Week in Review Share This /

In the News

• Over 800 protesters have been detained and 90 police officers injured during violent student protests in Santiago, Chile. Chile's Interior Minister warned students that the protests were illegal and would be met with force, but thousands of young protestors marched anyway in both Santiado and Valparaiso. Despite Chile's rapid economic growth, many Chileans feel that their country's development has only benefited a small economic elite. The protestors, most of whom are university students discontent with the quality of their education and saddled with debt, are demanding reform of the country's university system. President Piñera's approval rating has sunk to 26%, the lowest rating for any Chilean president since the end of Pinochet's dictatorship in 1990.
• Brazilian defense minister Nelson Jobim resigned after making public comments that angered President Rousseff. Jobim, a holdover from the Lula administration, is the third member of Rousseff's cabinet to resign since she took office in January.
• Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's chief of staff, Bernardo Moreno, was arrested on Saturday in connection with the DAS wiretapping/domestic spying scandal.
• As evidence mounts pointing to collusion between the Colombian military and the criminal gang "Los Rastojos," the head of Colombia's armed forces promised a thorough investigation, calling the scandal "shameful." Later in the week, police in Antioquía arrested 20 members of "Los Rastrojos," including seven soldiers.
• 9 Mexican polling workers were freed after being kidnapped days earlier in Michoacán. Although organized crime is suspected to be behind the kidnappings, it is still unclear who kidnapped the workers and why.
• Mexican authorities captured key Juárez Cartel leader José Antonio Acosta Hernandez, who is suspected of orchestrating the murder of a U.S. embassy employee and her family last year in Ciudad Juárez.
• In the wake of the deadly riot at El Rodeo prison last month, Venezuela's new prisons minister has proposed releasing nearly half of the country's prisoners. Venezuela's prison system is designed to hold around 13,000 inmates, yet it currently holds more than 50,000 prisoners. However, as Geoffrey Ramsey reports, merely releasing prisoners will not solve any of the prison system's major structural problems.
• Colombian police arrested 90 members of criminal bands or "bacrim" in Cucutá, Norte de Santander. The gang members arrested belonged to either "Los Rastrojos" or "Los Urabeños" gangs, who are battling for dominance of the country's narcotics trafficking corridors.
• The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Earl Anthony Wayne as U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
• Top prosecutors in 21 of Mexico's 31 states and federal district abruptly resigned on Monday. While it was initially unclear whether the prosecutors resigned or whether they were forced to leave, the Attorney General's Office has since acknowledged that 10 of the 21 ex-prosecutors are currently under investigation. Since Marisela Morales became Attorney General in April, she has instigated a massive purge of the department, firing almost 500 officials and initiating criminal proceedings against more than 100.

Recommended Articles

• Elizabeth Dickinson has an in depth article in The Atlantic on organized crime's "war without corpses" in Colombia.
• InSight Crime has released a report titled "Power Brokers in Peten: Territory, Politics, and Business." The report investigates the complex relationship between organized crime, business, and politics in Peten, an underdeveloped state in Guatemala that borders Mexico and Belize. If you don't want to read the full 200-page report, check out Elyssa Pachico's list of the report's ten major findings.
• Also at InSight Crime, Patrick Corcoran reports on the dangerous ramifications of the fracturing of Mexico's large drug trafficking organizations into smaller criminal groups.
• On the Just the Facts Blog, Adam Isacson has a new piece on the public disagreement between Colombia's armed-forces chief and defense minister over FARC guerrilla activity in Venezuela.

U.S. Southern Command Updates

• U.S. Naval War College National Security Affairs (NSA) faculty members attended the Fifth Caribbean Security and Strategy Conference in Jamaica, working alongside Jamaican military leaders to develop strategies to improve regional security.
• As part of SOUTHCOM's Southern Seas 2011, the USS Thach hosted Ecuadorian navy officers for a tour during a brief refueling stop in Manta, Ecuador. Officers from the two navies discussed shared strategies and and exchanged ideas related to security cooperation.
• A school built as part of New Horizons 2011 opened in Suriname. New Horizons 2011 is a cooperative humanitarian initiative between the Suriname government and U.S. Southern Command.
• The USNS Comfort arrived in Costa Rica on the eighth of nine mission stops during Continuing Promise 2011. Continuing Promise 2011 is a five-month humanitarian and civic assistance mission throughout the Americas.
• Undersecretary of the Army Dr. Joseph W. Westphal completed his week-long visit to Central and South America. During his tour of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Colombia, Dr. Westphal met with U.S. diplomatic and military officials as well as military leaders from partner nations.

This blog was written by CIP Intern Claire O'Neill McCleskey