Gabriel Silva just concluded his first official visit to Washington as the Colombian Minister of Defense, after assuming the post in August of this year. Defense Minister Silva replaced Juan Manuel Santos, who resigned in order to run for president in the 2010 elections if President Uribe does not run for reelection. During his two days in Washington, Silva met with various high ranking Obama administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, National Security Advisor James Jones, Deputy...
This post is written by WOLA Intern Ursela Groat The SALITRE II Chilean air force-led joint military exercises began their fifth year this week at the Cerro Moreno Air Base in Chile. Members of the Argentinean, Brazilian, French and United States air forces will also participate in the exercises. From October 17 - November 2, the coalition forces will plan and execute operations that simulate a situation where "an international coalition, under...
Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists' Arms Sales Monitoring Program, we now have data about weapons and equipment that the U.S. government sold to the rest of the world through the Foreign Military Sales program in 2008. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) is one of two programs through which military equipment is sold from the United...
Negotiations in Honduras have reached another standstill, as the 6th point of the San José Accord - Zelaya's return to the presidency - remains the major sticking factor. On Monday evening, both ousted President Manuel Zelaya and de facto President Roberto Micheletti said they are open to new proposals and that negotiations have not failed, yet they both have repeatedly rejected any proposal offered by the other side. Last week, Zelaya set a deadline for negotiations to end on October 15th, or risk a delay in the planned November 29th elections. October 15th passed with no agreement. Since...
On this blog, we have covered the high drug-related murder rate in Mexico multiple times, yet a much smaller Central American country is currently faced with a higher murder rate than Mexico, with no slowing in sight. In the first eleven days of October, El Salvador, with a population of 7 million, counted...