No plane sailing for Costa Rica’s Chinchilla

On 16 May President Laura Chinchilla announced the resignation of her anti-drugs tsar and intelligence chief, Mauricio Boraschi, along with her presidential aide, Irene Pacheco.

Maduro calls out the troops to deal with violent crime

After acknowledging that Venezuela’s murder rate is intolerably high, President Nicolás Maduro has opted to emulate other Latin American governments and turn to the military to support the law-enforcement agencies. He is sticking to the established Chavista line of blaming the opposition for failing to curb violent crime in the jurisdictions under their control.

Cristina in a Peso tangle

Argentina’s president has insisted that her government will not devalue the peso. Many economists and voters don’t believe her.

US ‘war on drugs’ shrinks as traffickers adapt, again

The US ‘war on drugs’ is shrinking as a result of budget cuts, at a time when the ‘balloon effect’ — the drug producers’ and traffickers’ adaptation to the successive improvements in supply-reduction and interdiction — is not only modifying transit routes but also, some indicators suggest, shifting the product mix towards synthetic drugs and, some believe, a return to cannabis.

A landmark verdict

In a remarkable turn-up for the books, Guatemala’s notoriously flawed justice system is being held up as an example not just for Latin America but the world. This month a 'high risk' court convicted former dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), of genocide and crimes against humanity, perpetrated by the State during the 1960-1996 civil war and sentenced him to 80 years imprisonment. This signifies the first time anywhere in the world that a domestic court has tried and convicted a former head of State for genocide. The trial, which proved highly polarising within Guatemala, was particularly significant as it took place under the government of President Otto Pérez Molina, a former head of military intelligence.

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