http://quotha.net/node/2387
U.S. "advisors" embedded within Honduran police and judiciary since 2010/11 Sat, 09/29/2012 - 09:02 AP Click image for larger version of FOIA-released document. Text (with key passages bolded) below image. <http://quotha.net/docs/honduras/3.22.11.FOIA_Mosquitia.jpg> UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2011-04671 Doc No. C17685398 Date: 09/19/2012 [released; issued 03/22/11] CLASSIFICATION: CONFIDENTIAL Page 3 of 5 [ ]majority of crimes are not solved, leading to a sense of impunity and lawlessness, which undermines the population's faith in the democratic system. Drug traffickers and other criminals are able to operate unhindered in many parts of the country, especially in the remote La Mosquitia region in the east of the country bordering Nicaragua and the western region of Hondurans, bordering Guatemala. 6. (U) The Embassy is helping Honduras address this scourge. The Embassy and the Government of Honduras have established a bilateral task force to implement programs under the Merida/Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI). *The Task Force pursues a bilateral multi-agency approach to combat the shared threats to security and stability in both Honduras and the United States* as well as the Americas region from transnational illicit trafficking and criminal organizations. The Task Force is co-chaired by President Lobo and the Ambassador. *The Task Force has formed eight inter-agency working groups to focus in-depth on the issues of counternarcotics operation, anti-gang programs, social development and crime prevention, border security, seized criminal assets and financial crimes, investigation and prosecution capacity-building, La Mosquitia (the remote, undeveloped region most vulnerable to narcotics trafficking), and human rights.* In late January, the GOH created a Task Force to fight impunity and to address violent crimes of particular concern. This Task Force, which was the result of discussions that the executive branch conducted with the Attorney General and the judicial branch, serves as a coordination mechanism to bring together all relevant law enforcement agencies. A Financial Crimes Task Force has also been created to prosecute cases under the 2010 Seized Asset Forfeiture law. *Each task force has two embedded U.S. advisors: a police advisor to facilitate the Investigative process with the National Police and a prosecutorial advisor to assist the Public Ministry in case preparation.* Honduras needs to be able to work effectively with not just the United States, but other nations in the region as well to combat this serious threat to its stability. ------- http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2012/09/behind-model-cities-memorandum-of.html Saturday, September 29, 2012 Behind the Model Cities Memorandum of Understanding There's a lot of misinformation floating around about who is behind the Honduras Model Cities memorandum of opportunity (MOU). This is the agreement, announced by Juan Orlando Hernandez of the Honduran Congress, that would authorize a specific group of investors to build the first such enclave in Honduras. So here's what we can find out: Grupo MGK (note, not NKG, NGK, or MKG as the careless or perhaps terminally dyslexic Honduran papers keep reporting) is the consortium behind the memorandum of understanding signed last week with Honduras to develop a model city. The group, whose bare bones generic website grupomgk.com (in English and Spanish) was hastily erected in the last week, claims to have developed plans for a model city-like project in Estonia, but shelved it upon hearing of the Honduran opportunity. Their new <http://www.statscrop.com/www/grupomgk.com> website has already been updated since it was first made public. Michael Strong registered the domain name with GoDaddy on September 8. The website was last updated on September 21. There are currently four public faces for Grupo MGK: Michael Strong, Gabriel Delgado, Robert Haywood, and Nadine Spencer. Michael Strong reportedly studied<http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Strong/e/B001OBBBBQ>economics at the University of Chicago, but dropped out of the graduate program when he was offered a job teaching his socratic training seminar to teachers in Homer, Alaska. This in turn, led to a 15 year career in education consulting. Strong met John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, during this period, and together they founded Freedom Lights Our World (FLOW), dedicated to the proposition that entrepeneurs and markets were the most effective way of creating a better world. They have since moved on to more targeted projects: Conscious Capitalism <http://www.consciouscapitalism.org/>, Radical Social Entrepeneurs <http://www.radicalsocialentreps.org/>, and Peace Through Commerce <http://www.peacethroughcommerce.org/>. Strong is also a founder of the Free Cities Institute<http://www.freecities.org/>, whose website, described as "gorgeous" in this announcement<http://athousandnations.com/2011/09/29/the-free-cities-institute/>of its founding, has since disappeared. Free Cities were the focus <https://freecity.ufm.edu/index.php/Main_Page> of a conference held in Guatemala in April 2011, sponsored by the Universidad Francisco Marroquin, in Guatemala. All of these movements share the idea that bad legal systems create poverty by keeping poor people from founding businesses and therefore keeping them off the road to wealth and success. Robert Haywood is Director <http://www.wepza.org/> of the World Economic Processing Zones Association (WEPZA), a collective for Free Trade Zones world wide. WEPZA was founded by Richard Bolin, who performed the economic studies that led to the development of Mexico's *maquila* industry. WEPZA is a dependency of Bolin's Flagstaff Institute <http://www.instflag.org/>. Haywood is said<http://www.laprensa.hn/Secciones-Principales/Honduras/Apertura/En-Honduras-haremos-nuestra-primera-Ciudad-Modelo#.UGEzr7TA6ZY>to have participated in the design and development of Honduras's *maquilas* as well. Nadine Spencer is an entrepeneur, born in Jamaica, who is founder and CEO of Nadine Spencer, Inc <http://www.nadinespencer.com/>. a gourmet food and lifestyles conglomerate. Her expertise is in marketing. She particularly supports work to develop women entrepeneurs. Gabriel Delgado is described as a telecommunications entrepeneur and fellow in the Aspen Institute <http://www.aspeninstitute.org/>, an education and policy studies nonprofit that is generally described as "centrist". He reportedly founded and developed IT companies in Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico. On the website, Strong and Delgado are described as the "Leadership" while Haywood and Spencer are described as "advisors". Delgado was added to the Leadership section in a round of revisions to the website. His name has not previously appeared associated with Grupo MGK. Grupo MGK lists a single investor, Calidad Immobiliria<http://www.calidadinmobiliaria.com/>, a real estate development company located in Guatemala and El Salvador, a branch of Grupo Entero. The real estate company specializes in urban development projects. Grupo Entero <https://www.grupoentero.com/index.php/Grupo_Entero> is a Guatemalan company founded using the principles of Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People to develop its own staff. They focus on commercial and residential real estate, construction, and health in large parts of Latin America. 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