Pubdate: Tue, 01 Apr 2014
Source: Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, GA)
Copyright: 2014 Ledger-Enquirer
Contact:  http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/237
Author: Tim Johnson

U.S. WON'T SEND RADAR DATA TO HONDURAS IN DISPUTE OVER LAW TO SHOOT 
DOWN DRUG AIRCRAFT

MEXICO CITY - The U.S. government has ceased providing Honduras with
radar tracking information out of concern that a new policy allowing
its forces to shoot down aircraft suspected of hauling narcotics does
not have enough safeguards to prevent error.

A statement from the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa distributed Tuesday
said other U.S.-financed counternarcotics programs would not be
affected, but that Washington already has ceased sharing certain types
of information and assistance with Honduras.

A policy to shoot down drug-laden aircraft has come into favor and
fallen out of favor in the past in Latin America, depending partly on
the mood in Washington.

Honduran legislators in mid-January approved a law that authorized the
nation's air force to shoot down suspected drug planes on express
orders of the defense minister. The law also limits night flights in
the country and restricts flights through certain Caribbean provinces
commonly used by narcotics smugglers bringing cocaine north from the
Andean region.

With its long, sparsely populated Mosquito Coast, Honduras is a major
transit country for cocaine moving from Andean countries to the United
States.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman, Stephen J. Posivak, said in a statement that
the Obama administration would review the Honduran law to determine if
aspects "are not compatible with U.S. laws that govern certain types
of information and assistance that would support an aerial intercept
by the Honduran government."

Posivak indicated that the decision to cease radar tracking data was
unlikely to affect cocaine flows to the United States because "80 to
90 percent of illegal drugs that enter Honduras (do so) via maritime
routes," and not by air.

Bolivia, which both grows coca used in making cocaine and serves as a
transit nation for drugs flowing to Brazil, Argentina and even on to
Africa and Europe, is also on the cusp of enacting a law to permit the
downing of suspect aircraft, although it lacks a sophisticated radar
system. The bill already passed the lower house of the Bolivian
Congress and is awaiting final Senate approval.

Programs to shoot down cocaine-laden planes have been marked by both
dramatic success and tragedy.

At U.S. urging, Peru and Colombia in 1994 began using U.S. aerial
intelligence to follow smuggling aircraft. Until 2001, Peru is
believed to have shot at least 30 aircraft out of the sky, shutting
down a key air link for traffickers between Peru's coca fields and
drug processing laboratories in Colombia's eastern jungles.

Contractors employed by the Central Intelligence Agency operating in
surveillance aircraft worked closely with Peru's air force to identify
suspect planes.

The program came to a dramatic halt in April 2001 when a CIA contract
team aboard a surveillance plane working in tandem with a Peruvian
fighter jet gave the thumbs-up to shooting down a Cessna over the
Amazon. Aboard the Cessna was an American Christian missionary family.
A mother and her 7-month-old daughter were killed. The pilot, wounded
in the legs, and the father and a son survived an emergency landing.

The mistake led to hearings on Capitol Hill and a significant
tightening of the terms in which U.S. intelligence can lead to
shooting down a civilian aircraft.

U.S. policymakers, apparently believing that tighter rules would avoid
mishaps, began sharing radar tracking with Honduras in 2012.

In July of that year, Honduran air force planes shot down two aircraft
in separate incidents off the country's north coast, not following
U.S.-imposed protocol.

"After a four-month stand-down, we resumed information sharing in
November 2012 following an exhaustive procedural review and based on a
series of remedial steps Honduras undertook to prevent the shoot-down
of civilian aircraft," said a U.S. Embassy official who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly
on the issue.

Some regional security experts said the halting of radar intelligence
sharing by Washington might not curb the desire of Honduran President
Juan Orlando Hernandez to halt suspect aircraft flying in remote
reaches of the nation.

Honduras is reported to have bought three Israeli radar systems for
$30 million last year, with delivery in recent weeks.

"With that, they won't need to follow U.S. restrictions and protocols.
They could be quite trigger happy," said Adam Isacson, who coordinates
the regional security policy program at the Washington Office on Latin
America, a nonprofit group that promotes human rights and democracy.

"They are going to kill people. They are going to take down some
planes," he said.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D