Latin American Anti-Drug Push Hurt by Deep US Federal Budget Cuts Michael Weissenstein - Associated Press
go to original March 9, 2013

MEXICO CITY - 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.

Read the whole story at HuffPost Latino

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