Get the latest security and defense stories from across the Americas.
Transnational Crime The General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) passed a resolution October 21 declaring that the illegitimate Maduro regime’s December 6 elections in Venezuela will be fraudulent. “We all know there is more work to do to uphold our hemisphere as a hemisphere of freedom,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during his virtual remarks to the…
Transnational Crime The Dominican Republic’s security forces stepped up their operations to disrupt transnational criminal organizations. From September 16 to October 17, 2020, authorities seized more than 1.7 tons of cocaine in four operations led by the Dominican National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD, in Spanish), with the support of the Dominican Navy and Army. On October 17, in the Caucedo Multimodal Port,…
Strategic Influence The Russian Federation considers the Latin American (LATAM) region one of the main areas of its ongoing global outreach. Despite a relatively light footprint in terms of manpower and materiel, Russia has managed to maintain and strengthen its military-security relationship with three key states: Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Moscow is also seeking to expand its influence beyond these states by…
Transnational Crime Venezuelans continue protesting the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro, demanding the restoration of basic services and better treatment for teachers. In one week, from the end of September to the beginning of October 2020, 233 protests have swept the country, from rural towns to cities such as Caracas. There were an additional 113 protests across 24 states in Venezuela during…
South America U.S. Army South held an opening ceremony for the first virtual iteration of the semi-annual military-to-military engagement, Senior Noncommissioned Officers (NCOs) Integral Program (PISAJ, in Spanish), on November 9 at the Army South Headquarters. PISAJ is a U.S. Army South-hosted engagement between the U.S. and Colombian armies. This year, senior enlisted service members from Brazil and México were also invited…
Transnational Crime On October 23, 2020, the Nicaraguan National Assembly ruled in favor of a presidential bill declaring as cybercrimes any kind of public expression of ideas against the Daniel Ortega regime published on the internet and social media. With this Special Law on Cybercrimes, the National Police, the Telecommunications Institute, and the Office of the Attorney General will be able to…
Transnational Crime On October 9, the Brazilian Federal Police (PF, in Portuguese) launched an operation to dismantle a money laundering, tax evasion, and gold smuggling scheme from Venezuela to Brazil. “The investigations concluded that the criminal group consisted of a Lebanese citizen and his two brothers, who would coordinate the illegal scheme to purchase gold from Venezuela,” the PF said in a…
Transnational Crime The Colombian Navy seized 3.8 tons of narcotics in its territorial waters and shared information with partner nations to intercept 5 tons of drugs, in five operations carried out in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, September 22-30. Units of the Buenaventura Coast Guard Station reported on September 30 that after several minutes of pursuit they caught up with…
Transnational Crime Peru’s Armed Forces and National Police (PNP, in Spanish) have joined efforts to combat narcotics and terrorism. The focus of the joint operations is the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers Valley (VRAEM, in Spanish), a region where about 70 percent of the local cocaine is produced. On October 14, service members detained two narcotraffickers carrying 400 kilograms of drugs, two…
Transnational Crime In September, the Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD, in Spanish) dismantled four urban clandestine labs that produced so-called “VIP marijuana,” the most expensive variety in the market. This is a new marijuana strain with high levels of THC, the main psychoactive substance in cannabis. “The network produced marijuana strains with THC levels of 20 to 30 percent,” SENAD said in…
Transnational Crime In the last week of September, units of the Colombian Navy’s Pacific Naval Force seized more than 2.6 tons of drugs, including marijuana and cocaine, in three operations carried out in the Valle del Cauca department. The first seizure took place in the Punta Ají area, where units of the Buenaventura Coast Guard Station detected a speedboat that attempted to…
South America The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing $100,000 to support the response of the government of Colombia to assist people affected by Hurricane Iota. On November 16, 2020, the powerful Category 5 storm passed over Colombia’s Providencia, San Andrés, and Santa Catalina islands, where heavy rainfall, flooding, and storm surges caused widespread damage. This…
