HAITI | Capital’s murder rate peaks. The murder rate in Port-au-Prince has risen to the highest level since 2006. This is one of the findings of the latest set of surveys conducted by Athena Kolba and Marie Puccio of Michigan University with Robert Muggah of Brazil’s Instituto Igarapé. Their findings are based on monthly surveys carried out between August 2011 and July 2012 in the capital and other major cities (Cap Haïtien, Les Cayes, Gonaïves, Jacmel). Port-au-Prince, which used to boast lower murder rates than other capitals in the Caribbean, had a rate of less than 10 per 100,000 inhabitants…

Those who trawl through left-leaning online news sites and blogs will have noticed the emergence of a new wave of stories about secret US bases across Latin America and hidden agendas behind the ‘small footprint’ US military cooperation activities in the region. One item has been absent: the very overt involvement of the US military in a joint operation with the Guatemalan armed forces, inside Guatemala, against drug traffickers. It was left to the Guatemalan authorities to announce that 171 US Marines would be deployed next to Guatemala’s three armed services in a joint operation against drug traffickers acting along…