Latinos Debate Forming Regional Force

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Latin American defense ministers debated forming a regional peacekeeping force Tuesday, while the top U.S. defense official urged nations at a hemispheric conference to work together to combat drug trafficking and terrorism.

Guatemalan Defense Minister Gen. Francisco Bermudez said the ministers discussed forming a regional force for international peacekeeping missions and disaster relief.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has proposed members of the Mercosur trade bloc _ Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay _ link their militaries to guarantee the region's security.

Chavez has been lobbying for allies to counterbalance what he says is U.S. domination in the region.

Bermudez said the force would be to help the United Nations in peacekeeping and in "no moment have we talked about creating another force for other means."

"We believe that we can support, as a region, the strengthening of world peace, democracy and respect for human rights, as our fundamental mission," Bermudez said. Guatemala already has 218 soldiers in Congo, Haiti, Burundi and other countries on humanitarian missions.

The debate came during a gathering of defense ministers from more than 30 Latin American and Caribbean nations at the seventh Western Hemisphere's Defense Ministers Conference, which ends Wednesday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld stressed the importance of regional cooperation at a news conference.

"Almost every problem we face is a problem that cannot be solved by a single nation. Whether it's counternarcotics or gangs or hostage taking or counterterrorism, all of those problems require very close cooperation among nations, many nations," said Rumsfeld.

Coordinating efforts, Rumsfeld said, is vital to the drug war in Latin America, where smugglers migrate to other nations once there is a crackdown.

In the past few years, drug violence has spiraled throughout the region as gangs battle for routes left open following the arrests of top cartel leaders. Smugglers have turned more vicious in Mexico, where in Acapulco a half dozen police and rival smugglers have been beheaded. One head washed up near the tourist resort's popular beaches.

In Managua, Central American ministers said they asked Rumsfeld for more U.S. aid in their fight against Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers using their impoverished nations as a funnel for U.S.-bound shipments of cocaine and marijuana. A day before the ministers arrived for the conference Sunday, Nicaraguan officials seized 6,600 pounds of cocaine after a shootout on the Pacific coast, the country's largest drug seizure to date.

Bermudez said the region is trying to consolidate its efforts under a plan known as the Meso-American Strategy to combat organized crime.