JOSEPH POLISZUK
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT / EL UNIVERSAL

The "stiletto" was in the Medieval Florence a steel dagger able to penetrate armor. It was the beloved weapon of Renaissance killers. Five centuries later, the United States prepares to stab drug traffic with a new Stiletto that is traveling the whole length of the Caribbean coast since June on the pretext of searching boats and submersibles loaded with drugs.

It is the prototype of a watercraft able to travel 100 km/h that the United States sent to the Caribbean to ascertain whether it can stop semi-submersibles that are being used by drug traffickers to get around radars and slip past the coast guard.

The US Southern Command may not describe in depth the exact location of the Stiletto, reported José Ruiz, the press officer of the Public Affairs Office. Anyway, a photo of this sort of maritime tank disseminated last month on the Colombian media, when it was found in Cartagena, shows a vessel that will be tested in the region until next month.

A fratricide offensive has arrived in the Caribbean waters. It is not the asymmetric war referred to by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, or aircraft carriers or frigates. Drug traffic has devised some ships that hide in the water. The North has replied with a high-speed ship, able to navigate at a depth of less than three feet.

Drug traffic semi-submersibles travel at night and its colors blend in easily with water. "Their crew stores foodstuffs along with drug shipments," explained US Intelligence analyst Shanne Hoffman with regard to more than 30 such vessels found. While semi-submersibles have been found only in the Pacific, "this does not mean that they are not in the Caribbean," said Rear Admiral Joseph Nimmich, Director, US Joint Interagency Task Force South.

If Julio Verne dreamt of Nautilus, the United States has nightmares with submarines that trespass international waters. In the 1990's there were vessels that hid drugs; then there were swift motorboats; now, there are semi-submersibles with hatchways to throw the drugs away in the event of being discovered.

Retaliation has been announced in the North, and from there, Ruiz bets on the Stiletto. "We would like this deployment to be successful, because drug traffickers do not surrender; they have the money and the desire to manage to overcome our capabilities."

Translated by Conchita Delgado