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U.S. HSA Signs MOC on Border Security Cooperation with 3 Northern Triangle Countries

April 2, 2019 by Bruce Zagaris Leave a Comment

On March 28, 2019, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen signed on behalf of the United States a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on border security cooperation in Central America.

HSA Secretary Nielsen met with Guatemalan Minister of Government Enrique Degenhart, Honduran Security Minister Julian Pacheco, and Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Public Security Mauricio Landaverde

The MOC – the first ever multilateral compact on border security – has the goal of improved synchronized cooperation between the countries to strengthen border security, prevent the formation of new migrant caravans, and address the root causes of the migration crisis through synchronized efforts and will include the following: human trafficking and smuggling; combating transnational criminal organizations and gangs; expanding information and intelligence sharing; and strengthening air, land, and maritime border security.

The signatories will pursue each of these focus areas through an array of agreed-upon initiatives. Technical working groups with representatives from each country will monitor the initiatives and ensure they are carried out expeditiously. The law enforcement groups will meet periodically throughout the year, with Secretary Nielsen and the Northern Triangle Ministers continuing to meet in the coming months to ensure continued momentum.

Secretary Nielsen expressed her gratitude for the continued collaboration and partnership of the three countries as they work to slow the increased irregular migration and develop a regional approach to addressing the ongoing humanitarian and security emergency at the southern border of the U.S.

Notwithstanding Secretary Nielsen’s expression of gratitude to the three governments, late on March 28, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump notified Congress that it intends to reprogram $450 million in aid to the three countries and has already sent instructions to embassies in the region.

In 2016, after an increase of Central American children came to the Texas border, the Obama administration doubled aid to the region to approximately $750 million. The aid targets violence and insecurity as well as governance and corruption. Much of the aid is disbursed through U.S. civil society organizations.

The initiatives of the U.S. and other governments against transnational organized crime in Central America can be classified in eight areas: whole-of-government solutions; interdiction of criminal flows; targeting of transnational criminal organization leaders; use of the military in a domestic law enforcement; institutional reform within law enforcement; targeting the financial flows and resources of organized criminal groups; prison control and reform; and binational and multinational cooperation against organized crime. The MOC is a non-binding document that essentially entails a commitment to continue ongoing talks and cooperation efforts on security and law enforcement.

On March 31, 2019, President Trump threatened to close the border with Mexico, notwithstanding warnings that shutting the border would cause immediate economic damage on U.S. consumers and businesses while doing little to slow the flow of migrants into the U.S.⁵

Clearly cutting aid to the three Northern Triangle countries and shutting the border with Mexico would exacerbate the problem since the violence, insecurity and lack of opportunities in the three countries stimulate the demand to emigrate to the U.S. The lack of a comprehensive and bipartisan approach to immigration continues to deteriorate the U.S. institutions and processes by which the U.S. government is able to deal with the migration crisis. A key country in terms of its location and the similarity of its legal system with the three Northern Triangle countries is Mexico.

The current issue of the IELR will discuss these developments in more detail.

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[5] David J. Lynch, Maria Sacchetti and Joel Achenbach, Threat to close border is pressed, Wash. Post, Apr. 1, 2019, at A1, col. 3.

6th AIRCOP Meeting Discusses Detecting Illicit Traffic By Air

February 21, 2019 by Alex Psilakis Leave a Comment

On February 11, 2019, 90 representatives from various international organizations and national law enforcement agencies met at the INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France for the 6^th Global Meeting of the Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP). AIRCOP is a coordinated effort by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), INTERPOL, and the World Customs Organization (WCO). It strives to improve the capacities of international airports to catch and confiscate illicit goods including drugs, as well as high-risk passengers at any and all points of their journey.

The meeting, which ran from February 11 to 13, gathered a wide variety of attendees. It featured members from AIRCOP national focal points, particularly from countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, where AIRCOP focuses their operations. It also included trainers and mentors from national law enforcement agencies that partner with AIRCOP, as well as international agencies that work alongside AIRCOP, including the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT). Private donors, like the European Union (EU), also attended. The EU is the largest financial contributor to AIRCOP, largely because it began as an operation specific to the EU. In 2010, the EU launched the Cocaine Route Programme, which aimed to reduce cocaine trafficking to Europe via passenger transportation, cargo, and mail. Since then, the project has expanded in scale and scope, utilizing global cooperation to assist regions most vulnerable to drug trafficking.

The meeting touched on a variety of topics. Participants discussed the evolving threats that criminals pose, often appearing “smarter” or “faster” than national law enforcement personnel. They pointed specifically to organized crime and terrorism as threats AIRCOP must address. Attendees also reflected on AIRCOP’s past successes, achieved through cooperative techniques such as the sharing of best practices. Those successes include seizing eight tons of cocaine, $14.5 million in undeclared funds, and two persons wanted on INTERPOL Red Notices, among many others. Various high-level officials presented remarks outlining AIRCOP’s growth and success. UNODC Division for Operations Director Ms. Miwa Kato, for example, noted that, “Through our joint efforts, we have come a long way, not only by welcoming new countries, but also by targeting and combating all types of threats that occur on airport platforms.” Other premier personnel, including Tim Morris, INTERPOL Executive Director of Public Service, and Ana Hinojosa, WCO Director of Compliance and Facilitation, offered remarks as well.

AIRCOP has confronted – and continues to confront – an array of global issues. In 2017, they partnered with EUROPOL and the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) to crack down on an international airline ticket fraud scheme. While AIRCOP focused their operations on airports in Africa and the Middle East, they assisted in detaining a total of 195 individuals. Several of these individuals aimed to smuggle illicit substances across borders, using the cheaply purchased tickets to fly back and forth with greater frequency. Over 60 countries from around the globe participated in the operation. More recently, the UNODC – one of AIRCOP’s three branches – has noticed an increase in drug trafficking throughout West Africa, where the profits made from selling drugs routinely go to terrorist organizations. Although AIRCOP has noticed drugs like methamphetamine streaming through airports in Nigeria, Ghana, and Benin, the UNODC has stressed that drug trafficking is harming the entire region, with Executive Director Yury Fedotov noting that, “UNODC is registering new alarming trends on drug trafficking in West and Central Africa with disruptive and destabilizing effects on governance, security, economic growth, and public health.” Drugs transported throughout the region include not just methamphetamine, but heroine, cocaine, and a variety of opioids.

To confront these evolving and developing threats, AIRCOP must do exactly what they outlined in their 6^th Global Meeting – evolve and develop. The international organization has proven highly effective in shutting down illicit trafficking that flows through airports, and by continuing to improve the means by which member states share information and coordinate operations, AIRCOP may prove even more effective.

U.S. and Brazil Start Permanent Forum on Security

May 23, 2018 by Bruce Zagaris Leave a Comment

On May 22, 2018, the United States and Brazilian governments issued a joint statement following the start of the U.S.-Brazil Permanent Forum on Security.

The initiative arose during a meeting in Brasilia at which U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan was accompanied by the Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Manisha Singh and Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Palmieri.

The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Secretary General Marcos Garvão hosted the U.S. delegation in a working lunch and a meeting where they discussed several aspects of the U.S.-Brazil partnership.

The start of the Permanent Forum on Security arises from “consistent cooperation between the United States and Brazil on fighting transnational crime, and based upon the strengthening of collaboration of law enforcement and security agencies in both countries.”[1]

The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. State Department will coordinate the Forum, which aims to facilitate interagency teamwork and design operating strategies in six pre-defined areas: drug trafficking, arms trafficking, cybercrime, money laundering and financial crimes, terrorism, and institutional cooperation.

The first working meeting of the Forum will occur later this year in Washington, D.C.

During the visit, the two sides also issues related to criminal cooperation, such as space cooperation and defense. They discussed the recent exchange of diplomatic notes completing the process for the U.S.-Brazil Open Skies Aviation Agreement and welcomed the resumption of negotiations on a Technology Safeguards Agreement. They exchanged ideas on regional issues, including the region’s response to the political, economic, and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

According to the remarks of Deputy Secretary Sullivan, the U.S.-Brazilian security cooperation has included the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

A future IELR article will include a more comprehensive discussion of the Forum, its scope and some of the implications.

[1] State Department, Western Hemisphere: U.S.-Brazil Bilateral Cooperation, May 22, 2018

U.S. Government Needs Better Control on International Arms Sales

March 24, 2018 by Bruce Zagaris Leave a Comment

On March 13, 2018, CATO published a report by A. Trevor Thrall and Caroline Dorminey entitled Risky Business: The Role of Arms Sales in U.S. Foreign Policy.

The report observes that since 2002, the U.S. has sold more than $197 billion worth of major conventional weapons and related military support to 167 countries. In just his first year in office, President Donald Trump signed arms deals at an accelerated rate, generating hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of potential sales.

According to the report, U.S. government-to-government arms sales since 2002 reveals that the U.S. has repeatedly sold weapons to nations engaged in deadly conflicts, and to those with horrendous human rights records, under circumstances in which the U.S. has not been able to predict where the weapons would end up or how they would be used.

The report argues that economic benefits of arms ales are dubious and that their strategic utility is far more uncertain and limited than most realize. The authors persuasively argue that the U.S. should revise its arms sales policy to improve the risk assessment process, to ban sales to countries where the risk of negative consequences is too high, and to limit sales to cases in which they will directly enhance U.S. security.

The U.S. sells arms to a large number of risky customers in the world, and the U.S. sells weapons to most of them. The data shows that the U.S. does not discriminate between high- and low-risk customers. The average sales to the riskiest nations are higher than those to the least risky nations. Due to the lack of discrimination, these recipient governments have used their U.S. weapons to promote oppression, commit human rights abuses, and perpetuate bloody civil wars.

A result of the lack of discrimination in arms sale is blowback: U.S. troops and their allies have faced U.S.-made weapons in almost every military engagement since the end of the Cold War, including in Panama, Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria.

Arms sales do not just affect the recipient nation; they also affect and can destabilize the local balance of power, often causing ripple effects throughout the region.

The report recommends the U.S. should reorient its arms sales policy to ensure that sales provide strategic benefits and to avoid producing negative unintended consequences. At a practical level, arms sales must be reduced dramatically, especially to nations with high risk factors

The report made several recommendations, including that “the president should issue a new Presidential Policy Directive reorienting U.S. arms sales policy so that the new default policy is “no sale.” The only circumstances in which the United States should sell or transfer arms to another country are when three conditions are met: (1) there is a direct threat to American national security; (2) there is no other way to confront that threat other than arming another country; and (3) the United States is the only potential supplier of the necessary weapons.”

Other (Non-state-to-state arms sales) –

The latest Issue Brief from the Small Arms Survey—Dribs and Drabs: The Mechanics of Small Arms Trafficking from the United States—analyses a side of the arms trade that is less flashy, less centralized, and even more difficult to stop. It reviews the modes of transport, concealment methods, and smuggling techniques employed by arms traffickers in the U.S. The brief finds strong arms export licensing regimes are necessary but not sufficient for stopping small arms trafficking. “The illicit trade in parts and accessories for small arms is more significant than commonly assumed. Networks that traffic in firearms parts are among the most prolific and geographically expansive of the smuggling operations studied.”

The U.S. is the largest producer of small arms in the world, with more than half of the world’s producers based in the U.S. Many arms traffickers buy relatively inexpensive firearms in the U.S. and resell them on the black market abroad because the penalties are relatively light compared with the penalties for smuggling drugs – and the profit margin is high. Arms brokers bypass regulatory norms and facilitate weapons transfers from states to non-state actors and buyers who could not otherwise obtain them.

The rate of U.S. firearms flowing into Central America, particularly the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, constitutes a major regional security problem.

The United States is one of three countries that have not ratified the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials (CIFTA). The Convention requires parties to criminalize the illegal manufacture, import, or export of high-powered weapons. It also provides for information exchange and cooperation on initiatives including the marking and tracing of weapons and the identification of criminal transit routes. President Bill Clinton signed CIFTA in 1997 and submitted it for ratification to the Senate, but the Senate failed to act. Twenty-nine countries in the Western Hemisphere have ratified CIFTA.

Just as importantly, the U.S. voted in favor of the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in April 2013, and it has signed, but not yet ratified the treaty. 93 states participate, including 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries participate in the treaty. The landmark Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), regulating the international trade in conventional arms – from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships – entered into force on December 24, 2014.

Strengthening U.S. gun control and participating in CIFTA and the UN Small Arms Treaty will offset widespread regional views that the U.S. remains indifferent to its own role in exacerbating one of Latin America’s most significant challenges.

U.S. HSA Signs MOC on Border Security Cooperation with 3 Northern Triangle Countries

6th AIRCOP Meeting Discusses Detecting Illicit Traffic By Air

U.S. and Brazil Start Permanent Forum on Security

U.S. Government Needs Better Control on International Arms Sales

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