Security & Strategic Review - March 2014 (ISSN 1741-4202)

Calm had not quite returned to Venezuela, after more than a month of riotous confrontations, when a delegation of foreign affairs ministers from Union of South American Nations (Unasur) turned up on 25 March in an ostensible attempt to broker a dialogue between government and opposition.... Read More

It is not usual for a high-ranking military commander to report to his country’s legislature that he is unable to meet his operational objectives because he is not given the means to do so.... Read More

The government of President Ollanta Humala appears determined to launch a massive drive to eradicate coca plantations in the Apurímac-Ene-Mantaro valley (Vraem) despite warnings that it could run into resistance, not only from the remnants of the Sendero Luminoso (SL) guerrillas, but also from coca growers who have a long history of fighting successfully against interlopers.... Read More

Peruvians see insecurity as their biggest problem, and are not convinced that the government of President Ollanta Humala is capable of solving it.... Read More

BOLIVIA | Traffickers moving south? According to an account distributed by the official news agency ABI, on 6 March, Felipe Cáceres, deputy minister for social defence & controlled substances (meaning the antidrugs effort) announced, ‘There are already few [drug traffickers] who are operating in the northern zone: they have moved to the south of the country.’ He said that as a result of the destruction of clandestine drug-processing labs in the eastern department of Santa Cruz ‘all the drug traffickers had moved to the north of La Paz.’... Read More

With accusations about collusion with organised crime flying in both directions, a split has taken place within the autodefensas of Tierra Caliente, which has led to the arrest of the movement’s leader, Hipólito Mora, on a charge of complicity in a double murder.... Read More

MEXICO | Boss of Templarios is killed.... Read More

On 30 March Rio de Janeiro witnessed a combined-force occupation of a favela complex comparable to those carried out in 2010 (Complexo do Alemão and Vila Cruzeiro) and 2011 (Rocinha).... Read More

BRAZIL | Boosting air defence.... Read More

The number of homicides in Costa Rica last year was 407, the same as the previous year, but as a result of population growth its rate per 100,000 inhabitants fell to 8.6 — the fourth consecutive year of decline since it crept above the ‘epidemic’ threshold in 2010.... Read More

The good news is that over the past two years Haiti has achieved a drastic reduction in its epidemic-proportion rate of a kidnapping for ransom per day.... Read More

This month Honduras was scheduled to take delivery of three radars purchased from Israel, which will become the basic source of intelligence on unauthorised flights liable to be intercepted by the air force under the ‘shoot-down’ law that came into effect on 3 February.... Read More

NORTHERN TRIANGLE | US security agenda ‘stagnant’.... Read More