Festive floats and giant balloons are on the move in New York City for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, an annual, nationally-televised spectacle. Blustery weather had threatened to ground the balloons, a crowd favorite not permitted to fly in strong winds.New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio drew cheers from the crowd when he declared the balloons “are going to fly” even if a “little lower.” Handlers are keeping the massive inflatables only a couple meters above them.In the past, strong winds have caused some helium-inflated characters to detach from tethers, leading to injuries.This year’s parade, the 93rd sponsored by American retail department store Macy’s, includes a canine cartoon character, Snoopy, as an astronaut.The event features about 8,000 marchers, two dozen floats and many marching bands — ending with an appearance by Santa Claus.Among the performers scheduled for this year are singers Celine Dion, Ciara, Kelly Rowland and Idina Menzel.For many Americans, the holiday to give thanks also marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. 
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The top U.S. commander in Latin America and the Caribbean says illicit narcotics money is now a “big part” of financing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.“If you’re a cartel leader, you now see an easy pathway through Venezuela into commercial shipping and air to distribute your product, and Maduro and his illegitimate regime are getting a cut,” Admiral Craig Faller, the commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), told VOA in an exclusive interview.He added that illicit narcotics trafficking through Venezuela is now making it more difficult for the United States and its allies to detect, monitor and interdict illegal drugs.SOUTHCOM helped interdict 280 metric tons of illegal drugs last year, and U.S. drug deaths were down for the first time in 25 years, albeit only a decrease of 5%. “We had very, an excellent year in 2019, Fiscal Year ‘19, but it’s never enough. We’ve got to be able to do more on the interdiction,” Faller said.The interview, edited for brevity, is below:Admiral Craig Faller, U.S. Southern Command: We’re making an important and good progress in the (drug) interdiction. A lot of this is assisted with our partners, and there’s no better partners than El Salvador. El Salvador is actively engaged in defending the homeland of the United States, helping us stop the flow of illicit drugs.Carla Babb, VOA: If we were to lose the access that we have the partnership with El Salvador, what would that do? Would we be blind in the war on drugs on the Pacific?Faller: It’s critical that we have our access, our placement and the information that we gain here in the maritime patrol aircraft that hub out of here are absolutely essential in piecing that together. Would we be blind? We wouldn’t be blind, but we would, we would be degraded in our ability to see the picture. And that would impact the interdictions, which would impact lives and families in the United States. We had very, an excellent year in 2019, Fiscal Year ‘19, but it’s never enough. We’ve got to be able to do more on the interdiction. We’ve got to be able to put more pressure on the supply side, and our really good partners like the Colombians have stepped up. I was out eradicating coca with Colombian Defense Forces, and they’re working hard because they know how important this is for the United States, and it also affects their security.VOA: Is 2019 shaping up to be a record year for the amount of drugs collected?Faller: We’re analyzing the statistics. We had it, we had success. We made a difference. We know we saved lives. It’s too early to say where that number will come, but the team worked hard because they know how important the mission is. And we worked hard with our partners. That’s key. Between 40 and 50% of our introductions were partnerships with countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, where we work together.No one nation can go alone when it comes to the security of this neighborhood, this hemisphere of ours — it’s our neighborhood, these are our neighbors. We are all Americans. And so that’s been one of the real areas of progress is the amount of partnership, the amount that other nations have stepped up to really get in this because they know that flow of material through El Salvador affects their security as well.VOA: And so when we talk about the making a difference, drug deaths are down in the United States for the first time in 25 years. What do you make of that?Faller: It is a whole government effort. I credit that to the hard work of our team at SOUTHCOM. The Coast Guard — our United States Coast Guard — is critical in that and they have really stepped up in a way that should make every single American proud. Our Navy has supplied critical assets like the P/8. So this, this team working together and the partners. Our security cooperation programs have developed partnerships with El Salvador. These are professionals that we trust. That don’t succumb to corruption and do the right thing. And they’re working with us because it’s important to both of our countries.VOA: Now, you had mentioned recently earlier this month that drug trafficking in Venezuela had increased by about 50%. What exactly does that look like for the war on drugs, the US war on drugs?Faller: The illegitimate Maduro regime, at the expense of his people, it’s sad, has facilitated an increase of all types of illicit activity.  And that’s drug flow, that’s terrorism, it’s illegal mining. This drug flow has been part of that. So if you’re a cartel leader, you now see an easy pathway through Venezuela into commercial shipping and air to distribute your product, and Maduro and his illegitimate regime are getting a cut. Maduro does whatever it takes to keep his team in self in power, and this is a big part of keeping his finances going–illicit narcotics money.VOA: So how does that affect us?Faller: It complicates our ability to interdict narcotics, because when it leaves Venezuela, it could leave hidden in cargo of a commercial fishing vessel, commercial ship or in a commercial airliner or an airplane. And that complicates our ability to detect, monitor and interdict certainly, and we see that particularly in the air and on the sea that those pathways have increased. And that’s to the advantage of Maduro and no one else.VOA: And you said recently also that Venezuela is exacerbating the situation in your region. What did you mean by that exactly?Faller: So the migration, now close to 5 million, has strained the social services of the hemisphere. So that’s one. Certainly the illicit narcotics traffic that is now a pathway that makes it more difficult for all of us to detect, monitor and interdict is another.The ties to Cuba, ties to Russia, the ties to Iran and to some extent China are unhelpful as they work to prop up the illegitimate regime and support a nation that’s not a democracy. Our response has been primarily in planning and the deployment of the United States Naval Ship (USNS) Comfort two times in one year. Where (USNS) Comfort has brought hope to the people that need it the most, those that are affected by that crisis and the social systems. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gone to where it’s needed the most in Venezuela because it’s not a democratic nation and we can’t port our, bring our ship in there to provide the Comfort. With hope, maybe one day.VOA: You mentioned the two deployments. Is there anything more than the U.S. military can do? I mean, this is a real crisis. People are starving.  People are, you know, have nowhere to go. I believe the number of Venezuela’s refugees are going to surpass the number of Syrian refugees in 2020. It’s expected to grow to that large of a number. What more can the military do?Faller: It’s, having been out there on the (USNS) Comfort a couple times and seeing the face of the people and how it’s tearing apart moms and dads, and we’re looking at Thanksgiving here and we brought them hope. So, our military working with the rest of our government is bringing hope, and we’re with the people of Venezuela. I think there’s a lot, there’s a lot in that.Beyond that we’re planning for a range of contingencies. It’s what you expect us to do. It’s what our chain of command has asked us to do so we would be ready. I won’t go into any more detail than that. There’s going to be a day after. There’s going to be a legitimate government. (It) can’t happen soon enough for the people of Venezuela, unfortunately. And when that happens, they’ve got to restore social services, sewage, water, electricity, everything else that the inept, corrupt, illegitimate Maduro regime has destroyed and ruined. They’ve all got to be built up. It’s not a military role there, but we would be in support of that to provide the types of things that militaries do: planning, perhaps some lifts, whatever we’re asked to do.VOA: You mentioned hope, and so that makes me think about another crisis that we have — not just the Venezuelan refugees, but we’ve got the people trying to get to the United States from here, from Honduras. You’ve spoken to your counterparts. What are these countries doing to try to alleviate the problems that are sending these migrants to the US border?Faller: Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to go out in some neighborhoods in El Salvador and Honduras and sat with some young men and women that had participated in a caravan, gone all the way up into Mexico and come all the way back down. They came all the way back down and returned. And so you ask them, “Why do you leave your home?” And it’s all, it’s basic. It’s no hope, didn’t feel safe, no food, no job.“Didn’t you know it was going to be dangerous?” We knew. But when you don’t have anything and you need something, you move out. “Why’d you come back?” Because it was even more dangerous along that migration route than what we expected. And with assistance, they had found employment and were gaining some hope. And so there’s a complex array of factors that go into this. And when I meet with military members, militaries in these countries, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, they’re in support of their government.They’re doing their part to try to explain to the people that this isn’t the best option. It’s hard to convince somebody that doesn’t have any food that it’s not the best option. But we’re seeing progress, the numbers are down. And we’re working hard to do our part in the U.S. military, Southern Command, and work with our partners. A lot of that is sharing information, looking for where the migration intersects with other illicit activity. So there is a connection between transnational criminal organizations that principally work in the counter, in the narcotics to other illicit. They’ll do whatever they can to make a buck. And if that means working with illegal migration of people, they’ll do it.VOA: Do we have teams that are targeting these criminals?Faller: We assist our partners at the US Embassy in sharing information, intelligence primarily, about what we know and what we don’t know. And then we work in some partner capacity building — building intelligence networks, surveillance that supports the nation, But it’s all assistance.VOA: Should we do more than that? Should we do more than information sharing? Should we go outside the wire ourselves?Faller: I think we’re doing exactly what we should be doing. And these, the nation’s, this is primarily a policing effort for the partner nations or border nation. And most of their militaries are in support of that. And that’s, I think, the right balance. And I don’t, I don’t think we should be in actively engaged in that. Look at a nation like El Salvador. These (are) extremely capable armed forces. They fought with us in Iraq. They fought with us in Afghanistan. And they currently are deploying a helicopter company to Mali as part of the UN peacekeeping mission. A lot of their force right now is focused inward to help their police, but they truly understand that they play a role regionally and beyond and that’s because the training and assistance that we provide.VOA: We’re here in El Salvador where China has been courting El Salvador, trying to put a port here. Does it concern you as a military officer that China could be this close to the United States?Faller: I don’t ask for partners that choose. I don’t, but we do talk about values, democracy, human rights, rule of law, respect, integration of women and non-commissioned officers into our formations. And we see it the same. These officers and enlisted have been trained with us and trained in U.S. schools. We are on the same page, the same sheet of music when it comes to those basic principles. I do then pivot and I say, “China’s going to come dangling some very attractive offer, perhaps, but remember where they stand on all those things democracy rules based order, respect for property. And you make a choice.”VOA: What is the biggest threat now in the region? And then where does the concern of the rising violence–we look at Bolivia, right now and we see violence. Are you concerned that that could go from protest to something bigger?Faller: There’s a vicious circle of threats that affect the security of the United States that jeopardize a peace and prosperity and democracy right here in our neighborhood. Right here. And that vicious circle is on young governments. These are young democracies, civil wars within our lifetime right here. They have young, emerging institutions, and institutions are the strength of our democracy, like the United States military. They’re susceptible, these young institutions here, to corruption. They’re susceptible to transnational criminal organizations, which breed on corruption and will deal in anything they can to make themselves a buck and stay powerful and strong. And they’re often better funded than the security institutions that they face here. Those external powers that we talked about — China, Russia — they thrive on those same sorts of conditions. And that’s a threat.  
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The Department of Homeland Security lacked a technology system to efficiently track separated migrant families during the execution of the zero tolerance immigration policy in 2018, a report released Wednesday by the agency’s inspector general found.The Office of Inspector General (OIG) was not able to confirm the total number of families DHS separated under the zero tolerance policy, in which every adult who crossed the border illegally, including those who came with their children, was criminally prosecuted.The result was a widespread practice of separating families at the border.“DHS also did not provide adequate guidance to personnel responsible for executing the zero tolerance policy,” the report found.According to OIG, DHS estimated that border patrol agents separated 3,014 children from their families while the policy was in place.Yet, OIG investigators were able to identify about 1,400 cases where separations may have occurred but were not documented in the various methods to record and track family separations used by DHS and border patrol officials.FILE – Children cover their faces as they are escorted to the Cayuga Center, which provides foster care and other services to immigrant children separated from their families, in New York, July 10, 2018.‘Policy designed … to inflict pain’In response to the OIG report, Jess Morales Rocketto, chair of Families Belong Together, said in a statement that family separation is an “intentional, white nationalist policy designed to inflict the maximum amount of trauma, pain and suffering.”The Trump administration has said the zero tolerance policy was crafted at a time when migrant border arrivals were skyrocketing. The administration has said the policy was needed to deter an even greater exodus from mostly Central American nations.The internal DHS watchdog also found Trump administration officials expected to separate 26,000 children in case the zero tolerance policy continued. It also said the agency knew it lacked the technology as early as 2017 to track and reunite children with parents.“Although DHS spent thousands of hours and more than $1 million in overtime costs, it did not achieve the original goal of deterring ‘catch and release’ through the zero tolerance policy. Instead, thousands of detainees were released into the United States. Moreover, the surge in apprehended families during this time resulted in children being held in CBP facilities beyond the 72-hour legal limit,” the report found.Report’s five recommendationsOIG made five recommendations to DHS to improve its systems to track and reunify separated families.Among them: more training so officials at the United States Border Patrol improve “field personnel abilities to track separated migrant family members,” necessary modifications in CBP’s IT system to “limit user error and improve data quality,” and a better coordination between ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and the Department of Health and Human Services to “outline roles” to create a standard operating process for migrant family reunification.Officials at DHS and its subagencies had not responded to requests for comment by VOA by Wednesday afternoon.DHS sent comments to OIG on the draft report and said the agency has been taking measures to improve its processing, tracking and management systems at the border, while continuing to confront the border crisis and “fulfilling its humanitarian and security obligations.”
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The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday that it would scrap plans to carry out reviews of three Navy SEALs that could have led to their ouster from the elite force, after President Donald Trump’s extraordinary intervention in a related case. “I have determined that any failures in conduct, performance, judgment or professionalism exhibited by these officers be addressed through other administrative measures as appropriate,” acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said in a statement. The decision followed Trump’s order on Sunday that Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher keep his status as a Navy SEAL, even after he was convicted of battlefield misconduct. The review of the three other SEALs was connected to the Gallagher case. Critics say the actions undermine military justice and send a message that battlefield atrocities will be tolerated. Trump’s former Navy secretary, Richard Spencer, who was fired on Sunday over the case, has spoken out against the president on the issue. “The president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices,” Spencer wrote in a piece published Wednesday by The Washington Post.Trump: I’m defending fightersTrump has argued that the Navy mishandled Gallagher’s case and has said that he is defending America’s combat fighters from unfair and unfounded prosecution. The now-terminated reviews of the three remaining SEALs — Lieutenant Jacob Portier, Lieutenant Commander Robert Breisch and Lieutenant Thomas MacNeil — had received far less attention than the Gallagher case. A military jury in July convicted Gallagher of illegally posing for pictures with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter while deployed to Iraq in 2017, but acquitted him of murder in the detainee’s death. Gallagher also was cleared of charges of attempted murder in the wounding of two civilians, a schoolgirl and an elderly man, shot from a sniper’s perch. Portier, Breisch and MacNeil were under scrutiny in the Gallagher affair as his superiors. Modly said his decision to scrap the reviews should not be interpreted as a diminishment of the SEAL ethos, which he quoted. It says the elite fighters serve with honor “on and off the battlefield.” “The United States Navy, and the Naval Special Warfare Community specifically, have dangerous and important work to do,” he said in his statement. “In my judgment, neither deserves the continued distraction and negative attention that recent events have evoked.” 
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