Bulletin From The Borderlands Weekly Round Up
The Americas
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Regional Wrap-Up: Americas
Desk Chief - Brodie Kirkpatrick
Regional Flashpoints
Benin has offered to contribute 2,000 troops to a Kenyan-led multinational peacekeeping force to Haiti. Kenya, Haiti, and the United States have agreed on an undisclosed timeline for the deployment of the Caribbean nation.
Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is on trial in a U.S. federal court for alleged cocaine smuggling. Prosecutors claim that Hernández worked with notorious street gang MS-13 and the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico to traffic “massive amounts of cocaine” for nearly a decade. Authorities also claim that Hernández’s political campaigns and lavish lifestyle were funded by these criminal organizations.
U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Bryce Pedicini has been charged with supplying defense information to an employee of an undisclosed foreign government. He was assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Higgins (DDG-76). Many details of his alleged crimes remain undisclosed.
Local Catholic officials in the Mexican state of Guerrero say that they have arranged a truce between two warring cartels in the area. This comes after President Lopez Obrador openly admitted to withdrawing the National Guard from the capital city of Chilpancingo and allowing it to be taken over by cartel gunmen.
Notable Regional Updates
Two U.S. Army helicopters crashed last week. A UH-72 Lakota crash in Alabama left two crew members with minor injuries. An AH-64 Apache crash in Mississippi killed both pilots; Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CWO4) Bryan Andrew Zemek and CWO4 Derek Joshua Abbot.
A Haitian judge has charged former First Lady Martine Moïse and 50 others in connection to the 2021 murder of President Jovenel Moïse. Martine Moïse is accused of being an accomplice to her husband’s high profile assassination, despite being seriously wounded in the attack herself. President Moïse was killed by a team of former Colombian commandos hired by a Miami-based security company.
Japanese Yakuza leader Takeshi Ebisawa has been charged by U.S. authorities for alleged trafficking of nuclear materials. Ebisawa allegedly attempted to sell weapons-grade uranium that he received from an ethnic insurgent militia in Myanmar to an undercover DEA agent.
Tijuana Cartel member, Christian “El Chato” Espinoza Silver, was killed while driving into the garage of a San Diego apartment complex. Silver has been identified by Borderland Beat as an associate of Pablo Edwin “El Flaquito” Huerta Nuño, a leading member of the cartel.
In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas (NI) took 54 out of 60 seats in the newly reformed Legislative Assembly. Conservative party ARENA took two seats and left-wing FMLN won no seats for the first time since the end of the civil war in 1992. Minor parties took the remaining four seats. Seats in the chamber were shrunk down from 84 to 60.
An active duty U.S. Air Force airman, Aaron Bushnell, has died after lighting himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. in protests of what he called the “genocide” in Gaza. This is the second case of self immolation in the country in protest of the Israeli military’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
Looking Forward/Implications
It remains to be seen when the Kenyan-led force will be deployed to Haiti and, if deployed, what impact it will have on the situation in the country. At the very least, Kenya is adamant about leading this force, which is a good thing. Many months were initially spent trying to find a country that would step up to the plate in that regard. With that being said, the longer it takes to get the force on Haitian soil, the longer the people of the country will assuredly suffer at the hands of street gangs and a failing government.
If former President Hernández is found guilty in the U.S., it could set a precedent for how corrupt Latin American leaders are treated by their American counterparts. It could also further cement the wave of U.S. skepticism that has taken over much of the region.
Foreign espionage within the U.S. military has become a worrying trend in recent months. While we do not yet know which government Pedicini was working for, a safe bet would be the People’s Republic of China. Two other U.S. sailors were recently convicted of spying for China as well. The fairly lenient sentences both of those sailors received for their crimes will likely do little to deter others from engaging in the same behavior.
As Mexican drug cartels continue to grow and expand their areas of operation, violence between criminal organizations will become more frequent and brutal. Major cities north of the U.S.-Mexico border will experience this as well. Both the Mexican and U.S. governments have failed to properly address and combat the threat that drug cartels have posed to their citizens. The Catholic Church plays a large role in Mexican society and has tried to play the role of peacemaker as it pertains to the drug war numerous times. Unfortunately, the truce that was allegedly negotiated in Guerrero is not likely to last.
The victory of Bukele’s NI in the legislature puts El Salvador on the verge of being a one party state. The country’s two traditionally dominant parties, ARENA and FMLN, are fading into obscurity. Salvadorans value the safety that Bukele has brought them. Widespread loyalty towards NI will likely continue as a trend in El Salvador as long crime levels remain low.
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Lenient sentences for the convicted spies signals their handlers that they are fully cooperating with U.S. authorities so anyone remaining in those networks is liable to be pulled out or dropped by the foreign agency.