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.''