In recent years, Russian oil company Rosneft increased its presence in Venezuela. What’s its purpose? Voice of America spoke with several analysts who said that the Russian state-owned company is not driven by gas or oil needs. Rather, its interest consists of “geopolitical reasons” aimed at eventually controlling the Latin [ … ]
In mid-February, Venezuelan militia members participated in a national military exercise with the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB, in Spanish). The event, which included street patrols, simulated armed combat, and even training with portable air-defense systems, debuted the Bolivarian Militia as an official branch of FANB. On February 4, Nicolás [ … ]
In the midst of a violent environment against the independent media in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, journalists are denouncing the interference of these regimes through social media, a tool for resistance, says Guillermo Medrano, coordinator for Human Rights at the Violeta Chamorro Foundation, a Nicaraguan nongovernmental organization (NGO) that advocates [ … ]
In an interview with Voice of America, U.S. Department of State spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said that it was necessary for more countries in the region to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Ortagus added that the Nicolás Maduro regime provides a safe haven to Hezbollah members. Two decades ago, the [ … ]
Brazilian Air Force (FAB, in Portuguese) First Lieutenant Juliana Santos de Souza became the first female flight instructor for the T-27 Tucano, an aircraft used for cadet pilots in their fourth year of basic training at the Air Force Academy (AFA), in Pirassununga, São Paulo. February 3, 2020 marked the [ … ]
On January 8, 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated the facilities of the Secretariat of the National Defense’s Joint Training Center for Peacekeeping Operations (CECOPAM, in Spanish) in Huehuetoca, Mexico. In 2015, the country resumed its participation in United Nations (U.N.) led peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance operations. “For [ … ]
Cuba’s influence has caused a sharp increase in brutal torture methods used on prisoners in Venezuela, according to a recent report by the CASLA Institute, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that promotes human rights and democracy in Latin America. In 2019, Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, [ … ]
In 2019, federal, municipal, and state agencies all over Brazil recorded 23,717 notifications and 12,365 incidents in their networks and systems. The threats included website invasion, fraud, and interference in network and system availability. The Brazilian Government Response Team for Computer Security Incidents, a governmental organization tasked to gather, analyze, [ … ]
Like past years going back more than a decade, Joint Task Force Bravo (JTF-Bravo) welcomed 25 Central American firefighters from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to be trained during an iteration of CENTAM SMOKE — a biannual firefighting exercise — February 3-7 at Soto Cano Air Base, [ … ]
Nicolás Maduro’s corruption and support for violence both inside and outside of Venezuela carries on a year after he subverted the nation’s democracy by assuming an illegitimate second term as president. “Maduro has engaged in activities that have now caused millions of people to have to flee Venezuela,” said U.S. [ … ]
West Virginia Army National Guard (WVARNG) soldiers conducted a second round of light-wheeled vehicle mechanic training with the Peruvian Armed Forces, January 8-17, 2020, in Lima, as a part of the U.S. Department of State’s Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) and the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program (SPP). This [ … ]
The booming bilateral relations between Cuba and Venezuela have raised concerns in the South American country and in the region, due to the influence Havana could exert over Nicolás Maduro, experts say. Hugo Chávez’s rise to power in 1999 meant a qualitative and quantitative leap for Cuban-Venezuelan relations, says expert [ … ]
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