Latin America Security By The Numbers Update
This post was compiled by WOLA Intern Alejandro Urruti Heath.
Journalism remains a dangerous profession in Colombia, where the Colombian Federation of Journalists (Fecolper) recorded 146 cases of aggression against reporters last year, more than in 2013. These cases include incidents of assassination, kidnapping, threats, destruction of equipment, illegal wiretapping, and other forms of harassment. Of the victims, 34.2 percent reported assault by strangers; Felcoper asks the government to do more to assure the protection of those who work in the field.
Over a four-day period last week, U.S. Border Patrol seized 4,700 lbs. of cannabis along the border with Mexico. Authorities have approximated this quantity would sell for US$3.8 million on the black market. Nevertheless, marijuana crossing the border has plummeted dramatically since the decriminalization and legalization of the plant in parts of the United States, with border seizures experiencing a 24 percent reduction since 2011.
More than 5 thousand protesters, led by relatives of 43 students disappeared in September by local police in Guerrero, Mexico took to the streets last week in Chilpancingo, the capital. During this march, protesters blocked a major highway with a rallying cry for systemic change. 
Argentina is in the process of acquiring five corvette warships from China that have been troublingly (at least for the British) named the “Malvinas Class” after Argentina’s territorial claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands. In 1982, Argentina fought and lost a devastating war with the United Kingdom over these islands. China, is sympathetic to President Fernández de Kirchner’s government and is currently negotiating further investments in the nation’s military output. Neighboring Brazil has expressed concerns about some of the defense accords Argentina signed with China last week.
Poverty is reported to be on the rise in Venezuela, growing from 45 percent of households below the poverty line before Hugo Chávez’s 1998 election to 48.5 percent of households in 2014. These numbers were calculated by researchers at three Venezuelan universities: Andrés Bello Catholic University, Central University of Venezuela, and Simón Bolívar University. The researchers state that unlike Venezuelan government’s most recent study, they followed the same methodology that researchers did in 1998 and have a lower margin of error.
Arms confiscated during the month of January in Rio de Janeiro were up 100% compared to January 2014. The police seized 41 rifles, 253 pistols, 69 grenades, and other explosives. Though many of these weapons crossed the border illegally, the police have stated that they have reason to believe that the majority was originally fabricated within Brazil.
The government of Colombia seized 16 Russian RPG-7V grenade launchers, 20 explosive charges, and 470 40mm grenades whose destination authorities report to be the FARC’s 29th Front in Nariño, near the Ecuador border.
Extortion for “protection” payments is a booming business in Colombia where, for example, small businesses in cities like Medellín are forced to pay US$60 to US$100 a week to avoid being attacked. Extortion in Colombia today amounts to a US$1 billion-a-year industry.
President Barack Obama requested that US $288 million of the proposed 2016 foreign assistance budget go to Colombia to counter narco-trafficking and encourage development. This represents a decrease in funding for both military and anti-trafficking funds. The President has also asked to funds to Mexico from US$148 million to US$80 million. Central America, meanwhile, would see a tripling of assistance: the Obama administration is asking Congress for US$1 billion in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras next year.
The Defense Ministry (Ministerio de la Defensa Nacional) of Guatemala has received 3 radar systems to monitor airspace and has just authorized the signing of a loan with Banco Santander SA of Spain for up to €11.9 million to be used for the purchase of 2 aircraft, 3 more radar systems, and aircraft like the Super Tucano. The purpose of most of these purchases is purportedly to increase Guatemala’s ability to intercept suspected smuggling aircraft.
Currently, opiates that have entered from Mexico make up about 50% of the U.S. heroin market (up from 14% in 2008). Mexican heroin, which often contains dangerous synthetic additives like the opiate fentanyl, has been linked to a doubling of U.S. heroin overdose deaths, from 1,779 to 3,665, between 2011 and 2013.
The military of Nicaragua found and destroyed 11,768 cannabis plants that were cultivated by local narcotrafficker Francisco Teodoro Reyes (alias “Cinco Pinos”).
The 32nd round of negotiations between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) began in Havana, Cuba on February 2.
A study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean shows that poverty affects some 167 million people in Latin America (28% of the total population), while extreme poverty affects approximately 71 million (43% of the aforementioned persons). Changes in inequality of income, gender inequality, and the changes in poverty within individual nations can be examined in the Commission’s Social Panorama of Latin America 2014.
Officials in Peru calculated that approximately 300,000 illegal arms imported via Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay are currently in circulation within its borders. In 2013, Peru confiscated 1,970. Black market prices are remarkably low: a 9mm. pistol at a licensed store in Peru costs between US$500 and US$1,200, while that same firearm on the black market averages between US$50 and US$120.
In Guatemala, former Chief of Police Pedro García Arredondo was found guilty of the murder of 37 people in the burning of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City, which had been occupied by peasant protesters, in 1980. Mr. García received a fine of US$9.23 million (72 million quetzals) and was sentenced to 90 years in prison for his part in the tragedy.
The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances has received 12 submissions from 26 human rights organizations that look to hold Mexico accountable for the disappearance of at least 23,000 people. More than 100,000 people in the nation have been killed since anti-cartel military and police operations intensified in 2006, but it was the enforced disappearance of 43 students last September that brought greater international attention to the nation’s systemic issues of corruption and police brutality.
The Prosecutor-General of Colombia has determined that the state has found and identified the remains of 3,076 of at least 22,000 disappeared persons. In a statement, Eduardo Montealegre said that he hopes to find 400 more in the year to come.
Although undocumented immigration from Mexico into the United States has dropped 80 percent from 2000 to 2013, the number of migrants dying of dehydration or exposure on the U.S. side of the border has remained constant, averaging 394 a year. This average spiked in 2013 to 445 documented deaths, only to fall to 307 in 2014. Improved search-and-rescue efforts could be a reason.
Over the last 14 years, Brazil has seen a 205 percent increase in female military members, from 7,804 in 2001 to 23,787 in 2015. This comes as a shock to many who see the Brazilian armed forces as strongly chauvinistic, but nevertheless speaks to changing perceptions of gender within this South American giant.