Security & Strategic Review - January 2023

Like many aspects of his presidency, Pedro Castillo’s attempt at a coup was a calamitous affair.... Read More

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has long been accused of receiving financial benefits from illegal mining in Venezuela’s gold belt – most recently in a damning United Nations report published in September 2022 [SSR-22-11].... Read More

As 2022 drew to a close and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 1 January swearing-in ceremony as the 39th president of Brazil approached, security fears heightened in the capital, Brasília.... Read More

Brazil’s supreme court (STF) has often been accused of ‘judicial activism’ and of making politicised decisions.... Read More

On 6 December 2022, three judges sentenced Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernández to six years in prison and gave her a lifelong ban from public office for defrauding the state in a corruption case known as ‘Vialidad’, relating to the distribution of public works contracts during her time as president (2007-2015).... Read More

President Gabriel Boric of Chile announced on 21 December his government’s intention of opening an embassy in Palestine, where the South American country currently only has a trade office.... Read More

An attempt to lift the controversial US federal order Title 42 was thwarted for the second time on 19 December.... Read More

With 2022 having drawn to a close, Mexico’s central state of Guanajuato once again appears to have registered the highest number of murders of any Mexican state.... Read More

A high-profile femicide case once again brought widespread attention to the issue of gender violence in Mexico in November, leading to increased scrutiny around the way in which such crimes are investigated.... Read More

Despite having pledged to demilitarise citizen security in her 2021 election manifesto, President Xiomara Castro and her leftist Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre) government would instead appear to be following the lead of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in suspending constitutional guarantees and cracking down on gangs.... Read More

In early December, a Guatemalan court sentenced former president Otto Pérez Molina (Partido Patriota, 2012-2015) and his former vice president, Roxana Baldetti, on fraud and conspiracy counts, each receiving a 16-year prison sentence.... Read More

In early December, various human rights groups presented a report titled ‘Expediente ONG Nicaragua’ detailing the impact of the actions by the government led by President Daniel Ortega in shutting down NGOs in Nicaragua, in line with its dismantling of democratic institutions and stifling of dissent.... Read More

The Dominica Labour Party (DLP), which has ruled Dominica since 2000, was returned to power for the sixth consecutive term on 6 December, with a 19-2 majority, in a general election called two years ahead of schedule, the ease of its victory greatly helped by the electoral boycott of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP).... Read More

On 19 December, Holland’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte issued a formal apology to former Dutch colonies in the Caribbean - Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, and Suriname - for his country’s historical association with slavery and the slave trade.... Read More

The issue of race continues to dominate the politics of Guyana, with the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) particularly concerned about the attempts by the opposition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (Apnu+AFC) to draw the US into the debate.... Read More

*** JAMAICA REIMPOSES STATE OF EMERGENCY.... Read More