Toward a US-Mexico-Colombia Security Triangle?

The Washington Post this weekend reports on what it calls the training of thousands of Mexican policemen, soldiers, and court officers by Colombia. Both American and Colombian officials indicate that the majority of such training has occurred in Mexico, but, according to Post correspondent Juan Forero, “in a sign of how serious the threat posed by the Mexican cartels has become,” a growing number of of Mexican soldiers and policemen are now traveling to Colombia to train with the Andean country’s “battle-tested police commandos.”

With the latest Mexico-Colombia parallel, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos:

“Mexico has what we had some years ago, which are very powerful cartels. What we can provide is the experience that we have had dismantling those cartels, training intelligence officers, training judicial police.”

Through Colombia, the paper says the Obama administration may have found a politically expedient – and backdoor – way to aid in Mexico’s ongoing fight against drug cartels. Indeed, the Post says US assistance to Colombia helps pay for at least part of the training being given to Mexican security forces in Colombia (or by Colombians). Avoided, however, is protest by many in Mexico about a significant US troop presence in Mexican territory. Roderic Ai Camp who an expert on the Mexican military and professor at California’s Claremont McKenna College:

“Given the loss of half of Mexico's national territory to the United States in the 19th century, and the Mexican army's hesitant cooperation with their American counterparts, the Colombians are a logical proxy.”

But there is another part to this story that also seems worth noting, and perhaps complicating the picture a bit: the emergence of a more independent Colombia with its own regional aspirations and interests. As noted here on a number of occasions Juan Carlos Santos has been resolute in defining a more independent regional foreign policy. Notably, he – in contrast his North American allies – has successfully renovated relations with his neighbors in Venezuela. Today Colombia’s El Tiempo publishes an EFE report on the latest such developments which include a meetings this week between Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera and Venezuelan Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami to continue joint analysis of security issues on the countries’ shared border, two months after signing of a bilateral counter-narcotics. (Wednesday’s talks are to specifically focus on issues of kidnapping and extortion). EFE (by way of Sao Paulo’s Folha) also reports today that Juan Manuel Santos is quietly seeking the incorporation of his country into Mercosur. According to Marco Aurelio Garcia, the mind behind Brazil’s push for regional integration, the plan is part of the Santos government’s attempt at “radically changing” the direction of Colombia’s international agenda and was part of discussions between Dilma Rousseff and Santos at Dilma’s Jan. 1 inauguration.

Or, as the Washington Post writes re: growing Mexico-Colombia security relations, “Colombia's shift reflects its desire to demonstrate an ability to help resolve regional problems instead of being seen as simply a recipient of U.S. aid.”

To be sure, there are plenty of questions that remain about the type of security training being offered to Mexico by Colombia – matters of human rights protection among them. Those questions may begin to surface as the US and Mexico continue security talks. (Hillary Clinton travels to Guanajuato, Mexico today to discuss issues which will include joint cooperation against organized crime). Questions about a US-Mexico-Colombia security triangle, may also come out next month when, as AFP reports, Colombian Defense Minister Rivera travels to Washington to meet with US Sec. of Defense Robert Gates about counter-narcotics and security issues.

In other issues of regional interest:

· The New York Times reports on a call from the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillary, to Mexico, demanding that an investigation into the disappearance of 40 Central American migrants in Oaxaca last month be carried out immediately. The disappeared were among a group of some 250 individuals – mostly Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans – who were traveling North on a freight train in southern Oaxaca in mid-December. According to Navi Pillary, “the train operator demanded money from the migrants and, after scoffing at the sum they mustered, the train was boarded a short while later by armed gunmen who robbed and beat some of the migrants and abducted 40 of them.” Mexico’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva tells the AP that the government has condemned the killings and is now conducting a “rigorous investigation” -- this after first denying the abductions ever-occurred. CNN notes that two individuals suspected of participating in the kidnappings were allegedly arrested in Oaxaca earlier this month. The Latin American Herald Tribune says four Central American migrants who escaped abduction have also now identified 10 other gang members involved in the attack. CNN adds that the demands of Ms. Pillary came just one day after Mexican lawmakers “grilled” the head of the country's National Migration Institute over both the Oaxaca abductions and the August massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants in the border state of Tamaulipas. And today the LAHT reports Honduran and Mexican officials agreed over the weekend to establish a “high-level security group” together, focused on attacks against migrants by organized criminal groups. The group’s objective will be to improve the “coordination of communications on security matters, bolster intelligence on the payment of ransom, improve bi-national extradition procedures and inform migrants of their rights, as well as about the dangers they face on the journey north.”

· In Haiti, the first public words of Jean-Claude Duvalier came Friday at a press conference in the hills above Port-au-Prince. The AP notes that Duvalier remained vague about the reason for his return, saying only that he had come to “participate by [Haiti’s] side” in its national reconstruction. Unexpectedly, Duvalier finished his speech by trotting out three American lawyers to field questions from the press. Among those who have been brought on to work for the ex-dictator is former US congressman and presidential nominee, Bob Barr. More from TIME which features Barr, attorney Mike Puglise, and Atlanta lawyer Ed Marger – the lead consultant and a longtime Duvalier family friend. When asked why Duvalier had returned, Marger suggested it may in part be related to the former leader’s frozen assets, reported on last week. But according to Marger, Duvalier is not interested in the monies for personal gain – rather he wants to donate it to Haiti’s reconstruction. On Bob Barr’s website, this outrageous statement: “Duvalier also stated that Barr, Marger and Puglise will be representing him in bringing his message of hope to the world.” Atlanta local news with interviews with Barr and Marger before their departure Friday. And new reports on the case against Duvalier from the Miami Herald and the AP, which say President Rene Preval, in his first public comment about Baby Doc’s return, said he supports international calls for the former dictator to be prosecuted.

· The other half of the Haiti crisis involves Preval himself who, as the Herald reports, is now being pressured by the US to schedule a runoff between Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly. According to diplomatic sources, talks have begun to “request that the Organization of American States start consultations at the Permanent Council level in order to declare [Preval] illegitimate based on the Democratic Charter of the Americas,” should he stay in power after Feb. 7. For its part, the US appears to have already taken steps in that direction, revoking the visas of a dozen unnamed Haitian officials over the weekend. State Dept. spokesman PJ Crowley on that decision: “To the extent that there are individuals who are connected with episodes of violence or corruption…we will not hesitate to take appropriate action.” Commentators on the US Right, meanwhile, are lining up in a rare show of support for the Obama administration’s new hard line stance via a vis Haiti. The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady praises statements from Susan Rice, the US’s ambassador to the UN, demanding that the Preval government follow the OAS’s recommendation to drop Jude Celestin from a future runoff vote. Earlier last week, Roger Noriega’s intervention on the matter slyly – and without documentation – threw Venezuela into the mix to rally the conservatives. Noriega: “Sources in the American government know that Préval recently sought $25 million from Chávez to bankroll the runoff campaign of his handpicked successor, Jude Célestin.”

· In verifiable happenings in Venezuela, the AP with reports on rival pro and anti-Chavez demonstrations in Caracas Sunday, marking the 53^rd anniversary of the fall of former dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez.

· AFP reports on recent statements by Colombian VP Angelino Garzon about the growing power of armed “successor” groups. According to Garzon, the new criminal groups result from a “diabolical alliance” between former paramilitaries, those involved in organized crime and narco-trafficking, ex-guerrillas, and former soldiers and police officers.”

· The AP on the Cuban government’s decision to suspend indefinitely all mail service to the US. The decision extends a November ban and expands the measure to include packages as well as letters.

· In Guatemala, BBC reports on the beginning of a corruption trial in Guatemala City against former president Alfonso Portillo. Portillo’s former defense minister, Eduardo Arevalo, and former finance minister, Manuel Maza, are also on trial for allegedly embezzling some $15 million in state funds.

· The Economist (here and here) slams the United States decision last week to oppose Bolivia’s attempt to amend a 1961 UN Convention – a move that would decriminalize coca-leaf chewing. Meanwhile, Just the Facts posts and analyzes newly released US government figures documenting changes in the production of actual cocaine in the Andes.

· At Upside Down World, Mel Zelaya’s former Minister of Culture and active FNRP member Prof. Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle calls on the Resistance to support the current process of constitutional reform as a means toward a national constituent assembly. Pastor Fasquelle:

“The reform can serve as a mobilizing tool; the debate around the reformed amendment is a pedagogical necessity that should bring us closer to our goals…Opposing the reform would be unpopular and unproductive at this moment. It is necessary to prevent division within our movement and to turn our attention to the potential uses and service of the amendment.”

· Finally, with Obama preparing for his State of the Union address, free trade agreements are on the mind of many opinion makers. Robert Kagan becomes the latest to argue the Obama administration must finish an FTA with Colombia, in the Washington Post. Meanwhile, in the Wall Street Journal, two Democratic operatives, one-time Clinton chief-of-staff Mack McLarty (who identifies himself as the man responsible for having brought new Obama chief-of-staff Bill Daley to the White House under Bill Clinton to lead the NAFTA ratification process) and former Joe Biden and Bill Clinton aide Nelson Cunningham echo that opinion in urging the administration to move on trade deals with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea.