GUATEMALA CITY: The United States is boosting aid to Central America to help improve security amid rising violence from organized crime by $40 million, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday.
After arriving for talks with regional leaders, Clinton announced that funding for Washington's regional security partnership effort was being increased to $300 million from $260 million.
"We are responding with almost $300 million this year backed up by an action plan of our own focused on high impact investments," Clinton said.
"We will be your ready partners but it must begin with you and led by you. Political power is necessary to root out corruption and ensure accountable and effective institutions," she added.
Clinton arrived in Guatemala for talks "aimed at increasing Central American countries' capacity in the fight against transnational organized crime," the State Department said in a statement.
She was to meet with the leaders of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama for talks on the Central American Security Strategy during her brief four-hour visit.
As Mexico has battled its drug trafficking scourge, drug cartels have increasingly pushed south into Central America and countries like Guatemala and Belize have seen a surge in violence that they seem almost powerless to stop.
According to UN figures, Central America is the world's most violent region outside of war zones. The US cooperates in the fight against organized crime through the Central American Regional Security Initiative.
The State Department said the initiative aims at "strengthening rule of law institutions" as well as boosting the police, prison and border forces.
"Confronting the threat of organized crime is a shared responsibility," the statement added.
During her visit, Clinton has also scheduled talks with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and the Honduran President Porfirio Lobo.
The top US diplomat was to leave later in the day for Jamaica, where she planned talks on security efforts in the Caribbean region.
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington has allocated a total of some $377 million for security efforts in the region.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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