International Relations

Ecuador has been experiencing increased violence, including car bombs and prison riots, which have resulted in nearly 400 death in little more than a year, France 24 reported on May 25.

The governments of the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama signed June 6 a Memorandum of Understanding in support of the Eastern Pacific Tropical Marine Corridor.

Landmines have killed 2,341 people in Colombia and injured 11,581 since 1990, according to the Colombian government. The nearly 60 years of internal conflict between the Colombian Military Forces, leftist groups, right-wing paramilitaries, and drug cartels has turned Colombia into one of the world’s most-mined countries, according to the United Nations. This made the country an international reference when it comes to landmine removal. That’s why, according to Colombia’s Minister of Defense Diego Molano, a team of Colombian soldiers will travel to Europe to train their Ukrainian counterparts on demining techniques.

Colombian President Iván Duque, U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary James Walsh, and U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Philip Goldberg reaffirmed the comprehensive holistic U.S.-Colombia counternarctics strategy, the Colombian government announced April 26.

U.S. General Laura J. Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), visited Argentina and Chile, April 25-29, and met with leaders of both nations to discuss security and defense cooperation.

Gender integration in the armed and security forces in the fields of education, recruitment, and development was among the topics of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Seminar, organized by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) and the Chilean Joint Peacekeeping Operations Center (CECOPAC) in Santiago, Chile, April 27-29.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint NASA-German Aerospace Center (DLR) project, completed an observation mission in Chile April 1, where it captured high-resolution celestial images only visible from the Southern Hemisphere.