CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

MATAMOROS, Mexico – Just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, stands a dormitory-style shelter filled with people recently deported from the U.S. and other migrants waiting to cross the border.

The long rows of bunk beds offer immigrants a place to rest on their long journey. But the shelter is no safe haven in a town controlled by the Gulf cartel. Armed men once showed up and took away 15 men, who were probably put to work as gunmen, lookouts or human mules hauling bales of marijuana into the United States.

As Congress takes up immigration reform, lawmakers may have to confront the reality of this place and others like it, where people say the current system of immigration enforcement and deportation produces a constant flow of people north and south that provides the cartel with a vulnerable labor pool and steady source of revenue.

“This vicious circle favors organized crime because ... Read More

Colombia’s left-wing Farc rebels have rejected criticism that efforts to end almost fifty years of conflict are moving too slowly.

Farc lead negotiator Ivan Marquez said achieving lasting peace in Colombia would take “more time”.

He spoke as the rebels and the Colombian government marked six months since peace talks began.

President Juan Manuel Santos has said he hopes a deal can be reached within months rather than years.

Peace negotiations began in Cuba in November.

Mr Marquez told reporters in the capital, Havana, on Sunday that he did not understand why the pace of talks was being described as slow.

“You have been watching the Giro d’Italia (cycle race). Some people want us to go at this pace, but if we go at this pace, we will fail.”

“We have to approach these issues with serenity, with depth if we really want to form the solid basis to build a stable and long-lasting peace,” he ... Read More

NIKOLAS KOZLOFF

Now that Venezuela’s larger-than-life Hugo Chávez has vanished from the political landscape, what does the future hold for South America? Though Venezuela is only a medium-sized country, Chávez was able to skillfully realign geopolitical fault lines through shrewd use of oil largesse and petro populism. It is unlikely, though, that uncharismatic Chávez successor Nicolás Maduro, who only won his country’s recent presidential election by the slightest of margins, will be as successful as his mentor in maintaining Venezuela’s carefully crafted system of regional alliances. As Venezuela fades, Brazil will naturally assume a greater leadership role, thus paving the path for a somewhat unusual three-way contest between the two South American countries and the United States. Just what form, precisely, is such competition likely to take and where are new geopolitical rivalries going to be most acutely felt? For answers, look to Brazil “buffer state” Uruguay, a country rife with ... Read More

By Scott Stewart Vice President of Analysis

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s approach to combating Mexican drug cartels has been a much-discussed topic since well before he was elected. Indeed, in June 2011 — more than a year before the July 2012 Mexican presidential election — I wrote an analysis discussing rumors that, if elected, Pena Nieto was going to attempt to reach some sort of accommodation with Mexico’s drug cartels in order to bring down the level of violence.

Such rumors were certainly understandable, given the arrangement that had existed for many years between some senior members of Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party and some powerful cartel figures during the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s long reign in Mexico prior to the election of Vicente Fox of the National Action Party in 2000. However, as we argued in 2011 and repeated in March 2013, much has changed in Mexico since 2000, and the new reality in Mexico means ... Read More

BY JAIME DAREMBLUM

During his trip to Mexico and Costa Rica last week, President Obama tried to highlight the positive and downplay the negative. Thus, he spoke at length about the growth of trade, commerce, and economic partnerships, arguing that security issues should not be allowed to dominate all discussions of U.S. policy in the region. (Of course, Obama voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement when he was a senator, and he canceled a U.S.-Mexico pilot trucking program during his first months as president, but never mind.) His remarks were surely welcomed by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, who has taken great pains to transform his country’s image abroad. Whereas many Americans and others have come to associate Mexico with drug trafficking and brutal cartel violence, Peña Nieto wants them to learn more about Mexico’s emergence as a manufacturing powerhouse, its increasingly important role in the global economy, and the expansion of its middle class.

His desire to emphasize ... Read More

BY MICHAEL D. SHEAR & RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — In February 2009, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. declared that international drug trafficking posed “a sustained, serious threat” to Americans. Two months later, President Obama, in his first visit as president to Mexico, made it clear that no issue dominated relations between the two countries more, saying drug cartels there were “sowing chaos in our communities.”

Last week, Mr. Obama returned to capitals in Latin America with a vastly different message. Relationships with countries racked by drug violence and organized crime should focus more on economic development and less on the endless battles against drug traffickers and organized crime capos that have left few clear victors. The countries, Mexico in particular, need to set their own course on security, with the United States playing more of a backing role.

That approach runs the risk of being seen as kowtowing to governments more concerned ... Read More

BY KATHLEEN HENNESSEY & TRACY WILKINSON

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — President Obama capped a three-day visit to Latin America on Saturday by urging the region’s leaders to fight the drug war not with more guns or military aid but with greater investment in infrastructure, education and energy.

Communicating that message, delivered Friday night to a group of Central American leaders and again Saturday at a development conference in San Jose, was the chief aim of Obama’s brief visit south, which also included a stop in Mexico City. As he zipped through the two capitals, Obama sought to change stereotypes about a troubled region by touting the possibilities in trade, energy development and democratic reforms.

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the critical importance of trade, commerce, business for Costa Rica, the United States and the entire hemisphere,” Obama said Saturday.

The message was a shift from years of tough talk on U.S. plans to help governments crack down on ... Read More

BY COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica—President Barack Obama said Saturday that he considers trade relationships with Central American countries and Mexico enormously important, telling Costa Ricans that the U.S. wants to be their partner.

The U.S. and Costa Rica both would benefit from broadening economic ties and collaborating on challenge as varied as improving education and developing renewable energy, Mr. Obama said at an economic forum. As he wrapped up a three-day trip to Costa Rica and Mexico, the president hit upon many of the same themes he emphasized in Mexico City, where he worked to push the conversation beyond drugs and security concerns.

“The U.S. recognizes our fates are tied up with your success,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of entrepreneurs and other leaders in San Jose. “If you are doing well, we will do better. And if we’re doing well, we think your situation improves.”

In Costa Rica and in Mexico, Mr. ... Read More

BY LISA LERER & NACHA CATTAN

President Barack Obama arrived in Mexico today with a message that ties the immigration debate in the U.S. to economic growth on both sides of the border.

In his discussions with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Obama also will be conscious of his audience back home, where Congress next week resumes negotiating possible changes to immigration law. That debate will affect U.S. and Mexican businesses as well as the millions of Mexicans living in the U.S. illegally.

Obama and Pena Nieto are scheduled to meet for about an hour before holding a joint news conference at 4:10 p.m. local time.

The domestic debate is intertwined with the thorniest issues in U.S. relations with Latin America, including border security, drug trafficking and free trade.

“The White House is hoping to highlight the economic opportunities that would emanate from a modernized immigration system,” said Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist who met ... Read More

Bolivian President Evo Morales has said he will expel the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Mr Morales accused the agency of seeking to “conspire against” the Bolivian people and his government.

US state department spokesman Patrick Ventrell rejected the allegations as “baseless and unfounded”.

USAID has been working in Bolivia for almost five decades, and had a budget of $52.1m (£33.4m) for the country in 2010, according to its website.

“This harms the Bolivian people. We think the programmes have been positive for the Bolivian people and fully co-ordinated with the Bolivian government and appropriate agencies under their own national development plan,” said Mr Ventrell.

In 2008, Mr Morales expelled the US ambassador and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for allegedly conspiring against his government.

‘Nationalise dignity’

On previous May Days, Mr Morales had announced the nationalisation of key industries, such as hydroelectric power and the electricity grid.

But on Wednesday he said he “would only nationalise the ... Read More

BY JAY WEAVER

Sandra Avila Beltran, the dark-haired Mexican beauty dubbed the “Queen of the Pacific,” has pleaded guilty to a drug-trafficking charge in Miami, closing the curtain on the once celebrity-like role of the reputed cocaine smuggler.

Avila, 52, admitted Tuesday in federal court that she helped her former boyfriend, a one-time Colombian cartel boss, evade prosecution for cocaine importation and distribution charges in the United States. She pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to his conspiracy crimes, for which the ex-boyfriend, Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez, was ultimately convicted.

Avila, who stood out in a narco-trafficking world dominated by macho men, avoided a potential life sentence if convicted on the same conspiracy offenses at trial next month. With her plea, she now faces up to 15 years in prison at her sentencing before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore. But she is expected to receive a much lesser sentence, ... Read More

BY JAY SOLOMON

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration charged Hezbollah with operating like an international drug cartel and blacklisted two Lebanese money-exchange houses for allegedly moving tens of millions of dollars of drug profit through the U.S. financial system on behalf of the militant group.

The Treasury Department’s action Tuesday marked the latest salvo in a two-year U.S. government campaign against Hezbollah’s alleged drug-trafficking activities.

U.S. officials alleged that Hezbollah is using proceeds from this narcotics trade to fund international terrorist activities and to bolster the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in their fight against a widening political rebellion.

U.S. officials also said Hezbollah is increasingly reverting to illicit trade to offset diminished funding coming from Iran, the organization’s closest ally.

“Hezbollah is operating like a major drug cartel,” said Derek Maltz, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, who is overseeing the U.S. probe into Hezbollah. “These proceeds are funding violence against Americans.”

Bulgaria’s Interior ... Read More

BY HELEN MURPHY & LUIS JAIME ACOSTA

* FARC has long denied taking part in drug trafficking

* Gov’t, FARC in talks after nearly 50 years of conflict

BOGOTA – Colombia’s FARC rebels control more than 60 percent of the Andean nation’s drug trade, including cocaine trafficking overseas, an activity the armed group has denied during peace talks in Cuba, Colombia’s police chief said on Monday.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia earns as much as $1 billion a year from the production and sale of cocaine in Colombia and “undoubtedly” is involved in trafficking of the narcotic to international markets, General Jose Roberto Leon, head of the national police force, told Reuters.

“We have information found on computers after operations that have captured or killed FARC leaders, and it’s involvement in drug trafficking is evident,” Leon, 52, said in an interview at his Bogota office.

The FARC, as the group is known, has acknowledged funding its war against the government with the cultivation of coca - the raw ... Read More

BY RICHARD VALDMANIS

DAKAR – The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Guinea-Bissau’s top military official of plotting to traffic cocaine to the United States and sell weapons to Colombian rebels, according to court documents seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The accusation against General Antonio Indjai - widely seen as the coup-prone West African nation’s most powerful man – is the first official signal that criminality may go straight to the top in what has for years been labeled a ‘narco-state’.

Guinea Bissau authorities repeatedly have denied any involvement in drug trafficking and Indjai is believed to be in the country.

The indictment filed in New York’s Southern District Court and seen by a Reuters reporter, charges Indjai on four counts: “narco-terrorism conspiracy”, conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, cocaine importation conspiracy and conspiracy to acquire and transfer anti-aircraft missiles.

The charges said Indjai planned to store FARC-owned cocaine in Guinea Bissau and sell ... Read More

A prediction by US intelligence chief James Clapper that chavista candidate Nicolas Maduro will likely win Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela is so simplistic that it is misleading. “[W]ith a comfortable lead in the polls, Maduro is expected to win, and he will probably continue in [his late predecessor, Hugo] Chavez’s tradition,” Clapper said in the final paragraph of his written testimony before congressional intelligence committees on Thursday. With that sort of superficial analysis, it is no surprise that Washington has no influence over whether a hostile narcostate and best friend of Iran and Hezbollah holds on to power in Venezuela.

Here is what U.S. policymakers and Congress should know about the April 14 presidential election in Venezuela:

Chávez’s anointed successor will not secure an uncontested mandate over his democratic opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, and this contested election will trigger a period of instability and uncertainty for the ruling party. The chavista political machine will have to perform flawlessly to fabricate a numeric victory for ... Read More

WASHINGTON Increasingly “bizarre” accusations by acting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have cast doubt on whether Washington will be able to improve ties with his government if he wins an election next month, a senior US official said on Thursday.

Maduro has repeatedly lashed out at Washington since former President Hugo Chavez died on March 5, accusing the United States of secretly causing Chavez’s cancer and plotting to kill his rival in the April 14 presidential election.

Anti-US rhetoric was used frequently, and often effectively, by Chavez to rally domestic support during his 14-year socialist rule. So some observers have regarded Maduro’s allegations as a relatively harmless tactic as he tries to prove he is Chavez’s natural heir ahead of the election.

But the severity of the accusations, plus Foreign Minister Elias Jaua’s declaration on Wednesday that Venezuela was suspending informal talks with Washington, have made President Barack Obama’s administration wonder if their hopes ... Read More

Poppy production in Mexico is overtaking marijuana as the top illicit crop grown in the Latin American nation, according to a new report released by the Mexican government.

Mexican authorities last year eradicated 40 percent more poppy plants than it did marijuana plants, the Mexican defense ministry reported.

Opium and heroin are both derived from poppy and the use of these narcotics has risen in the United States, the largest market for drugs coming from Mexico. While the Mexican cartels provide only 7 percent of the world’s heroin, it is a key supplier of the narcotics flowing into the U.S.

The numbers are a significant change from 2007, when the area with marijuana crops destroyed by Mexican troops was about 50 percent greater than that of poppy – about — 22,965 hectares compared to 11,393 hectares. The gap, however, quickly began to narrow in 2008 and 2009, with a shift occurring last year, ... Read More

BY DAN MOLINSKI

BOGOTA–The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday removed a popular Colombian soccer team from its list of alleged front companies for drug trafficking as Colombia continues to make strides in its fight against the illegal drug trade.

America, as the professional team from the city of Cali is known, was placed in 1995 on a list of companies and individuals thought to be linked to the drug trade, because at that time it was controlled by the leaders of the once-powerful Cali Cartel, Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela.

“Because that is no longer the case, the Treasury Department today is delisting America de Cali,” a statement from Treasury said.

Inclusion on the list–commonly referred to in Colombia as the “Clinton list”–for the past nearly 20 years meant U.S. citizens were prohibited from doing business with the team. Also, some $1 million in assets the team had in the U.S. were frozen. Those restrictions have now ... Read More

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A top U.S. State Department official says the Caribbean will likely see a surge in drug trafficking activity by 2015 as operations shift to the tropics due to a crackdown in much of Latin America.

William Brownfield says he believes drug traffickers squeezed out of Mexico, Central America and South America will target the Caribbean because it’s spacious and allows them to remain undercover and take advantage of weak law enforcement in certain countries.

Brownfield is assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement. He spoke to The Associated Press Wednesday during an official visit to Puerto Rico.

Brownfield also said Congress recently approved $40 million to help boost security in the Caribbean as part of a federal program. Officials haven’t decided how the money will be spent.

Click here for original ... Read More

The Department of Public safety is out with its 2013 Texas Public Safety Threat Overview and it singles out Mexican cartels as the most significant organized crime threat to the state and its people.

The report identifies Mexican drug cartels as the most significant organized crime threat to the state.

Six of eight cartels currently have command and control networks operating in the state. They move people, drugs, cash, weapons, and stolen merchandise back and forth across the border.

“The impact of cartel crime is painfully obvious when we look to our neighbors in Mexico, with some 60,000 deaths since 2006 and continued cases of brutal torture,” said DPS Director Steven McCraw. “It is a top DPS priority to severely obstruct the range and power of Mexican drug organizations to affect the public safety of Texas citizens.”

Other key findings in the report:

Statewide prison gangs pose the second most significant organized crime threat in ... Read More