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Potential Threat: the New OAS Concept of Hemispheric Security and the Pentagon Provided Helicopters and Other Equipment to Security Forces for Drug Control Activities

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Potential Threat: the New OAS Concept of Hemispheric Security and the Pentagon Provided Helicopters and Other Equipment to Security Forces for Drug Control Activities JEREMY BIGWOOD A publication of WOLA’s security program, which aims to bring reason, moderation, and respect for human rights and civilian institutions into the policy debates about security in the United States, Latin America, and at the Organization of Potential Threat: The New OAS American States. Concept of Hemispheric Security By Gaston Chillier and Laurie Freeman Introduction he Declaration on Security in the Americas, adopted by the Organization of American States (OAS) in October 2003, created a new concept of hemi- Tspheric security that broadens the traditional definition of national defense to incorporate new threats, including political, economic, social, health, and environ- mental concerns, to such an extent that almost any problem can now be considered a security threat. The implementation of this new concept may lead to greater “securitization” of the region’s problems, defined as the treatment of these problems as if they were security threats. Securitization carries with it the risk of military responses to problems that are not military in nature and in circumstances where military action is ill-suited or could cause more harm than good, a tendency that is already well under way in Latin America. This risk exists due to four main factors: 1) The historic tendency of the region’s armed forces to intervene politically under authoritarian regimes or during periods of armed conflict or social instability; 2) The U.S. “war on drugs,” which encourages a greater role for the region’s militaries in domestic law enforcement; A WOLA Special Report 3) The inability of most of the region’s police forces to respond effectively to growing crime and violence; July 2005 4) The U.S. “war on terror,” particularly on counter-drug responsibilities; and 2) the its expansive and nebulous definition lack of effective public security policies, of terrorism, which in turn encourages rendering law enforcement institutions the armed forces to combat terrorism in unable to respond to growing crime and whatever form it is expressed. insecurity. The OAS’s new concept of hemispheric Since the mid 1980s, when the Reagan security will only enhance Latin America’s administration declared illegal drugs a historic tendency and current trajectory national security threat, a central part of towards giving its militaries greater internal the U.S. “war on drugs” has consisted of and non-traditional responsibilities. enhancing the ability of Latin American By encompassing such a broad range of armed forces to carry out counternarcotics The convergence of security threats, the OAS Declaration initiatives.1 The pressure that the United on Security in the Americas justifies, like States exerts within the framework of its the new OAS and U.S. never before, the use of Latin American counternarcotics policy towards Latin visions of security armed forces in new and non-traditional America is one of the main factors that in Latin America will missions. U.S. foreign policy, which now has spurred the region’s armed forces to views a similarly broad range of regional intervene in internal security matters.2 likely obstruct the problems through the lens of terrorism, long and difficult path further enhances that possibility. The In addition, rising crime rates throughout towards consolidating convergence of the new OAS and U.S. the region are generating intense social visions of security in Latin America will demands for effective responses that democracy and likely obstruct the long and difficult path will guarantee citizen security while also strengthening civilian towards consolidating democracy and resolving social conflict caused by poverty institutions in strengthening civilian institutions in and inequality. The failure of police forces the region. Furthermore, these visions to meet these demands has increasingly led the region. of regional security offer ineffective and governments to turn to the armed forces in inappropriate methods to resolve the wide matters of internal policing. range of problems of social, economic, political, and environmental origins facing The effects of U.S. counternarcotics Latin America. policies can be seen clearly in Bolivia, where the U.S. military has been directly involved in counter-drug efforts and The “Wars” on Drugs has encouraged the Bolivian military to take on a greater counter-drug role. In and Crime Increase 1988, the U.S. government funded the Militarization in creation of a Bolivian air force unit and a Latin America naval group to carry out drug interdiction operations. The trend continued with Latin America has a history of the launching of the Andean Initiative, militarization in response to internal under which the U.S. government began conflict, instability and crime. Although “a deliberate incorporation of host country the region is no longer governed by military military forces into the counternarcotics dictatorships and all but one of the region’s effort and an expanded role for the U.S. countries have democratically elected military throughout the region.”3 More leaders, many countries in the region recently, U.S. Special Forces trained the have turned to their militaries to respond Bolivian counternarcotics police force; the to internal problems. This is primarily U.S. Embassy’s Narcotics Affairs Section due to two factors: 1) the threat of drug funded a paramilitary counterdrug unit trafficking, and U.S. counter-drug policies (the Expeditionary Task Force), which was that encourage regional militaries to take commanded by Bolivian military officers; 2 Potential Threat: The New OAS Concept of Hemispheric Security and the Pentagon provided helicopters and other equipment to security forces for drug control activities. The Expeditionary Task Force (ETF), comprised The Bolivian military’s internal role of former Bolivian soldiers and operating outside is not limited to counternarcotics, but the military chain of includes broader law enforcement efforts command, was funded by the United States to as well. The army is occasionally called carry out counternarcotics on to respond to popular protests. For activities in Bolivia. The example, when the La Paz police mutinied ETF committed gross violations of human rights. in February 2003, President Sanchez de ANDEAN INFORMATION NETWORK Lozada deployed soldiers to restore public order. Their subsequent clash led to 32 dead and hundreds wounded.5 According posts. Since 1995 the Defense Ministry to scholar Juan Ramón Quintana, “the has served as a member of the National militarization of public security as well as Public Security Council, giving it a role in the militarized response to social conflicts public security decisions and policymaking. corresponded with a dramatic increase in The army now has a direct role in efforts human rights violations.”6 to track down and detain drug cartel bosses. Military personnel have also been In Mexico, the military’s involvement assigned to police forces and prosecutors’ in domestic law enforcement has grown offices in regions with high levels of drug considerably in the past decades. Sigrid trafficking activity, including the Federal Arzt explains that “the process of Preventive Police and the federal attorney militarization of public security is an ad general’s office; for most of the Fox hoc policy response on the part of the administration, the attorney general was a Mexican political elite to the escalation brigadier general. The Mexican army has of organized crime, particularly in the also assumed other internal roles such as phenomenon of drug trafficking.”7 While social work, environmental protection, and the Mexican army has historically been natural disaster response. In its most recent involved in manual eradication of illicit white book, the Mexican army identifies crops, President Miguel de la Madrid’s extreme poverty and social exclusion as 1987 declaration identifying drug national security threats as well. trafficking as a national security threat led to the expansion of the military’s In Brazil, a country characterized by counterdrug mission to embrace law poverty and social and racial inequality, enforcement and intelligence tasks as well. crime and homicide rates exceed those of U.S. policy has encouraged this trend Colombia, a country in the midst of an through the provision of counter-drug armed conflict.8 The police forces are often training and equipment for the Mexican part of the problem instead of the solution. military, as well as rhetorical support for In response, governments across the party militarization as a temporary solution to spectrum have resorted to the armed forces the problems of police and prosecutorial as an immediate “solution.” 9 corruption and ineptitude. Since the 1990s the fight against drug Militarization in Mexico occurs in two trafficking in Brazil has been the principal ways: the expansion of the military’s role justification for the intervention of the as an institution to include public security armed forces in law enforcement tasks. and law enforcement responsibilities, Frequently, the governing elites appeal to and the appointment of military personal the army to militarily “occupy” the favelas (active, licensed, or retired) to civilian (shantytowns) of Rio de Janeiro or Sao Washington Office on Latin America July 2005 3 Paulo after attacks break out between leading a failed coup in February 1992. drug trafficking groups that are disputing With Chávez’s rise to power, the armed territorial control or confronting police forces have increased their presence in conducting counternarcotics
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