Latin America Security By the Numbers Share This /

Latin America Security By the Numbers

This post was compiled by WOLA intern Elizabeth Lincoln.

• On September 8, an explosion in the Santiago, Chile subway injured 14 people. While there have been about 200 subway bombings in the past decade, this instance was markedly more dangerous and shocking to Santiago residents. The perpetrators have yet to be found. The government of President Michelle Bachelet declared its intention to find and try the perpetrators using anti-terrorism laws passed during the 1973-1990 Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.
• On September 9, the U.S. Department of State approved a possible sale to Brazil of helicopters valued at $145 million. The Foreign Military Sale would include “3 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters with 8 T-700-GE-701C engines (6 installed and 2 spares), 12 M-134 7.62mm Machine Guns, 8 H765GU Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation Systems, spare and repair parts, tools and support equipment.” According to the State Department’s congressional notification, the equipment would be used for general security, specifically search and rescue missions. 
• Satellite imagery shows that 2,275 square miles of Amazon basin rain forest has been lost since August 2012, a 29% annual increase in deforestation in Brazil. While the speed of destruction has slowed in recent years, the Amazon has continued shrinking. Activism on this front may become a top priority with the next administration, however, if polls favoring candidate Marina Silva in the October presidential election turn out to be correct. Silva first rose to prominence as an environmental activist opposing Amazon deforestation.
• Costa Rica detained 27 undocumented Nepalese immigrants in an operation against human smuggling. Police report that the migrants were likely using Costa Rica as an avenue to travel north, ultimately to the United States.
• In Ayacucho, where the remains of the Los Cabitos base serve as a reminder of the violence and detention centers in Peru in the 1980s, Peruvian forensic investigators displayed the clothing of 53 victims.
• At an official estimate of 63.4%, Venezuela now has the highest inflation rate in the region. Price controls have incentivized smuggling of products into Colombia, which is now the destination of an estimated 40% of Venezuelan basic goods.
• Despite the demobilization of paramilitaries and ongoing peace negotiations, 10% of Colombian municipalities continue to be at risk for human rights violations, according to the government ombudsman’s office.
• Organized crime groups remain strong in Colombia. Police intelligence estimated that “criminal bands,” most of them direct descendants of the now-demobilized United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group, have a combined total of 3,410 armed members, operating in 130 of the country’s 1,100 municipalities. They engage mainly in drug trafficking, and illegal mineral extraction, and extortion of economic activity.
• U.S. Coast Guard vessels off-loaded approximately 2,800 kilograms of cocaine in Miami Beach, Florida on August 4. The vessels carrying the drugs were interdicted on August 23 and 28 north of the Gulf of Urabá, in northeastern Colombia, and off the coast of Panama.