Adam talks with George Withers, senior fellow for regional security policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, about the risks of the Obama administration's proposal to deploy up to 1,200 new National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Colombians go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president. The country's media published the final public opinion polls last weekend.
Looking at these polls' results over the past two months reveals a rather dramatic two-man race that is too close to call.
In late March, voter preferences for Sunday's first round were giving a strong advantage to Juan Manuel Santos, outgoing President Álvaro Uribe's former defense minister. In April, however, Santos was rapidly overtaken by a previously marginal candidate, two-time former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus....
The Obama Administration has been working this spring to put its own stamp on security and counternarcotics programs for Latin America. This is starting to come together as four initiatives: the Mérida, Caribbean Basin Security, Central American Regional Security, and Colombian Security Development Initiatives. By covering several different regions of Latin America, the Obama administration believes it will "mitigate any 'balloon effect' - criminal spillover resulting from successful reductions in drug...
As part of "Just the Facts," the Center for International Policy, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund and the Washington Office on Latin America released a new joint publication today. Waiting for Change: Trends in U.S. Security Assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean (PDF in...
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An NPR analysis of Mexican government news releases finds surprisingly little mention of actions against Mexico's largest narcotrafficking |
A Senate hearing on aid to Mexico and Colombia coincides with Mexican President Felipe Calderón's state visit to Washington. The hearing's discussion of the human rights impact of military programs was disappointing at best. The Republican Foreign Relations Committee report mentioned in the podcast is here.
The "Just the Facts" podcast is available here and...