Note: this post does not discuss all U.S. aid to Latin America. There are other sources, though the accounts in the foreign aid request discussed here make up 78% of all U.S. aid to the region, and 87% of all economic aid, since 1996. See the 3 important caveats at the end of this post.
Here is a brief interview with Rocío San Miguel, coordinator of Control Ciudadano (Citizen Control), a Venezuelan non-governmental organization that focuses on defense and security issues. The conversation covers the state of defense relations in the region, and the challenges of civil-military relations in today's Venezuela.
This post was written by Lucila Santos, a Regional Security Policy Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America.
After five years as Argentina’s defense minister, Nilda Garré has been named to a new cabinet post: the Ministry of Security. The government of Cristina Fernández created this ministry after incidents in Buenos Aires’ Indoamericano Park laid bare problems within Argentina’s internal security agencies.
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Six months ago Juan Manuel Santos was inaugurated as president of Colombia. Santos replaced two-term President Álvaro Uribe, who left office only because the country’s Constitutional Court prevented him from running again. Uribe’s eight years of high defense spending and tough security policies greatly reduced the intensity of Colombia’s decades-long conflict. Because of that, he left office quite popular.
Six months later, President Santos also enjoys approval...
A guerrilla hostage release in Colombia. Upcoming battles over the foreign aid budget in Washington. Visits to the region from the Secretary of the Treasury and State's top counter-drug official.
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