Latin America Week in Review- June 20th, 2014 Share This /

This week Vice President Joe Biden kicked off his tour in the Americas, Brazil announced plans to buy modernization kits for its tank fleet from the U.S., and Honduras’ foreign minister asked the U.S. to allow children to stay in the country. Read these stories and other highlights below.

• Last Friday during his latest visit to Washington, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández called for the U.S. government to “let their countries work together” towards combatting narcotrafficking. According to an article published by El Heraldo, Hernández cited the United State’s opposition to the Law of Aerial Exclusion and the recent F-5 repair blockade as a source of “regional imbalance” that detracts from cooperation between the two countries. Hernandez also stressed the country’s inability to move U.S. sourced helicopters into high-risk aerial zones as an added source of frustration in their anti-narcotics efforts.
• During that same visit, President Hernandez also addressed the surge of unaccompanied minors at the U.S./Mexico border. He expressed great concern over the fate of these children, many of who are Honduran, but was adamant that “this is a security problem provoked by drug trafficking from the drugs that are consumed by the U.S.”
• U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Lisa Kubiske, in a press conference held this past Saturday, cited persistent impunity as a major factor detracting from U.S. cooperation with antinarcotics efforts in the country.
• In a news release published by the Honduran Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, Chancellor Mireya Agüero Corrales asked the United States not to send children back to Honduras but rather reunite them with their families in the country.  
• On June 11 the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) told Congress, with the approval of the State Department, that it was set to sell 240 million dollars worth of modernization kits to Brazil for its fleet of M109 and M119 military tanks.
• Vice President Joe Biden met with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday in an attempt to thaw relations between the two countries. According to the New York Times, the two leaders spoke candidly about controversial surveillance operations uncovered last year and exchanged declassified documents on Brazil’s U.S.-backed dictatorship that took power in 1964.
• As part of the second stop of his tour, Vice President Biden held a press conference on Wednesday with the recently re-elected Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The two discussed peace negotiation with the country’s guerilla groups and the role that the United States would play in a post-conflict Colombia. During the conference Vice President Biden stated that, “just as the United States has supported Colombian leaders over the years on the battle field, we will lend full support at the negotiating table.”
• On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department lifted economic sanction on 308 former members of Colombia’s Cali Cartel. Those who benefited from the lift are believed to have ended all activities that originally triggered the sanctions. The Treasury has lifted sanctions on 800 people since 2012.
• Vice President Biden met with Dominican President Danilo Medina on Thursday during the second to last stop of his Americas tour. According to the Washington Post, the two leaders discussed energy security, efforts to fight drug trafficking and organized crime, and citizenship rights.  
• A Mexican federal judge denied Rafael Caro Quintero, a former kingpin hailing from the Guadalajara Cartel, an injunction against his extradition to the United States. If extradited, Caro Quintero would stand trial for his alleged involvement in the 1985 murder of D.E.A. agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.   
• On Tuesday, Mexico’s National Citizen Observatory for Security, Law, and Justice found that a murder was reported every half hour in the country during 2013. The organization’s annual report went on to detail how these types of statistics “have had a significant effect on social dynamics and the economy” in Mexico. 
• This report was followed two days later by an inquiry from the Mexican government revealing that as of 2013, close to 90 percent of its citizens believed the country’s police forces were corrupt. This raises serious concerns about the efficacy of recent reforms as well as possible ties between the police and organized crime groups.
• According to a White House press release, President Obama called Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday to discuss strategies addressing the influx of Central American minors at the U.S./Mexico border. The two leaders made plans to work in cooperation to address the root cause of migration, to return children safely to their families, and to build “Central American capacity to receive returned individuals. 
• Diana Ohlbaum wrote an op-ed for The Hill on Wednesday critiquing President Obama’s plan to equip and train partner countries to launch their own counterterrorism offensives. Ohlbaum highlights the drawbacks of the proposed plan and provides ways the country can improve its current strategy.