Western Hemisphere Defense, Security Leaders Gather to Discuss Transnational Organized Crime in Central America

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Seeking to strengthen regional cooperation and counter transnational organized crime in Central America, senior military and civilian leaders from 13 Western Hemisphere nations met in San Salvador April 18-19 during the 2012 Central American Security Conference (CENTSEC).

 

The two-day conference, co-hosted by U.S. Southern Command and the Armed Forces of El Salvador, included briefings, discussions and meetings during which attendees discussed the integration of their operations to collectively target transnational criminal networks and strengthen regional information sharing.

 

Also in attendance were representatives from the Inter-American Defense Board, the Conference of Central American Armed Forces (CFAC), Central American Integration System (SICA), U.S. Northern Command, Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and Joint Interagency Task Force South, contributing their perspectives and expertise to the dialogue during the annual regional security forum.

 

Speaking to participants about the complexity of operations that support drug trafficking organizations in the hemisphere, Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser,  Commander of U.S. Southern Command, noted that SOUTHCOM is increasingly focusing as much on criminal networks as it does on geography when analyzing illicit trafficking trends in its area of responsibility.

 

“It is organizations and people who are conducting this enterprise,” he said, citing “transportistas” who coordinate illicit shipments and technicians who construct sophisticated submersible vessels as examples of individuals supporting what he described as criminal networks.

 

Fraser encouraged attendees to view themselves as one “important network” working to counter another.

 

Participants were updated on Operation Martillo, a multinational monitoring, detection and interdiction operation that began in January with support from countries represented in CENTSEC, as well as European nations. Martillo has persistently targeted illicit trafficking routes along Central America’s coastal waters, leveraging the collective capabilities of 16 nations to disrupt the illegal shipment of drugs, precursor chemicals, bulk cash and weapons by transnational criminal organizations.

 

“The operations here are closer and better than I’ve ever seen before and they’re across all domains -- air, land and sea; and there are tremendous results we’ve had so far from Operation Martillo,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Charles Michel, Director of Joint Interagency Task Force South, the organization responsible for overseeing detection and monitoring operations and facilitating the interdiction of illicit trafficking in SOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility.
 
“To date, we have disrupted about 25 metric tons of cocaine and other drugs, we have detained over 50 people, and we continue to have an impact on their operations,” Fraser told reporters as he informed them on the progress of the operation during an early morning press conference April 18.

 

Briefing attendees on SOUTHCOM’s ongoing effort with regional partners to develop tools that improve information sharing and multinational collaboration, U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Steven Shepro, Director of SOUTHCOM’s Strategy, Policy and Plans directorate, highlighted the work done to date to evaluate common technology platforms and incorporate them incrementally in support of regional collaboration objectives and activities.

 

The platforms developed with CENTSEC partners for that purpose include the All Partner Access Network (APAN), a web-based collaboration and information sharing tool, and the Cooperative Sensor and Information Integration (CSII) Program, a tool that integrates data from sensors, such as radars and automated identification systems, to support multinational monitoring and detection operations.

 

Fraser said he’d like to see enhanced information sharing and collaborative capabilities yield new advantages in anticipating how transnational criminal organizations will respond when their illicit trafficking operations are consistently disrupted.

 

“Our real challenge is to understand and to detect when and how the traffickers are moving and then shift our operations in anticipation of that, so that there is constant pressure on those trafficking organizations,” he explained.

 

Fraser underscored that military efforts to counter transnational organized crime are only part of the overall solution, citing U.S. assistance programs under bilateral initiatives like the Partnership for Growth between the U.S. and El Salvador and regional initiatives like the Central American Regional Security Initiative as examples of ongoing efforts to help Central American partners strengthen institutional capacity across the whole of government and implement social programs that offer at-risk youth alternatives to crime and violence.

 

This year’s CENTSEC followed the Sixth Summit of the Americas, a meeting of Western Hemisphere heads of state, where U.S. President Barack Obama pledged $130 million to support the regional security strategy led by U.S. partners in Central America. CENTSEC 2012 also coincided with the release of a new National Drug Policy Strategy by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy that reaffirms the U.S. commitment to reduce domestic drug consumption through a comprehensive approach that places emphasis on public health approaches, the diversion of non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of prison, and progressive alternatives to law enforcement-only "war on drugs."