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Solving the threats that criminal organizations pose to democracy and security in Central America “is more complicated than the Mérida Initiative or Plan Colombia,” Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs William R. Brownfield said Thursday.

“We have seven different governments and societies and communities … and we must work in a way that links them all together in a positive way,” Brownfield said at a conference organized by the Council of the Americas and co-sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the National Defense University/Institute for National Strategic Studies and the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.

Its location between the United States, with its voracious demand for drugs, and South America, with its abundant supply, has made Central America a major trafficking hub. According to Brownfield, estimates are that as much as 95 percent of all illicit drugs that enter North America from South America have transited Central America. Moreover, the region faces some of the world’s highest murder rates, with some analysts estimating that the violence exceeds that of Afghanistan or Iraq.

While the United States has pledged $290 million and Canada, Colombia, Spain, the European Union and the Inter-American Development Bank have all committed significant resources, the leadership to solve these issues “must come from Central America. It cannot be an externally driven solution,” said Brownfield, adding that any approach must take into account that financial resources are limited.

Traditional approaches to combatting transnational drug trafficking have been bilateral, such as the Mérida Initiative in Mexico and Plan Colombia. However, the threat in Central America spans seven countries, complicating investigation and prosecution efforts and making collaboration critical to success.

“Our starting point is that these are regional threats, not country specific” said Brownfield. “The solution must be regional as well.” It is important that the governments of Central America be willing to cede sovereignty to other states and institutions, rather than losing it to the gangs and drug trafficking organizations, he said.

Though Brownfield expressed confidence that the Central American countries and the international community are close to reaching an understanding on the “core elements of the strategy,” he was also careful to note that it would not be an easy process. “A lesson that we have all learned over the last years [is that] there is no silver bullet solution, there is no one single program or project or operation that if we do it and do it correctly, it will solve the problem.”

“It took us many years to get into this mess and it will take years to get out of it,” he said.