Central America's Crime Wave Spurs Plan for a Regional Force

[Eugene]

From the Los Angeles Times
THE WORLD
Central America's Crime Wave Spurs Plan for a Regional Force

Leaders say the idea may be the only way to fight gangs and drugs.
Critics fear too much U.S. sway.

By Chris Kraul and Alex Renderos
Special to The Times

August 16, 2005

MEXICO CITY — A proposal by Guatemalan President Oscar Berger to
establish a Central American "rapid-reaction force" to fight drug
traffickers and gangs is gaining strength, even as opponents say it
could become a tool of U.S. interests and threaten the region's
sovereignty.

Several countries in the region are going forward with plans for such
a force numbering at least 500 soldiers, sailors and pilots. It would
be used to interdict drug shipments in the air and on the land and sea
while fighting the growing influence of gangs and organized crime in
urban centers and in remote drug-trafficking areas.

But the idea has generated opposition among those who say the force
could end up serving the interests of the U.S. Moreover, the idea runs
counter to the demilitarizing trend that, with U.S. backing, has been
in place since the region's civil wars concluded in the 1990s.

<snip>

Julia Sweig, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations,
a Washington think tank, said that although any regional military
force with U.S. involvement was bound to raise sovereignty issues,
Central America should consider some sort of "collective mechanism to
deal with these unconventional security threats."

But she warned that the region's nations couldn't rely on the United
States to be the "uber-organizer of all that. The United States is
stretched too thin."

More: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-rapid16aug16,0,4139437.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines