Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Senior officials from the United States and Mexico are hosting their Central American neighbors on Thursday to plan ways to build a legal and economic wall against the drug trade.
Their two-day Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America will look at ways of rebuilding prosperous, stable economies in the region and fighting transnational organized crime.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be at pains to assure the worst-hit countries of Central America that Washington will continue to support their best efforts to assert the rule of law.
But the Miami get-together comes just as President Donald Trump's administration is looking to dramatically cut development assistance — so the meeting will also seek to interest new partners.
Along with co-host Mexico and the Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — envoys from Belize, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union, Nicaragua, Panama and Spain will also take part.
Although senior US officials are diplomatic when asked which countries should be spending more to support anti-drug programs in the Triangle, they nod to Canada and Europe as places that could do more.
"Much of the product that is flowing through Central America today in trafficking routes makes a right turn and heads to Western Europe," says William Brownfield, assistant secretary of state.
It may be a question of tactics rather than resources.
In the 46 years since then-US president Richard Nixon first declared drugs "public enemy number one," the "War on Drugs" has produced more many more casualties than victors.
Still, Brownfield — who heads the State Department's law enforcement and counter-narcotics efforts — thinks progress has been made in the often-lawless Northern Triangle since 2009.
Working with Colombian trainers bloodied in their own long war against cartels and militias, the United States has spent US$1.5 billion (RM 6.38 billion) building police and judicial capacity in a region destabilized by traffickers.
Honduras killings
That has started to get results — homicide, violence and drug flights are down over the past two years — but has also been controversial and often criticized by local activists.
Just last month, an official report found that American anti-drug agents had been implicated in the deaths of Honduran civilians during botched raids in 2012 more than they had admitted.
The new initiatives, coming along with Trump's aggressive rhetoric about building a "great wall" to stop criminals from bringing rape and drugs from Mexico, have led to fears of a new militarization of the effort.
"This conference unfortunately signals a recommitment to some of the worst policies the US has implemented in Central America in the past several decades," researcher Alexander Main said.
Main — who has investigated and written about the Honduras killings and works with the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research — is a critic of the "failed drug war".
He is also pessimistic about the conference, saying "there is little here that suggests the root causes of these problems will be addressed".
Supply chain
Tillerson argues that the new plan is not more of the same, but a big-picture effort to dismantle the drugs supply chain, from imports of Chinese precursor chemicals to cross-border interception.
"I told my Mexican counterparts it is time to stop playing small ball. We have to start playing large ball," he told US senators at a budget hearing in Washington this week.
"We are mapping out a different way of attacking the issue in a supply chain, value chain mechanism. Where are things produced and manufactured, how are they marketed and delivered."
Washington's new top diplomat, who has yet to staff his own department, has brought big players into the initiative, including conference co-host Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.
US Vice President Mike Pence is also due to address the gathering on Thursday at Florida International University.
On Friday, events will move to SouthCom — the US military command for Latin America.
There, diplomats and development experts will take a back seat and the leaders will be addressed by US Homeland Security chief John Kelly and Mexico's interior minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: US and Mexico host talks to reboot drugs war
Contact: Contact theSun | theSundaily
Photo Credit: AFP
Website: theSundaily | Telling It As It Is
Their two-day Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America will look at ways of rebuilding prosperous, stable economies in the region and fighting transnational organized crime.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be at pains to assure the worst-hit countries of Central America that Washington will continue to support their best efforts to assert the rule of law.
But the Miami get-together comes just as President Donald Trump's administration is looking to dramatically cut development assistance — so the meeting will also seek to interest new partners.
Along with co-host Mexico and the Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — envoys from Belize, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union, Nicaragua, Panama and Spain will also take part.
Although senior US officials are diplomatic when asked which countries should be spending more to support anti-drug programs in the Triangle, they nod to Canada and Europe as places that could do more.
"Much of the product that is flowing through Central America today in trafficking routes makes a right turn and heads to Western Europe," says William Brownfield, assistant secretary of state.
It may be a question of tactics rather than resources.
In the 46 years since then-US president Richard Nixon first declared drugs "public enemy number one," the "War on Drugs" has produced more many more casualties than victors.
Still, Brownfield — who heads the State Department's law enforcement and counter-narcotics efforts — thinks progress has been made in the often-lawless Northern Triangle since 2009.
Working with Colombian trainers bloodied in their own long war against cartels and militias, the United States has spent US$1.5 billion (RM 6.38 billion) building police and judicial capacity in a region destabilized by traffickers.
Honduras killings
That has started to get results — homicide, violence and drug flights are down over the past two years — but has also been controversial and often criticized by local activists.
Just last month, an official report found that American anti-drug agents had been implicated in the deaths of Honduran civilians during botched raids in 2012 more than they had admitted.
The new initiatives, coming along with Trump's aggressive rhetoric about building a "great wall" to stop criminals from bringing rape and drugs from Mexico, have led to fears of a new militarization of the effort.
"This conference unfortunately signals a recommitment to some of the worst policies the US has implemented in Central America in the past several decades," researcher Alexander Main said.
Main — who has investigated and written about the Honduras killings and works with the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research — is a critic of the "failed drug war".
He is also pessimistic about the conference, saying "there is little here that suggests the root causes of these problems will be addressed".
Supply chain
Tillerson argues that the new plan is not more of the same, but a big-picture effort to dismantle the drugs supply chain, from imports of Chinese precursor chemicals to cross-border interception.
"I told my Mexican counterparts it is time to stop playing small ball. We have to start playing large ball," he told US senators at a budget hearing in Washington this week.
"We are mapping out a different way of attacking the issue in a supply chain, value chain mechanism. Where are things produced and manufactured, how are they marketed and delivered."
Washington's new top diplomat, who has yet to staff his own department, has brought big players into the initiative, including conference co-host Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.
US Vice President Mike Pence is also due to address the gathering on Thursday at Florida International University.
On Friday, events will move to SouthCom — the US military command for Latin America.
There, diplomats and development experts will take a back seat and the leaders will be addressed by US Homeland Security chief John Kelly and Mexico's interior minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: US and Mexico host talks to reboot drugs war
Contact: Contact theSun | theSundaily
Photo Credit: AFP
Website: theSundaily | Telling It As It Is