U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in South America for a conference of Western hemisphere defense ministers, said he hopes to strengthen security agreements in the Americas that are aimed at stopping narcotics and terrorist organizations. Those arrangements allow countries and security agencies to share information and operate together, he said. Rumsfeld said the United States and its allies in the region must stay ahead of what he described as "terrorists, narco-traffickers, hostage-takers, gangs-the people who do things that make the lives of the people of this region harder and poorer." The conference in Quito, Ecuador is scheduled to begin Wednesday. In addition to narcotics, the ongoing peacekeeping effort in Haiti-which has drawn hundreds of troops from several Latin American countries-is expected to be on the agenda, as are concerns about international terrorist organizations operating in the region. While in Quito, Rumsfeld is expected to meet with his counterparts from Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and several Central American countries.
