Get the latest security and defense stories from across the Americas.
Commercial ports across Latin America and the Caribbean have become one of the primary battlegrounds in the fight against transnational organized crime. In Ecuador, one of the clearest examples is Puerto Bolívar, a strategic hub for banana exports that has also emerged as one of the main departure points for cocaine shipments bound for Europe. To regain control, the Ecuadorian…
In recent years, the geography of Brazilian drug trafficking has undergone a profound transformation, reshaping the map of organized crime across Latin America. While Paraguay served for decades as the principal operational rear base for the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV), the center of gravity of their operations is increasingly shifting toward Bolivia. According to investigators,…
The rapid expansion of illegal gold mining in Peru’s Amazon and border regions is reshaping criminal dynamics across the country as traditional coca-producing networks in the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers Valley (VRAEM) and elsewhere increasingly invest capital and manpower in illicit mining operations. High global gold prices, the ease with which illicit gold can be laundered into legal markets,…
Chile is strengthening a growing network of regional and international partnerships as it confronts the expanding challenge of transnational organized crime. Through cooperation agreements with the United States, joint mechanisms with Argentina and Bolivia, and broader coordination initiatives with neighboring countries, Santiago is enhancing the intelligence, investigative, and operational capabilities needed to address criminal organizations that operate across borders. The…
Criminal organizations are increasingly adapting commercial drones across Latin America to bypass security measures, monitor law-enforcement activity, transport illicit materials, and support criminal operations from prisons and remote territories. Their growing accessibility and versatility present an evolving challenge for security, defense, and law enforcement agencies throughout the region. The threat in Ecuador’s prisons In late April, Ecuador’s Interior Minister John…
In the early hours of March 13, 2026, a small team of counternarcotics agents entered a residence in the Las Palmas neighborhood of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. The operation, the result of weeks of coordination and intelligence sharing between Bolivian authorities and international partners, had been prepared under strict information compartmentalization. Only a limited number of officials knew…
U.S. Marine Corps General Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), met with President Daniel Noboa and senior Ecuadorian defense officials on March 2 in Quito, Ecuador, to discuss security cooperation and reaffirm the United States’ strong commitment to supporting the nation’s efforts to confront narco-terrorism and strengthen regional security. The March 1-2 trip to Ecuador was Gen.…
Panama and Costa Rica are deepening their border cooperation through enhanced surveillance, coordinated patrols, and intelligence sharing as transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) continue to adapt their operations along one of Central America’s most important land corridors. That effort took another step forward in April, when officials from both countries met in the Paso Canoas border area to discuss measures aimed…
Over the past several decades, security in Latin America and the Caribbean has seen both progress and setbacks in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats. While some countries have made significant progress in reducing violence, others continue to face the expansion of illicit economies and transnational criminal organizations. In an exclusive interview with Diálogo, former Minister of Defense of Colombia…
In a powerful display of international cooperation, the United States, Guatemala, and Mexico recently joined forces to execute interdiction operations as part of Operation Neptuno, a targeted effort against maritime smuggling routes in the Eastern Pacific. The operation sends a clear message to narcotrafficking networks: The international community is united and relentless in its efforts to dismantle illicit operations. Coordinated…
Colombia’s department of Cauca remains one of the country’s most challenging security environments, where guerrilla factions born from the remnants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) continue to exploit coca-producing areas, strategic trafficking corridors, and difficult terrain despite sustained government security operations. The department sits at a critical nexus of drug trafficking routes, connecting Colombia’s interior with departure…
For years, the public image of Jamaica’s fraud problem has been dominated by one phrase: lottery scamming. But according to the Director General of Jamaica’s Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA), Colonel (R.) Desmond Edwards, that characterization no longer reflects the scale, sophistication, or operational realities of the threat facing Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. “What we are confronting…
