Southern and Northern Command "Posture Statements"
The commanders of Northern and Southern Commands gave their annual “posture” testimonies in the House Armed Services Committee yesterday. Admiral James Winnefeld (Northcom) and Gen. Douglas Fraser (Southcom) will deliver similar testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee next Tuesday.
The full testimonies, and video of yesterday’s hearing, are available here. Here are some highlights.
Gen. Winnefeld defended the Mexican armed forces’ human rights record.
- The Mexican Army and Navy … are determined to respect human rights during their operations, and have been eager to gain insights from our own hard-earned lessons in this area.
He repeated that in his testimony, and emphasized the importance of Mexican sovereignty.
Gen. Winnefeld noted an increased presence of Mexican students at the U.S. Army’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the successor to the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.
- In FY10, there were 108 Mexican students at WHINSEC and I would like to see that number grow. Moreover, it is an important message both to and from Mexico that WHINSECís Assistant Commandant is a Mexican officer.
Later, Gen. Winnefeld said that Mexican narcotraffickers’ estimated income made them a formidable threat.
- I did a check recently, and I think most of the assessments are that about $40 billion flows across our border each year to sustain these transnational criminal organizations. And even though they are not military forces, if you took that $40 billion and ranked them among the world’s militaries, it would come in among the top 10.
“At Northcom,” Gen. Winnefeld added, “we do everything we can to help our [Mexican] partners. We have great respect for their sovereignty, and in that light I would leave it to the Mexican authorities to disclose any of the details of the support that we provide.”
In his oral testimony, Gen. Winnefeld stated that 1,200 U.S. National Guard personnel stationed on the U.S. side of the Mexican border are not playing a direct law enforcement role, nor are they under his command. Funding for the Guard deployment expires in June, and debate has begun in Washington over whether to renew it.
Gen. Fraser’s testimony took a stronger than usual tone in his discussion of Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence, and the presence of Islamic terrorist group members, in the region. Southcom “Posture Statements” over the past several years had generally sought to downplay these “extra-regional” threats.
China has engaged with Latin American militaries through high-level personnel exchanges and arms sales. In summer 2010, China sold 18 K-8 light attack and training aircraft worth millions to Venezuela. Earlier significant arms transfer agreements include air surveillance radars to Venezuela and Ecuador, as well as K-8 aircraft to Bolivia.
My principal concern with Russian arms in the region is the large number of manportable air defence systems and automatic weapons sold to Venezuela, and the potential they could reach the hands of organizations like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Iran continues expanding regional ties to support its own diplomatic goal of reducing the impact of international sanctions connected with its nuclear program. While much of Iranís engagement in the region has been with Venezuela and Bolivia, it has nearly doubled the number of embassies in the region in the past decade and hosted three regional heads of state in 2010. Currently, Iranian engagement with Venezuela appears to be based on shared interests: avoiding international isolation; access to military and petroleum technologies; and the reduction of U.S. influence. Together with our interagency partners, U.S. Southern Command will continue to monitor Iranian activity in the region consistent with law and policy to ensure that U.S. laws and international sanctions are respected, and that our existing partnerships remain strong and well-functioning.
In addition to extra-regional state actors, members of violent extremist organizations (VEOs) from the Middle East remain active in Latin America and the Caribbean and constitute a potential threat. Hezbollah supporters continue to raise funds within the region to finance their worldwide activities. Several entities affiliated with Islamic extremism are increasing efforts to recruit adherents in the region, and we continue to monitor this situation closely. Additionally, we deploy military information and civil affairs teams to under-governed spaces to help our regional partners to hinder these recruitment efforts and counter VEO propaganda.
Responding to questions about extra-regional influence from the committee, Gen. Fraser seemed to play down the threat. As in previous years, he emphasized that Southcom is seeing diplomatic and economic cooperation, but not military cooperation.
It’s still primarily focused on political, diplomatic, commercial relationships within all those countries. And that is a normal, international process, if you will. … Regarding Iran, very similar if you will, primarily diplomatic and commercial. … Hezbollah and Hamas do have organizations in the region. I have not seen them growing in any capacity and I see primarily any support that they are giving is financial support, principally back to parent organizations in the Middle East. I have not seen connections that go beyond that to date.
They [the Chinese] do have military programs, not just with Venezuela but with many countries, where they’re inviting individuals to come and take courses within China. They are also looking to establish closer military-to-military relationships with partners in the region, and they are beginning to sell more weapons. The K-8 – it’s a light attack aircraft and a trainer that they’re selling to Venezuela, and Bolivia is also looking at it right now. …
I don’t have a lot of visibility into what all those [arms-transfer] agreements are. I see a number of agreements made, those agreements tend to take a long time to come to fruition. … On Iran, with nuclear power, there was an agreement that Venezuela and Iran signed, but subsequent to the concerns in Japan over the Fukushima reactor site, at least the statements from President Ch·vez are that he has put a hold on any future development of nuclear power.Gen. Fraser expressed concern about Transnational Criminal Organizations’ (TCOs’) activities in Central America. He alluded, with few details, to some of Southcom’s assistance to Central American security forces.
Our current plan to counter the trafficking threat in Central America is to support U.S. interagency efforts and help build self-sustaining regional military capacity to increase the cost and consequences to TCOs of using the Central American transit zone. … To strengthen international borders, we are facilitating technology transfers that support Department of Homeland Security training that is improving our partnersí ability to detect and interdict illicit shipments at international crossings. We are also providing training and equipment to partner nationsí ground forces to strengthen their capacity to respond to TCO-related events requiring a military response. … Focusing specifically on this vulnerable Mexico-Guatemala-Belize border area, we are engaged in planning with our U.S. Northern Command, interagency, and partner nation colleagues, and are on solid footing towards developing a regional operations capability among these three countries.
Gen. Fraser discussed Southern Command’s humanitarian activities, which included Haiti earthquake relief and the following. Note the reference in the second paragraph to new construction at the U.S. base at Soto Cano, Honduras.
In 2010, we conducted 76 medical readiness training exercises (MEDRETEs), resulting in the treatment of 276,827 patients throughout the region. During our annual engineering exercisesóNEW HORIZONS and BEYOND THE HORIZONSóour forces built or renovated ten schools, six health centers, six sanitation facilities, two police stations, and seven water wells in communities in Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Joint Task Force Bravo (JTF-B) at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras provides regional support for responding to natural disasters and supporting counter drug operations with our partners in Central America and the Caribbean. In 2010, JTF-B medical personnel conducted four Medical Capability Projects in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, treating 6,981 patients and also supported relief efforts in Haiti and in Guatemala after the eruption of the Pacava volcano and the landfall of Tropical Storm Agatha. I thank Congress for its continued support of JTF-B, especially for the appropriation of funds to support construction of new barracks at Soto Cano.
Gen. Fraser offered some information about the extent of military training programs.
Each year, U.S. Southern Command helps send approximately 5,000 students from the AOR to attend U.S. military training programs across the Department of Defense, to include the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, the Inter-American Defense College, and the Inter- American Air Forces Academy.
Every year U.S. Southern Command sponsors seven military exercises specifically designed to facilitate interoperability, build capabilities, and provide venues to share best practices among the military and security forces in the region. Our largest multinational 21 exercise, PANAMAX 2010, brought together eighteen nations from the Western Hemisphere to train for the defense of the Panama Canal. Other key FMI exercises in the region include TRADEWINDS, FUERZAS COMANDO, and UNITAS.
Gen. Fraser laid out some of what he views as Southcom’s chief needs for intelligence-gathering equipment in the region.
- Specific needs include: flexible, persistent manned and unmanned aerial vehicles; light detection and ranging technologies for foliage penetration; fast and flexible unmanned surface craft to support maritime domain awareness; acoustic and electronic sensor technologies to detect semi- and fullysubmersible craft; commercial satellite radars with the ability to detect high-speed watercraft; next generation Over-the-Horizon radars; non-electro-optical imagery which enables change 23 detection; and the associated Tasking, Collection, Processing, and Dissemination architecture.