Taiwan distributed its indigenous rifle, the T-65, generously among the Central American nations in the mid-1980s. The T-65K1 is still found in the hands of the Panamanian Institutional Protection Service (or “SPI” in Spanish – the Presidential Guard), and the Panamanian National Police (PNP). As it happened, the Panamanian Defense Force (PDF) selected the T-65 as its standard rifle in 1986, acquiring some 10,000 rifles before switching to the Kalashnikov. The rifle became the standard-issue rifle in 1990 within the new Panamanian Public Force that replaced the PDF, until replaced once more, by the Kalashnikov, in the form of the Hungarian’s AMD-65, in 1991.

In 2010, the Salvadoran Armed Force (ESAF) loaned 700 rifles to the National Civilian Police (or “PNC” in Spanish). The PNC had actually received the first batch of loaned T-65K1 rifles between 1995 and 1996, and the Army would eventually transfer up to 2,000 Taiwanese rifles to the PNC. The Salvadoran military had acquired some 5,000 T-65 rifles during the civil conflict in the 1980s, and these had been distributed exclusively to the law enforcement security forces, namely the National Police, elements of the National Guard’s combat battalion (“September 15” Antiterrorist Battalion or “BIAT”), and the Treasury Polic’s combat battalion (“Cuervo” COIN battalion (BIC) and then Libertadores BIAT). The T-65 is still prominent in the hands of Salvadoran police officers, and it’s the standard rifle for the 250 policemen and other guards securing the Terrorism Confinement Center (or “CECOT” in Spanish), a jail holding up to 40,000 gang-members.

TAIWAN’S SMALL ARMS

In April 1966, the Taiwanese military leadership charged the Combined Service Forces with the manufacturing of the M-14 rifle and the M-60 machine gun to supply its military. The U.S. government agreed to sell tools, components, material, documentation, technical assistance, and assemblies in January 1967. Consequently, the 60th arsenal in Kaoshiung built over 700,000 M-14s, classified as the Type 1957 (T-57), between 1969 and 1980.

The T-57 would jumpstart the Taiwanese’s small arms industry, and it was followed by the development of a 5.56mm model starting in 1968. This culminated in 1976, when Taiwan adopted the T-65 rifle. The rifle was developed and then manufactured by the Combined Logistics Command using the AR-15 platform, minus the carrying handle, and the mechanism of the Armalite AR-18. The T-65K1 refers to an improved variant made by the Joint Logistics Plant No. 205 (known as the 205th arsenal), with a new handguard with aluminum heat shields, and other minor changes. The K1 is said to have started production in 1985, but within a couple of years it had been superseded by the T-65K2.

The K2 was based on the improvements found in the M-16A2 rifle, hence its resemblance to that U.S. rifle. The T-65K2 was also known as the T-68 and evolved into the K3 and K4 variants before jumping to the T-86 carbine. The T-86 is almost identical in its exterior to the U.S.-made M4 carbine, introducing similar improvements, but still using the piston-type gas mechanism of the T-65. The T-86 itself evolved into the T-91 rifle, which replaces the carrying handle for a Picatinny-type rail and uses a longer barrel.

Interestingly, one of the rows of rifles photographed being transferred from the Salvadoran Army to the police in 2010 showed T-65 rifles with M16-type carrying handles, indicating that these were T-65K2 models. As noted, the T-65K2 entered service in the early 1990s, so their presence in El Salvador in 2010 suggests that some rifles were delivered after the civil war had ended in 1992.

Little is known about the supply of Taiwanese’ small arms to other Central American nations, but it is reported that the T-65 was used by the Guatemalan, Honduran, and Costa Rican police in the 1980s. Photographs pop up now and then, verifying their existence with security forces of those nations. In 1973 the Costa Rican government established the Judicial Police (OIJ – Organismo de Investigación Judicial), with 120 elements, and by the mid-1980s it had reached a strength of some 647. Half of those officers had received training and equipment from Taiwan. Taipei also assisted in the training and equipping of a Costa Rican’s Civil Guard riot squad and supplied some rifles to equip some of the 3,000-member Rural Guard (established in 1969). In 2006, Taiwan donated 71 vehicles and 30 mountain motorcycles to the Costa Rican police, and seven outboards to equip four coastguard boats.

Taiwan may have even supplied a few T-57 rifles to Honduras around 1969, as well, but it’s noted that only 200 Type 57 rifles had been produced by July 1, 1969. So, if any of these ended up in Central America in July 1969, they were probably remanufactured M-14 rifles. Nevertheless, it does appear that the first modern standard-rifle of the Honduran Army was the M-14 rifle –possibly augmented by T-57s– in 1970, switching to the FAL in 1975.

Honduras received considerable military assistance from Taiwan since the 1960s. Around 2004 – 2005, Taiwan provided assistance in maintaining Honduran F-5 fighter aircraft, but most of the assistance remained somewhat secret until 2015, when it publicly donated four AIDC UH-1H helicopters. Similar transactions and offerings were made to Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Guatemala and these included additional hardware that was not disclosed publicly. Consequently, the Honduran package is believed to have included up to 30 Humvees and other hardware to match a similar number of M-1025 transferred by the U.S. in 2007.

Indeed, besides rifles, Taiwan contributed surplus and excess defense equipment to Latin American allies in unsuccessful efforts to retain their diplomatic support against the Popular Republic of China (PRC). In 1998, Taiwan set up a $240 million aid fund to distribute among Central American nations in exchange for their support and facilitated the supply of vehicles, boats and helicopters, as well as technical assistance to a number of Latin American allies.

OTHER WEAPONS AND LATIN AMERICAN ALLIES

Taiwan’s military decided to replace some 7,000 Humvees with a new vehicle starting in 2003, so it has been transferring dozens of them to Latin American allies. Similarly, Taiwan has been disposing of its Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC)’s UH-1H helicopters, phasing them up since late 1990s. In the maritime area, the Taiwanese Navy phased out its Hai Ou (Seagull)-class missile boats between 1999 and 2012 and offered some of them to Latin American allies. The Hai Ou is none other than the Israeli Dvora class, modified by Taiwan with three propeller shafts, instead of the two used in Dvora, and fitting two Hsiung Feng I anti-ship missiles instead of the Israeli’s Gabriel. In addition, Taiwan supplied dozens of police vehicles, motorcycles, and financed small launches and security initiatives.

Panama received five AIDC UH-1H helicopters in 1997, followed by another pair a few years later. Then, Taiwan financed an EMB-135BJ Legacy 600 and a Bell-412EP helicopter for Panamanian presidential use. In 2017, Taiwan provided funds to strengthen four Panamanian projects of the Bilateral Cooperation Program between both governments. Among others, the money funded a Damen Interceptor (DI) 1102 boat for operations around Guna Yala, and, according to the newspaper Critica, it was the fourth DI-1102 financed by Taipei. The Asian nation also funded the construction of a Naval Air Station in Almirante, district of Changuinola, province of Bocas del Toro, and fifteen vehicles for the PNP in Chiriquí and Veraguas. Panama switched to China in 2017.

In the case of El Salvador, Taiwan provided 500 motorcycles to its police between 2004 and 2009. Then, in the 2005 – 2006 period, it offered two Hai Ou-class patrol boats to the Salvadoran Navy. But, by 2007, the Salvadoran deputy chief of staff acknowledged that the offering had been cancelled and replaced with direct contributions to the government in an effort to defeat the former guerrilla front, the FMLN, in presidential elections. Nevertheless, the FMLN defeated the right-wing Arena party, and came to power in 2009. In 2017, Taiwan offered four AIDC UH-1H helicopters along with a hidden offering of dozens of Humvees but cancelled in 2018 after the Salvadoran ministry of defense failed to obtain $2 million for the freight, and it was disclosed that the FMLN was planning to switch its support to China after Taipei had denied financial support to the former guerrillas. Ironically, in August 2022, the Salvadoran attorney general’s office (or “FGR” in Spanish) was investigating $3.9 million, donated by Taiwan, that had been diverted during the administration of former FMLN President Salvador Sánchez Cerén.

Since 1995 Taiwan supplied raw materials for uniforms and infantry gear to the Nicaraguan military. In 2004, Taiwan pledged to finance the repair of the Nicaraguan Air Force’s Mi-17 helicopters and the donation of vehicles and motorcycles for the police of the autonomous Caribbean regions and supported new uniforms for the Nicaraguan police. In 2018, three Taiwanese warships stopped at Corinto, Nicaragua, for three-days of joint training activities. The ships also stopped at El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. In 2019, Taipei financed the repair of four Nor-Tech 43V naval interceptors, previously donated by the U.S. in 2009, and a 48-foot model. Nevertheless, Nicaragua severed ties with Taiwan at the end of 2021.

CONTROVERSIES

Taiwan’s donations have contributed to several abnormal transactions in Central America, as well. In 2019, Taiwan approved, and then under pressure rejected, a loan for $100 million to the Ortega government of Nicaragua, through its export-import bank (Eximbank). It was not the first time. Taiwan had disbursed $178.1 million to Nicaragua between 1997 and 2003. And then, in 2004, Taiwan suspended its economic aid to the Enrique Bolaños’ government, also of Nicaragua, when the donations faced a number of scandals.

Between 2003 and mid-2004, Taiwan donated some $10 million to El Salvador to care for the victims of the 2001 earthquakes and to help the National Civil Police combat kidnapping gangs. However, the government of former President Francisco Flores diverted the money to his party’s bank accounts to finance Arena’s Antonio Saca presidential campaign.

In a similar scheme, between 2001 and 2003, Taiwan had provided $2.3 million to political leaders of the Costa Rican’s Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) and the National Liberation Party (PLN) between 2001 and 2003; of this amount, $1.4 million had been diverted to the Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez. In Guatemala, it appears that money went to the pockets of former President Alfonso Portillo.

In Honduras, in 2015, the presidency announced Taiwan’s donation of a Bell 412EP helicopter and an Embraer Legacy 600 jet for the use of the president. However, in 2022, it was disclosed that the Honduran Executive at the time (2015) actually used the Security Tax Fund (known as “TASON” in Spanish) to pay for the aircraft, and then moved $14 million pledged by Taiwan for security matters to replace the money taken from the TASON. Neither the TASON nor Taiwan’s donation were earmarked for the pleasure of the presidency, and the aircraft had not been donated. Honduras broke with Taiwan in 2023.

WHAT IS LEFT IN LATIN AMERICA

While Haiti received 100 T-91 rifles and other gear, the Dominican Republic received 960 motorcycles for the use of police by 2014. In addition, the Dominican Republic received two AIDC UH-1H helicopters in 2017, and it was made public that the package included 90 HMMWV vehicles and 100 engines. Dominican Republic changed support in favor of China in 2017 while Haiti remains as a holdout in the Caribbean, along with Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines.

In South America, Paraguay particularly benefited by receiving six AT-33A Silver Star light attack jet aircraft in 1991, two Hai Ou-class patrol boats in 1994, and up to sixteen AIDC UH-1H helicopters transferred between 1996, 2001, and 2019-2021. These were followed by 30 HMMWVs in 2019, and more than 600 motorcycles for the police. In 2011, Taiwan financed one Cessna Citation Sovereign aircraft, and one Bell 427 and one Bell 407 GXI helicopters, all for presidential use.

Taiwan donated two UH-1H helicopters to Guatemala in 1996 and another two in 2012, along with spares for another two UH-1Hs, while Belize received a pair of UH-1Hs in 2016. By early 2024, these two Central American countries were the only ones left in the region retaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

The contract has a value of over $2.1 million and features the same holster solution that was adopted earlier this year by the French Army and the Niedersachsen State Police of Germany.

“This contract is a testament to the craftsmanship of Blackhawk products and the brand’s commitment to equipping law enforcement officials around the globe,” said Jeff Sposito, who leads the Blackhawk and Stone Glacier brands of Vista Outdoor.

The Belgian Federal Police selected the Blackhawk holsters to carry their service pistol, the Smith & Wesson M&P9, while the local police zones in Belgium will have the ability to purchase new duty holsters compatible with their Glock 17/45 service pistols.

The USG noted that Blackhawk T-Series is a secure and versatile platform, with the T-Series L3D holsters coming standard with the Jacket Slot Belt Loop or being compatible with the agency-selected Blackhawk Micro Tac Platform. This modularity allows officers to select the form of carry most suited to their needs without sacrificing accessibility or security.

To date, T-Series holsters have been selected for duty use by over 3,200 law enforcement agencies both in the U.S. and abroad. As the world’s first thumb-driven, dual-injected molded holster, the T-Series is Blackhawk’s premier duty-rated holster.

Learn more about Blackhawk’s T-Series holster and other duty products at blackhawk.com

We visited Navy Captain Omar Iván Hernández Martínez, Chief of the General Staff of the Salvadoran Naval Force, and Lt. Commander Mario Alberto Orellana Cabrera, Chief of Naval Operations at the San Salvador Naval Command on the eve of the International Surfing Association Youth World Championship, held in Surf City, El Salvador, from May 27 to June 5, 2023. El Salvador’s Naval Force (ELNF) has the task of providing security and support to the National Civil Police at La Bocana, better known as El Tunco Beach, an area that has transformed into El Salvador’s “Surf City”, where the tournament took place. Adding to the activities, the Naval Force was preparing to transform into the new Maritime Force (Fuerza de Marina), a change that will restore its role as national maritime authority.

This is the result of a new navigation law approved by the Salvadoran Congress in March 2023, repealing the 2002-General Maritime-Port law and the 1933-Navigation and Marine Law. The new law grants supervision, control, and surveillance of matters related to the sea, navigation and port regimen to the National Navy. The new law authorizes an expansion of the Salvadoran Navy with the establishment of the Coast Guard Service Unit and provides for the contemplation of changing the name of “Naval Force” to “Maritime Force.” It also creates a naval reserve, establishing that national flagged ships, their captains and crew, when they are called to the service of the National Navy in cases of armed conflict or national emergency, will be subordinated to the Maritime Authority and subject to the rules and regulations of the National Navy. It also tasks the Maritime Force with ensuring maritime interests and enforcing laws and international treaties that regulate maritime activities in jurisdictional waters.

Consequently, the organic law of El Salvador Armed Force (ELAF) will undergo organizational modifications contemplating the Coast Guard service as a unit of the National Navy to assume the role of Maritime Authority. The law also clears the way for the Coast Guard to work in counteracting maritime pollution, illegal fishing, and non-traditional threats. The Coast Guard services unit will comprise a CG flotilla and port captaincies.

Air, Maritime and Port Police

The document Historical Review of the Port of Acajutla, published in San Salvador in 2017, traces the first port police to a group of 30-agents assigned to guard the pier when import operations started on July 29, 1961. However, the roles of aeronautical, maritime, and port security have been assigned traditionally to the armed forces.

It would not be until the National Civil Police (PNC) was established in 1992 that an Air Police Group (GAP, for its initials in Spanish) and a Maritime Police Group (GMP, for its initials in Spanish) were designed as support units for law enforcement assignments in these specialty areas.

The GMP gained particular importance in 2002, after the Naval Force lost its role as a national maritime authority. That year, the Salvadoran Naval Command suggested an addendum to the 1933 navigation and marine law in order to modernize its mandate. Instead, the executive and the legislature removed the traditional role from the Naval Force and established the General Maritime-Port Law. This established a new Maritime Port Authority under the Ministry of Transportation – a new bureaucracy headed by political affiliates – and also charged some of the traditional tasks to the National Civilian Police.

However, the GMP had not been designed for such tasks, and was having a difficult time with material due to its lack of facilities and faulty equipment. In 2008, the PNC announced a budget of $60.4 million to acquire, among others, one more Robinson R-44 helicopter for $400,000 for the Police Air Group (GAP), and $1.5 million for ten Rodman R-800 boats. As it happened, the GMP had already acquired twenty Rodman R-800 Fly boats in 1998, paying ȼ1,500,000 (colones) per boat (equivalent to $171,428, in 1998). The first batch of the order received the pennants PNC L-01-01 to L-01-10 while the following batch of the same order received pennants PNC L1-01-11 to 1-01-20. The PNC established two rustic maritime bases, one in port Acajutla, in Sonsonate, and the other at El Triunfo port, Usulután.

However, the R-800s proved problematic due to the Salvadoran police command’s lack of foresight for logistics and maintenance. By 2000, the then Sub-Inspector Alcides Vega Alvarado, head of the GMP in Acajutla, commented that of the five R-800 at his disposal at El Triunfo, only one was fully functional. It was claimed that this was due to technical problems in its two internal Yanmar 165hp engines that faced failures in the crosshead system and other accessories. Failures were also reported in its electronic detection and navigation systems. At that time, only one boat was operated in the Acajutla area.

In September 2001, the GMP experienced its first loss, when one of the boats sank when the mooring broke while it was being lowered to the water in Acajutla. Agent José Cristian López Erazo was trapped in the sinking boat and drowned. Two other units had been lost in other incidents, as one of them was involved in a collision, rendering it useless, and the other was struck by lightning. By 2008 the GMP had eight of the Rodman units practically abandoned at El Triunfo, and the GMP used only a captured go-fast boats for patrols.

In October 2005 a public auction was opened to sell eight derelict R-800s for $30,000 each, but there were no buyers. Then the same eight boats would be officially donated in the first week of September 2007 to the Autonomous Port Executive Commission (CEPA), which had found ways to repair them in 2008, and returned them to the water to be used by CEPA for port security.

STORM

The PNC also organized a 24-member Aquatic Group (GAT), equipped with speedboats and ten jet skis under the Tourism Police Division. Eventually, the GAT and the GMP became part of the Tourism Police Division, and later a separate Maritime Police Division under the Sub-Directorate of Public Security.

Currently, the Maritime Police Division has 166 agents, with jurisdiction and protection of 193 miles (310 km) along the Pacific coast in three permanent rustic naval stations located in La Unión and Acajutla. Facilities have also been established on the boulevard Costa del Sol, jurisdiction of San Luis La Herradura, La Paz for fluvial patrols along the estuary. In January 2020, the Maritime Reaction Operational Tactical Section (Sección Táctica Operativa de Reacción Marítima – STORM) was added as part of the comprehensive Territorial Control Plan implemented by Bukele’s administration throughout the country. The unit was created with assistance from the United States and Colombia. The Office of Anti-Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) facilitated training and equipment for the first 69 maritime police commandos by December 2020. The agents are trained in narco-boat interdiction, rescue and survival practices, swimming, first aid, tactical movements, navigation and maritime operations, among others.

Although the Maritime Police Division still uses a couple of the surviving R-800s, it has acquired a number of locally built launches while STORM has been equipped with Zodiac inflatables donated by INL. For interdiction, STORM uses Zodiac Milpro Model 2015 SRA-750 variants, with two outboard Evinrude E-TEC G2 300hp engines, and Zodiac Model 2019 SAR900, also with Twin Evinrude E-TEC G2s.

​​Eye in the sky

The U.S. Navy maintains a Cooperative Security Location (CSL), formerly known as Forward Operating Location (FOL), in El Salvador. FOL Comalapa began operations on August 29, 2000, following the closure of Howard Air Force Base in Panama. It changed its name to CSL Comalapa in 2009, and continued to serve as a hub for elements of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command Task Force 47, the U.S. Air Force P9-A (GOCO), U.S. Coast Guard C-130 and HH-65s, Canadian CP140, and contracted UAVs supporting JIATF-S counter narcotics missions.

CSL Comalapa shares installations with the Salvadoran Air Force’s 2nd Air Brigade located some 26 miles southeast of San Salvador. The bilateral agreement to operate the CSL allows the U.S. military and other allies to maintain a strategic, cost-effective location by using existing airfields to support the region’s multinational efforts to combat transnational organized crime. In July 2019, the agreement to operate CSL Comalapa was extended to 2024.

In 2012 the Armed Forces established the Cuscatlán Joint Group, which became the Cuscatlán Inter-agency Group in conjunction with the National Civilian Police (PNC), the Office of the Attorney General (FGR), the Autonomous Executive Port Commission (CEPA), the Directorate of Migration and Immigration and members of the monitoring station from the United States. The Cuscatlán Inter-agency Group is also based at Comalapa, and the U.S. Embassy, ​​through INL, invested approximately $3 million in equipment and installations for this group. In addition, through INL and the U.S. Coast Guard liaison, courses have been delivered at the International Training Division in Yorktown, Virginia, for Salvadoran police and military elements.

A close cooperation between the CSL assets and the local authorities has netted tons of drugs travelling the Pacific. It is noted that the new 2023 navigation law was approved just as the El Salvador Naval Force (ELFN) announced another drug seizure on the high seas, consisting of 1.2 tons of cocaine. The load, valued at $30 million, was intercepted some 520 nautical miles (963 kilometers) from Bocana el Cordoncillo, Estero de Jaltepeque (on the Salvadoran coast). On July 2, 2023, another seizure of a ton of cocaine took place at 525 nautical miles (some 972 kilometers) from the Salvadoran coast. This was done by the Salvadorans using 85-foot (26-meter) coast guard cutters, highlighting the need from ELFN of acquiring one, and preferably two, off-shore patrol boats, and one, or two, additional 85-Defiant class cutters – similar to the 87-foot (27m) USCG Protector class purchased through the Near Coastal Patrol Vessel (NCPV) program sponsored by the U.S. Navy.

If funds could be obtained, and U.S. assistance is not forthcoming, the new Coast Guard Service Unit could look for surplus vessels from South American allies. The Chilean ASMAR 108ft (33m) Danubio/Protector-class LSG has been an option since the early 2000s, but it’s MTU engines could create a logistical problem in El Salvador unless they could be switched to Cat C-32 (like those mounted on the 85 Defiant PM-15). Sixteen of these vessels were built between 1999 and 2002 in Chile to a Protector class design from Fairey Brooke Marine (U.K.). Although normally equipped with a single Oerlikon MK-IV, it can accommodate a 20mm TCM-20 gun-system forward (obtained either from Chile of from Salvadoran inventories). For EZZ patrols, something closer to the ASMAR 139.4-foot (42.5m) Taitao/Micalvi class would be more appropriate, and their Caterpillar engines would be more logistically acceptable. Six of these vessels were built between 1992 and 1996.

Failed funds

In 2022, the Legislative Assembly (National Congress) ratified a loan with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) that had been agreed in 2018, but was delayed by the previous legislature. The funds included $13 million for an ocean-going patrol vessel, in the lines of the FCS-5009. This is a 165-foot (50m) commercial fast-crew-supplier vessel that has been successfully modified for ocean patrol, mounting a single self-defense small-caliber naval cannon forward and several machine guns at port and starboard. The vessel is capable of carrying two naval interceptors, and even having space for a small helipad for a light helicopter. Modified in this way, the 5009 coast guard cutter functions similarly in concept to the 154-foot (46.8m) USCG Sentinel class (minus the helipad, and one naval interceptor).

The CABIE loan was also needed to fund one Bell-429 for the police as well as $5 million to fund the conversion of the sole police UH-1H to Huey-II standards. The Police Air Group provides support to the different units of the National Civil Police, through the use of aircraft in cases of search, evacuation and rescue of people and in operations carried out for the security and defense of the population. It is equipped with a small Cessna, an UH-1H, an MD500D, two MD530N, and two R44s. A four-seater Piper Arrow was added in 2017. The CABIE denied the loan for the Bell-429 due to the lack of police facilities to maintain it, and the $5 million was considered overpriced by at least $3.5 million. The proposed resolution was to merge those funds to acquire a second Bell-412 or up to eight Huey-IIs for the Air Force (if done correctly.)

Nevertheless — and surprisingly — the CABEI failed to release the funds due to international pressure, and the Salvadoran coast guard remains unable to safely perform its mandate out-to-sea. The police, on the other hand, might be able to incorporate a like-new Bell-505, recently confiscated from former president Alfredo Cristiani.