Chile and Peru have agreed to standardize their defense expenditures. This agreement was reached in a meeting that took place in Lima, Peru, where the Chilean Defense Minister accepted an ad hoc model of standardized and transparent measurement of defense expenditures presented by Peru. Peru based its proposed model on...
A big white teddy bear sat on top of one of the little coffin boxes, and red roses on the other three. The remains of the four sisters were finally being returned to their mother, Blanca Nieves Meneses.
“I never thought that this is the way they would be returned to me,” said their surviving sister Nancy. “I always kept hoping that they would be returned alive.”
At this ceremony in the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bogotá, Colombia, the Attorney General’s office returned the remains of the four young women, the youngest just thirteen, to their family...
On July 15, Colombia’s Defense Ministry abruptly held a press conference to denounce that high-ranking leaders of the FARC guerrilla group are present in neighboring Venezuela. This announcement, coming just over three weeks before the end of Colombian President Álvaro...
A recent article in the Boston Globe argues that Mexico is a case of creeping military rule, abetted by the United States. Adam explores that concern, as well as recent efforts to limit the Mexican armed forces' power.
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This morning I was pleased to have an opportunity to testify before the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The occasion was a 3-panel hearing entitled, "International Counternarcotics Policies: Do They Reduce Domestic Consumption or Advance Other Foreign Policy Goals?" My testimony (PDF) focused on the frustrating experience of cocaine supply reduction efforts in Colombia and Mexico. From that experience, I draw the...
The Honduran military today have a great amount of power and a growing role in the public sphere, a direct consequence of the June 28, 2009 coup. This is an alarming development, especially considering Honduras’ history of military coups and targeted atrocities committed by the armed forces, especially during the 1980s. According to Leticia Salomón, an expert in military affairs, Honduras now has "highly politicized security forces, and in the case of the military, the leadership has become a decision-making body, which is...