An Associated Press report monitored by Spanish language news agencies, including this one, concludes that the U.S. is enlarging its presence throughout Latin America as it seeks to bolster fledgling regimes which face threats to their very existence at the hands of organized crime.
Most of those regimes are in Central America, where international narcotics traffickers have partially shifted operations after enduring years of heavy pressure from Mexican military forces. Former president Felipe Calderón launched the drug war in this country on Dec. 11, 2006, and soon adopted a National Security Strategy based upon the use of combat troops, especially crack marine units. In two reports published in 2012 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) noted that the approach was working, pushing criminals southward across Mexico's border with Guatemala. New president Enrique Peña Nieto, who took office on Dec. 1, has indicated that he'll stick with the strategy, even promising to ratchet up the pressure by adding 75,000 units to federal paramilitary forces (Human Rights Watch's condemnation of Mexican drug war reveals how little it understands about conflict).
The Associated Press tracked what it called "a drug war strategy that began in Colombia, moved to Mexico and is now finding fresh focus in Central America, where brutal cartels (are) motivated not by ideology but by cash." The AP report noted that in 2011, the United States authorized the sale of $2.8 billion in armaments and military hardware to Latin nations, almost four times the 2001 amount.
The news agency also reported that as many as 4,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Latin America, together with supporting naval vessels.
Acknowledging that in many Latin American nations "police are so institutionally weak or corrupt that governments have turned to their militaries to fight drug-traffickers," an outgoing U.S. Defense Dept. official told AP, "We are not going to turn our backs on these governments because they have to use their militaries in this way."
In Mexico, former president Calderón's militarization of the drug war was based in large part upon rampant corruption in local police forces (Honesty checks for Mexican local, state police proceed at snail's pace), an issue with which president Peña Nieto is still dealing (Mexico extends time to weed out corrupt local cops).
Most U.S. officials interviewed and quoted by AP concurred that the drug war has turned south. One noted that the "northern tier countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize have become a key focus area." But all of those nations are virtually in Mexico's back yard. As a result, no one in the new administration here is remotely prepared to proclaim victory over the narcotics traffickers. Quite to the contrary, they're preparing for tomorrow's inevitable counterattacks (Executions soar in Mexico's heart).
The AP reported that the U.S. Defense Dept. spent $67.4 million on Honduran military contracts in 2012, and dedicated $45.6 million to Guatemalan security. Both nations have been overrun by drug traffickers and organized crime in recent months. Most of their products are destined for the United States market - via Mexico, of course.
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