Tag: security
The FARC’s announcement last Sunday that the organization will no longer kidnap civilians was a surprise to most observes and experts of the region. The mainstream media has…
Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina has been acting strange lately. Just one month after his inauguration, he is already ruffling U.S. feathers, and making waves in the politics…
The lead article in last week’s Proceso talks about the political importance of capturing El Chapo for both the Calderon and Obama administrations. The article is worth a…
Back in November 2010, a small town on the US-Mexico border, Ciudad Mier, made headlines when most of the town’s residents left because of intense fighting between the…
Sam Novacich and I have a piece at ISN in which we take a closer look at one of Rio’s Pacifying Police Units (UPP) in the Cantagalo/Pavão-Pavãozinho communities and…
In the last year, you’d be hard-pressed to have heard or read anything negative about Brazil (with the exception of President Lula’s pesky affinity for Iran). The South…
El Chiguire Bipolar has a good take on the concept of selective impunity. In the Onion-like fashion for which the blog is known, it tells the story of…
Responding to a growing sense that an exclusive focus on a military-led fight against drug trafficking organizations is failing to curb violence on the other side of our southern border, the United States and Mexico formally announced a shift in their counternarcotics strategy that had been in the works since the fall of 2009. The “new stage” in bilateral cooperation will aim to strengthen civilian law enforcement institutions and rebuild communities crippled by poverty and crime.
One of the biggest stories emerging from the Americas in 2009 was Colombia’s decision to let the United States access military installations throughout Colombia in efforts to combat…
Earlier this year, LatAmThought wrote a commentary about the international reach or criminal organizations in the Americas. Last week, we published an article on the International Relations and…
On 4 November 2009, the United States announced they would donate US$1.39 million in equipment towards the formation of an elite unit of highly trained troops in the…
O Globo, a Rio de Janeiro-based daily, published an article on 24 March talking about a unique and creative way Brazil is battling high levels of crime and…
At first glance, the Honduran-Guatemalan border at El Florido appears no different from any other international land border crossing in Latin America. Migrant day workers mix with road-weary…
I recently had a letter published in this week’s edition (January 31-February 6) of The Economist. The letter, which I’ve copied and pasted below, is in response to…
It is far less alluring, polarizing, and smaller than the Amazon. It attracts very few tourists and minimal attention from Brazilian and international conservation groups. Nestled between the…
The nation most known for its meat and tango is facing the possibility of adding something more to the notoriety list: a haven for drug smuggling. Within the…
It is not surprising that Venezuela, Bolivia, and other Latin American governments are strengthening their military ties with Russia. Since the United States suspended arms sells to Venezuela…