Santiago Canton, an Argentine lawyer said at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean now deploy UAS or have already purchased them. Others have hosted American UAS.
“The Argentinean army has developed its own UAS technology for aerial surveillance. Brazil is the country of Latin America that has the highest number of UAS, both produced nationally and purchased outside the country,” Canton said.
“Bolivia has just purchased UAS for its air force, and it has signed an agreement with Brazil to have Brazilian UAS identify coca-producing areas. Chile has sophisticated UAS and they’ve bought Iranian ones for their borders and for surveillance throughout their country.
“In addition to joint exercises with the United States, Colombians have manufactured and purchased (UAS) and used their own technologies. They use them for their borders, operations against the FARC and also for intelligence gathering.
“The Ecuadorean army has purchased them and is using its own technology to develop them and use them on its border with Colombia.
“Mexican Federal Police are using UAS in security operations and anti-drug-trafficking. Mexico City uses them for demonstrations. Panama uses them to monitor drug trafficking. The Peruvian army uses UAS for the Apurimac area where the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path guerrillas) operate.
The Uruguayan army also has a UAS programme while Trinidad and Tobago has plans to acquire them for drug trafficking monitoring, he said. Belize has used UAS mainly for conservation purposes, and Costa Rica uses them for volcanic studies.
“El Salvador apparently has purchased UAS from Israel, and American UAS have been used in The Bahamas, Colombia, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, Aruba and Curacao,” Canton said.
In most cases, UAS usage is under military control with no civilian oversight. With the exception of Brazil, Canada and the United States, there are no regulations for domestic use of UAS, Canton said.
Source: McClitchy DC