Caribbean & Central America - January 2021

On 7 December the acting administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Timothy Shea, arrived in Panama on an official visit, marking the first time a DEA administrator had visited the country. Shea’s visit comes as Panama, as elsewhere in the sub-region, continues to report high drug hauls. This in turn reflects ongoing concerns about the continued flow of drugs through Panama. In its latest (March 2020) International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), the US State Department noted that Panama is not a major producer or consumer of illicit drugs, but that its location and geography make it a prime sea and land transit route for drugs, primarily cocaine, flowing from South America to North America and Europe.

Upon his arrival on 7 December, Shea and US chargé d’affaires Stewart Tuttle participated in meetings with Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo, attorney general Eduardo Ulloa, and public security (Minseg) minister Juan Pino, along with other high-level Panamanian security officials. According to a US embassy press release, during the meetings the US delegation reaffirmed its long-standing law enforcement relationship with Panama, and its role in maintaining security in the region. Shea’s visit was also a preamble to the annual US-Panama High-Level Security Dialogue (HLSD), which took place on 10 December and was attended by Admiral Craig Faller, the commander of the US Southern Command (Southcom), among other top officials. At the event, senior officials held bilateral security talks regarding efforts to combat drug trafficking and money laundering in the region.  

Shea’s visit comes amid reports of continuing drug seizures. On 27 December Minseg reported that in 2020, Panama’s security forces had seized “over 80 tonnes” (t) of drugs, mainly cocaine, in various operations. In 2019, Panamanian authorities seized a record 90t of drugs, of which 77.96t were cocaine, according to a report by the attorney general’s office. In the latest INCSR, the US State Department noted that Panama was set to surpass 80t by the end of 2019, which would represent an 8.7% increase over 2018, and exceed 2017 as Panama’s highest year on record.

• A regional tendency?

The reports of high drug flows through Panama have been echoed in other parts of Central America. In August the Honduran government announced that the authorities had seized 2.24t of cocaine in just over seven months in 2020, exceeding the total 2.21t seized in the whole of 2019. 

   On 30 December Costa Rica’s public security ministry reported that authorities had seized a total of 71.2t of drugs in 2020, including over 56.7t of cocaine (see sidebar). According to the latest INCSR, Costa Rica seized 35.1t of cocaine in 2019, up from 33.7t in 2018 – the second year in a row of record seizures.

   Many of the operations in Costa Rica and Panama were carried out as part of a tri-national strategy against the drugs trade with Colombia, and with backing from the US, known as the South Triangle, which was created in 2017. Yet while the significant drug hauls and successful joint operations have been hailed by all sides, these developments also indicate increasing diversification in terms of smuggling routes, personnel, and methods, seemingly reflecting an increased flow. For instance, in mid-February, the Colombian navy and the Panamanian air service (Senan) carried out a combined operation that led to the capture of a semi-submersible which, in an interview with digital military magazine Diálogo , published in April, Colombia’s Vice Admiral Andrés Vásquez Villegas remarked  “was very surprising for us because for about 10 years we had not seen or detected a semi-submersible in the Caribbean.” END BOX

• Record drugs haul

In February 2020 Costa Rica’s public security minister, Michael Soto, announced the country’s biggest ever cocaine seizure, totalling over five tonnes (t). Hidden in a container due to be shipped to the Netherlands, the drugs were reportedly discovered during a check at the APM Terminals port of Moín, in Limón province.