According to press reports, a three-page document issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry alleges that Bolivia and Venezuela have sold uranium to Iran for use in that country's nuclear program. The document is to be presented by Israeli Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Dani Ayalon at the 39th Regular Session of the OAS which will be held the first week of June in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
According to Israeli officials the document, which reportedly analyzes the growing relations between Iran and countries in the region, was not meant to be public. Further detail about its content...
The House of Representatives sent its "Foreign Relations Authorization Act" for FY2010 and FY2011 to the Committee on Foreign Affairs last week (H.R. 2410). The point of the authorization bill is to make changes to the underlying laws governing the operations of the State Department and foreign aid, creating new programs, eliminating others, and altering others. Although the House's bill is just introduced in committee, and could very well change before reaching approval, a few measures can be highlighted...
The House has approved, and Senate is nearing approval, on versions of a "Supplemental Appropriation," an addition to the federal budget for 2009. The bill responds to a request (PDF) from the Obama administration to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other priorities. While supplemental appropriations to Latin America and the Caribbean make up only a small portion of the funds allocated in the bill, aid to Mexico skyrockets in the House version and therefore warrants special attention. The...
The Obama administration announced last week its third appointment of an official with responsibility for U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean. Arturo Valenzuela was nominated to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs. He now joins Dan Restrepo, director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, and Frank Mora, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs, as the "Latin...
The Los Angeles Times published an article today, titled "El Salvador grapples with rising bloodshed." The news story highlights the increasing level of violence in El Salvador, a country which suffers "one of the highest [homicide rates] in the world." El Salvador's per capita homicide rate is 5 times that of Mexico and 10 times that of the United States, with an average of 12 people killed each day in the first three months of 2009, in a country of 7...
The Obama administration's Defense Department released a "Special Topics report" (PDF) offering some information about how the Pentagon's 2010 budget request might affect assistance to Latin America. This report is far less detailed than the State Department report, on which we reported in the previous blog post. However, it does offer some relevant...