TESTIMONY OF
THOMAS A. SHANNON
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE
BUREAU OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS (WHA)
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
BEFORE
THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
May 8, 2008
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Burton, and Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for
the opportunity to appear before this Subcommittee today to discuss the Central
America portion of the Merida Initiative and the opportunity it represents for
regional security cooperation among not only the countries of Central America,
but also with the United States and Mexico.
Drug
trafficking, gang violence, crime, and human smuggling, all linked to Central
America, now directly afflict many areas of the United States, while arms and
cash flows move south across our border and through Mexico to sustain these
criminal organizations. The United States has a compelling strategic
interest in moving quickly to reinforce our partnership with Central
America to check illicit activity in the region. Drug trafficking and criminal organizations
in Central America have grown in size and
strength over the last decade, suborning and intimidating police and judges,
which weakens the states’ abilities to maintain public security. The results have been a region-wide surge in
crime and violence and the emergence of gangs as major social actors. Central American leaders and public opinion,
especially in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, have characterized this
situation as a national emergency requiring an urgent response. Furthermore, the effects of these Central
American problems are readily apparent in the United States.
Since 2005,
more than 1,800 alleged members of Mara Salvatrucha,
or MS-13, have been arrested in cities across the United States. Estimates of the number of gang members in Central America vary considerably, but the United Nations
estimates the number around 70,000. A UN
Office on Drugs and Crime report published in May 2007 cites country gang
membership at approximately 10,500 in El Salvador,
36,000 in Honduras, and
14,000 in Guatemala. The gang problem is most serious in these
“northern three” countries of Central America, but we have indications that
gangs are increasingly active in Belize,
Costa Rica, and Panama.
Central America has among the highest homicide rates in
the world and the rates are increasing.
In 2005, the estimated murder rate was 56 per 100,000 people in El Salvador,
up from 43 in 2004 and 37 in 2003.
Between 2003 and 2006, the murder rate in Guatemala jumped from 32 per
100,000 to 47. Due to lack of standardized data, good numbers
are not available for Honduras,
but it is estimated that the murder rates are comparable to those in El Salvador and Guatemala. For comparison, the U.S. murder rate is 5.6 per
100,000.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime
Study reports that more than 70 percent of homicides in the northern three
countries are committed with firearms. The
same report suggests that there are an estimated 800,000 unregistered firearms
in civilian hands in Central America, in addition to the half million legally
registered firearms. This means that
between half and two-thirds of all the firearms in Central
America are illegal – a number that is roughly five times more than
the number of weapons held by law enforcement in the region.
The Central American isthmus is a
primary transit point for people and drugs destined for the United States. With increased Mexican air and maritime
interdiction, traffickers will increasingly look to Central America for
over-land movement of contraband and people into Mexico
and the United States. Increasing violent crime threatens the
internal stability of states, debilitates national economies, undermines public
confidence in democracy, and exacerbates illegal migration to the United States. Resource constraints, ineffective criminal
justice systems, and uncoordinated national efforts hamper an effective Central
American response. However, we believe a
growing sense of common political will and urgency among the Central American
countries affords the United
States a unique opportunity to launch a
process to develop common and effective approaches to shared security concerns
in the region.
The countries of Central
America collectively - and individually - have demonstrated
historic democratic progress since the end of their internal conflicts. As they have integrated economically, they
have also transformed their militaries and improved respect for human
rights. Central America’s collective
willingness to work with the United States
and Mexico on these issues
also represents an important opportunity -- it provides an unprecedented
opening to address security in coordination with neighbors whose countries form
a bridge running from the Andes to the border of the United States.
The Merida
Initiative grew out of the President’s March 2007 trip to Latin America;
particularly his visits to Guatemala
and Mexico
where security concerns dominated his conversations with former President Berger
and President Calderon. In July, I led a
U.S. inter-agency delegation
to the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Central American Integration System, or
SICA, Dialogue on Security held in Guatemala. At these meetings, the Central American
leaders identified what they believe to be the major threats to the
region: gangs, drug trafficking, and
illicit trafficking of arms.
Beyond strictly national or even
bilateral approaches, Central American countries agree they must collectively
strengthen regional security through the Central American Integration System
(SICA). In conjunction with Mexico,
they produced a comprehensive regional security strategy that was published in
August of last year.
In the months
that followed, the State Department led an inter-agency process to develop the U.S.
portion of the Central America Merida Initiative request. Working with our colleagues from throughout
the U.S.
government, including the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the U.S. Agency
for International Development, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and
others, we built a comprehensive public security proposal that responds
directly to the needs identified by the Central American leaders.
At the same time, we were in close
contact with our Embassies throughout the region, who worked with host-country
officials to conduct security requirement assessments and provided
on-the-ground expertise. In January of
this year, we sent a delegation of 40 USG representatives to El Salvador to hold validation team
meetings with SICA member countries and further refine our Merida Initiative
request. This was the same process
successfully used with Mexico. Additionally, we conducted briefings and consultations
with the Central American embassies in Washington. Finally, since the announcement of the FY
2008 emergency supplemental request, we have benefited greatly from our
conversations with Congressional staff and members as we worked to develop our
FY 2009 budget request.
The Central
America portion of the Merida Initiative is a comprehensive public security
package that seeks to tackle citizen insecurity in Central America by more
effectively addressing criminal gangs, improving information sharing between
countries, modernizing and professionalizing the police forces, expanding
maritime interdiction capabilities, and reforming the judicial sector in order
to restore and strengthen citizens’ confidence in those institutions. For these purposes, we have requested $50
million in initial supplemental funding and an additional $100 million through
the FY 2009 budget request.
Our Merida Initiative request has
been designed to complement efforts that Central American governments are
undertaking on their own to combat the threats that organized criminal elements
and gangs pose to their societies. By
providing a short-term targeted boost to public security funding in the region,
our goal is to enable host governments to leverage their own budgets and resources
more effectively and move towards sustainable responses to the security crisis
in the region.
However, it must be recognized that
these countries, with economies similar in size to those of medium-sized
American cities, are hard pressed to take on resource intensive surveillance
and interdiction missions facing adversaries who have large amounts of cash at
their disposal. While traffickers may
fly drugs on corporate jets and build fleets of submarines and semi-submersible
vessels, Central American countries are barely able to keep operational their
basic law enforcement and counter-narcotics vehicles, boats, or Vietnam-era
aircraft.
Nevertheless, we are encouraged by
the efforts of the nations of Central America and Mexico to work together to confront
security threats in the region. Mexico
has signed on as an observer to SICA and participated in the development of
their security strategy. Additionally,
the regional Attorneys General regularly meet in various fora. Just last week, on the margins of the
OAS-hosted Justice Ministerial (REMJA), the Attorneys General and Ministers of
Justice from the United States, the nations of Central America, Mexico, and
Colombia came together to discuss the security of the region. Operational cooperation is ongoing as
well. For example, Mexican and
Guatemalan law enforcement work together to combat trafficking of people and
contraband flowing across their shared border.
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
and Mexico
have provided the FBI with thousands of samples of fingerprints of known
criminals to be entered into a new, shared fingerprint database. El Salvador has more than doubled
the number of police officers dedicated to the Transnational Anti-Gang, TAG,
Unit in partnership with the FBI.
The Merida
Initiative request is divided into three “pillars” of activities: Counter-narcotics, Counter-terrorism, and
Border Security; Public Security and Law Enforcement; and Institution Building
and Rule of Law. Specifically, pillar
one focuses on information sharing and interconnectivity, improved border
security and maritime interdiction efforts, and a targeted regional effort to
combat arms trafficking. Through pillar
two, we seek to help further professionalize Central American law enforcement
and to address the proliferation of gangs through implementation of the U.S.
Strategy to Combat Criminal Gangs. Our
approach includes diplomatic initiatives, improved law enforcement and
processes for repatriation, capacity enhancement for all justice sector actors,
and a strong prevention program. We also
support preventative and community policing with technical assistance,
training, and much-needed non-lethal equipment that will enable law enforcement
to communicate, get out into communities, and perform better investigations.
We recognize that all sectors of
the region’s justice system need strengthening to make this strategy
sustainable. As such, we have requested
funding to improve the efficiency and management of the law enforcement and
judicial sectors to improve their responsiveness to citizens. To strengthen the rule of law in the region,
we would increase training for prosecutors, defenders, and court managers,
expand technical assistance on prison management, and improve juvenile justice
systems.
It is important to note that rule
of law, training, and efforts to improve capacity are integral parts of the
entire package, not just the third pillar, “Institution Building
and Rule of Law.” For example, pillar
one includes funding requests for training on aviation, port, and document
security as well as support for OAS demand reduction efforts. In pillar two, over $15 million has been
requested over the two years to support capacity enhancement and community prevention
activities as part of the U.S. Strategy to Combat Gangs. While the pillars serve as an organizational
tool for us, we cannot view the pillars individually. To attain a comprehensive picture of what we
have set out to achieve through the Merida Initiative, the request must be
analyzed as a single, comprehensive package as, in many cases, program funding
transects the pillars of activities.
Central America and Mexico
are facing public security threats of tremendous proportions. The leaders of the region have shown that
they are committed to working together to put an end to the growing violence
and crime, but their resources are limited.
As President Bush has said, violence and drug trafficking are a shared
problem and we have a shared responsibility to confront criminal
organizations. The Merida Initiative
represents this shared responsibility to combat the threats that affect not
only the citizens of Central America and Mexico,
but also U.S. citizens as
gang activity and drug-related violence proliferate in the United States.
As I mentioned before, we have
far-reaching geographic, economic, and demographic links to Mexico and Central America
and a compelling national security interest in helping the governments of the
region succeed in the battle against crime and insecurity. By funding the Merida Initiative, Congress
can take a vital step towards saving innocent lives here in the United States. The gangs that plague Central
America are transnational in their operations. For example, last June a federal grand jury
in Greenbelt, MD
indicted two MS-13 leaders for ordering the murders of two people in the United State
from their prison cells in El
Salvador.
DOJ estimates that there are between 8,000 and 10,000 active MS-13
members in the United States
and between 30,000 and 50,000 18th
Street members worldwide. MS-13 has a presence in at least 38 states
and the District of Columbia,
while 18th Street
is active in 28 states. Drug cartels
operate throughout Central America and Mexico
and on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, with U.S.
citizens implicated in violent gun battles in Mexico and Americans the victims of
such violence. By working with these
nations to dismantle such groups and strengthen institutions, we multiply the
effectiveness of our own domestic security efforts.
Today’s threats require a
coordinated international response to pressing security concerns. Only through partnership and shared
responsibility will Central America and United States be able to defeat the
transnational threats that confront us.
The Merida Initiative represents the cornerstone of that response.
Thank you for your time and I would be happy to answer any
questions you may have.