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<font size=4><b>Drug Surveillance Drones Frequent Flyers in Latin
America<br><br>
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<a href="http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=2031079799bdf02797956e53311874fa" eudora="autourl">
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=2031079799bdf02797956e53311874fa<br>
<br>
</a>New America Media, News Report , Marcelo Ballvé, Posted: Jan
27<br><br>
Drone aircraft are increasingly engaged in counterdrug missions over
South American jungles and Mexican cities.<br><br>
The drones represent the latest high-tech escalation of Latin America’s
anti-drug efforts.<br><br>
Unlike the U.S. military’s Predator drones used to shoot missiles at
suspected terrorists in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the models known to be
in use in Latin America limit their roles to intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance.<br><br>
Latin America’s unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs as drones are known in
aviation circles are not known to have flown armed missions.<br><br>
Israel Aerospace Industries, a company that is Israel’s largest
industrial exporter, struck recent multimillion-dollar deals in Ecuador
and Brazil for its large, 54-foot wingspan Heron drone model.<br><br>
Israel Aerospace has offices in Colombia, Chile and Ecuador and launched
a new joint venture company in Brazil in 2008. The manufacturer sees
promise in the Latin American UAV market.<br><br>
“As we have experienced in other markets, as the (UAV) system becomes
more familiar, new applications are found and, as a result, the market
will grow,” Doron Suslik, spokesman for Israel Aerospace, wrote in an
e-mail.<br><br>
After the test, Mississippi’s U.S. senators requested and received $9
million for Stark to supply the Heron to Southcom as part of the Defense
Department’s 2010 budget.<br><br>
Salvadoran Air Force Col. Nelson Hernández, who commands Comalapa, also
closely followed the Heron’s performance.<br><br>
“We are here to learn,” he was quoted as saying in a Southcom report on
the Heron flights. “It is possible that perhaps in our future, we may
consider our own project or the acquisition of an existing UAV. We are,
so to speak, like sponges, eager to see what we can absorb from this
experience.”<br><br>
In the end, El Salvador didn’t acquire a Heron, because of the
multimillion-dollar price tag.<br><br>
“Due to budgetary reasons, El Salvador is not contemplating the
acquisition of this type of aircraft in the short term,” the country’s
Defense Ministry said in a statement.<br><br>
But other Latin American governments with more resources have made the
leap.<br><br>
In June, Ecuador acquired six Israel Aerospace UAVs with $22 million from
a special government program established with oil revenue, according to
an Ecuadorean armed forces statement.<br><br>
In 2008, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa canceled an agreement allowing
the Pentagon to operate surveillance and interdiction missions from a
Forward Operating Location in Manta, Ecuador. The four Searcher and two
Heron models were acquired to make up for the lost U.S.-led counter-drug
flights.<br><br>
The new UAVs are stationed at the Manta base, from where they will watch
offshore waters for drug-runners and “coyotaje” or human trafficking
and also reinforce Ecuador’s northern border with Colombia.<br><br>
Mexico’s government reportedly flies a drone comparable to the Heron, an
Elbit Systems’ Hermes 450, out of Ensenada, just south of
Tijuana.<br><br>
Ensenada residents have routinely spotted drone-like aircraft in flight
over the city and one was even photographed this month by the Agencia
Fronteriza de Noticias de Tijuana, a news agency.<br><br>
After publishing a photo of the mystery aircraft online, Agencia
Fronteriza identified it as a Hermes, thanks to reader feedback.<br><br>
The UAV “caught our attention because of its nocturnal over-flights in
Ensenada and the loud noise it produces while in the air,” said a Jan. 18
article accompanying the photos.<br><br>
It seems likely any Mexican purchase of Hermes UAVs occurred in September
2008, when Elbit Systems announced in a press release it had closed a $25
million deal for Hermes and smaller Skylark drones with an unnamed
country in the Americas. Janes Defence Weekly reported the purchasing
country as Mexico, citing an anonymous industry source.<br><br>
A 24-year-old American, an aviation photographer who wished to remain
anonymous, told New America Media he was in a private aircraft last month
and saw three large drones with a V-shaped tail a defining
characteristic of the Hermes at the Ensenada air base that doubles as a
civilian airport. <br><br>
At press time, Mexico’s Defense Ministry had not yet answered requests
for information on its UAV programs.<br><br>
Mexico’s Public Security Department, which coordinates its country’s
battle against drug trafficking, has touted its own programs in which
smaller mini-drones keep tabs on drug cartels.<br><br>
In March 2009, Eduardo Laris McGregor, who heads air operations for
Mexico’s Federal Police, told Mexican reporters the drone fleet consists
of four mini-UAVs and four balloon-type vehicles.<br><br>
The eight UAVs are being used over epicenters of drug-linked violence,
including Ciudad Juarez, Culiacán, and Tijuana.<br><br>
The planes are a low-cost model marketed for use in urban warfare and low
intensity conflicts. The Orbiter has a snub nose, upturned wingtips, a
seven-feet wingspan, and is launched with a catapult-like
device.<br><br>
The Orbiter’s manufacturer, Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd. of Israel,
also makes the Skystar 300 balloon acquired in the deal. The Skystar
takes video day or night (with infrared) as it drifts, for up to 72 hours
at a time, at an altitude of 1,000 feet.<br><br>
Mexican company Hydra Technologies leads a nascent national UAV industry,
creating a small surveillance UAV: the Ehécatl, named after the Aztec
wind god.<br><br>
<br>
The UAVs make sense for Latin America since they are more cost-effective
and remain in the air longer than manned flights, said Ray Walser, senior
policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington,
D.C.<br><br>
“I think the more the merrier,” he said. “Right now, there are some
nations in which you simply don’t know what’s going on in your own
territory.”<br><br>
Two other Israeli manufacturers, Elbit Systems and Aeronautics Defense
Systems Ltd., have also sold UAVs to clients in the Americas in the last
two years.<br><br>
The U.S. defense industry also manufactures UAVs, including the Predator
series deployed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But the transfer of
U.S.-made military technology to foreign governments is highly
regulated.<br><br>
“If it is something you can buy off the rack in Israel,” you can avoid
some of the scrutiny accompanying U.S. sales, said Rick Van Schoik,
director of Arizona State University’s North American Center for
Transborder Studies.<br><br>
Latin American buyers of UAVs may be acquiring them from Israel, but they
are following the example of the United States, which pioneered the use
of UAVs in non-combat law enforcement roles.<br><br>
As early as 2004, the U.S. Border Patrol tested Elbit Systems’ 34-feet
wingspan Hermes drone to patrol the border with Mexico.<br><br>
Today, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s 300-aircraft fleet includes
six unarmed Predator B UAVs manufactured by California-based General
Atomics Aeronautical Systems, said John Stanton, executive director for
National Air Security Operations.<br><br>
Three of the Customs and Border Protection Predator Bs are stationed
south of Tucson, Ariz., from where they patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.
Another Predator B modified for maritime surveillance off southeastern
U.S. shores will soon be involved in drug enforcement missions. <br><br>
The Pentagon has also deployed UAVs for counter-narcotics work.<br><br>
Drones play an important role supporting “allies around the world in
efforts to curb the illegal narcotics trade,” said U.S. Defense
Department spokesman Cmdr. Bob Mehal. He declined to discuss
specifics.<br><br>
However, it is known that the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which
oversees Pentagon operations in Latin America, has been a testing ground
for UAVs.<br><br>
One Southcom test in May 2009 at a base in El Salvador involved a Heron
UAV manufactured by one of Israel Aerospace’s North American
subsidiaries, Stark Aerospace, headquartered in Mississippi. The air
base, Comalapa, is one of the overseas “Forward Operating Locations” the
Pentagon established for counter-narcotics missions in cooperation with
Latin American and Caribbean governments.<br><br>
“We think it was a resounding success,” Southcom spokesman José Ruiz said
of last year’s test, in which the Heron flew over 100 hours, through
strong winds, heavy cloud cover and rain, tracking a suspected drug ship
in the Pacific.<br><br>
Further south in the Andean region, reports of drone over-flights
triggered last month’s spat between Colombia and Venezuela.<br><br>
Just before Christmas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accused Colombia
of sending a spy drone into his country’s airspace. Colombia’s close
military cooperation with the United States has strained relations
between the Andean neighbors.<br><br>
Colombian officials denied Chávez’s allegation, quipping the Venezuelans
may instead have spotted “Santa’s sleigh.”<br><br>
Colombian armed forces commander Gen. Freddy Padilla acknowledged having
drones, but said his were small aircraft with a range so limited they
could not have flown into Venezuela.<br><br>
Padilla said his drones guard oil pipelines and electrical towers often
sabotaged by guerrillas.<br><br>
The Brazilian Federal Police responsible for controlling Brazil’s 10,500
miles of remote land borders with 10 countries has one of the world’s
largest non-military UAV programs.<br><br>
Last year, Brazil purchased 14 Heron systems for the federal police’s
border protection, crime prevention, and counter-drug duties, at a cost
of approximately $4.5 million per aircraft, according to a government
press release.<br><br>
Demonstrations of the Heron were held in late July 2009 at São Miguel de
Iguaçu, near Brazil’s triple border with Paraguay and Argentina.<br><br>
According to Israel Aerospace, “high ranking military and civilian
representatives from a number of Latin American countries” were present
to observe.<br><br>
The Herons will fly from four different air bases distributed around
Brazil’s huge landmass, the Ministry of Justice said, touting the Herons’
ability to film and photograph objects on the ground from an altitude of
30,000 feet,<br><br>
Some of the UAV patrols will cover the sparsely populated Amazon River
Basin, reported state-owned news agency Agencia Brasil.<br><br>
Meanwhile, the development of an advanced “made in Brazil” drone has
become one goal of the country’s ambitious new defense strategy, approved
by President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva in December 2008.<br><br>
Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, in an article earlier the same year for
magazine Interesse Nacional, even floated the possibility that any
Brazilian UAV be “not just for surveillance but also combat.”<br><br>
This week, Jobim traveled to Israel where he toured Israel Aerospace’s
facilities, and met with Israeli defense and intelligence officials.
Jobim told reporters in Jerusalem he was negotiating a new purchase of
UAVs that would include a technology transfer so that Brazil could
manufacture similar drones.<br><br>
Because so much is new and unknown about the region’s UAV programs, the
implications for civil society have not been widely studied or
debated.<br><br>
“In the past it was just the United States flying them,” said Van Schoik
of the North American Center for Transborder Studies. The extent of Latin
American countries’ experiments with UAVs “raises the whole visibility of
the issue.”<br><br>
One remaining question is whether a Latin American country will deploy an
armed drone.<br><br>
Even with unarmed aircraft, there are risks. For example, bad
intelligence gathered by a drone could result in a military or police
raid killing innocents, said Adam Isacson, of the Washington, D.C.-based
Center for International Policy.<br><br>
“It’s not an outrageous thing to worry about,” he said, recalling an
April 2001 incident in which U.S. anti-drug agents working with Peruvian
authorities shot down a plane carrying American missionaries. “It depends
on how the countries who are using these things treat the
intelligence.”<br><br>
Perhaps a more immediate risk is from cross-border incursions with UAVs
that trigger diplomatic crises, undermining regional stability, Isacson
added.<br><br>
Within Brazil, UAV programs have already generated controversy.<br><br>
After the federal police announced its new Heron fleet, Rio de Janeiro
officials sought federal approval to acquire Skylark mini-UAVs from Elbit
Systems.<br><br>
Rio is in the midst of a police push to wrest control of slums known as
favelas away from drug gangs before hosting soccer’s 2014 World Cup and
the 2016 Olympic games.<br><br>
In October, a police helicopter was shot down during an operation in a
Rio-area favela and two officers died, spotlighting the risks of piloted
flights.<br><br>
But not everyone agrees the introduction of UAVs into an ever-escalating
drug war is the right approach.<br><br>
“It’s a mistake to think our problems with public security will be solved
with high-tech military equipment,” wrote Valter Pomar, international
relations secretary for Brazil’s governing Worker’s Party, in a letter to
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. <br><br>
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