Australia and Vanuatu agree to $500m security and business deal
While the Australian government did not provide further details of the deal, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports it will provide funds to build two large data centres in the capital, Port Vila, and Vanuatu's largest island, Santo.Millions will also be poured into helping the low-lying island to deal with the impacts of climate change, as well as building up its security.In earlier stages of the negotiations, visa-free travel for citizens of Vanuatu was also discussed and considered a key part of the deal. However, Napat told the media on Wednesday that this issue would be covered in a "subsidiary" agreement, yet to be confirmed.It is unclear what, if any, commitments Vanuatu has given Australia as part of the deal.A similar agreement fell through in 2022, after Vanuatu's previous prime minister pulled out at the last minute over security concerns, according to the ABC.At a press conference on the side of a volcano on Tanna island, one of 80 plus in the Vanuatu archipelago, Marles emphasised the "shared destiny" of the two countries. "[The deal] acknowledges that as neighbours, we have a shared security environment and a commitment to each other," he said.Australia's Foreign Minister added that the deal was about the long-term future. "The most important thing [about the deal] is where we will be [in] three and five and ten years," she said.Vanuatu's prime minister Napat said the agreement will bring "a lot of great benefits between the two countries, whether it be the security agreement, economic transformation, with some specific focus on the mobile labour mobility and financial support".
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Sheinbaum's expulsion of criminals is more about placating Trump than keeping Mexico safe
Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has denied that the transfer of 26 alleged cartel members to the United States was part of any kind of deal with Washington and was instead about her country's own security priorities. This week's expulsion marked the second time Mexico had sent top criminals to the US this year: in February, Mexican authorities handed over 29 cartel members, including druglord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was responsible for the murder of a DEA agent in 1985. The latest transfers took place after US authorities vowed that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty in any of the cases. But despite the claims from Sheinbaum and others in her government, analysts say these transfers are less about Mexico's national security and more about appeasing Donald Trump, who has made going after drug cartels a hallmark policy of his administration – even going so far as to designate several Mexican criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations. 'I think [Sheinbaum] believes she can depressurize by sending a bunch of narcs that are already in custody … as an offering to placate Washington's thirst for Mexican criminals,' said Tony Payan, a Mexico expert at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. 'They're simply being put on a plane and offered on a silver platter.' Sheinbaum said that the expulsion of 26 criminals from organized crime groups including the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels was unrelated to efforts to reach a new security agreement with the United States. Among those handed over to US authorities were Abigael González Valencia, a leader of 'Los Cuinis', a criminal group closely allied with the Jalisco cartel, as well as Roberto Salazar, wanted in connection with the slaying of a Los Angeles county sheriff's deputy in 2008. 'In all of these cases, the extradition or the transfer of these members of organized crime, the decision is for the safety of our country,' she said during a news conference on Wednesday. 'Nor do they have anything to do with the security agreement; they are sovereign decisions taken for the security of our country.' Security minister Omar García Harfuch echoed her comments, saying the move had been taken to stop convicted criminals from continuing to run their organizations from behind bars. 'This action was taken to prevent the continued ordering of kidnappings, extortion, homicides, and other crimes from prison,' he said. Sheinbaum has taken numerous other actions to crack down on drug trafficking in an effort to appease the Trump administration, including deploying thousands of troops to the state of Sinaloa, a cartel stronghold, arresting dozens of top-level narcos and seizing large quantities of fentanyl. But, Sheinbaum still faces increasing pressure from the Trump administration in terms of economic tariffs which would hobble the Mexican economy. Perhaps not coincidentally, the timing of tariff discussions have been closely followed by the transfer of wanted criminals from Mexico to the US. The transfers in February came as officials in Mexico were attempting to put off the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on Mexican imports. This latest round of 26 criminal transfers comes just a few weeks after Trump spoke with Sheinbaum and agreed to delay the threatened 30% tariffs for another 90 days. 'At the end of the day Mexico hasn't faced the levels of tariffs that were supposed to take effect because of fentanyl trafficking on February 1st,' said Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, a security analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 'These types of transfers which for the Mexican government are not necessarily costly are a way of making progress in DC.' Sheinbaum 'is trying to show Washington that she's pliable, she's cooperative, she is responsive, and she's willing to talk and she's willing to concede', Payan added. Still, according to Ilan Katz, head of the criminal law commission at the Mexican Bar Association, the claim by security minister Harfuch that these criminals continue to present a threat in Mexico even behind bars is not without merit. 'Narcos in Mexico have had a lot of operational capacity even while in confinement,' he said. 'One of the solutions is to effectively remove any drug trafficker from the country who might have communication with their criminal groups from prison.' The two mass transfers are also significant in that they are not technically extraditions, but rather the Mexican government simply acting unilaterally without the due process normally required by the justice system to complete an extradition. 'Drug traffickers in Mexico have been able to evade extraditions to the United States through a series of injunctions and suspensions,' said Katz. 'It's the lesser of two evils to send this guy right now and comply with the extradition order rather than to continue keeping him here because of those suspensions.' But this too is problematic, says Farfán-Méndez, if Mexico is simply exporting its criminals without due process to be dealt with elsewhere. 'It creates questions about whether this represents justice in Mexico,' she said. 'What does it say about our criminal justice system?'
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
US approves potential $346 million weapons sale to Nigeria to bolster security
The U.S. State Department approved a possible $346 million weapons sale to Nigeria to help improve security in the sub-Saharan country, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Congress was notified and would need to approve the sale, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. The agency is a division of the Department of Defense body that provides technical assistance and oversees transfers of defense equipment. The weapons requested by Nigeria include munitions, bombs and rockets. A resurgence of attacks by Boko Haram, Nigeria's homegrown jihadist group, has shaken Nigeria's northeast. The group took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose its radical version of Islamic law. In recent months, Islamic extremists have repeatedly overrun military outposts, mined roads with bombs and raided civilian communities, raising fears of a possible return to the peak insecurity of the Boko Haram era despite the military's claims of success against them. The conflict, which has spread into Nigeria's northern neighbors, has claimed about 35,000 civilian lives and displaced more than 2 million people in the country's northeastern region, according to the U.N. Apart from the insurgency in the northeast, Africa's most populous country also faces serious security challenges in the north-central and northwest regions, where hundreds have been killed and injured in recent months. 'The proposed sale will improve Nigeria's capability to meet current and future threats through operations against terrorist organizations and to counter illicit trafficking in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea,' the Pentagon said Wednesday. 'There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.' In the past 10 years, Nigeria has bought military equipment from the U.S. on several occasions. Most recently, the U.S. approved a $997-million weapons sale in 2022.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: Trump ally Erik Prince plans to keep forces in Haiti for 10 years to fight gangs and collect taxes
August 14 (Reuters) - The prominent Donald Trump supporter and private security executive Erik Prince says he plans to keep his forces in Haiti for 10 years under an arrangement that will eventually give his firm a role in the country's tax-collection system. In an interview with Reuters, Prince said his company, Vectus Global, had reached a 10-year agreement with the Haitian government to fight the country's criminal gangs and set up a tax collection system. After the security situation is stabilized, the firm would be involved in designing and implementing a program to tax goods imported across Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, he said. He said he expected to wrestle control of major roads and territories from the gangs in about a year. 'One key measure of success for me will be when you can drive from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitian in a thin-skinned vehicle and not be stopped by gangs,' Prince said in the interview. Prince would not comment about how much the Haitian government would pay Vectus Global, nor how much tax he expects to collect in Haiti. The new president of the transitional council, Laurent Saint-Cyr, who was inaugurated on August 7 as part of a planned rotation of council leaders, did not respond to requests for comment. Haiti's former council president and prime minister also did not respond to requests for comment. Vectus began operating in Haiti in March, deploying mainly drones in coordination with a task force led by the prime minister, but the long-term engagement and the involvement in tax collection have not been previously reported. A person familiar with the company's operations in Haiti told Reuters that Vectus would intensify its fight against the criminal gangs that control large swathes of Haiti in the coming weeks, deploying several hundred fighters from the United States, Europe and El Salvador who are trained as snipers and specialists in intelligence and communications, as well as helicopters and boats. Prince, a former U.S. Navy Seal, founded the Blackwater military security firm in 1997. He sold the company in 2010 after Blackwater employees were convicted of unlawfully killing 14 unarmed civilians while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy in Baghdad's Nisour Square. The men were pardoned by Trump during his first term in the White House. Since Trump's return to the White House, Prince has advised Ecuador on how to fight criminal gangs and struck a deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure and tax its mineral wealth. 'It's hard to imagine them operating without the consent of the Trump administration,' said Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, head of the Haiti program at Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. When asked for comment about Le Cour Grandmaison's assertion, a State Department spokesperson said it has not hired Prince or his company for any work in Haiti. A senior White House official said: "The U.S. government has no involvement with the private military contractor hired by the Haitian government. We are not funding this contract or exercising any oversight.' It's unclear whether Prince's contract would be affected by the change of leadership in Haiti earlier this month. In an August 7 televised address, Saint-Cyr said he welcomed more international support to fight the gangs. 'I am inviting all the international partners to increase their support, send more soldiers, provide more training," he said. "Help us with a more robust international force.' The crisis in Haiti has worsened in recent years, as armed gangs gained territory and attacked hospitals, police stations and prisons, taking control of strategic transport routes and extorting funds from the population. Rights groups accuse the gangs of massacres, rapes, kidnappings and arson. About half the population is food-insecure and over 8,000 people in displacement camps face famine-level hunger. Haiti used to collect half of its tax revenue at the border with the Dominican Republic, but gang control of key transport routes has crippled trade and cut off state income, a report commissioned last year by Haiti's government and several multilateral organizations found. This has undermined the government's ability to respond to the crisis or deliver basic services, the report said. The Dominican Republic is a key source of grains, flour, milk, water and other food staples for Haiti, according to customs data. Haiti also relies on imports from the Dominican Republic for textiles, consumer goods, and medical supplies. Security contractors working in Haiti have faced challenges operating in a country with entrenched links between the gangs, local police and some factions of the government. Earlier this year, a team from American security firm Studebaker Defense abandoned their mission in Haiti after two of their members were abducted, likely due to corrupt police officials, the New York Times reported. Mounir Mahmalat, who serves as a country coordinator of the World Bank's Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group, said that it was virtually impossible to ensure the safe transport of goods or the security of people working in Port-au-Prince. Other security firms working in Haiti have raised questions about how Vectus would hold onto cleared gang territory as well as the wisdom of channelling resources to private security firms instead of the country's own security forces. "Resorting to private military companies cannot be seen as a solution to insecurity in Haiti,' said Gedeon Jean, head of Haiti's Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research. 'The use of private companies has often resulted in human rights violations.' While a private force could help police restore security, Jean warned against large spending on a foreign company while Haiti's own security forces lack funds and equipment.
