Pubdate: Thu, 29 Dec 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Ginger Thompson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

ANTI-DRUG FORCES FOLLOW TRAFFICKERS TO SEA

ABOARD U.S.S. GENTIAN, off Guatemala - The Nicaraguan Navy frigate
knew nothing about the suspicious fishing boat speeding north along
the Caribbean Coast except its menacing name: Chupacabras.

The frigate intercepted the boat, named for a mythical blood-sucking
creature, and sent a search team on board, guns drawn. Nicaraguan
sailors climbed slowly toward the bridge. Then a gunman sneaked up
from behind.

Good thing for the sailors, this was only a test.

"Never leave your back uncovered," said the Brooklyn-born instructor,
Michael Hernandez. "That's the best way to get killed."

It was a windy December afternoon near Puerto Santo Tomas de Castilla,
Guatemala, and the United States Coast Guard was conducting rare joint
exercises with navies from across Central America, whose waters have
become a principal transshipment route for cocaine from Colombia to
the United States.

The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that at least 75 percent
of the cocaine that enters the United States passes through some part
of Central America, a trend that authorities attribute to tougher
enforcement by Mexico and a reduction in resources sent to this region
in recent years by the United States.

For example the Peten, the northern rain forest of Guatemala, a rugged
and isolated landscape, had been a popular landing area for small
planes carrying loads of cocaine, Michael P. O'Brien, of the D.E.A.'s
Guatemala office, said in an interview. But, he said, as governments
have gotten better at intercepting aircraft, drug shipments have
increasingly been moving at sea.

After Guatemala's chief drug enforcement officer was arrested in
Virginia in November on trafficking charges, President Oscar Berger
publicly acknowledged that his law enforcement agencies and courts
were so rife with corruption that he was working on a request for the
United Nations to take over prosecutions of organized crime.

But American military authorities in Guatemala said in interviews that
they were most interested in helping Central American governments help
themselves. They said the best way for this region's ill equipped and
poorly financed armies to combat some of the most powerful criminal
organizations in the world was to work together. The joint exercise
with the Gentian, a Coast Guard cutter, was part of a larger effort by
the United States to develop a multinational force to respond to
natural disasters and organized crime.

"Bad guys know no borders," said Cmdr. Eduardo Pino, captain of the
Gentian. "And if you are talking drug traffickers, you're talking
about a wealthy opponent, one that can afford the best equipment and
technology."

It has not always been easy, said Capt. Stephen Leslie, of the United
States Coast Guard, to bring together nations with histories of border
disputes. The Nicaraguans were leery of entering Honduran waters,
Captain Leslie said, and Guatemala initially refused to allow entry to
Coast Guard boats from Belize.

After months of American pressure, Captain Leslie said, not to mention
promises of money for parts and equipment, the countries agreed and
held the first joint naval exercises in February and the second in
December.

Human rights groups, like the Washington Office on Latin America, have
criticized the plan to give Central American militaries, responsible
for egregious human rights abuses during the region's civil conflicts,
increased law enforcement responsibilities. But leaders of the
region's navies dismissed those concerns and said joint military
exercises had already begun to pay off.

Capt. Celvin Castro Alvarado, commander of Guatemala's Caribbean Naval
Base at Puerto Santo Tomas de Castilla, said that on June 14,
Guatemala captured about 3,300 pounds of cocaine after forcing a
speedboat to run ashore. The capture, he said, was a result of a joint
chase, first by Honduras and then by Belize, which forced the boat
into Guatemalan waters.

Capt. Manuel Salvador Mora Ortiz, chief of Nicaragua's Atlantic Naval
Command, said his troops had seized nearly 2,000 pounds of cocaine in
November from a boat whose captain had claimed to be fishing for lobster.

Still, said Captain Castro, for every boat captured, at least four got
away.

"This war is asymmetrical," he said. "What drug traffickers have is a
wealth of resources. They have a lot of money. They have advanced
radios and guidance systems.

"We have very limited resources. And a lot of our equipment is
antiquated."

The traffickers' current boats of choice, authorities said, are known
here as go-fasts, 800-horsepower, fiberglass vessels that authorities
said can carry loads up to two tons at speeds that reach 70 miles an
hour.

"It is a powerful little threat," Captain Leslie said, "because they
are fast and hard to see. You can't always see them from an airplane.
You can't always see them on radar. And when they're running at top
speeds, you can't always catch them."

Mr. O'Brien, of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said, "You may
think it's harder to find an airplane, but it's actually much harder
to find a boat."

Joint exercises like the one involving the Gentian bring to life the
difficulties of intercepting drugs at sea.

When the Hondurans had their turn, it was feminine wiles, not weapons,
that foiled their efforts.

The captain of the Chupacabras came down from the bridge, pointing a
fake automatic rifle. The sailors fired their fake guns. The captain
fell. Another gunman approached from the stern. The sailors jumped on
top of him, wrestled his gun away and handcuffed him.

Then the sailors found a woman hiding in the engine room. They put
cuffs on her, but did not close them tight. So she wiggled her hands
free, grabbed her gun and shot the sailors.

"The woman always stumps them," Captain Pino said with a smile. "They
have a hard time learning that women can be just as dangerous as men."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake