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Transnational Crime Four protected areas in the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest (BAAPA, in Spanish), in eastern Paraguay, are threatened by narcotrafficking, marijuana crops, and logging, the environmental journalism platform Mongabay Latam said in its October 14 report Illegal Marijuana Crops Destroy Atlantic Forest. The BAAPA is an ecoregion shared by Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay and is one of the most biologically significant…
Transnational Crime In late October, the Colombian Navy intercepted a semisubmersible with more than 2 tons of cocaine, the Colombian Military Forces’ General Command (CGFM, in Spanish) said in a press release. The operation, which units of the Tumaco Coast Guard Station carried out off the coast of Nariño department, will likely affect the finances of the criminal group United Guerrillas of…
Transnational Crime On July 10, 2020, during a visit to U.S. Southern Command, U.S. President Donald J. Trump emphasized the importance of interagency coordination and international cooperation in the fight against narcotrafficking in the Caribbean and Latin America. Although this problem is not exclusive to the region, Latin America suffers numerous consequences due to narcotrafficking. The main cocaine producing countries are on…
Security & Cooperation After almost a decade-long service with United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon’s (UNIFIL) Maritime Task Force (MTF), assisting Lebanese Navy in securing the country’s vast territorial waters, Brazilian peacekeepers concluded their mission with UNIFIL before returning home December 2, 2020. Also concluding the UNIFIL mission, together with more than 200 Brazilian sailors, was the MTF flagship, frigate BRS Independência after nine months…
Strategic Influence The illegitimate Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela is deepening its relations with Iran, opening the doors to the Islamic Republic’s military activities in the region and putting the security of neighboring countries at risk. The relationship between Iran and Venezuela is a fact, says the report The Maduro-Hezbollah Nexus: How Iran-backed Networks Prop up the Venezuelan Regime, published by the…
Transnational Crime The Brazilian Air Force (FAB, in Portuguese) is strengthening surveillance and monitoring capabilities to control trafficking along the Brazilian border with Paraguay and Bolivia with the installation of new radar stations in the cities of Corumbá, Porto Murtinho, and Ponta Porã, in Mato Grosso do Sul state. Launched on August 18, 2020, the Corumbá Radar Station was the first to…
Transnational Crime In mid-October, through Operation San Jerónimo, the Colombian Navy and the National Police dismantled a narcotrafficking organization that held a monopoly on cocaine transport in La Guajira department on the border with Venezuela, the Navy said in a statement. During several raid operations carried out in the departments of Atlántico, Cundinamarca, César, La Guajira, and Magdalena, security forces captured 10…
Transnational Crime Following the December 6 vote, which saw the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro regime win a majority in the parliamentary election, the European Union (EU) and the Lima Group, along with the United States, declared they would not recognize the results. According to Venezuela’s electoral council, just 31 percent of 20 million eligible voters participated in the election — less than half…
Strategic Influence “Iran may have begun providing military equipment to the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela,” says a November 19 report by the Critical Threats Project, an initiative of the Washington D.C.-based think tank American Enterprise Institute, which tracks and analyzes security threats to the United States and partner nations. The report came on the same day that Maduro announced on state-run…
Transnational Crime On October 22, the Uruguayan National Police, with the support of the Uruguayan Air Force (FAU, in Spanish), dismantled a criminal group engaging in narcotrafficking that planned to smuggle cocaine from Bolivia by air, Uruguay’s Ministry of the Interior said in a statement. Nine people, seven Uruguayans, a Bolivian, and a Brazilian national, were captured under Operation Gallego. Authorities also…
Security & Cooperation More than 500 service members from the Brazilian Air Force (FAB, in Portuguese), Brazilian Army, and Brazilian Navy participated in the Anti-Aircraft Shield Joint Training Operation, October 27-30, to improve defense systems against enemy aircraft. FAB’s Aerospace Operations Command (COMAE, in Portuguese) coordinated the training, monitoring the development of the scenario in real time from Brasília, and sent orders to…
Transnational Crime On December 6, the illegitimate Maduro regime in Venezuela staged a political farce intended to look like legislative elections. Fortunately, few were fooled. The United States, along with numerous other democracies around the world, condemns this charade which failed to meet any minimum standard of credibility. Maduro brazenly rigged these elections in his favor through the illegal seizure of political…
