Honduras: US claims success in drug war militarization
Honduras: US claims success in drug war militarization
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 06/09/2012 - 20:12.
With anger still growing in Honduras over the May 11 raid on the village of Ahuas that left four dead, the White House shows no sign of reconsidering the Central American Regional Security Initiative, under which the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Pentagon's Southern Command are coordinated with regional security forces. Officials boast the new cooperation is working, stating that last year the US monitored more than 100 small planes from South America landing at isolated airstrips in Honduras, with no interference. In contrast, two such flights were intercepted in May—including the one involved in the deadly raid at Ahuas. "In the first four months of this year, I'd say we actually have gotten it together across the military, law enforcement and developmental communities," William R. Brownfield, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, told the New York Times. "My guess is narcotics traffickers are hitting the pause button. For the first time in a decade, air shipments are being intercepted immediately upon landing."
The Times reports there was a gun-fight at the other May raid, without saying exactly where it was—only that, like Ahuas, it was on the Miskito Coast. The earlier incident apparently left no casualties. The Times says the May 11 raid was launched when Colombian officials informed the Southern Command in Miami via a joint intelligence task force of a flight headed for Honduras. A surveillance aircraft from US Customs and Border Protection tracked the plane as it landed, leading to a raid that was carried out by four State Department-chartered helicopters. They flew out of one of three new "forward operating bases" built this year by the Southern Command's Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras. Guatemalan pilots flew the helicopters, because Honduras lacks qualified pilots. The helicopters carried a strike force of Honduran National Police and DEA agents, described as "part of a special commando-style squad that was on board as advisers." (NYT, May 29)
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In 2011, the FAST program was a subject at the National Defense Industrial Association's symposium on "Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict" in Washington DC. The presentation, given by FAST section chief and former Navy SEAL Richard Dobrich, showcased the unit's training supported by US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), known for its covert, offensive operations. The trainings mentioned on the presentation's slideshow included "close-quarter combat shooting" and "land warfare."
Honduran human rights groups meanwhile charge that the investigation into the Ahuas raid, conducted by the military, has been slow and insufficient. "To keep an act of terror covered up in the midst of media confusion was always a strategy of psychological warfare, a special chapter of state terrorism," the Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH), wrote in a statement days after the incident. "We should not accept this." (UDW, May 30)
More:
http://ww4report.com/node/11149
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From 2009, I'm sure its many times worse now ...
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