US Army South Hosts Tradewinds 2024 Scenario Development Conference
Planners from across the region concluded the Tradewinds 2024 (TW24) Scenario Development Conference (SDC) held in San Antonio. Texas, December 5-7. The three-day planning conference included military planners from Barbados, Canada, and the United States, and interagency partners from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), [ … ]
Russia Hits Latin America with Anti-Ukraine Fake News
The Russian government is financing with considerable resources an ongoing disinformation campaign in Latin America aimed at weakening support for Ukraine and propagating anti-U.S. and anti-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sentiment, the U.S. State Department said on November 7. The Kremlin campaign seeks to leverage contacts established with media in [ … ]
Inter-American Defense Board Addresses Cybersecurity
In early November, government representatives, cybersecurity experts and military personnel from the armed forces of the countries that make up the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) took part in the Hemispheric Cyber Defense Conference 2023. The event was held in Washington, D.C. Under the theme Strengthening Cyber Shields: Toward Hemispheric Cooperation [ … ]
Drought and Crime Exacerbate Degradation of the Amazon
The Amazon region is going through its worst drought in more than a century. In Brazil, the Rio Negro, one of the region’s great rivers, has reached a depth of 12.89 meters, the lowest mark since measurements began in 1902. The Amazon rivers and tributaries, through which food, medicine, and [ … ]
China’s Advance in Chile
Introduction In October 2023, Chilean President Gabriel Boric traveled to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to participate in a forum commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, and for bilateral meetings with Xi Jinping and senior members of his government. President Boric was accompanied by a [ … ]
Maduro Earns Worldwide Criticism over the Essequibo
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro has embarked on an aggressive campaign to annex some 160,000 square kilometers of territory belonging to Guyana, following the December 3 consultative referendum. The referendum sought to gauge the opinions of voters on five issues relating to a long-standing dispute between Venezuela and its eastern border neighbor. [ … ]
Ortega-Murillo Regime Offers Energy Megaprojects to China
State-owned company China Huadian Overseas Investment will build the Tumarín and Mojolka power projects in Nicaragua. The Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regime announced the agreement in mid-October, state media El 19 Digital reported. “Nicaragua seeks to carry out infrastructure projects, but their authenticity and viability are being questioned,” Ricardo Abello, professor [ … ]
Arkansas Air Guard Medics Provide Free Medical Care in Guatemala
Thirty-six Arkansas National Guardsmen from the 188th Wing at Ebbing Air National Guard base in Fort Smith and the 189th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville departed early December for a seven-day mission providing free medical care in Guatemala City. “We are delighted to contribute to [ … ]
Amazon: Brazilian Criminal Groups and FARC Dissidents Join Forces for Cocaine Trafficking
Criminal organizations are joining forces in the Amazon and using the jungle as a route for international cocaine trafficking. Documents from the Colombian Army, obtained by the investigative journalism consortium Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), indicate that dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have sent [ … ]
Nicaragua Increases Gold Export of Dubious Origin
Nicaragua has become the largest exporter of gold in Central America, although its sales abroad do not match the amount extracted from its mines. The discrepancy suggests, according to some experts, that the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regime is triangulating the sale of the mineral from other countries. “There is a [ … ]
The Risks of China-Made High-Impact Infrastructure in Colombia PART II
Colombia, unlike other Latin American countries, was until recently almost immune to China’s penetration. However, this has changed significantly in recent years. According to data from the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, in 2022 direct investment from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) tripled in the Andean country. The [ … ]
UN Reports 3,960 Gang Deaths in Haiti in 2023
A November 26 United Nations (U.N.) report denounces that the violence that gangs unleashed in Haiti has left more than 3,000 people dead and thousands of others injured and victims of kidnapping. The report calls for speeding up the sending of a multinational force to the island. "The situation in [ … ]