Security & Strategic Review - November 2019

In October, Peru hosted the First High Level Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade in the Americas, the first such event focused on wildlife trafficking in the region.... Read More

In a press conference on 20 September, Venezuela’s communications minister Jorge Rodríguez announced that the Venezuelan armed forces had detained a member of the Colombian paramilitary group known as Los Rastrojos.... Read More

Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno’s active pursuit of closer ties with the US is yielding results as the two countries move away from mutual suspicion toward a more amicable relationship.... Read More

On 16 May 2019 Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno issued a decree announcing a 30-day state of exception in the country’s prisons which was then renewed on 15 July for an additional 30 days.... Read More

In late August, Brazil’s justice & public security minister Sérgio Moro launched a pilot plan in five cities across the country, aimed at fighting violent crime through the integration of different public security forces and the implementation of new structures adapted to local realities.... Read More

Chile has been badly affected by drought in recent years, but the past months have been particularly bad.... Read More

Following the escape to Finland of three Paraguayan nationals wanted in Paraguay on kidnapping charges, the Paraguayan government has complained that the fugitives were allowed to exploit the international asylum system by various countries and even the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR).... Read More

Three major security incidents shook Mexico over four days in October.... Read More

Although a range of different proposals were on the table, as this issue went to press it looked as if Mexico’s congress would approve the full legalisation of marijuana before the end of October.... Read More

Corruption is the main factor in the prevalence of people smuggling in Mexico.... Read More

The mandate of the United Nations (UN)-backed anti-impunity commission in Guatemala (Cicig) ended on 3 September 2019 after 12 years in the country.... Read More

In December 2017, Belize upset the United States by supporting a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning the US’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.... Read More

The Global Americans think tank has just published a report on ‘The Caribbean’s Extreme Vulnerability to Climate Change’ in which it argues that member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) could be heading for “perpetual economic recession”.... Read More