Security concerns a major issue for Latin America

The Communists are destabilizing the region and demanding that someone do something about it? This sounds backwards. It is time to finish off those Marxist scum once and for all.

If things are so great in Communist countries, why do they always want to blame their lack of interaction with other countries on their surplus of poverty? And then they invade those other countries! Why do they have to make up provocations like this? To invade and destabilize others?



http://www.miamiherald.com/americas_conference/story/712044.html

Violent crime and lack of security mechanisms have emerged as major concerns in Latin America and the Caribbean, regional leaders at the Americas Conference said Friday.

''Violent crimes going from kidnappings to executions have become front-page news in all the papers and broadcasts in the region,'' said Samuel Lewis Navarro, Panama's vice president and minister of foreign affairs. ``Today, in Panama, every poll made shows that security is among the first causes of concern of the population.''

At the session, ''Security in Latin America and the Caribbean,'' panelists argued that a strong police force is paramount for development, and that larger countries need to help smaller ones in their efforts to battle violent crime and criminal networks.

Haiti came up as an example of a country rife with insecurity, but that other nations suffered from more violent crime.

''Is Haiti the next Afghanistan?,'' asked Gerardo Le Chevallier, a United Nations official in Haiti on the panel. ``I believe that it is a little exaggerated -- Haiti is one of the safer countries in the Caribbean, as far as violent deaths and kidnapping.''

One panelist said organized crime can best be tackled when more developed countries pitch in to help smaller ones.

''It's not only an act of solidarity,'' said Le Chevallier, director of political affairs and planning in the United Nations, ``but an act of moral responsibility.''

Latin America Heats Up: Is There a Policy?

A reason for the lack of policy for Latin America is that the US has been preoccupied with appeasing the Leftists who are taking over down there. We do not want to upset all their citizens who have fled up here for safety. Even though confronting their Communist governments would allow the refugees to return home and help to make things better. Time to send in the Marines. Kick some butt! If they do not want to work with us on be stable, then beat them until they are willing to concede the issue.

Counterterrorism Blog: Latin America Heats Up: Is There a Policy?: "The news that both Bolivia and Venezuela, whose presidents are staunch allies and friends, have chosen to expel the respective U.S. ambassadors is the most visible evidence of the frayed relations the United States now has with much of Latin America.

As my colleague Andrew Cochran wrote the United States then immediately took the step of designating the three most visible Venezuelan officials whose ties to the FARC were clearly established.

What is amazing is that, until this blow-up, U.S. officials in different departments of the government, have been minimizing the well-documented alliance, as well as other issues discussed below, that have made Latin America a far different place than it was five years ago.

Unfortunately, with the exception of Colombia policy, there has been virtually no policy toward Latin America, and the festering issues there have been left to fester."

Russian anti-submarine aircraft, nuclear battle cruiser head for Venezuela

Now that the Communists are firmly in control, the US is being threatened by the Soviets. Why are the Russians being so aggressive? Anyone care to take a guess?

DEBKAfile - Russian anti-submarine aircraft, nuclear battle cruiser head for Venezuela: "Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko’s announcement in Moscow provided sketchy details of the coming Russian deployment at a Venezuela airport and the joint naval war games with Hugo Chavez’s navy in the Caribbean. Caracas announced that four Russian ships with almost 1,000 sailors aboard would join its navy for maneuvers on November 10-14.

DEBKAfile’s military sources itemize its composition:

The maritime reconnaissance/anti-submarine warfare turboprop TU-142 (NATO coded Bear F, or Bear J), which can fly 6,500 km, i.e. from Venezuela to the US coast will be temporarily based at a Venezuelan airport.

This move will further strain US-Russian relations.

Nesterenko played down the presence of the TU-142 in his statement that a smallish Russian flotilla would be holding naval training exercises off Venezuela in November. Our sources inferred that the warplanes would land in October, arriving before the flotilla, which will be bigger and more formidable than the Russian and Venezuelan spokesmen indicated.

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, it will consist of six to eight vessels, led by the Kirov Class (Type 1144.2) Peter the Great nuclear-powered heavy missile cruiser, one of the largest warships in the world, which is designed to guard the rest of the group against submarine and air attack.

It is armed with the Granit (NATO designated SS-N-19 Shipwreck) long range, anti-ship missile system, consisting of 20 missiles. If the lead missile is intercepted, one of the others moves into the lead role.

Peter the Great is also equipped with 40 S-300F air defense missiles.

Other ships in the Russian flotilla are the Admiral Chabanenko , the Russian navy’s most advanced guided missile anti-submarine battleship, and the guided nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy . They will be escorted by five smaller warships and a fuel vessel.

DEBKAfile’s military experts deduce from the makeup of the Russian group that, while it is being presented as primarily defensive, it fact it is the core infrastructure of an important Russian air and fleet presence for shielding a potential assault deployment in the event of a Kremlin decision to base one in Venezuela."