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 - Suzanne Barr is accused of crossing the line with male subordinates

Three U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff members have filed serious complaints alleging that a senior Obama administration political appointee and longtime aide to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano used inappropriate sexual behavior around them, according to court records and a letter describing the claims submitted to a congressional oversight committee.

The complaints are related to a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed in May by a senior ICE agent. They accuse Suzanne Barr, the agency’s chief of staff, of sexually inappropriate behavior toward employees. Barr is on leave while the allegations are being investigated, a spokesman for the agency said.

Barr is accused of telling a male subordinate he was “sexy” during an office party and asking a personal question about his anatomy. She is separately accused of offering to perform a sex act with a male subordinate while on business travel in Bogotá, Colombia. She is also accused of calling a male subordinate from her hotel room and offering to perform a sex act. The names of two of the employees were censored in affidavits.

There were no prior complaints about Barr, according to a homeland security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Barr was one of Napolitano’s first appointments after she became secretary in 2009.

There were 10 sexual harassment claims filed with ICE in 2011, a significant increase over the two cases filed in each of the previous two years, according to equal employment data from the agency. DHS said none of the cases were substantiated. Also in 2011, Morton issued an anti-fraternization policy that said supervisors were not to have sexual or romantic relationships with subordinates. Any such relationships, the policy said, should be immediately reported.

ICE would not say whether the agency’s director, John Morton, witnessed any inappropriate behavior by Barr in the three years he’s worked with her. Morton traveled with Barr 65 times between May 2009 and February 2012, according to documents obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Two employees came forward with their complaints after New York’s most senior ICE agent filed a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. James T. Hayes Jr., described a “frat house” atmosphere at ICE designed to humiliate male employees under Barr’s leadership. Hayes, who filed the complaint in May, is asking for more than $4 million that would cover compensation he believes he is owed for relocation expenses and financial losses associated with his transfer as well as the full salary and benefits he would have earned until he was eligible to retire.

Hayes’ lawyer, Morris Fischer of Silver Spring, Md., has declined to comment.

The Justice Department is seeking to dismiss Hayes’ lawsuit on the basis that he did not state a claim for retaliation.

There were 10 sexual harassment claims filed with ICE in 2011, a significant increase over the two cases filed in each of the previous two years, according to equal employment data from the agency. DHS said none of the cases were substantiated. Also in 2011, Morton issued an anti-fraternization policy that said supervisors were not to have sexual or romantic relationships with subordinates. Any such relationships, the policy said, should be immediately reported.

Brian Hale, an ICE spokesman, said the agency has a “zero tolerance sexual harassment policy” and that all such allegations are promptly investigated.

Despite the complaints, 24 senior ICE agents across the country sent Morton a letter of support Thursday that alluded to media reports of Hayes’ case.

Barr went on leave after the New York Post reported a story on Hayes’ complaint earlier this month. The additional employees came forward with their allegations around the same time.

Barr, a 1995 graduate of University of Arizona, began working for Napolitano in 2004 when Napolitano was governor of Arizona. Before that, Barr worked for Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl.

ICE’s office of professional responsibility and the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general are investigating the allegations against Barr, Hale said.

The Americas Post - Hank Crumpton says the United States is infested by foreign espionage

A higher number of foreign spies are active on U.S. soil today than there were during the Cold War, according to a former top CIA officer.

Hank Crumpton, former deputy director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center who led the U.S. response to 9/11, told the CBS news documentary program “60 Minutes” that China is the largest source of espionage agents operating in the US.

“If you look at the threat that is imposed upon our nation every day, some of the major nation states — China in particular — [have] very sophisticated intelligence operations, very aggressive operations against the U.S.,” Crumpton said.

“I would hazard to guess there are more foreign intelligence officers inside the U.S. working against U.S. interests now than even at the height of the Cold War,” he said. “It’s a critical issue.”

In the  interview that aired Sunday, Crumpton, 55, discussed on his 24 years in the CIA, including the time spent hunting Osama bin Laden before and after 9/11 and the CIA-led mission to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan.

During his time in Afghanistan and North Korea, Crumpton said he discovered America’s enemies had at least one thing in common: They loved pornography.

“I never met a North Korean that did not like pornography,” Crumpton said, adding that it was common for CIA spooks to exchange X-rated material for intelligence on Kim Jong Il’s regime.

“Supplying porn to a North Korean official to entice them to spy for America, along with money or whatever else it might take. Well, for me the answer was yes, I was willing to do that.”

In late summer 1999, the team had the former Al Qaeda leader in its sights — but President Bill Clinton missed the opportunity to take him out.

Describing an early Predator spy drone mission, Crumpton said, “We saw a security detail, a convoy, and we saw bin Laden exit the vehicle, clearly.”

“We immediately alerted the White House, and the Clinton administration’s response was, ‘Well, it will take several hours for [the cruise missiles\] launched from submarines, to reach that objective. So, you need to tell us where bin Laden will be five or six hours from now,’” he said.

“The frustration was enormous,” he added.

Though Navy SEALs took bin Laden out a year ago this month, Crumpton said he was still worried about the danger posed by Al Qaeda’s affiliates in North Africa.

“I’m particularly concerned about al Qaeda in Yemen, which is fractured as a nation state,” he said. “The Sahel [region\], if you look at al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, they pose a threat, and in Somalia. Those are the places I’d be concerned [about].”

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 - US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is looking for some neighborly support

During his trip to Colombia, Brazil and Chile this week, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta emphasized the role of those three neighbor countries as military partners in a region where U.S. influence is being challenged by China. And as the military relationships grow, defense officials say it can only help U.S. economic and political ties across the continent.

Panetta’s meetings with defense officials from the three nations also focused on how the US can support their military efforts, including those directed at the expanding threat of cyberattacks, according to several senior officials.

U.S. officials left the region hoping that South Americans may help train Afghan forces after NATO troops leave at the end of 2014. Officials provided no details on which nations might eventually be willing to take on some of the training mission, which will be in need of advisers as other NATO nations pull their troops out.

With the U.S. shifting away from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s new strategy places more importance on the Asia Pacific region, where North Korea is a continued threat and China is growing in political and economic influence.

The Pentagon is prepared to move more forces to the Pacific region, including Australia. The U.S. has long provided training, equipment, assistance and a security umbrella for many of the Asia Pacific nations. With coming budget cuts that will reduce the size of the military, the U.S. is looking to South American countries to be more active global partners.

“The United States, just like other countries, are facing budget constrictions — which are going to affect the future,” Panetta said to reporters at a news conference in Brazil. “And what we believe is that the best way to approach the future is to develop partnerships, alliances, to develop relationships with other countries, share information, share assistance, share capabilities, and in that way we can provide greater security for the future.”

Panetta would also like to see the South American countries use their greater military capability to train some of the Central American countries that are not as advanced.

All three defense chiefs — Juan Carlos Pinzon of Colombia, Celso Amorim of Brazil and Andres Allamand of Chile — mentioned cyber threats as a major concern for their countries, including incidents of hacker attacks and data thefts, said U.S. defense officials flying home from Chile, their final stop on the trip.

The three countries, said one of the officials, are requesting help from the U.S. to harden computer networks against hackers and improve their technological skills. The official said there is a recognition of how vulnerable they are, and they want to learn more about the nature of the threat and how to combat it.

That threat, however, is also likely to involve China, which is steadily gaining as a top trading partner and economic developer in South America.  The Asian powerhouse now surpasses the U.S. in trade with Brazil, Chile and Peru, and runs a close second in Argentina and Colombia.

For the first time, U.S. intelligence officials publicly named China late last year as a significant cyber threat. While they did not directly tie attacks to the Beijing government, they said the Chinese systematically steal American high-tech data for their own profit. The unusually forceful public statement seemed to signal a new, more vocal U.S. government campaign against the cyberattacks, which could also involve helping other nations combat similar threats.

The US National Security Agency is an acknowledged world leader in cyber technologies. And U.S. officials have been struggling to work out ways for the government to help other nations as well as the private sector in the United States shore up critical networks.

So far, however, countries around the world have failed to achieve detailed agreements on how to work together. Cyber issues are fraught with legal and political challenges, including conflicting laws and the lack of broadly accepted international guidelines for Internet oversight.

Panetta made it clear as he traveled across the continent that cybersecurity was “a whole new arena” that all the nations are concerned about. He also encouraged the South American nations to expand their security efforts to other regions, including Africa.

“The United States must remain a global power,” Panetta said during a speech in Brazil. “But … more and more nations are making and must make an important contribution to global security. We welcome and encourage this new reality because frankly it makes the world safer and all of our nations stronger.”

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 - Student protestors frequently give Colombian riot police free on-the-job training

Careful background checks for every employee at each of the nine hotels hosting heads of state, especially the chefs responsible for their meals, are only one of the strict security measures being taken for the upcoming Sixth Summit of the Americas in Colombia.

For the past year, that nation’s police and military have been preparing a security plan which includes 5,000 police officers and 14,000 soldiers dedicated exclusively to the event, which will be attended by 33 presidents including Barack Obama.

Headed by General Jose Roberto Leon Riano, a Center for Integrated Intelligence will coordinate the work of 32 international agencies to be alert to any potential terrorist threat or disturbance.

Plans include the presence of a thousand anti-riot policemen, snipers, divers, and even special hostage crisis management teams, General Leon said.  Beyond coordinating with the security staff of foreign leaders, other teams will be responsible for the safety of first ladies, foreign ministers and other members of the delegation from each visiting country. Others will look after the hundreds of entrepreneurs and business leaders also expected to attend.

Technological components of the security plan include extensive deployment of aircraft, installation of 150 security cameras, and police robots.  For the first time this summit will include an NBCR (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Radiological) squad trained by the Office of Atomic Energy in Vienna to contain chemical and radioactive incidents.

The entire city of Cartagena will be subject to special controls on traffic and movement for the duration of the event.

“It was designed to cause as little trauma as possible for the city,” said Gen. Leon.

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 - The t-shirt certainly does help overcome any identification problems.

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala announced Sunday his troops had captured the wounded leader of a surviving branch of the once-powerful Shining Path rebel group movement.

The former army lieutenant colonel personally flew to the remote coca-growing Upper Huallaga Valley to congratulate police and soldiers for detaining 50-year-old Comrade Artemio and two of his compatriots.

Artemio is the Nom de Guerre for Florindo “Juan” Flores, who was flown to Lima for removal of two bullets from his stomach, said chief prosecutor’s office spokesman Raul Sanchez. He also had shrapnel wounds in both hands, Sanchez reported.

“Mission accomplished,” Humala proclaimed on state TV. With the capture of Artemio and several top lieutenants the Upper Huallaga is now safe for agribusiness, cattle ranching and tourism, the president said.

Analysts describe Artemio’s capture as a mortal blow to the group of 150, about half of what remains of the Shining Path that wreaked havoc in Peru during the eighties and nineties. He was nabbed three days after being wounded under circumstances which Humala and other officials did not explain.

The remaining Shining Path faction, also financed by the drug trade, operates to the south in the Apurimac and Ene river valleys.
Humala said his forces would now concentrate on that group, blamed for attacking a remote police station last Monday and wounding two police officers.

Humala said the military had been “closely following” Artemio in recent weeks. Defense Minister Alberto Otarola had previously announced that Artemio was wounded in combat with Peruvian troops Thursday in the village of Puerto Pizana. But local journalists are also reporting that one of Artemio’s own men may have attacked him.

The United States had placed a $5 million bounty on Artemio’s head. Such rewards have successfully convinced some rebels to turn against their leaders in neighboring Colombia.

Today’s Shining Path is a but a shadow of the violent movement that controlled extensive reaches of the Peruvian countryside during the 1980′s.

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.