Lesser Antilles Medical Assistance Team 24: Second Year US Partnership with St. Lucia
The U.S. Air Force Lesser Antilles Medical Assistance Team (LAMAT) deployed ready-medics, for the second year, to work alongside St. Lucia’s health teams to achieve mutual benefits and build trust in the region, February 26-March 10. The team consists of 17 active duty and reserve airmen who are participating in [ … ]
Maduro Threatens NGOs in Venezuela
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is keeping up its assault on civil society, this time focusing its attacks on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and threatening to put an end to nonprofit organizations, which continuously question the actions of the regime. In mid-January, the Venezuelan National Assembly, with a pro-regime majority, approved the Law [ … ]
US Government Donates Aircraft to Dominican Republic to Combat Narcotrafficking
The U.S. government, through the Department of Defense, donated an aircraft valued at more than $8 million to the Dominican Republic Ministry of Defense, in support of the shared fight against illicit narcotics trafficking by transnational criminal organizations and in support of the country’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in [ … ]
Argentina Inaugurates Terrorism and Organized Crime Center
The Argentine government has a new Criminal Intelligence Analysis Center to support operations against narcotrafficking organizations and groups linked to terrorism. The center, in Puerto Iguazú, in the Tri-Border area shared by Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, was inaugurated on January 15, La Nación reported. “This initiative, beyond combating organized crime, [ … ]
US Donates Firefighting Equipment to Chilean Firefighters
In early February, U.S. Ambassador to Chile Bernadette Meehan delivered a second batch of assistance consisting of electric generators, firefighter boots, forestry gloves, and slaves, at a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Quilpué Fire Department in the central region of Valparaíso, Chile. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s [ … ]
Is China Cornering the Green Energy Transition in Latin America?
A key element of China’s economic advance over the past four decades has been the government’s promotion of its companies’ acquisition of capabilities and market share in sectors seen as strategically important to the country. In recent years, that emphasis has increasingly focused on digital technologies and green energy. The [ … ]
SOUTHCOM Begins Medical Assistance Mission in Suriname
The Lesser Antilles Medical Assistance Team (LAMAT_ mission is underway for a second year of health engagements across four nations, beginning in Suriname, February 19. Forty-two U.S. Air Force (USAF) active duty and reserve personnel worked alongside Surinamese military and civilian medical counterparts over the next two weeks to assist [ … ]
Ecuador: Organized Crime Increasingly Turns to Illegal Gold Mining
Drug trafficking groups operating in Ecuador have been extending their tentacles toward illegal gold mining, which allows them to finance themselves and launder assets. Los Lobos, linked to Mexican Jalisco New Generation Cartel, is among those criminal groups, which in alliance with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, funds itself by controlling [ … ]
South Carolina National Guard Comes to Aid of Partner Colombia
The South Carolina National Guard assisted Colombia, its State Partnership Program (SPP) partner, in dealing with dozens of wildfires. To help emergency responders battle as many as 30 active fires in and around Bogotá in late January, the South Carolina National Guard loaned Colombia multiple helicopter buckets. “We are sorry [ … ]
China Shifts Latin America and Caribbean Strategy
China’s investments in Latin America and the Caribbean have shifted to what Beijing dubbed “new infrastructure,” which includes critical sectors such as telecommunications, financial technology, and energy transition, U.S. think tank The Inter-American Dialogue indicated in a new report. According to the report, China’s direct foreign investments in the region [ … ]