U.S. security assistance to Central America, 2000-2001

The focal point of U.S. security assistance to the hemisphere in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Central America has since been eclipsed by the Andean ridge drug source-zone countries. A wide variety of U.S. military operations continue in the isthmus, however, and Washington continues to offer a great deal of aid to the region’s police forces and militaries.

Many of these activities have a counter-drug mission; the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy estimated, for instance, that 59 percent of South American cocaine en route to the United States passed through the “Mexico-Central America corridor.” [1] This mission predominates especially in Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica, which are receiving significant amounts of counternarcotics police and military aid, and in El Salvador, which is hosting a staging area for aerial U.S. counternarcotics operations. The U.S. Southern Command also continues to offer non-drug related aid, largely training and engagement activities, regular exercises, and humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian and Civic Assistance (HCA)

The Defense Department’s annual report on its “Humanitarian and Civic Assistance” (HCA) program revealed that the four countries most affected by Hurricane Mitch in October 1998 – El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua – accounted for 65 percent of HCA funding for the whole hemisphere in 1999. Together with the Dominican Republic, which was hit by Hurricane Georges in 1998, these countries were the world’s top five recipients of HCA assistance in 1999. [2] “More than 23,000 Guardsmen and Reservists from 45 states deployed into the region in two-week increments from February to August 1999,” Southern Command chief Gen. Charles Wilhelm (since retired) explained to a congressional committee in March 2000.

Collectively, the Guardsmen and Reservists built 7 bridges, 6 low water crossings, 15 culvert bridges, 27 schools, 1 community center, 5 dikes, and 240 km of roadway. They also drilled 21 water wells, diverted two rivers into their normal beds, and provided medical treatment to more than 262,000 people. [3]

With Hurricane Mitch relief efforts over, HCA deployments continued throughout the region in 2000; a full accounting of 2000 activities will not be available until March 2001. During 2000 the Southern Command planned to carry out its regular “New Horizons” series of HCA exercises in Belize, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. [4]

Training

The United States trained 1,854 Central American police and military personnel in 1999, according to the annual Foreign Military Training Report.* Most of this training occurred through the State Department-managed International Military Education and Training (IMET) program and the Special Forces’ Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program. The countries that hosted the most JCETs, Belize (4), Costa Rica (3) and El Salvador (2), led the region in trainees with 436, 402 and 355 respectively. [5]

The past few years’ appropriations laws have banned grants to Guatemala of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and IMET (except for “Expanded” IMET, which does not fund combat or technical courses). This prohibition remains in place for 2001.

IMET and JCET are not designated for counter-narcotics training. In 1999, the programs that directly support counternarcotics training – the State Department’s International Narcotics Control (INC) program and the Defense Department’s “section 1004” activities – were active only in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama. Counternarcotics did not appear to be a major training mission in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. [6]

U.S. counter-drug military presence

Counternarcotics, however, is the rationale behind the first new U.S. military installation in the region in years. A Forward Operating Location (FOL) at El Salvador’s Comalapa airport will host U.S. aircraft detecting maritime drug trafficking, especially in the Pacific. The FOL – similar to facilities recently established at Manta, Ecuador and Aruba and Curacao, Netherlands Antilles – will station small numbers of U.S. military, DEA, Coast Guard and Customs personnel to support the U.S. aircraft and to coordinate communications and intelligence.

In March 2000, the U.S. and Salvadoran governments signed a ten-year agreement for the Comalapa facility, which was ratified by the legislature on July 7. The FOL will host four medium-sized aircraft, such as E-2 and P-3, or ARL reconnaissance planes or C-130 cargo planes. While it is capable of accommodating the larger AWACS radar planes, there is no plan to station them at Comalapa for the time being. The Colombia aid package signed into law in July 2000 included $1.1 million for planning and design of the El Salvador FOL. The Defense Department plans to request funding for improvements, such as paving and support facilities, in its 2002 military construction appropriations request to Congress. [7]

The only other long-term U.S. military presence in Central America is Joint Task Force Bravo, a Southern Command component and a semi-permanent presence stationed since 1983 at the Enrique Soto Cano  air base, a facility near Comayagua, Honduras.* Though it played a central role in the post-Hurricane Mitch relief effort, the U.S. presence at Soto Cano did not change significantly in 2000.

The United States has signed treaties with Belize and Costa Rica that allow U.S. forces on counternarcotics missions to enter national waters or airspace to board ships suspected of smuggling, to pursue fleeing vessels or aircraft, and to overfly national territory. The United States and Panama have signed a “shiprider” treaty, which allows Panamanian law enforcement officials to ride on U.S. vessels, authorizing actions that the vessels may take. [8]

Central America and Colombia

U.S. policymakers express concern about the potential spillover of drug trafficking and political instability from Colombia into Central America. They most frequently cite Panama, which borders Colombia’s highly conflictive Urabá region and hosts the Panama Canal. The U.S. military, which was present at several bases in Panama since the beginning of the 20^th century, left Panama at the end of 1999 in compliance with the Carter-Torrijos Panama Canal treaties.

“Panama is being tested by violent incursions into the Darién and San Blas regions by Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries,” U.S. “Drug Czar” Gen. Barry McCaffrey warned in November 2000. “Panama's inadequately trained and equipped police forces are no match for the insurgents.” [9] The Southern Command’s Gen. Charles Wilhelm acknowledged that Colombia’s armed groups “present no immediate and direct threat to Canal operations,” but warned that “the insurgents could easily overwhelm the limited capability of the Panamanian National Police stationed along the border.” [10]

Concerns about the spread of instability and drug trafficking are reflected in the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package for Colombia and its neighbors. The package increases assistance for the security forces of Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador.* Panama will receive $4 million to create a 25-member Technical Judicial Police (PTJ) task force, to support the National Maritime Service’s patrol boats, and to support border control programs. Costa Rica will get coast guard boats, maintenance and training valued at $1.9 million, while El Salvador will get $3 million for a new anti-narcotics police headquarters, an inter-agency narcotics operations center, search, detection and interdiction equipment, and training for judges, police and prosecutors. [11]

* This number includes a few dozen civilians who were either funded through Expanded IMET or attended the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. As the March 2000 version of the Foreign Military Training Report listed the students’ units in a classified volume, this study was unable to determine which trainees were civilians.

* While the FOLs are governed by ten-year agreements, the Soto Cano agreement has no end date, hence its “semi-permanent” status.

* In the cases of armyless Costa Rica and Panama, the “security forces” are the national police forces.

 

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