Last week, 2,500 additional troops were deployed to Michoacán, a state in western Mexico, after twenty Federal Police were killed and eighteen wounded by organized crime groups between July 11 and July 15. This deployment brings the total number of troops in Michoacán to 5,500. One week has passed, however an article in Mexico's Proceso argues that the deployment and the "tough talk" by the Minister of the Interior merely served as propaganda, and that "...
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the House version of the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations bill allocates $160 million to help Mexico's police buy U.S.-made "first-responder" radios. Not only does this specific allocation divert from the usual way aid is allocated within the Defense Appropriations Bill every year (it usually must be specifically authorized first), but the amount also equals 35% of the total military and police aid...
This is cross-posted from the Center for International Policy's Colombia-focused website, "Plan Colombia and Beyond." 
This week, the United States is closing down its counter-drug operations at the Manta airbase on Ecuador's Pacific coast. At the same time, it has nearly completed an agreement with Colombian authorities to...
Since the coup in Honduras on Sunday, the United States has been working closely with the Organization of American States and other governments to bring about a diplomatic and peaceful solution to the crisis in Honduras - basically, to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya as the President of Honduras as quickly as possible. However, if the diplomatic efforts of the international community prove unsuccessful, the United States must cut off foreign aid allocated to Honduras under the 2009 Foreign Operations bill - as stipulated by...
On Sunday, Honduran troops arrested President Manuel Zelaya, following orders from the country's Supreme Court, and placed him on a plane to Costa Rica in his pajamas. Zelaya was removed from office on the day Honduras prepared to vote in a non-binding referendum asking whether they support a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution in order to allow him to run for another term after his current term ends in January 2010. Both the Honduran National Congress and the Supreme Court...
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimel recently released its annual reports on Coca Cultivation in the Andean Region - namely in Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. This year's surveys...