Posted on 07/31/2014 8:40:28 AM PDT by mgist
U.S. Military: More Counter-Narcotics Funding Will Help Stem Exodus of Children from Central America Posted by Bill Conroy - July 29, 2014 at 12:06 pm Critics Argue Drug-War Money is Part of the Problem, Not the Solution Some 58,000 migrant children, mostly Central Americans, have made the treacherous journey to the U.S. southern border alone over the past 10 months, but actions being considered by U.S. officials to combat the problem with more military and drug-war aid to their countries, critics warn, may worsen the violence that provokes this unprecedented exodus. The number of unaccompanied children that have arrived at the U.S. border so far this fiscal year is up 106 percent from the same period a year earlier — with the total expected to reach 90,000 before Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. To put that latter number in perspective, it is nearly five times larger than the number of Border Patrol agents now stationed along the entire southern border. The Obama administration paints the crisis as a humanitarian issue sparked by poverty, violence and the tug of family bonds. Congressional Republicans point the finger at the Obama administration’s lax enforcement of immigration laws. Seemingly lost among the fray of political talking points over the child-migrant flight, however, is the stance of the U.S. military — which, unlike the president or Congress, is openly talking about the drug war as being a primary driver of the exodus. Jose Ruiz, spokesperson for the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), said the transnational criminal organizations now entrenched in Central America have created elaborate networks “capable of moving drugs, money, arms and people” around the world. “Sadly, crime syndicates that profit from human smuggling prey on victims willing to put themselves and their loved ones at great risk by entrusting ruthless criminals with their safety,” he added. Gen. John Kelly, commander of SOUTHCOM, recently penned an opinion piece for the military press that lays out the nexus he sees between the flight of unaccompanied children and the pervasive narco-trafficking networks in Central America — particularly in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the major source nations for the child-migrant surge. “… It has been the malignant effects of immense drug trafficking through these nonconsumer nations [in Central America] that is responsible for accelerating the breakdown in their national institutions of human rights, law enforcement, courts, and eventually their entire society as evidenced today by the flow of children north and out of the conflictive transit zone,” Kelly wrote. “… I believe that the mass migration of children we are all of a sudden struggling with is a leading indicator of the negative second- and third-order impacts on our national interests that are now reality due to the near unimpeded flow of drugs up the isthmus [Central America], as well as the unbelievable levels of drug profits (approximately $85 billion) available to transnational criminal organizations to literally buy police departments, court systems and even governments.” SOUTHCOM, which oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America, says its resources are stretched to the limit, and consequently it is hamstrung in addressing adequately the many dire problems plaguing the region as a result of the growing influence of these criminal networks. “The fiscal challenges our country is currently experiencing has not spared our command, and we too face funding and resource allocation reductions that have seriously impacted our ability to conduct important missions and achieve significant results,” Ruiz said. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year, Kelly said “severe budget constraints are significantly degrading our ability to defend the southern approaches to the United States.” But there appears to be a more global agenda in play as well with respect to U.S. military operations in the Northern Triangle region of Central America (Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala). Specifically it is SOUTHCOM’s growing concern over the rising influence of Russia and China in the region. Some experts on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America contend, though, that whatever the agenda, the U.S. push to militarize the region in support of the drug war is actually accelerating the breakdown of civil society in the Northern Triangle — with the surge in unaccompanied children fleeing Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador being a prime example of the blowback. CARSI A major vehicle for extending U.S. influence in the Northern Triangle has been the Central American Regional Security Initiative, a counter-narcotics effort launched some six years ago in conjunction with the Mérida Initiative — a multi-year, multi-billion dollar U.S.-backed effort to combat drug trafficking in Mexico. Ruiz said CARSI has provided “more than $640 million in assistance since 2008 to assist security forces, build law-enforcement and justice-sector capacity, and advance community policing, crime prevention and socioeconomic programs” to the seven nations of Central America. “SOUTHCOM contributes to CARSI goals by providing security assistance through various programs that fund infrastructure, donate equipment and provide training,” Ruiz added. More funding for CARSI translates into more U.S. operations and influence in the region. But it also is likely to feed the fire that is causing children to flee the Northern Triangle, according to Molly Molloy, a research librarian and a specialist on Latin America at New Mexico State University. Molloy founded and edits Frontera List, an online forum for news and debate around border issues. “It is our militarization of the region, both as a base for our counter-insurgency forces and for our support of the corrupt local armies, that lie at the root of the social dysfunction in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala,” Molloy said. “[It’s worth noting that] the two Central American countries that seem not to be expelling their children are Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Costa Rica did away with its army in 1948 and Nicaragua fought a revolution to get rid of the U.S.-imposed Somoza dictatorship and its corrupt National Guard in 1979.” Critics of U.S. policy in the region argue that those historical dynamics are clearly in play in Honduras, which is leading the pack in the recent surge of unaccompanied children exiting the Northern Triangle, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Nearly 17,000 kids from that nation have crossed the U.S. border through June of fiscal 2014. “The police [in Honduras] are overwhelmingly corrupt and widely documented to kill people, including children with impunity,” said Dana Frank, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an expert on human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras. “Rather than clean up the corrupt police, [Honduran] President [Juan Orlando] Hernández's answer has been a dangerous and escalating militarization of the police, especially a new 5,000-strong Military Police that has already committed major human rights abuses with impunity…. Yet the U.S. continues to pour funds into the dangerous Honduran police and military, and act as if Hernández is an amiable and successful partner in the drug war.” In late June, the White House announced that in response to the unaccompanied-children crisis, it is providing Honduras with $18.5 million under CARSI “to support community policing and law enforcement efforts to confront gangs and other sources of crime.” SOUTHCOM, via Joint Task Force Bravo, currently has a military force of about 600 airmen, soldiers, sailors and Marines stationed at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, which also is home to the Honduran Air Force Academy. Honduran President Hernández, echoing SOUTHCOM’s Kelly, sees a strong link between drug-related violence and the escalating flight of children from his nation. He recently called for more U.S. assistance and a ramp-up in funding for counter-narcotics operations in the Northern Triangle. Frank said the United States, through existing counter-narcotics programs like CARSI, is already helping to prop up a regime in Honduras that is “countenancing the spectacular violence children are fleeing.” Cold War Redux Beyond combating the very real problem of narco-trafficking syndicates and the associated government corruption in the Northern Triangle and Latin America in general, SOUTHCOM also has a broader reason for assuring funding levels for CARSI and other military operations in the region remain robust. Kelly, in his report to the House committee this past February, argued that budget cuts are eroding SOUTHCOM’s “security cooperation activities,” such as CARSI, in Latin America and opening the door for other world powers to fill the vacuum — principally Russia and China. “Russian continues to build on its existing strategic partnerships in Latin America, pursuing an increased regional presence through arm sales, counterdrug cooperation and bilateral trade agreements,” Kelly stated. “… In contrast to the Russians, Chinese engagement is focused primarily on economics, but it uses all elements of national power to achieve its goals [in the region].” That broader agenda, which also implicate U.S. business interest in the Latin America, arguably may create a higher tolerance among U.S. policymakers for supporting regimes in Central America that have less-than-stellar track records in protecting human rights and democracy. “The 2009 military coup that deposed democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya, itself a great criminal act, opened the door to a free-for-all of criminality in Honduras,” Frank said. “Since then, organized crime, drug traffickers and gangs have flourished, worming their way ever-higher within the Honduran government, courts, attorney general's office, and congress. New President Juan Orlando Hernández himself has a stellar track record of subverting the rule of law — prominently supporting the coup, overthrowing part of the Supreme Court and stacking it with his loyalists, and helping illegally name a new attorney general to a five-year term.” The 2009 coup d’étatin Honduras was carried out with the acquiescence of the U.S. government at the time. In fact, the Millennium Challenge Corp., an independent U.S. foreign-aid agency chaired by the Secretary of State — Hillary Clinton at the time — continued to provide funding to the coup regime in the immediate aftermath of the putsch, even as the U.S. State Department indicated publicly that it had suspended assistance programs in Honduras. Joy Olson, executive director of the Washington Office on Latin America, a nongovernmental organization focused on human rights, democracy and social justice, said the coup did have a major destabilizing influence on the institutions in Honduras that were already very weak, “and criminal elements took advantage of that space.” “And it’s still a huge problem even to this day,” Olson added. “They just don’t have good-functioning police forces. And when you don’t have a functioning police force is when people start calling on the military, and Honduras has done that. They now have military police because the regular police haven’t been working out all that well.” Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, United Nations data shows. El Salvador and Guatemala rank fourth and fifth on that scale. And both the police and military have been implicated in extrajudicial murders in Honduras, according to a 2013 State Department human rights report. Whether US-sponsored drug-war programs like CARSI are part of the solution, or the problem, is likely to remain a flashpoint for debate in Washington and beyond for the foreseeable future. But on the ground in Honduras, far more needs to be done than simply sending more bullets, guns and troops into an already bloody landscape, if Honduras hopes to pull more of its fleeing citizens back to the country, according to Clarice Mishel Velasquez, secretary of women’s affairs at the nonprofit Organization for Ethnic Community Development [ODECO in its Spanish initials] in La Ceiba, Honduras. “Every morning when we wake up and go out to greet our neighbors we realize that two, three, five, 10 or more people have said goodbye to their families and have taken the famous journey to the USA,” Velasquez said. “… Most people pay between $3,500 and $5,000 U.S. to take a journey to certain death. “Robbery, rape, extortion and, on the other hand, the loss of arms or legs are a constant threat if you fall off what they call LA BESTIA (The Beast) —a train [in Mexico] loaded with tons of steel that people cling to for dear life to reach the [U.S] border when they decide to flee the plight of the country. “Personally, I believe that if conditions improved in public hospitals, if employment opportunities with a living wage were created, if the education system were improved at the national level, if public safety were improved, if public policies to combat this scourge were created, conditions would improve in this country. … Honduras is beautiful, and I don’t think that migrating is the way to solve our problems.”
Oops sorry
More funding, more weapons, and less oversight will all help.
That and formatting.
“The 2009 coup d’étatin Honduras was carried out with the acquiescence of the U.S. government at the time. In fact, the Millennium Challenge Corp., an independent U.S. foreign-aid agency chaired by the Secretary of State — Hillary Clinton at the time — continued to provide funding to the coup regime in the immediate aftermath of the putsch, even as the U.S. State Department indicated publicly that it had suspended assistance programs in Honduras.”
Oh, my eyes! :o)
Marshal law, that’ll do it.
Nice try by the military to try to get more funding out of Obama, but these “children” are not coming because of drug cartels. If they are so terrified of the cartels, why are the parents giving thousands of dollars AND THIER CHILDREN to the cartels to smuggle them into Texas? This is a way to get the kids into the USA so that the family can come over and get Free Stuff, but you’ll never hear the truth from politicians and the sob-story media.
Gah! Paragraphs are your friend!
Why do I absolutely not believe this premise, that thousands of children trekked across the Mexico desert by themselves?
They didn't. This is why I'm going to kick the next liberal whining about "human trafficking" right in the teeth. Our government is encouraging and facilitating the trafficking.
By all means, let's double down on a strategy that has failed for four decades. Even Tip O'Neill would be surprised at the totalitarian regimes -- including our own -- that the War on Drugs has produced.
“U.S. Military: More Counter-Narcotics Funding Will Help Stem Exodus of Children from Central America”
Ancesthntr: More .50 machine guns in towers near the border, and the willingness to use them, will help stem the exodus of children from Central America.
I am SICK AND TIRED of the excuse that border controls can’t work - when they haven’t been tried here with ANY degree of seriousness, and when they absolutely DO work overseas. How many North Koreans cross the border into South Korea? Virtually none, since the border is guarded (and those that do tend to be NK special forces types using tunnels to infiltrate). How many East Germans got out to West Germany - not very many, because the border was guarded (albeit in the opposite direction to what I’m talking about...but, nonetheless, it helps to prove the point).
FIRST guard the border, then we can have a serious discussion about immigration. Oh, and return those children to their parents/home countries - it is the humane thing to do. Yes, feed them, clothe them, make sure that they aren’t sick anymore and that any injuries that they have are attended to - but RETURN THEM!
Earlier I proposed a SOUTHCOM, Joint Task Force Boom!
For every child we accept we drop one bomb on the source country's known gangsters or corrupt ruling class.
Make that a B-61 dial a yield set to max and I am in.
The illicit drug profits are more like $150 MILLION USD. They were estimated at $109 in 2010.
If you think for a minute the cartels are going to bend over, and compete in a free market you have no idea who you are dealing with.
Heroin is already legal in Rx format. The Russian Mafia is making bank in the Black Market Rx Opiates. Kids are dropping like flies in the NE.
Fentanyl is a bioweapon used in war, and to assassinate people, it is 100x more powerful than morphine, and all over the streets. Kids these days don’t stand a chance.
It's not a question of "competing" - their customers will simply leave them behind for the many advantages offered by legal sellers.
You are being lied to. Deceived like a child. Soros didn’t pour over $80 MILLION into the drug legalization scheme because he likes WIllie Nelson.
Why do you think Obama has all the Salvatruchas, Maras, M13 etc are being brought into the country. Statically most gang members are under 25, and 40% are female.
That black market is alive and well in Colorado.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/4/marijuana-black-market-still-thrives-colorado-wher/
The Black Market for Weed is Still Thriving in Colorado
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/weed-colorado-black-market_n_4548338.html
Legal Pot Hasn’t Stopped the Black Market
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/04/colo-pot-black-market/7292263/
Then where does it stop? They are already pushing to legalize all drugs. Fentanyl in heroin is what is killing all these kids. Fentanyl was used as a bioweapon in warfare.
What is happening now is ridiculous. Russia, Iran, and China are all amazing cultures that were destroyed by drugs. They are all slave nations and that is what they want to do to us.
There is no war on drugs. Our government is collaborating with the cartels. The FDA is approving more addicting opiates and highly addictive synthetic morphine drugs despite the fact that thousand of innocent patients became addicted, entire families have been destroyed, and lives ruined or lost, for taking medication as prescribed.
They want you DEAD son. I feel terrible for the kids these days.
JP Morgan and Rockefelker Joined forces forming JP Morgan Chase in 2000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational banking and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in the United States, with total assets of US$2.515 trillion.
Rockefeller is Outed as a Soros Ally in the Drug Legalization Scheme in Latin America
Illuminati Billionaires Love Marxists & Marijuana
Http://henrymakow.com/2013/09/Illuminati-Billionaires-Love-Marxists-Marijuana.html#sthash.UZwooUp2.dpuf
Rockefeller and Rothschild Joined Forces in 2012.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/article_8918.shtml/
‘The extent of the Rothschild-Rockefeller relationship has been shrouded in ignorance, mystery, obfuscation and confusion displaying both the intellectual cowardice of esteemed academic researchers and biographers and the imbalanced ideology of those who conclude conspiracy without a presentation of actual facts and proper interpretations.’
http://www.thelibertybeacon.com/2014/04/04/david-rockefellers-global-elite-dreams-to-remake-society/
“IT IS AMAZING THAT FOREIGN INFLUENCE CAN BE BROUGHT TO BEAR ON SUCH HIGH AMERICAN OFFICIAL CIRCLES. IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT THE SCHEMES OF ONE GOVERNMENT COULD BE PERMITTED TO BLOCK A CONFERENCE OF ALL NATIONS ON SO VITAL A SUBJECT.”-—Nevada Senator Key Pittman, New York Times, June 9, 1931,
This is why Latin American nations accuse Americans of wanting to kill their babies.
http://www.mundoactual-info.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/rockefeller-portada.jpg
Jay Rockefeller Speech on Population control
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ClqUcScwnn8
Fidelity is a privately run financial institution, with company has almost $5 TRILLION in assets, it is very important to see what they are doing. Given that they have so much money and it is almost impossible. I think we really need to pay attention to what is going on with these Banksters.
http://www.fidelity.com/inside-fidelity/fidelity-facts/fidelity-assets
Fidelity was reported to have a fundraiser for Barnet Frank in 2009, on personal blogs. Nothing was ever reported in media outlets. We can only imagine what goes on behind the scenes.
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09b/fidelity_fundraiser/
These are the people brainwashing innocent citizens, They have a labyrinth of off shore accounts, hedge funds, and holding companies, that even government doesn’t have access too.
The Truth About the Rockefeller Drug Empire: The Drug Story
http://www.whale.to/b/ruesch.html#The%20Purchase%20of%20Public%20Opinion
By Hans Ruesch
Soros spent at least $80 MILLION USD for drug legalization in US and Uruguay
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2596471/George-Soros-spent-80million-pot-legalized-US-Uruguay.html
Obama’s America:
2010: The US illegal drug market estimated to be at least 109 BILLION US $
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-10/more-pot-less-cocaine-sizing-up-americas-illicit-drug-market
Heroin Becomes Cheaper and More Available July 2014
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/longform/news/crime/2014/07/20/heroin-becomes-cheaper-available/12906981/
“The horrific toll of America’s heroin ‘epidemic”
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26672422
America’s Heroin Epidemic -BBC 2014
In 2012, it was reported that 6 publicly traded corporations, owned 90% of American media. Which helps explains why NOTHING Obama did was EVER questioned.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
2014 Opiates are now the leading cause of accidental deaths, surpassing car crashes and alcohol.
http://elitedaily.com/news/world/prescription-painkillers-overtake-car-crashes-leading-accidental-death-us/
Banks Laundering Cartel Drug Money -Rampant
http://www.globalresearch.ca/money-laundering-and-the-drug-trade-the-role-of-the-banks/5334205
2012 Where the Mob Keeps It’s Money
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/where-the-mob-keeps-its-money.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
2012 Most Educated People Understand that Major Trafficking Doesn’t Happen Without Government Complicity
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137529/moises-naim/mafia-states
2014 Marketing “Heroin chic” is alive and well.
http://www.thefix.com/content/urban-outfitters-pinpoints-hairroin-salons-free-hypodermic-pens
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 100 people in the United States die from drug overdoses every day, and death rates as a result of drug overdoses have more than tripled since 1990. It has surpassed alcohol and car accidents in accidental deaths. The CDC also reports that nearly three out of four prescription drug overdoses are caused by opiates.
If this were an STD causing these deaths on homosexuals it would be scandalous. Instead, thousands of anonymous families have been devastated by the destruction and eventual loss of lives of loved ones, that started with a trusted doctor. The few elite, the people lining political pockets, funding “research”, mass media/advertising biggest customer, etc. are making $billions, and apparently that is all that matters.
“The Drug Story” by Morris A. Bealle, is free and available online. Knowledge is power.The Deceptive Stories of a Legalization Success countries are Simply Cons Cooking the Books.
https://fullfact.org/factchecks/Portugal_decriminalisation_drugs_effects-3276
Pot seen as reason for rise in Denver homeless
http://news.yahoo.com/pot-seen-reason-rise-denver-homeless-175115981.html
Despite problems, media has shamelessly been touting the benefits of Marijuana.
What message does this send to children CNN?
http://www.ibtimes.com/cnn-reporter-high-during-live-shot-anderson-cooper-questions-randi-kayes-giggly-pot-report-1542209
July 15, 2014
Abattis Makes History as First Marijuana Stock to List on Prestigious OTCQX
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/abattis-makes-history-as-first-marijuana-stock-to-list-on-prestigious-otcqx-2014-07-15
House Votes to Allow Marijuana Related Banking 7/16/2014
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/house-supports-easier-marijuana-related-banking-24588337
Wall Street Banks are illegally Laundering Drug Money with Impunity.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/money-laundering-and-the-drug-trade-the-role-of-the-banks/5334205
Wall Street has given more to Obama’s Political Campaign than Any Other Politician in History.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&=&v=zt3vwWfP-EA
'the black market's survival has less to do with taxes than with a shortage of legal stores.
'Colorado has more than 160 state-licensed stores, but they remain concentrated in the Denver area. Many towns don't have any.
'"When there are more stores and more products in the stores and prices settle down, then we'll see," Kleiman said. "I would be very surprised if the illicit market can compete at all."'
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