A THREATENING WEED But last week, Gen. James T. Hill, head of the U.S. Southern Command in charge of U.S. military relations in Latin America, spent a sizable part of a speech to a Miami security conference talking about the issue, and explaining what it is all about. ''Today, the threat to the countries of the region is not the military force of the adjacent neighbor, or some invading foreign power. Today's foe is the terrorist, the narco-trafficker, the arms trafficker,'' Hill said. ``This threat is a weed that is planted, grown and nurtured in the fertile ground of ungoverned spaces, such as coastlines, rivers and unpopulated border areas.'' In the new U.S. military doctrine, one of the biggest dangers to Latin America no longer comes from foreign armies or urban guerrillas taking over capital cities and expanding their reach to the interior. Rather, it comes from criminal forces occupying empty spaces in jungles, mountains and other remote areas, and expanding their reach from there to big cities and centers of power.
REMOTE FRONTIERS
Among Latin America's biggest ''ungoverned spaces,'' according to U.S. military thinkers, is the triple frontier between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, which has long thrived on smuggling and is a major fundraising base for Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. In addition, the Tabatinga-Leticia corridor on the Brazil-Colombia border, the Lago Agrio area on Ecuador's border with Colombia and the Darien jungle in Panama are places where Colombian drug traffickers, narco-terrorists and arms dealers roam about freely, and often control large territories, U.S. officials say. And Surinam, a small country with a large Middle Eastern community, is becoming a major center of Russian, Turkish, Nigerian and Colombian arms trafficking and drug smuggling rings, security experts say.
According to U.S. officials, the economic crises in most Latin American countries have worsened the problem. Because of weak central governments, military budget cuts and migration of rural middle-classes to the big cities, most countries in the region have spaces with little or no government presence, where international criminal organizations are flourishing. What should be done about it? One proposal that is circulating in U.S. military circles, authored by a U.S. Army War College professor, Col. Joseph R. Nuñez, calls for creation of an elite 6,000-troop ''multinational regional force'' that would help fight trans-national narco-terrorism, and cope with natural disasters and border disputes.***
Chavez said the letter was drafted by foes using their "great lobbying power" backed up by "unethical" Venezuelan media outlets to fool U.S. legislators. "They don't know this land or anything about what is really happening here," Chavez said. "Some lobbyists go there, write them a letter and get them to say some lies that make them look ridiculous in front of the whole world. But everyone is free to look ridiculous."
U.S. officials could not be reached for comment Sunday. Two weeks ago, Chavez strongly criticized the United States, Spain and Colombia for allegedly meddling in Venezuela's domestic affairs. Within days, bombs ripped through the Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas.***