Security & Strategic Review - December 2021

Heralded by President Iván Duque as Colombia’s “biggest strike against drug trafficking this century” and a moment that “can only be compared to the fall of Pablo Escobar,” the 23 October capture of Dairo Antonio Úsuga David (‘Otoniel’) made headlines worldwide.... Read More

President Nicolás Maduro’s government has been in the crosshairs of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague since 2018, when the court opened a preliminary examination into alleged crimes against humanity.... Read More

Embroiled in an escalating scandal over his alleged interference in military promotions, Peru’s defence minister, Walter Ayala, resigned on 14 November.... Read More

The official Brazilian delegation at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), which took place in Glasgow during the first fortnight of November, was the largest of any country: 479 members.... Read More

Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera declared a state of exception in part of the so-called Southern Macro-Zone on 12 October, allowing the army to go in and support the work of the Carabineros militarised police and civilian Policía de Investigaciones (PDI) in the face of growing violence, supposedly committed by radical indigenous Mapuche groups.... Read More

The Inter American Press Association (Iapa), a press freedom watchdog based in Miami, held its 77th General Assembly from 19-22 October during which it presented the results of the 2021 Chapultepec Index, a measurement of press freedom which is now in its second year, and which the Iapa produces with Venezuela’s Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.... Read More

Mexico still has one of the world’s highest homicide and crime rates.... Read More

On 28 October a joint operation involving the army and national guard (GN) operation in Culiacán, Sinaloa state, broke up a synthetic drug laboratory, arrested five members of a drug trafficking organisation (DTO), and seized 118kg of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, the largest ever bust of its kind in Mexico.... Read More

A dinner in an up-market Mexico City (CDMX) restaurant, and a luxurious wedding celebration in Guatemala, have triggered two separate scandals, both of which may weaken the anti-corruption efforts of the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.... Read More

At the end of October, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report analysing the concentration of power in Nicaragua in the executive branch and undermining of the rule of law under President Daniel Ortega, who was re-elected on 7 November in an election widely slammed as undemocratic (see our sister publication, the Latin American Weekly Report, for further discussion of the election).... Read More

Human rights groups have recently condemned the excessive use of force against indigenous protesters and journalists in Guatemala’s El Estor municipality, Izabal department.... Read More

On 13 October Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo sanctioned a law approved at the end of August by the 71-member unicameral legislature, regulating the use of medicinal cannabis.... Read More

In November a councillor at San Salvador’s municipal office, Héctor Silva, proposed an emergency plan to deal with disappearances in the metropolitan area.... Read More

Grenada’s opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has elected a new leader, Dickon Mitchell, who now has the monumental task of overturning the 15-0 seat majority held, for the second term running, by the ruling New National Party (NNP) led by Prime Minister Keith Mitchell.... Read More

The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), which was the main component in the now-ousted Partnership for National Unity-Alliance for Change (Apnu-AFC) government led by former president David Granger (2015-2020) is looking for a new leader to restore its electoral fortunes.... Read More