The war on drugs in Mexico is intensifying, and the United States is constantly pressuring Mexican President Felipe Calderon to stop drug trafficking across the U.S. – Mexican border.
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| Fishy Cargo: Mexican authorities in the port of Puerto Progreso last week found frozen sharks stuffed with 894 kilograms of cocaine. The sharks were unloaded from a ship whose voyage originated at the Costa Rican port of Caldera. |
Jacinto Kanek | EFE |
Millions of dollars in U.S. aid are being pumped into Mexico to help it fight its war on drugs and strong efforts are being made to force drug cartels out of the border regions.
As a result, the cartels are moving south, seeking new routes to the world's number one cocaine customer – the U.S. – and fighting for new territory in Central America.
And as the battles continue, experts and officials warn that Costa Rica will not be spared.
Several recent cocaine busts involving Costa Rica, including last week's discovery of several dozen frozen sharks stuffed with cocaine that had originated in the Costa Rican Pacific port of Caldera, have inspired a new discussion about a major hole that exists in Central America's efforts to combat the drug trade – communications.
Mauricio Boraschi, director of the Costa Rica Drug Institute (ICD), said that as Mexico's efforts force drug traffickers to the south, the Central American countries need to start talking, something they have been notoriously lax in doing.
In 1991, Central American countries formed the Central American Integration System (SICA), in part as an attempt to improve interregional communications among the Central American countries.
Boraschi said the agreement was a positive step for Central America, but much remains to be done in order to combat the drug trade.
“We need to strengthen these plans,” he said. “Countries need to communicate, but they aren't. We need intense work between all the countries in Central America.”
Boraschi noted that much of the communication equipment is outdated and many of the radios and telephones often don't function.
The ICD is working with the Judicial Branch and the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) to improve the plans. Since 2008, the groups have been assembling the National Communication Intervention System, which would upgrade computer and telephone systems used by law enforcement agencies.
As part of the plan, the groups are lobbying for a law against organized crime, which will be up for debate in the Legislative Assembly next week, June 29. The law, as it stands now, would release financial resources for local law enforcement agencies to combat organized crime, such as drug trafficking.
Among the law's objectives are establishment of procedures for placing wiretaps on phones under certain circumstances and creating a communication control center in Costa Rica for coordination among the police agencies of the Central American countries.
Resources and Financing
The lack of integrated communications among Central American drug enforcement agencies has spilled over into the region's ability to receive foreign aid.
Costa Rica has received a total of $51 million in aid from the U.S. during the past 10 years, while Mexico will receive a cumulative $400 million in assistance to fight drug trafficking under a three year plan which was signed in June 2008 (TT April 17, 2009).
Bruce Bagley, chair of the international studies department at the University of Miami, said part of the reason that Central America didn't receive more money was because the countries didn't talk to each other when the offer was on the table.
The U.S. offered $1.4 million dollars to Central America as a region, and each of the seven countries in the region responded with their own individual requests of approximtely $100 million dollars.
“The U.S. said ‘Give us a break,'” Bagley said. “There is no coherent regional plan. Given the linkages between (the countries), Central America needs to think in regional terms and they have not been good at that.”
Ricardo González, press official of the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ), agreed, saying, “Look, we need to start talking to each other and we need better ways of doing it,” he said.
González said that the National Coast Guard, one of Costa Rica's most valuable tools in combating illegal drug shipments, has 15 ships and 500 officials working both coasts of Costa Rica. The drug control police contributes 250 officials who also patrol the coasts, but Gonzalez said all of the resources “aren't enough to cover an area 10 times the size of our national territory.
Bagely noted that if Costa Rica wants to see more money to aid in its fight against drug trafficking, it must be Central America's guide through the region's dark communications tunnels, something the nation has the opportunity to do as it is set to become the new leader of SICA this month.
“Costa Rica has a tremendous economic and political advantage over the other countries in Central America and I think it ought to take the lead with information sharing and joint police force training,” he said. “But until they do, they had better brace themselves.”
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