Drug Traffickers Pose Greater Threat Than Invasion, U.S. General Says

So-called “narco-terrorists” operating in Latin America fuel and fund worldwide terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, said Gen. James T. Hill, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, on Monday night. Speaking before a regional security conference attended by about 300 academics and military brass in Miami, Hill urged the five nations that border Colombia to increase patrols to ensure that Colombian drug traffickers don’t spill into other countries. Today’s foreign threat, Hill said, is not a neighbor’s invasion, but the narco-trafficker, document forger, international crime boss and money launderer. “We risk winning the battle with Colombia and losing the war in the region,” Hill said. “I’m not pointing the finger at any one nation. I don’t have enough fingers for this pervasive force of destruction.” Hill spoke Monday at a two-day conference sponsored by the University of Miami’s North South Center, the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees American military operations in Latin America. The conference, “Building Regional Security in the Western Hemisphere,” addressed how Colombia’s conflict could wreak havoc region-wide. Colombia’s nearly four-decade war pits illegal right-wing paramilitaries and the armed forces against two leftist insurgencies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army. All three illegal groups are financed by the drug trade, making them major suppliers of the 500 tons of cocaine entering the U.S. each year. Full Story