Defense & Security Archive

MEXICO CITY — The now-infamous June 20 nightclub raid was supposed to be a crowning moment, a public relations coup, for Mexico City’s newest police force. Police vans waited nearby, ready to haul off up to hundreds of offenders — drug users, drug dealers, minors drinking booze, and club staff taking kickbacks to ignore these crimes. Even some members of the media were given front row seats to watch the cops from Unipol — the recently launched cooperative unit comprised of beat cops and investigative police — send its team up the stairs of the dingy antro, as such clubs […]

N’DJAMENA, Chad — They usually come at night, to the sprawling refugee camps in eastern Chad along the border with Sudan. Recruiters for Chad-based rebel groups, which are locked in bloody combat with Khartoum and its militia proxies in Sudan’s Darfur region, sometimes simply show up at the camps and new recruits, many of them still boys, come to them voluntarily. But when there’s a shortage of volunteers, the recruiters might resort to force, according to aid workers in eastern Chad. The aid workers, who spoke to World Politics Review on conditions of anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the […]

MEXICO CITY — President Felipe Calderón spent the week leading up to the second anniversary of his narrow election victory July 2 touring Southeastern Mexico, where he promoted the main tenets of his administration: security; structural reforms; and social programs. While inaugurating a baseball stadium in Cancún that was built with funds from a public security program, he spoke of the Mexican military destroying a “world record” amount of cocaine and seizing more than 16,000 weapons over the past year. The president also got his hands dirty mixing cement in a Campeche home as he promoted “Piso Firme,” a program […]

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The United States has joined a chorus of international condemnation and offered FBI assistance after a prominent Cambodian journalist was shot dead just two weeks ahead of national elections. Khim Sambo, 47, and his 21-year-old son Khat Sarinpheata were riding on a motorbike near Phnom Penh’s Olympic Stadium when gunmen opened fire, ending a period of unusual calm amid the electioneering. Campaigning had focused on the economy and a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand that involved possession of the Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia’s remote northwest. The temple was recently listed by UNESCO as a […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Colombian counterpart, Álvaro Uribe, have agreed to restore relations and strengthen bilateral trade between their two countries, bringing an end to months of bitter feuds between the two leaders. “As of now, a new era begins with Colombia. We decided to completely turn the page. The storm has passed,” Chávez told reporters Friday, after hosting a private one-day meeting with Uribe at one of the world’s largest oil refineries in Punto Fijo, Venezuela. “We will relaunch our ties, starting on a personal level and then moving on to political, social and […]

GORE, Chad — The U.N.’s main refugee agency is expanding its work in southern Chad, adding programs for impoverished local villagers in order to head off conflict between locals and a growing population of Central African refugees. The programs, administered by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and partner aid groups, include aid to farmers and herders. The idea, according to Serge Male, UNHCR’s representative to Chad, is to ensure that the local population never have less than the refugees they host. “We cannot provide more to refugees if the local population does not benefit to some extent,” Male told […]

WARSAW, Poland — To defend against the potential threat of a nuclear attack from “rogue states,” the United States has been working to shore up support for deploying 10 silo-based long-range interceptors in Poland and a mid-course tracking radar in the Czech Republic by 2013. After months of shuttle diplomacy and intense negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice inked a deal with the Czechs on July 8 but failed to convince her Polish counterparts to host the project. For months, it appeared that Poland would easily accept U.S. plans. Undoubtedly, Poland is a strong U.S. ally and a vital […]

Since her spectacular liberation last week along with 14 other hostages, the former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt has been received in France as a “heroine” (as the cover of one French weekly put it). Over the last year, the French government and President Nicolas Sarkozy have publicized their efforts to obtain the release of Betancourt, who also has French citizenship and whose two children live in France. But how much did the French efforts ultimately contribute to the liberation of Betancourt and the other hostages? And what, more generally, have been the effects of French diplomacy upon the conflict […]

BAGHDAD — In a recent investigative hearing at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) in Baghdad, a detainee held by the U.S.-led Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) gave his version of the events leading up to his detention in a village in al-Anbar province, and his subsequent transfer to the Iraqi court for possible prosecution. The detainee, clad in a standard-issue bright yellow jumpsuit, explained that the weapons caches found on and next to his property were part of an elaborate set-up arising out of a feud with a neighboring family. According to the detainee, he was not involved in insurgent […]

When Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Eric S. Edelman visited with top officials in Lebanon May 31, he brought more than just words of encouragement. Timed with his visit, a shipment of body armor, helmets and more than 1.3 million rounds of ammunition was delivered to the Lebanese Armed Forces — the latest installment in an ongoing program of military and economic aid that has made Lebanon, on a per capita basis, the second-highest recipient of U.S. assistance. On the heels of sectarian clashes in May, in which Hezbollah-allied forces largely routed pro-government Sunni fighters, the move is an […]

BANGKOK, Thailand — In the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur July 6, 20,000 supporters of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim braved a police ban to rally in support of the opposition leader, who has been charged with sodomy on the basis of allegations lodged by a 23-year-old former male aide. Anwar claims the charges are baseless, an attempt by the ruling party to thwart his political ambitions. Anwar supporters chanted “PM resign” as protesters arrived at a suburban sports stadium. The political turmoil erupted at elections earlier this year amid claims by Anwar that he was poised to oust […]

PARIS — After a 17-year-old Jewish boy wearing a yarmulke was brutally beaten by a gang of teenagers in Paris’s 19th arrondissement late last month, the reactions of both the French news media and French authorities were notably ambiguous. The boy, known only as “Rudy” in the French reports,was not only punched and kicked during the attack, but also beaten with what has been variously identified as an “iron bar” or a “crutch.” The beating occurred on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, in a neighborhood with a large orthodox Jewish population. It appears to have continued even after Rudy lost […]

The daring rescue this week of hostages held by Colombian rebels marks a milestone in Colombia’s transformation, a transformation the Colombian people had already recognized. Now, the rest of the world should acknowledge Colombia’s imperfect, but no less miraculous, turnaround. With the release of Ingrid Betancourt, along with three American contractors and a group of Colombians, some in the United States may pause for a moment to ponder the horrific crime of kidnapping. Growing up in Colombia, we pondered it a lot, picturing not only ourselves in captivity, but also, knowing what a kidnapping does to a family, our relatives. […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The stunning rescue by Colombian soldiers of 15 guerrilla hostages, including three American contractors and a one-time presidential candidate, brings the government closer to victory in its long civil war. This latest success could also pave the way for an unprecedented third term for President Álvaro Uribe, a prospect that worries some analysts. In the meticulously planned operation, the Colombian military infiltrated the communications network of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and convinced units holding prominent hostages that a guerrilla leader wanted the hostages transported to another region. In a jungle clearing in southern […]

In a land that never lacks for intense emotions, a moment will come in just a few days when the two extremes of joy and sadness will overflow at precisely the same time. Through the dramatizing magic of modern technology, we will watch those scenes from our living rooms: From Lebanon, boisterous celebrations of triumph will fill the screen as a freed prisoner comes home. From south of the border, in Israel, we will witness heartsick parents welcoming the bodies of their murdered children, with the entire country embracing the grieving families, but sickened at the thought that in Lebanon, […]

IRIBA, Chad — Four years after some quarter-million people fled ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s Darfur province for the relative safety of eastern Chad, one of the world’s most persistent humanitarian crises shows no signs of letting up. Indeed, there are signs that Darfuri refugees are in Chad to stay, despite acute shortages of water, firewood and food. Today the Darfuri refugees are housed in a dozen U.N.-administered camps that, over time, have become more like permanent towns and less like the squalid tent cities of popular conception. But appearances can be deceiving: Despite seeming self-sufficient on the surface, the camps […]

At their June 26-27 summit in the Siberian town of Khanty-Mansiisk, located in the heart of Russia’s energy industry, EU and Russia officially launched negotiations on a new EU-Russia Agreement. Although the formal agenda consisted mostly of economic and energy issues, the participants devoted considerable time to security questions as well as assessing how the presence of Russia’s new president, Dmitry Medvedev, might affect the negotiations. For the past few years, Russian-EU relations have been addressed within the framework of four “common spaces” — the Common Economic Space (covering economic issues and the environment); the Common Space of Freedom, Security […]