Latin American Arms Transfers and Arms Trafficking Update Share This /

 

Brazil

•Sweden’s Saab AB has signed a US$245 million deal with Brazil to supply arms for the 36 Gripen NG fighter jets, purchased for US$5.4 billion in October. Brazil had originally planned to purchase the U.S.-made FA-18 fighter, but canceled the deal after revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on President Dilma Rousseff.

•Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has announced that it is finishing a technology transfer of its Heron drone to Brazil, in which the plane has been redesigned to fit the needs of state owned military factories.

•According to O Globo, Brazil’s government is concerned about 15 bilateral agreements, including for defense and space cooperation, recently signed between Argentina and China. 

 

Colombia

•Six sergeants and one soldier of the Armed Forces of Colombia were arrested for taking part in an organization that trafficked arms, munitions, and explosives to the 6^th and 10^th fronts of the FARC, as well as to criminal syndicates across the nation.    

•The National Defense Ministry of Colombia has announced plans to acquire new frigates designed by COTECMAR, the Colombian state’s industrial shipbuilder. The ships are currently scheduled to be put into action between 2025 and 2035.

•Spain has just extradited Sohail Kaskar to the United States for trial after several years in a Spanish prison for the crime of being involved in trading surface-to-air missiles for cocaine with the FARC in Colombia. This news comes after three arms traffickers were detained in New York for offering to sell pistols and rocket launchers to officers posing as members of the FARC.

•The Chinese captain of a ship charted to deliver goods to Cuba was detained in Colombia for allegedly carrying unauthorized arms and other military equipment. Held in Cartagena, the ship is reported to be carrying 100 tons of gunpowder, approximately 3 million detonators, and about 3,000 cannon shells, none of which appeared on its manifest. 

 

Cuba

•In April, Russia began negotiations with Cuba for the sale of armaments, warships, as well as the installation of a navigation system connected to GLONASS (Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System, a GPS alternative under development). This, when paired with the news that Russia recently forgave 90 percent of Cuba’s US$32.5 billion debt, illustrates Russia’s interest in deepening relations with the island nation.   

 

Ecuador

•In Ecuador, officials seized 16 grenades and 29,000 munitions allegedly destined to the 29^th Front of the FARC in Colombia.

 

 

Mexico

•Organized crime groups in like los Zetas have been fabricating their own armored vehicles to combat police forces and rival gangs in Mexico, Time reports.  

•President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico announced his intention to renovate the nation’s air defense systems in order to improve the air force’s training, rescue, intelligence, vigilance, and transportation capabilities. His goal is to increase employment in the aerospace sector from 45,000 to 110,000 by 2020. 

•Press reports claim that Mexico’s arms purchases from the United States over the past year were 100 times larger than ever before. This increase is a result of a move away from direct, commercial arms transfers toward acquisition predominantly through the Pentagon’s Foreign Military Sales program (FMS), amounting to more than US$2.5 billion since 2008, $1.15 billion of it in 2014. Last year’s purchases included, 3 Blackhawk helicopters, 15 Bell 407GX helicopters, and 2,200 Humvees.

•According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), of the 15,397 firearms seized in Mexico by state authorities and then submitted to the Bureau for tracking in 2014, 71.9 percent were acquired in the U.S. 

 

Paraguay

•Senator Roberto Acevedo of Paraguay announced that the EPP guerilla group has been able to acquire illicit arms with ease in cities that straddle borders with Brazil and Bolivia. The Senator blames the influx of cocaine and arms from its neighbors across the border on a lack of strong, domestic security paired with high levels of corruption among the nation’s officials. 

 

Peru

•In April, Peru received 7 more Mi-171Sh-P helicopters from Russia’s Rosoboronexport. This is the result of a contract signed in 2013 for the sale of 24 helicopters that have been manufactured and shipped from Russia to Peru over the past several years. Peru has purchased mostly Russian military aircraft since a left-of-center military regime ruled the country between 1968 and 1975. 

 

Nicaragua

•The United States signed over two speedboats to the naval forces of the Army of Nicaragua. What truly interests President Daniel Ortega, though, is the acquisition of new Russian fighter jets and GLONASS systems. This comes after a recent scandal in which Nicaragua’s military leadership reported that it had been working on a deal with the Russia to obtain MiG-29 fighter planes, which the Russian government denied, while admitting that the two nations are in the process of negotiating a transfer of civilian aircraft. Given that a single MiG-29 costs approximately 43.2 percent of the nation’s military budget, many are celebrating Russia’s denial of this deal. 

•It is reported that the armed forces of Nicaragua possess approximately 1,100 surface-to-air missiles, which analyst Roberto Samcam says is more than enough to neutralize 100 percent of Central America’s air forces.