Security & Strategic Review - July 2026

Since 5 June Brazil’s two most powerful criminal groups, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV), have been included on the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs).... Read More

The far-right populist Abelardo de la Espriella scraped a narrow victory over left-wing continuity candidate Iván Cepeda in Colombia’s 21 June presidential run-off, setting the stage for a sharp U-turn on many of the policies of outgoing President Gustavo Petro.... Read More

A US air strike which took out the leader of the transnational organised crime group Tren de Aragua in Venezuela on 12 June is unlikely to have dealt a fatal blow to the group, which President Donald Trump’s administration designated as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) in February 2025.... Read More

One glaring problem following the mining reform that was promulgated by President Delcy Rodríguez on 16 April is the fact that much of Venezuela’s mineral wealth is in areas under the sway of illegal armed groups.... Read More

According to data from environmental monitoring platform MapBiomas, deforestation in Brazil has been decreasing every year since the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office at the start of 2023.... Read More

Chile’s minister for public security, Martín Arrau, presented a plan in early June that contained dozens of proposed measures and bills aimed at preventing crime and combatting criminal organisations.... Read More

On 29 May the Mexican senate approved a constitutional reform that allows the annulment of elections in the case of foreign interference or meddling.... Read More

On 21 June the governor of Mexico’s Chihuahua state, María Eugenia ‘Maru’ Campos, denounced an “international crisis of confidence” in Mexico which she said was exposing the country to “international intervention on our territory”.... Read More

On the eve of World Environment Day on 5 June, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Mexico warned that the country is falling dangerously short of its environmental commitments.... Read More

On 8 June international press lobbies including US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) hailed the decision under Guatemala’s new attorney general, Gabriel Estuardo García Luna, to drop all cases against journalists from shuttered investigative outlet elPeriódico.... Read More

A deadly riot which took place on 1 June in La Joyita prison outside Panama City, from which 195 prisoners escaped, and which left three dead, is fanning concerns over the country’s security situation.... Read More

The resumption of operations of the massive Fénix nickel project, which is owned by Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), a subsidiary of Switzerland-based mining company Solway Investment Group, has drawn concerns from indigenous groups – a key plank of the support base of President Bernardo Arévalo’s left-of-centre government which, since taking office in January 2024, has moved to halt other unpopular mining projects such as the Cerro Blanco gold mining operation [EB-24-05].... Read More

A Nicaraguan delegation headed up by Laureano Ortega Murillo, a son of authoritarian co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo and a presidential adviser on investment, paid a recent visit to Russia where various bilateral cooperation agreements were signed.... Read More

On 16 June, United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres paid a visit to Haiti.... Read More

For months the Cuban government has been involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations with the US administration led by President Donald Trump over political and economic reform, up to and including the possibility of ‘regime change’.... Read More

On 12 June, with the economy in free fall, the Cuban government announced a package of 176 sweeping economic reforms, described as the most significant set of changes since the 1959 revolution.... Read More