Latest U.S. worry: 'ungoverned spaces' in Latin America

Miami Herald ^ | March 9, 2003 | Andres Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer Report

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A new security threat is capturing the attention of top Bush administration officials in charge of Latin American affairs: the proliferation of ''ungoverned spaces'' or ''lawless areas'' in the region.

I heard these terms for the first time recently, when U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a passing reference to ''ungoverned zones'' during a speech at a regional meeting of defense ministers in Santiago, Chile, in November. Rumsfeld mentioned such areas as one of several threats to hemispheric security.

At the time, I didn't know what he meant, and -- quite frankly -- I didn't care much. I have long given up on trying to keep up with every new term of Pentagon jargon: With its increasingly complicated acronyms and techno-slang, it has become a new language that is almost impossible to understand by normal English-speaking civilians.

A THREATENING WEED

But last week, Gen. James T. Hill, head of the U.S. Southern Command in charge of U.S. military relations in Latin America, spent a sizable part of a speech to a Miami security conference talking about the issue, and explaining what it is all about.

''Today, the threat to the countries of the region is not the military force of the adjacent neighbor, or some invading foreign power. Today's foe is the terrorist, the narco-trafficker, the arms trafficker,'' Hill said. ``This threat is a weed that is planted, grown and nurtured in the fertile ground of ungoverned spaces, such as coastlines, rivers and unpopulated border areas.''

In the new U.S. military doctrine, one of the biggest dangers to Latin America no longer comes from foreign armies or urban guerrillas taking over capital cities and expanding their reach to the interior. Rather, it comes from criminal forces occupying empty spaces in jungles, mountains and other remote areas, and expanding their reach from there to big cities and centers of power.

REMOTE FRONTIERS

Among Latin America's biggest ''ungoverned spaces,'' according to U.S. military thinkers, is the triple frontier between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, which has long thrived on smuggling and is a major fundraising base for Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

In addition, the Tabatinga-Leticia corridor on the Brazil-Colombia border, the Lago Agrio area on Ecuador's border with Colombia and the Darien jungle in Panama are places where Colombian drug traffickers, narco-terrorists and arms dealers roam about freely, and often control large territories, U.S. officials say.

And Surinam, a small country with a large Middle Eastern community, is becoming a major center of Russian, Turkish, Nigerian and Colombian arms trafficking and drug smuggling rings, security experts say.

According to U.S. officials, the economic crises in most Latin American countries have worsened the problem. Because of weak central governments, military budget cuts and migration of rural middle-classes to the big cities, most countries in the region have spaces with little or no government presence, where international criminal organizations are flourishing.

What should be done about it? One proposal that is circulating in U.S. military circles, authored by a U.S. Army War College professor, Col. Joseph R. Nuñez, calls for creation of an elite 6,000-troop ''multinational regional force'' that would help fight trans-national narco-terrorism, and cope with natural disasters and border disputes.

National armies can no longer effectively fight criminal groups that operate freely across borders, Nuñez argues. To allay Latin American fears that Washington would use such a force to invade nonfriendly regimes, he proposes a ''sovereignty clause'' under which no country would be compelled to join in a mission that it does not support.

In an interview at his office last week, I asked Gen. Hill about the idea of a NATO-like hemispheric security force. Hill shook his head in disapproval: ''I don't see that happening, and I don't see the need for it,'' he said. What is needed is greater cooperation between countries' security forces, he added.

I agree. With the current anti-American sentiment in Latin America, fueled by the Bush administration's plans to attack Iraq, support for a U.S. proposal to create a hemispheric military force would be below zero.

SUB-REGIONAL FORCE?

A more feasible plan was presented at the Miami security conference by Argentine military analyst Julio A. Cirino. He proposed that Latin America create sub-regional security forces to fight criminal groups along national borders, without U.S. participation.

What is clear is that countries in the region must gain control over their lawless border areas. Otherwise, at a time when most governments are weakened by economic crises, corruption, social protests and little help from rich countries, there is a danger that all of Latin America could become an ``ungoverned space.''

[Cincinatus' Wife]

General: Islamists find Latin America funds - fastest-growing religion in Latin America*** Latin America is becoming a major fundraising base for radical Islamic groups in the Middle East, which are getting between $300 million and $500 million a year from various criminal networks in the region, a top U.S. military commander told The Herald.

Gen. James T. Hill, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military relations in Latin America, said much of this money comes from drug trafficking, arms dealing and other illegal activities. He said the funds are sent abroad from several Latin American areas with large Middle Eastern populations, such as the triple frontier between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, and Margarita island off the coast of Venezuela.

''The fastest-growing religion in Latin America today is Islam,'' Gen. Hill said during an interview at his office. ``We think that there are between 3 and 6 million people of Middle Eastern descent in Latin America. There are radical Islamic groups associated with that population that are using it to create lots of money for their organizations.''

Hill said that about ``$300 million to $500 million a year, easily, goes [from Latin America] to groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Gamaat.''***

A Terrorist Regime Waits in the Wings***During the 1990s, the Clinton administration looked the other way as the FARC grew stronger. In 1995, according to a recent Rand study for the Pentagon, it had 7,000 fighters on 60 fronts; five years later, there were 15,000 to 20,000 FARC combatants on more than 70 fronts. The huge increase was financed with money from American cocaine and heroin users, but the Clinton administration reversed long-standing bipartisan policy and drew a distinction between drug traffickers and guerrillas. On condition of anonymity, a senior State Department official assured Insight with a straight face in 1999 that "there is no such thing as narcoterrorists." ***

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I would include our own borders in the category of "ungoverned spaces."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yes. It seems they can't see the forest for the trees.

[AntiGuv]

What should be done about it?

Most tobacco fields, barley farms, and vinyards are well-governed parts of the world. That should give policymakers a huge hint as to the most effective means of putting an end to these 'ungoverned' zones - including those in our own inner cities...

[The Duke]

I would thing that South-Central LA would qualify.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Environmentalists like these undeveloped areas too but then environmentalists are emerging communists.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Good morning, CW,

We have two problems in Panama:

1. Panama doesn’t have the resources to maintain a force in the Darién. So guess who will have to eventually mop up this problem? The United States.

2. Worse, President Moscoso and her government are extremely corrupt. They only care about their own power and all the illegal money they can make while in office. They don’t care about “el pueblo.” The people are just incidental if not a nuisance…Get a load of the following which I’m reading from a newspaper article in front of me (La Prensa). The Panamanian government sent a delegation of 1 to the above conference in Miami. The woman sent to represent Panama is from the Panamanian National Security Council and attended NONE of the sessions. I happen to know what Panamanians do when they go to Miami. They spend all their time shopping. This is how much these so called Panamanian patriots (that’s what they like to call themselves) care about Panama.

[Dark Wing]

ping

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Oh oh...the post was cut off. Let me try posting once again...

We have two problems in Panama:

1. Panama doesn’t have the resources to maintain a force in the Darién. So guess who will have to eventually mop up this problem? The United States.

2. Worse, President Moscoso and her government are extremely corrupt. They only care about their own power and all the illegal money they can make while in office. They don’t care about “el pueblo.” The people are just incidental if not a nuisance…Get a load of the following which I’m reading from a newspaper article in front of me (La Prensa). The Panamanian government sent a delegation of 1 to the above conference in Miami. The woman sent to represent Panama is from the Panamanian National Security Council and attended NONE of the sessions. I happen to know what Panamanians do when they go to Miami. They spend all their time shopping. This is how much these so called Panamanian patriots (that’s what they like to call themselves) care about Panama.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Sorry, CW.

I see my computer is playing tricks. I think there is a plot afoot to drive me to the madhouse.

I sympathize with the barkeep who the other day shot his computer dead. Where's my shotgun?

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thanks for posting Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer). It will take some mopping to clean up. We'll bring a big bucket and maybe the woman from the Panamanian National Security Council sent to represent Panama picked up a mop on her shopping spree. Oh my.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuelan national guard soldiers discharge from a ship about 5 metric tons (5.5 US tons) of cocaine at the port of Carupano, Sucre state, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, March 8, 2003. Venezuelan soldiers seized more than 5.5 US tons of cocaine and 220 pounds of marijuana being hidden in a remote fishing town, the drugs were believed to have come from neighboring Colombia and were destined for the Caribbean island of Trinidad before being dispatched to the United States and Europe. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez)

I can't but think somehow these drugs will end up enriching Hugo Chavez. The National Guard is in his hip pocket.