Here is an interesting article from the BBC. It talks about Guatelmala initiating a "joint police force" with El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, under, of course the neocon tutleage that harks back to all the failed attempts at US dominance in the region.. And look at who the enemies are this time - citizens, not regimes. "Either get on board or get run over" seems to be catching on pretty quickly among the Central American elite.
For Example
Defence Minister Gen Carlos Aldana said a battalion-strength force would boost economic and political stability and also help handle natural disasters. "We want to focus on a universal soldier - a soldier of peace," he said.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described the two-day talks as a "unique moment for the Americas".
He said that "drug-traffickers, smugglers, hostage-takers, terrorists, violent gangs" posed serious threats for the region
But don't think that only people in Central America are being classified in those terms. Look at what is happening in New Orleans (continues below...)
Remember that old Black guy who got beat up a few days ago by the cops?
Here's his story
Perhaps most alarming to Davis at the time was that on the line for the arresting officer's name - probably one of the men who had beaten him - there was only an "X." "He didn't even have his name on there," Davis remarked. "I don't even know who he is."
But what did not make it into the tape or national attention was that Davis is just one of more than nearly a thousand people who have suffered in a horrific place the police call "Camp Amtrak," an improvised jail in what used to be the New Orleans bus terminal.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans authorities are arresting hundreds on minor charges such as breaking curfew or public intoxication, housing them in brutal conditions and then pushing them through a court process that forces most into working on clean-up projects at police facilities, according to numerous interviews and documents obtained by TNS.
At the converted Greyhound terminal, which now serves as a different kind of way station, no passengers arrive with luggage. Instead, police bring people in and book them at what used to be a ticket counter. In the back, where travelers used to board buses, police now push detainees into wire pens where they sleep on the concrete in the open air.
All recounted trying to sleep on the concrete floor of the bus parking lot with just one blanket - or in some cases no blanket - to protect them from the cold and the mosquitoes which swoop in on randomly alternating nights here. None was given a phone call or access to an attorney.
Speaks for itself.