminal consequences.   Repeat offenders and smugglers, however, will be singled out for felony prosecution in the United States.

The U.S. Border Patrol is more able to develop such individualized sanctions now that the number of illegal entries has fallen sharply,  from 1.6 million in 2000 to only 327,577 last year.  At the same time, the Border Patrol has grown to 21,000 agents with 652 miles of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers in place at busy crossing points.

The new approach will “break the smuggling cycle and deter a subject from attempting further illegal entries or participating in a smuggling enterprise” by imposing “ideal consequences to impede and deter further illegal activity,” according to U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher.

A test program in the Tucson sector has already dramatically lowered the number of illegal immigrants released to Mexico without administrative or criminal penalties, says Border Patrol Tucson sector chief Rick Barlow.   Approximately 85 percent of illegal immigrants arrested on the U.S. side of the border were returned to Mexico without any penalty three years ago.  That figure has now been reduced to around just 10 percent of detainees.

The customized consequences are more expensive, the Border Patrol’s chief has admitted in testimony before Congress.   Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, however, have promised their budgetary support to meet the additional costs.