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Heard on the news this afternoon that Mexico has begum building a wall along their border with Guatemala......but Noooooooooooooooo!!!! God Forbid if US builds a wall along its border with Mexico.
In event event----I copied and pasted this article below which I read on my Bloomberg this morning:
Drug-Gang Spread Demands Central America Plan, Presidents Say
2010-09-24 05:00:00.1 GMT
By Fabiola Moura and Blake Schmidt
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s drug-fueled violence is
flooding across Central America as cartels deepen roots in a
region that needs more aid from the U.S. to counter organized
crime, the presidents of Panama and Costa Rica said.
Costa Rica’s reputation as a peaceful haven in Latin
America is at risk even as the country weighs boosting security
spending by $360 million over four years to confront drug gangs,
President Laura Chinchilla said in an interview. Central
American nations need a coordinated regional response backed by
greater U.S. support to fight traffickers, Panama President
Ricardo Martinelli said.
“The conflict is spilling over all Central America because
there is too much money involved,†Martinelli, 58, said in an
interview yesterday in the office of the Panama Mission to the
United Nations in New York. “The U.S. is helping the region,
but it isn’t helping enough.â€
Drug cartels are spreading as Mexican President Felipe
Calderon’s crackdown on traffickers since 2006 claims more than
28,000 lives, said Howard Campbell, an anthropology professor at
the University of Texas at El Paso and author of the book “Drug
War Zone.†Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, just south of
Mexico, are at greatest risk, Chinchilla said in a Sept. 20
interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York.
“The three countries in the northern part of Central
America are suffering a very crude violence,†Chinchilla, 51,
said. “We have to act preventatively in order to face the
situation.â€
‘Important Role’
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in New York
last night that his country is ready to use its experience
fighting drug traffickers to help stem violence in the region.
“They are trying to take over countries in Central America
and the Caribbean,†he told a group of investors and business
leaders. “I think we can play a very important role in the
region.â€
Santos said Colombia is providing assistance to Mexico,
Guatemala and Costa Rica, “but much more has to be done,
because we have an increasing problem.†Colombian forces killed
the second-in-command this week of the nation’s biggest rebel
group.
More than 50 percent of the crimes in Panama are drug-
related, Martinelli said. The government plans to increase its
security budget to $420 million in 2011, from $276 million in
2009, he said. During the next four years, Panama will spend an
additional $500 million on equipment such as helicopters, radars
and naval bases to help curb drug trafficking and illegal
immigration in the region, he said.
Smuggling Ring
Drug-related shootings that plague Mexico’s northern cities
have surfaced in Guatemala as rival gangs battle for turf,
Campbell said. Entire Guatemalan townships are under the control
of Mexican gangs that prey on weak law enforcement, according to
a U.S. State Department report released in March.
Costa Rican authorities uncovered a drug smuggling ring
that included suspected members of the Sinaloa cartel last year
when traffickers crashed a cocaine-filled helicopter into a
cloud-covered mountain. The country, which has no army, was
listed for the first time this year by the U.S. as one of 20
major illicit drug transit or producing nations, along with
Honduras and Nicaragua, according to a Sept. 15 White House
memorandum. Guatemala and Panama had already been on the list.
While Costa Rica has the lowest violent crime rate in
Central America, homicides rose 37 percent in 2008 from the year
before, according to a UN report.
“People on the street are very concerned about the
security issue,†Chinchilla, who was elected on vows to reduce
crime, said. “When you compare Costa Rica now with the country
we had 20 years ago, we have experienced a deterioration.â€
‘Regional Challenge’
Hard-to-control borders have made Panama a transit point
for shipping cocaine from South America, the State Department
report said. Homicides in Panama jumped 19 percent in 2009 from
the year before, according to the public minister’s office.
Ninety percent of cocaine destined for the U.S. was
smuggled through Mexico or Central America in 2008, according to
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Drug violence is absolutely a regional challenge and must
involve a regional solution,†Philip J. Crowley, a U.S. State
Department spokesman, said in a statement. “International
criminal enterprises are operating across many borders and it
will take the region as a whole to defeat them.â€
Even as the violence grows, Panama’s benchmark stock index
is up 10 percent this year. Costa Rica’s $29 billion economy
will expand “a little more than†4 percent from 2009,
Chinchilla said.
Growth Forecasts
Mexico’s Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero said March 18
that drug violence costs the country 1 percentage point of gross
domestic product each year. Mexico’s economy expanded 7.6
percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the fastest
since 1998. The central bank forecasts it will grow as much as 5
percent this year, after contracting 6.5 percent last year.
Mexican stocks are outperforming peers in the U.S. and
Brazil, with Mexico’s IPC benchmark stock index gaining 3
percent this year, after a 44 percent jump in 2009, the biggest
in three years. Brazil’s Bovespa index rose 0.3 percent so far
this year, and the S&P 500 is up 0.9 percent.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this month compared
Mexican drug cartels to an “insurgency†and vowed a greater
U.S. presence in Central America to help governments combat
traffickers as they expand operations throughout the region.
Drug Trafficking
Under the Merida Initiative, a three-year, $1.6 billion
U.S. program to combat drug trafficking in Mexico, Central
America and the Caribbean, less than $275 million has been
allocated to Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic,
according to a State Department report.
Only 9 percent of the money promised under the initiative
has been spent, and U.S. officials have no reliable way to
determine whether it is making a difference in the drug war,
according to a July report by the U.S. Government Accountability
Office.
Costa Rica and Panama’s presidents said drug trafficking is
the kind of crime that doesn’t respect borders and advocate a
regional solution.
“The six countries of Central America, we need to sit down
and have a business plan of what we want to do, where we are and
how we are going to do it,†Martinelli said. “It has to be a
joint effort of all countries.â€
For Related News and Information:
Top Latin America News: TOPL <GO>
Top Economy News: TOP ECO <GO>
Costa Rican economy news: TNI COSTA ECO <GO>
Costa Rica economic snapshot: ESNP CR <GO>
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