COVID & Central American Gangs

While keeping a weather eye on China is required, we need to multi-task. 

If you are concerned with the long term national security challenges the USA and her allies face - you need to check in on a regular basis with sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

From the exceptional Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) team - something from Latin America that is worth putting in your scan for a few minutes;

Governments in Central America have imposed a variety of measures to contain COVID-19. The government of Mexico officially declared a national health emergency on 30 March 2020 after its first case of COVID-19 was reported at the end of February, suspending non-essential economic activities and advising the population to shelter at home. Some Mexican states imposed further restrictions in addition to the federal order. In the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, governments began establishing preventive measures in mid-March, albeit with different degrees of stringency. On 13 March, Guatemala introduced a travel ban for any person arriving from Canada and the United States. Meanwhile, in El Salvador and Honduras, a state of emergency was announced on the 13 and 16 March, respectively. These measures were followed by a national quarantine at the end of March in El Salvador, and curfews during the first week of April in Guatemala and Honduras.

These restrictions have had immediate impacts on gang operations. Locally, the temporary closure of non-essential economic activity has hindered money laundering, as it is traditionally carried out through front businesses that appear to be engaged in legal commerce, while mobility restrictions have similarly impeded extortion rackets. Globally, the demand for recreational drug use has decreased amid the pandemic, and travel restrictions obstruct both drug users looking to purchase as well as drug traffickers aiming to supply (Global Initiative, May, 2020).The reduction of the international traffic of goods and passengers also makes the discovery of illegal cargo by authorities more likely, resulting in the scarcity of certain chemical products essential for drug production (InSight Crime, 18 March 2020).These challenges have forced cartels to seek alternative means of drug distribution and income generation during the crisis.

OK kiddies, take out your JPME-I papers ... what does instability bring?

Conflict;

The health emergency and the consequent economic crisis will certainly shift the balance between cartels and lead some to seek new business models (Al Jazeera, 29 April 2020). Smaller gangs, or those with less economic capacity, are threatened by more established groups and may try to survive by diversifying into violent street crime, extortion, kidnappings, and attacks (Infobae, 25 April 2020). Despite COVID-19 quarantines and stay-at-home orders, Mexico’s homicide rate hit a new high in March 2020 (Government of Mexico, 21 March 2020).
...
Economic pressures have led to increased competition in Honduras, where battles involving gangs as well as reported fatalities stemming from gang violence have spiked, hitting their highest levels of the year (see graph below). Inter-gang fighting has particularly increased across the country, with multiple clashes between the larger mara groups Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) and Barrio 18 (B-18) and smaller local gangs.

Violence, instability, and economic fragility drives migration. Large scale migration drives instability where they migrate to.

That is us.

The Power & POLMIL of Language

There was a time - a time I caught the tail end of, that Central America in general, and Panama in particular, were unquestionably considered in our back yard.

We never really treated them very well - and it was kind of nasty.

Of course - it never really was all ours. You had the Caribbean Communist island of Cuba making trouble, and from El Salvador to Nicaragua you had very anti-American elements, and in Panama as well - not America's best friend.

Politically, things have quieted down a bit and on average - especially in Panama - things are trending much better.

When we gave up the Panama Canal, we didn't quite keep our interests in line very well, and as a result the Chinese filled in the gap.

You can read a lot in to this from The Economist, but what does this say about our international economic influence as viewed by others.

Panama is moving to make the teaching of Mandarin compulsory in all schools, in recognition of China's growing importance in the world economy.

The Panamanian National Assembly has given conditional approval to the bill in the first of three debates.

The bill's supporters say boosting the number of Chinese speakers will help increase Panama's competitiveness.

China is the biggest single user of the Panama Canal that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

We have the world's highest corporate income tax rate and saddle our competitiveness with regulations - this doesn't happen by accident. It is also fixable, if we want to.

China is important to the international economy - but this close to our back yard? Does someone see trendlines we don't want to?

The U.S. is the waterway’s biggest user, comprising 65 percent of trade using the 80-kilometer (50-mile) canal that links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, followed by China.

Interesting hedge by the Panamanians. They also still have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Ponder not what this says about the Chinese, but what it says about us and the Panamanians.

Who has the Central American Desk? Wake him up!

An Ungentlemanly Act

30-years ago.

Pinochet - the best they could do

It has been awhile since I've posted about the Left's least favorite South American dictator. Of course, we know why they hate him the most - he prevented another Cuba.

They hate him for another reason - he makes the Leftist dictators look bad. Pinochet returned Chile to civilian rule with almost no bloodshed. He left them with a functioning and relatively intact rule of law. His crowning achievement though was the Chicago School economy he gave to his countrymen.

The Chilean nation knows this - and they are going to stick with it.

Chile is the first nation whose return to democracy was based on economic freedom. On global economic freedom rankings, Chile stands near the top — in part because its public employees can't run up debt or corrupt the political process.

The existing constitution makes Chile a full right-to-work country and expressly prohibits government collective bargaining and public employee strikes.

The idea is to prevent the ugly anti-democratic dynamic — now seen in Wisconsin and elsewhere — of public employee unions extorting concessions from politicians in exchange for campaign support.

Under that system, taxpayers foot the bill. The team of Milton Friedman-influenced economists known as "The Chicago Boys" understood this dynamic well and its potential for cutting into economic freedom.

Labor and Social Security Minister Jose Pinera, who wrote the right-to-work proviso, knew that if public employee unions could get their hooks into the federal government, it would be a fiscal and economic disaster.

Chile posted 7% GDP growth in the last quarter, on par with recent trends. Per capita income is now $17,000, 10 times what it was in 1980, and its successful social security system is now private.

Chile's vote shows it has no desire to follow in the footsteps of bankrupt U.S. states like California and Illinois. It's good to see a nation that still knows how to grow.

Maybe after our economy pulls a Greece and implodes after an orgy of mindless, narcissistic spending we can hire come Chilean economists and political advisers. I'm game.

Back to the Old General. No, Pinochet was no saint. He was a nasty piece of work - but he lived at a nasty time in a nasty part of the world that sometimes needed a little nasty to prevent a tragedy. He love his country more than himself. He was a good friend to the British when they had few others in South America during the Falkland Islands War. When you compare what his regime did compared to others around that continent of wasted potential, an objective mind may perhaps give the guy a little nod.

When the list of 20th Century dictators are racked-and-stacked, Pinochet will in time be seen for what he was; the best of bad options for a nation on the brink. Anyway, who is doing better right now, a Chilean born in 1973 or a Cuban born in 1959?

Hat tip Capt'n Ed.

THAT is Strategic thinking

SECDEF - again - nails it center mass.

Defense Department officials have favored the pact as a way to reward Colombia for its successful effort at beating back drug trafficking and the country's insurgency.

At a news conference in Bogota, the Colombian capital, Gates said he met this week with James L. Jones, the White House national security advisor, to discuss an administration push for congressional ratification of the accord.

"I would hope we would be in a position to make a renewed effort to get ratification of the free trade agreement," Gates said. "It is a good deal for Colombia; it is also a good deal for the United States."

President Obama was skeptical about the agreement as a senator and during his presidential campaign, citing Colombia's record of labor crackdowns. But after meeting last year with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Obama said Bogota had made progress on human rights issues and ordered U.S. trade officials to move ahead on the deal.

Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said Bogota was pleased by the Obama administration's growing support for the accord.

"This agreement will help further consolidate security in Colombia," Silva said.

Colombia has been a bright shining example of the progress of freedom in the last two decades.

This isn't an American issue - this is a human rights issue. Along with Chile, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras - among others to the south - Colombia deserves our friendship and help. This is easy. This is right.

This will also help make up for some of the interventions we have made in the past. Treat your friends as equals and they will be your friends.

Easy win ... if we can get past our own leftists.

Oh, and if you follow the Colombia tag, you will find other reasons to get, ahem, closer to Colombia. LBG can explain further if needed.

My readers have failed me ...

You know my weaknesses. Of the legion - here are a few.

1. Latin American food.

2. Latin American women.

3. Latin American women.

4. Strong women.

5. Conservative famale politicians.

6. Did I mention the fevered dreams I have of the possibility of a strong Latin American female politician; who can cook and help me find a decent place to buy pupusas?

...AND NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT THE NEW PRESIDENT OF COSTA RICA!

Costa Rica has elected its first female president in a landslide victory, marking another political milestone for women in Latin America.

Laura Chinchilla, from the centrist ruling party, won 47% of the vote in a crowded field in yesterday's poll, further eroding the region's reputation as a bastion of machismo and patriarchy.
...
A social conservative who opposes gay marriage and abortion, she campaigned under the slogan "Laura: firm and honest," and said her priority would be to combat drug-fuelled violent crime. Opponents had cast her as a hypocritical Arias puppet who was soft on criminals. One rival, Otto Guevara, took a televised polygraph test to show he was more honest. Another, Luis Fishman, ran on the slogan that of all the candidates he was the "lesser evil".

Despite or perhaps partly because of such tactics, Chinchilla won in all seven provinces, a rare feat, and easily surpassed the 40% needed to avoided a run-off.

Most of you know how I feel about Colombia - but most of you have no idea that Costa Rica is my closest nation of refuge.

There are enough El Salvadorans in Costa Rica that I am sure she could help my find a good pupusaria.

Sigh. You all make me sad.

---

On a serious side, let me tie in a few things: in the last series of elections - Honduras, Panama, Chile, and Costa Rica have all turned right towards free markets and liberty. I wish we would reward these nations more along with Colombia. Alas, I don't expect that anytime soon.

Hat tip PowerLine.

Giving Uncle Sam the finger

Hey, we deserve it.

A conservative rancher named Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo took the Honduran presidency in elections Sunday, five months after the country's last elected president was forced out of the country at gunpoint. Now Hondurans must wait to see if the international community, which has been divided over the crisis, accepts the winner as legitimate.

The results gave Mr. Lobo 56% of the vote, well ahead of Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos at 38%, confirming voters' expected punishment of the Liberals -- party of both the deposed president and the interim government that ousted him.
...
About 61% of eligible Hondurans voted, and turnout, which was up from 2005, was seen as a crucial factor in persuading more countries to back the vote. The turnout was a loss for Mr. Zelaya, who had urged supporters to boycott the election.

To our great national shame, we sided with the anti-democratic Left in Honduras with Chavez and the Castro brothers.

We did not side with the Honduran Supreme Court, its democratically elected legislature, and its Constitution.

Good for little Honduras. When Uncle Sam finds himself on the same side as the likes of Chavez and Castro - perhaps he should reconsider.

Realignment

So, we align ourselves with Russian and China against NATO allies who are taking a significant political and economic risk to help us?

We align ourselves with an expansionist, Socialist, Dictator wanna-be from one country, against a Judiciary and a Legislature from another lawfully defending their Constitution and liberty against an aspiring despot?

Ok. About what I thought. Change you can choke on.

---

UPDATE: Don't think that our Polish friends don't recall that The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939.

---

UPDATE II - Electric Boogaloo: Here is Ref A.

Where is Hugo standing?

Oh, he is with the deposed President of Honduras.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert after a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed.

Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against his leftist ally, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to win re-election.

In that case, I'll stand with the Honduran military. I like my bastard better. Lefty wanted to remain in power unconstitutionally - and the military said, "No."

I'm ok with that. Hold the elections on time in 2010 an in the meantime put the next in line in the seat --- and all will be forgiven. If the military tries to stay in power, then to h311 with them.

---

UPDATE:I don't like this initial reaction by out SECSTATE. Why are we on the same side as Hugo and Fidel?

Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power.
...
It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.

Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating "the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter" and said it "should be condemned by all." Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.

What did Zelaya do?

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out.

...and the Hondurans?

Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.

Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr. Zelaya's foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. "We won't go backwards," one sign said. "We want to live in peace, freedom and development."

Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.

I think Mary O'Grady in the WSJ is right, the Hondurans that threw Zelaya out of the country are patriots. Our government is close to being on the wrong side of history.

If we stick to the vaporish words of the CINC,

"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference," Obama said.

... is about right. Unlike the first quote above, this is better from the SECSTATE,

"We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional order and the rule of law, to reaffirm their democratic vocation, and to commit themselves to resolve political disputes peacefully and through dialogue," Clinton said in a statement.

Maybe we can stay on the right side of history and not join Hugo. In the end though, the Hondurans seem to have things under control.

Sunday Funnies

Goes nicely with this.

McCaffrey on Mexico

An absolutely critical article by General Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) on Mexico. As with most of his work, it is serious and absolutely demands your attention.

Just a bit from the report,

A. Mexico is on the edge of the abyss---it could become a narco-state in the coming decade. Chronic drug consumption has doubled since 2002 to 500,000 addicts. Possibly 5% or 3.5 million people consume illegal drugs. (the US figure is 8.3% or 20.4 million). Since 2002--- past month Mexican national drug consumption has increased by 30% and cocaine use has doubled. The fastest growing addiction rates are among the 12 to 17 year old population -- and the consumption rates among women have doubled.

B. Drug criminal behavior is the central threat to the state. Mexico probably produces 8 metric tons of heroin a year and 10,000 metric tons of marijuana. 90% of all US cocaine transits Mexico. Mexico is also the dominant source of methamphetamine production for the US market. The drug cartels have criminal earnings in excess of $25 billion per year ---and physically repatriate more than $10 billion a year in bulk cash back into Mexico from the US.

C. The bottom line--- nearly 7000 people murdered in the internal drug wars since 2006--- 3,985 murdered this year alone through 25 November. The outgunned Mexican law enforcement authorities face armed criminal attacks from platoon-sized units employing night vision goggles, electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG’s, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns.

Read it all - and the National Journal article as well. Mexico falls apart - we get involved - we have a history.

Hat tip Michael.

You can't buy training like this ...

I say great. Throw in some old school REFTRA out of Guantanamo Bay - and then you have something worth getting underway for.

The Interfax news agency has reported that a Russian Air Force chief says Venezuela's president has offered an island as a temporary base for strategic Russian bombers.

The agency reported that chief of staff of Russia's long range aviation Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev said Saturday that President Hugo Chavez had offered "a whole island with an aerodrome, which we can use as a temporary base for strategic bombers."

The agency quoted Zhikharev as saying, "If there is an corresponding political decision, then the use of the island ... by the Russian Air Force is possible."

Interfax reported he said earlier that Cuba could be used to host the long-range planes.

No one is going to go to war about this and unless you are talking about Regiment sized formations, a threat to no one, but if we can just get them to synch their stuff with our training schedule - then win-win for all!

About that failed state ....

When Gen. Mattis speaks, you need to listen.

Mexico is one of two countries that "bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse," according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.

The command's "Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)" report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. "In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.
...
"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."

The U.S. Joint Forces Command, based in Norfolk, Va., is one of the Defense Departments combat commands that includes members of the different military service branches, active and reserves, as well as civilian and contract employees. One of its key roles is to help transform the U.S. military's capabilities.

In the foreword, Marine Gen. J.N. Mattis, the USJFC commander, said "Predictions about the future are always risky ... Regardless, if we do not try to forecast the future, there is no doubt that we will be caught off guard as we strive to protect this experiment in democracy that we call America."

I guess that FATA post earlier this week wasn't all that far off.

America's FATA problem

You know FATA, right? Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas which, along with the Northwest Frontier has SWAT and all the Waziri gardens? Yea, well ... while we were looking that way ...

In the last year, more than 5,000 people have been killed and police and military officials have become common targets ...

No need for a fence though ...

....for violent drug cartels who are fighting with each other and the government for control of lucrative drug and human smuggling routes across Mexico.

More than one-fifth of the deaths have occurred in Ciudad Juarez, the hardscrabble border city just across the Rio Grande from El Paso.

Officials in Mexico reported about 1,600 homicides in Juarez in 2007 and at least 20 people have been killed in the first nine days of this year.
...
In October, Hidalgo County officials issued fully automatic weapons to deputies patrolling the river in the Rio Grande Valley. Sheriff Lupe Trevino also authorized his deputies to return fire across the border if smugglers or other criminals took aim at them.

In El Paso, the country's largest border community and one of the safest metropolitan areas in the nation, Sheriff Richard Wiles said that while he doesn't anticipate the city or county being overwhelmed by border violence he applauded the DHS plan to quickly respond if the worst should happen.

"I think it's appropriate for the federal government to have a contingency plan all the way up to the worst case scenario," Wiles said.

BTW, it exists because of the USA's hunger for drugs, so don't snarl too much at the Mexicans. They are the victims of our vices as much as their criminals.

The Nazi Jews

A little perspective on Teh Che.

Hat tip Reason.

From Barack to Hugo?

With permission, I have decided to post, with slight modification to keep him anon - and email from a reader who, as you will see, has an interesting take on where we are heading as a nation - or could head.

As with other people's work, I don't endorse 100% - but as I have a, ahem, bias towards both Venezuelans and Colombians - I highly recommend it.

I felt very identified with your latest piece, "2 out of 3 ain't bad".

You see... I am a native of Venezuela, and although my family has been in this country for many years, we still maintain strong American values and traditions, since we are descendants of an American Civil War Colonel.

With this brief background of mine I just want to let you know that we're sad and worried regarding this election result. We are still suffering on a daily basis the ill choice made by many to vote for Hugo Chavez, and I am afraid I'm seeing the American people lead the way into repeating this very same catastrophic mistake. When people cast a vote just by following their emotions, failing to discern the wheat from the chaff and failing to break away from the hypnosis caused by the siren's song populists like Obama are experts in singing, then anything is possible and a Dark Age is sure to follow.

Surprisingly, ignorance is no stranger to many Americans it seems, definitely an inevitable human condition which comes to bite us in the rear regardless of which country we live in, and a true enemy of the modern world. And I believe the old say in baseball "after the error, comes a hit", applies to these situations.

When Chavez was campaigning back in 1998, he thought Castro was a communist dictator, said eradicating corruption was his goal, and even clearly distanced himself from the left. Like a chameleon, he managed to disguise his true colors to the unwary eye. And I'm not talking just native venezuelan voters, he obtained support from ignorant Clinton-administration figures like John Maisto and Madeleine Allbright. Fast forward a few years later... and we have a socialist uprising all over Latin America with no serious much less effective US counter-strategy. What's worse... Venezuela has even been funding islamic fundamentalist and other terrorist organizations such as FARC, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and ETA. Chavez has been left to play so freely that he's funding extinguished leftist movements in Central and South American (Sendero Luminoso and FMLN) and has even sent troops to openly intervene militarily in Bolivia. Now Russia and Iran have gained strategic relevance while the USA has lost influence and respect in the region.

Why am I bringing this up? Because it concerns - no, no I'll rephrase: it **creeps** me out to even wonder how life in Latin American politics will be with a State Department under the helm of Obama and a Democratic-majority congress. It was already bad with Bush as he chose to outright ignore the region, but with this new character, I fear that we will go from being ignored to being openly crushed with the approval or support of the new administration. Other aspects aren't less worrying, such as leaving Israel to their fate; giving in to terrorist demands in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Iran; failing to avoid disaster in an ever-growing muslim Africa; not to mention China... and last but not least... the rising Russians... which always enjoy having a Democrat government to play with. I'd be even more worried if I was living in the Ukraine tho'.

In the end, as you can see from my post, it's not just the US domestic matters that worry me... it's the impact that those domestic matters will have on their foreign policy. If the guy turns out to be a radical leftist and decides to force a disfavorable change upon the American people's lifestyle and values, it would be foolish to think the same won't hold true with his foreign policy, don't you think?

It would require more than a Ronald Reagan to repair the damages.

Thanks for reading, it gives me hope when I read such blogs as yours and many others... feels good to know there are good and real Americans still out there. Let's hope you never have to endure what many Venezuelans such as myself have to endure daily... sad to witness that in the long run the real damage isn't material, financial or economic...those are easily repaired; the real damage is when evil (or the Left) manages to coerce the moral base of society and the beliefs and core values of the people. That is a long term wound which may never heal.

God bless us all CDR.

I'll let you guess why he wanted me to "anonomize" his email.

You can't buy training like this

I don't think we will see this many readiness points and general all-around solid training in the Caribbean since REFTRA was out of GTMO with VC-10 A-4s, and we were all doing the Lord's work at Vieques and the PROA.

Russia said Monday that it will send a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes to Venezuela this year for a joint military exercise in the Caribbean, an announcement made at a time of increasingly tense relations with the United States.
...
Mr. Nesterenko said the Peter the Great missile cruiser and three other Russian navy ships would visit Venezuela before the year's end and would be joined by a unit of long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

He did not say how many planes would be sent, but said they would be "temporarily based at one of Venezuela's air bases."

Mr. Nesterenko did not name the type of planes that would be deployed to Venezuela. Russia has two such planes: the Tu-142, which is an anti-submarine version of the Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber, and the smaller Il-38.

YES!!! I am just as giddy as a school girl. Feel like an Ensign again. Please Vladimir, send along a clanky Victor III too! Please ...... and have him do this!

Come on over Ivan; you can play in our backyard anytime.

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UPDATE: More on the Echo II here.

Once a Commie ....

Harumph.

Nicaragua has recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, backing Russia's stance on the breakaway Georgian regions and siding with other leftist Latin American nations to defy Washington.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader who had close ties to Moscow during the Cold War, has criticized Georgia's attempt to regain control of South Ossetia and supported a counterattack by Russia.

Venezuela and Cuba have sided with Russia in the dispute, but Ortega went further in fully recognizing the regions' independence.

What do you expect from a Pedophile Communist?

But can you get ASW readiness points for it?

The Mexican Navy searched for sharks in the ocean near Pacific surfing beaches on Monday, after two bathers were killed and another maimed in a rare spate of shark attacks.

Three boats and a helicopter patrolled the sea while Navy and rescue officials scanned the horizon with binoculars from popular beaches around the southwestern Mexican resort of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. They warned surfers not to go far out.

"We've been monitoring the beaches; we've done reconnaissance flights," Rear Adm. Arturo Bernal said, adding that no big shark had been detected yet in the area.

No further comment needed.

4th Fleet gets teeth

In both structure (no net gain in Staff Weenies) and the assigned COM - this looks like a good start.

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead announced today the reestablishment of U.S. 4th Fleet and assigned Rear Adm. Joseph D. Kernan, currently serving as Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command, as its first commander.

U.S. 4th Fleet will be responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of focus, which encompasses the Caribbean, and Central and South America and the surrounding waters.

Located in Mayport, Fla., and dual-hatted with Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO), U.S. 4th Fleet reestablishment addresses the increased role of maritime forces in the SOUTHCOM area of focus, and demonstrates U.S. commitment to regional partners.

Did you catch that? Snake eater in charge of keeping an eyeball on Hugo. Colombia should smile, I am.

Hat tip CBG.