Thread: Rumsfeld, regional leaders meet in Key Biscayne

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12887517.htm

Posted on Thu, Oct. 13, 2005

CENTRAL AMERICA


Rumsfeld, regional leaders meet in Key Biscayne

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with security ministers Wednesday on Key Biscayne to discuss emergency response to various problems.

BY FRANCES ROBLES

frobles@herald.com


As the waters that killed hundreds in Central America last week begin to subside, security ministers of those nations met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Key Biscayne on Wednesday with a suddenly urgent task: Find a regional way to combat emerging threats.

Like rain.

In his first regional ministerial conference, Rumsfeld met with the defense chiefs of seven nations for two all-day sessions designed to combat local ills like drug trafficking and the increasing presence of maras, or violent gangs.

But while Rumsfeld and Commander Bantz J. Craddock, who heads the United States Southern Command, pushed the Central American Free Trade Agreement as the solution to the area's troubles, the Central American officials seemed to be interested in discussing the force of nature.

''We have to prepare a bit more for the future, now that disasters seem to be coming every day,'' said Gen. Carlos Humberto Aldana Villanueva, Guatemala's defense minister. ``State responses are sometimes limited.''

Guatemala was hit hard by last week's Hurricane Stan, which left a trail of mudslides and destruction. Some 1,000 people are either dead or missing there, and at least 30 percent of its infrastructure was damaged.

Military rapid response teams and region-wide coordination are key elements to surviving the next disaster, ministers said.

Drug trafficking, illegal immigration and the rising presence of youth gangs menace the region as well, and the seven nations that form Central America have not come up with a coordinated plan to combat them.

Suggesting sound security comes from a sound economy, Rumsfeld advocated CAFTA, the free trade deal recently passed by Congress that opens the markets for the United States, all of Central America and the Dominican Republic. All the nations have passed it except Costa Rica.

But he warned that violent gangs threaten the region's development.

''There are still some who want to obstruct the path to social and economic progress, to return Central America to darker times of instability and chaos,'' Rumsfeld said. ``No one nation can deal with those kinds of cross-border threats.''

Critics worry that the Pentagon is pushing Central American militaries, some of which have a history of bloody human rights abuses, into law enforcement roles, especially if they are used to fight gangs.

The Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group, said in a statement that having the Pentagon host the event was a wrong message and ``responding to the gang problem is not, and should not be, a military undertaking.''

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2005 ... _3029.html

Central American Countries, U.S. Need to Cooperate on Security Issues
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service


KEY BISCAYNE, Fla., Oct. 13, 2005 – Challenges facing Central America and other Western Hemisphere countries "cannot be successfully dealt with by any one country alone," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a gathering of defense and security ministers here Oct. 12.
Speaking at the U.S.-Central American Conference of Ministers, Rumsfeld said he remembers when Central America was a much more dangerous place than it is today. He noted that many nations in the region were once dominated by dictatorships.

But today, "sweeping changes" are taking place across Central America, the secretary said.

"Today, the dictatorships of the previous decades have given away to democracy," he said. "The rivalries that once threatened stability are now past."

In today's Central America, transnational, nontraditional threats require broad cooperation from many nations to defeat.

"Drug traffickers, smugglers, hostage takers, terrorists, violent gangs: These are threats that are serious," Rumsfeld said. "But our countries are combating them. And together I believe we can defeat them over time."

Asymmetric threats are forcing the counties to develop new solutions. "Traditional roles of the military have become blurred," Belize's minister of defense, Ralph Fonseca, said. "Increased crime, including drug trafficking and terrorism, often require nontraditional law-enforcement and military responses."

Two countries in Central America, Costa Rica and Panama, are constitutionally forbidden from building militaries. These countries' governments deal with security issues using police forces. But these unique formats are also causing the Central American nations to develop new ways to cooperate to solve security challenges facing them all.

The ministers spoke of some of these issues in an open session Oct. 12.

Nicaraguan Minister of Defense Avil Ramirez Valdivia spoke of traffickers who move drugs, weapons and people north from South America, through Central America and Mexico, to the United States. He said drug gangs are an example of how a security threat can move from one country to another in the region.

"The influence of drug trafficking has been undermining the fruits of our structure and our society," he said.

Trafficking in undocumented immigrants and weapons can add to the terrorist threat in the United States. Between January and June 2004, Mexico deported about 130 Ethiopians transiting Mexico to get to the United States, Ramirez said. Roughly the same number of people from each Costa Rica and Belize were also deported from Mexico trying to reach the United States.

This is an example of how many undocumented people from other parts of the world work to enter the U.S. through Latin America. "This shows very clearly how these networks of gangs, drug traffickers, alien traffickers can lead to ... terrorism," Ramirez said.

International cooperation at all levels of government is the only thing that will allow countries in the region to deal with internal and external security threats from criminal organizations that recognize no borders. "Transnational criminal organizations exploit seams in coordination to carry out illegal activities," Belize's Fonseca said. "The only effective way to combat them is through regional efforts."

In remarks to the group, Rumsfeld agreed. "The specifics of the next great crisis are known to no one," he said. "But we do know that the effects will be felt by us all."

He stressed the issue again later in remarks to media members traveling with him from Washington. Nations must "recognize that no one country can deal with any of these transnational threats alone," he said. "It just can't be done.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2005 ... _3027.html

Security, Economic Development Closely Linked in Central American Countries
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service


KEY BISCAYNE, Fla., Oct. 12, 2005 – Security threats in Central American countries "impede development, discourage investment and sabotage economic opportunities," the general in charge of U.S. efforts in Latin America said here today.
Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, chief of U.S. Southern Command, described the "violence of criminality," including gang activity, kidnapping and narcoterrorism, as "an unnecessary tax on Central American economies because of lost foreign investment, medical and insurance costs, damaged infrastructure and lost productivity."

Craddock made his comments to attendees of the U.S.-Central American Conference of Ministers, which is meeting here through Oct. 13. A central theme of the conference is the close link between security and economic prosperity.

Craddock cited a recent study that found the cost of violence represents roughly 15 percent of the gross domestic product of Central American countries -- a total of $36 billion. "Imagine all the good that $36 billion of development could do for the people of Latin America," he said.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and several other ministers present also touted the link between security and economic development. "Money is a coward," Rumsfeld said in an address to the conference. "It flees uncertainty; it flees instability."

Belize's minister of defense, Ralph Fonseca, said tourism, which also improves economic conditions in a country, is another factor increasing the need for progress on the security front. Belize derives roughly 20 percent of its gross domestic product from tourism.

Fighting poverty must be part of the security equation, as well. Impoverished conditions lead to increased crime and radicalism.

"Poverty is common core that underscores all categories throughout the Central American region," Honduran Minister of Defense Federico Breve Travieso said. "Without any shadow of a doubt, we need a very special targeted strategy to combat poverty, and this would be a way to prevent the other threats from becoming nourished among themselves."

The three themes of security, poverty and economic progress work together in circular fashion. Fighting poverty leads to less crime and better security, which lead to improved economic conditions, further alleviating poverty. "Security is a direct catalyst to economic development and the alleviation of poverty," Fonseca said.

Rumsfeld praised the Central American Free Trade Agreement as "a key step" in improving conditions across the economic and security spectrum in Central America.

CAFTA is a comprehensive trade agreement among five countries of Central America -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua -- and the Dominican Republic and the United States. President Bush signed the agreement in August.

CAFTA's passage by the U.S. Congress "marked a critically important step forward for our region," Rumsfeld said. "And it fixed trading partners of our nations, whose citizens are already united by geography, by shared values, ... and aspirations and increasingly by the bonds of kinship and family."

Craddock explained that CAFTA allows Central American countries and the Dominican Republic to expand and diversify their exports and will bring down costs of basic necessities in Central America. "The fact is, people will have greater access to a wider array of goods and services at more competitive prices," he said.

An executive from a major retailer in Central America estimates CAFTA will result in an average reduction of 15 percent in the cost of goods for Central American consumers, Craddock said.

CAFTA is good for the U.S. economy, as well, he said. "Central America and the Dominican Republic are a larger market for U.S. goods than India, Indonesia and Russia combined," he said, noting that the passage of CAFTA strengthened that market.

Close geographic and economic ties bind the United States and Central America, Craddock said, so it's vital for the U.S. to work closely with countries in that region. He noted it takes just over two hours to fly from Miami to Washington, D.C., and about the same amount of time to fly from Miami to Guatemala City, Guatemala, or San Salvador, El Salvador. Tegucigalpa, Honduras, or Belize City, Belize, are even closer, he said.

One of seven Central Americans lives in the United States, and collectively they send more than $6 billion per year back home, Craddock said. "Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the United States," he added. "It's anticipated that by the year 2050, one quarter of the U.S. population will be of Hispanic descent."

But even with all this progress, more can be accomplished to help Central American countries face their security threats and economic problems. "To a great extent, these opportunities are held hostage by nontraditional threats," ranging from narcotrafficking and kidnapping to organized crime and corruption, Craddock said.

"The fact is, these threats do not exist in a vacuum," the general added. "They developed over decades and are a closely related to conditions of poverty, inequality and corruption."

Still, Rumsfeld expressed a positive outlook for forward momentum on the myriad issues facing the Central American countries. "I am personally convinced opportunities are limited only by countries' commitment to defending free systems that so many have fought so long and so hard to secure," he said.

"Probably one of the greatest challenges to maintain freedom's forward momentum is to demonstrate to all of our people the truth that free political systems and free economic systems offer the best hope for tangible benefits for them and for their children."