In this Jan. 25, 2013 photo, a detection officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection takes photos of a potential drug-carrying boat from inside a P3 Orion Airborne Early Warning Aircraft while flying over waters near the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The Central American country abolished its army in 1948 and plowed money into education, social benefits and environmental preservation. As a result, Costa Rican officials say, the country can’t battle ruthless and well-equipped Mexican drug cartels without U.S. help. The U.S. is patrolling Costa Rica’s skies and waters and providing millions of dollars in training and equipment to Costa Rican officials who have launched a tough line on crime backed by top-to-bottom transformation of the law-enforcement and justice systems. (AP Photo/Michael Weissenstein)
-
In this Jan. 25, 2013 photo, a detection officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection takes photos of a potential drug-carrying boat from inside a P3 Orion Airborne Early Warning Aircraft while flying over waters near the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The Central American country abolished its army in 1948 and plowed money into education, social benefits and environmental preservation. As a result, Costa Rican officials say, the country can’t battle ruthless and well-equipped Mexican drug cartels without U.S. help. The U.S. is patrolling Costa Rica’s skies and waters and providing millions of dollars in training and equipment to Costa Rican officials who have launched a tough line on crime backed by top-to-bottom transformation of the law-enforcement and justice systems. (AP Photo/Michael Weissenstein)
-
In this Jan. 25, 2013 photo, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection detection officer analyzes radar signals inside a P3 Orion Airborne Early Warning Aircraft while flying over waters near the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.The Central American country abolished its army in 1948 and plowed money into education, social benefits and environmental preservation. As a result, Costa Rican officials say, the country can’t battle ruthless and well-equipped Mexican drug cartels without U.S. help. The U.S. is patrolling Costa Rica’s skies and waters and providing millions of dollars in training and equipment to Costa Rican officials who have launched a tough line on crime backed by top-to-bottom transformation of the law-enforcement and justice systems. (AP Photo/Mike Weissenstein)
-
Maps shows drug seizures by region in Central America.
-
In this Jan. 25, 2013 photo, U.S. Customs and Border Protection pilots navigate a P3 Orion Airborne Early Warning Aircraft while flying over waters near the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The Central American country abolished its army in 1948 and plowed money into education, social benefits and environmental preservation. As a result, Costa Rican officials say, the country can’t battle ruthless and well-equipped Mexican drug cartels without U.S. help. The U.S. is patrolling Costa Rica’s skies and waters and providing millions of dollars in training and equipment to Costa Rican officials who have launched a tough line on crime backed by top-to-bottom transformation of the law-enforcement and justice systems. (AP Photo/Michael Weissenstein)
-
In this undated photo released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Jan. 31, 2013, a P3 Orion Airborne Early Warning aircraft belonging to the CBP flies at an unspecified location. The Central American country abolished its army in 1948 and plowed money into education, social benefits and environmental preservation. As a result, Costa Rican officials say, the country can’t battle ruthless and well-equipped Mexican drug cartels without U.S. help. The U.S. is patrolling Costa Rica’s skies and waters and providing millions of dollars in training and equipment to Costa Rican officials who have launched a tough line on crime backed by top-to-bottom transformation of the law-enforcement and justice systems. (AP Photo/U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
-
In this image released by the U.S. Marine Corps on Wednesday Aug. 29, 2012, Staff Sgt. Travis A Jakovcic, a UH-1N Huey crew member with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 467 (HMLA-467) looks back at another aircrew during takeoff at the Guatemalan Air Force Base at Retalhuleu, Guatemala, Aug. 22, 2012. The detachment conducted a mission rehearsal exercise prior to operations beginning in Guatemala. A team of 200 U.S. Marines and four UH-1N Huey helicopters has begun patrolling Guatemala’s western coast this week in what a military spokesman says is an unprecedented operation, code named Operation Martillo, to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region. (AP Photo/U.S. Marine Corps)
-
In this image released by the U.S. Marine Corps on Wednesday Aug. 29, 2012, Marines from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 467 (HMLA-467) unload a UH-1N Huey helicopter in Guatemala City, Aug. 11, 2012. A team of 200 U.S. Marines and four UH-1N Huey helicopters has begun patrolling Guatemala’s western coast this week in what a military spokesman says is an unprecedented operation, code named Operation Martillo, to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region. (AP Photo/U.S. Marine Corps)
-
A coffee worker holds a handful of coffee beans just picked on a coffee plantation in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina has declared a national emergency over the spread coffee rust, a fungus that is affecting 70 percent of the country's crop. Molina said Friday that the pesticides will start being applied to coffee plants in April and that two more applications will be needed during the year. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
-
A worker dries coffee beans at a coffee plantation in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina has declared a national emergency over the spread coffee rust, a fungus that is affecting 70 percent of the country's crop. Molina said Friday that the pesticides will start being applied to coffee plants in April and that two more applications will be needed during the year. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
-
FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2012 FILE photo, a Navy helicopter takes off for training purposes onboard the USS Underwood while patrolling in international waters near Panama. U.S. officials say they're sending fewer surveillance planes and Navy ships to halt Latin American drug shipments because of deep federal budget cuts. The military/civilian task force that patrols drug-trafficking routes off the Central and South American coasts says two Navy ships won't be replaced when they return to U.S. ports in coming weeks. The task force usually has between two and five ships on patrol. Flights by Customs and Border Patrol radar planes are being cut back by 40 percent, leaving them with time for roughly 100 flights for the rest of the year. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
Latin American anti-drug push hurt by budget cuts
MEXICO CITY (
AP) — Deep federal budget cuts are forcing the U.S. to send fewer surveillance planes and
Navy ships to halt Latin American drug shipments, meaning the anti-drug effort will depend more on local governments hobbled by lack of equipment and official corruption.
The military/civilian task force that patrols drug-trafficking routes off the Central and South American coasts said Friday that two Navy ships won't be replaced when they return to U.S. ports in coming weeks. Flights by Customs and Border Patrol radar planes are being cut back by 40 percent, leaving them with time equivalent to roughly 100 flights for the rest of the year.
A wide range of U.S. military services and civilian agencies work with Central and South American governments on the mission known as Operation Martillo, or Hammer, which is dedicated to halting shipments of cocaine headed north from Colombia and Venezuela up the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Central America and on to Mexico and the United States.
Radar-equipped planes operated by Customs, the Navy and others operating from airports in Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and the Caribbean island of Curacao patrol the oceans looking for suspicious boat traffic. When they spot a suspect vessel, they alert local governments and U.S. ships in the area. For countries with small, underequipped navies unable to operate far from the coast, the powerful U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships operating under Operation Martillo are often essential to halting suspect boats.
The frigates USS Gary and USS Thach are slated to return to port by the end of April. Navy officials said this week that they don't plan to replace them, as previously intended, because of $85 billion in automatic budget cuts that went into effect last week. The cuts were designed to be so crude and controversial that the Obama administration and a bitterly divided Congress would be forced to find a better way to cut the federal deficit. When that didn't happen, federal agencies were forced to chop the same rough percentage of their budgets.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has cut 1,900 hours of flight time for its P3 radar planes, a nearly 40 percent cut in flights in the fiscal year ending in September. That leaves the program with only 800 hours for the rest of the year, an amount that could be used up after several dozen flights. The program currently flies several times in an average week.
Jody Draves, a spokeswoman for the military/civilian task force that patrols drug-trafficking routes off the coasts of Central America, said the withdrawal of two Navy ships would cut into the U.S. ability to interdict drug shipments. The task force normally has between two and five Navy and Coast Guard ships, and dozens of ships from Colombia and Central American nations, mostly smaller boats and often speedboats seized from drug traffickers.
"Will it have a serious impact if we don't have those (Navy) ships? Absolutely," she said. "There'll be an effort to try to mitigate not having as much of a U.S. presence ... We're going to have to depend, at least for the interim, on partner nations."
Most governments that participate in Operation Martillo declined to comment on the possible effects of U.S. budget cuts.
Jose Raul Mulino, Panama's public security minister, told The Associated Press that, "We work both cooperatively and autonomously and we'll keep on with our work with or without Martillo."
Other U.S. radar flights that operate from bases in El Salvador and Curacao may also be subject to cuts, said Jose Ruiz, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command, although he declined to provide further details.
The U.S. is planning to focus more intensely on the coasts of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, the departure points for many drug boats and a place with higher likelihood on catching shipments.
"If we end up with fewer flight hours and fewer assets, our interest is going to be in allocating those resources at our disposal over those areas where these is the greatest likelihood of success," Ruiz said.
The U.S. Coast Guard is facing a 25 percent cut in operations. A spokesman said he no immediate information on how that would affect Coast Guard participation in Operation Martillo.
____
Follow Michael Weissenstein on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mweissenstein.
___
Associated Press writer Juan Zamorano in Panama City, Panama, contributed to this report.
Tags:
u.s. customs and border protection, task force, coast guard, u.s. coast guard, u.s. southern command, costa rica, caribbean, culture_politics, u.s., indigenous peoples of the americas, flights, central america, automatic budget cuts, latin america, federal budget cuts, local governments, navy, associated press, panama, united states coast guard, nicaragua, budget cuts, percent cut, u.s. budget cuts, coasts, el salvador, u.s. customs, u.s. ports, coast guard ships, navy officials, navy ships, drug shipments, u.s. presence, operation martillo, military/civilian task force, radar planes, drug-trafficking routes, powerful u.s. navy, american drug shipments, south american coasts, fewer surveillance planes, u.s. military services, american anti-drug push, patrol radar planes, u.s. radar flights, south american governments, p3 radar planes, suspicious boat traffic, central american nations, frigates uss gary, u.s. ships, coast guard participation, writer juan zamorano, jose raul mulino, public security minister, caribbean coasts, u.s. ability, radar-equipped planes
Print Page
