The Americas Archive

Although NATO countries have made some progress in promoting intelligence sharing and mutual law enforcement assistance as part of the Global War on Terrorism, they need to substantially improve their cooperation in researching, developing, and testing homeland security technologies. A strategic and coordinated approach — directed towards generating science and technology (S&T) contributions in areas of highest priority — would help optimize allied countries’ collective response to common security challenges. The Nov. 28-29 NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, could provide an opportune occasion for launching several initiatives to promote such an integrated multinational S&T approach. Europe’s uneven approach towards developing […]

CARACAS, Venezuela — Fond of mocking George W. Bush and railing at the U.S, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called his country’s number one oil customer, otherwise known as “the empire,” the greatest threat to human existence today. On the verge of reelection, Chavez has said that his geopolitical mission is nothing less than “saving the world” from the evils of U.S-style capitalism. As part of this plan, say analysts, Chavez has reached out to China. Eager for oil to fuel its economy, China has agreed to form a “strategic alliance” with Venezuela, strengthening bilateral ties through oil agreements and […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — After more than a year of exploratory talks, the Colombian government and the country’s second largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), decided last month to enter a new phase of negotiations and start formal peace talks. It is hoped that further talks will push forward an eventual peace agreement between the two parties and bring an end to 42 years of fighting between government forces and ELN rebels. Last September, ELN’s commander and spokesperson, Francisco Galan, was temporarily released from a Colombian high security prison, where he is serving a 30-year sentence for rebellion and […]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — In a step toward solving one of Latin America’s most unrelenting problems, five Latin American countries sent delegates from police and civil society last week to a conference in Brazil to discuss police reform. The delegates from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico met in Rio de Janeiro at a seminar sponsored by non-governmental organizations, including the Open Society Institute. Next year, they plan to invite five more countries in an attempt to create a permanent forum on the issue. The problems are well known: violence, corruption and a lack of respect for the common […]

The U.S. military has recently acknowledged that the U.S. and Chinese navies nearly engaged in a direct military clash at the end of last month near the Japanese island of Okinawa. Although the Chinese government has denied knowledge of the incident, U.S. government sources have provided some details of the encounter, which occurred in the international waters of the East China Sea. On Oct. 26, a Song-class diesel-powered attack submarine unexpectedly surfaced within five miles of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. The submarine was apparently rehearsing how to sink the carrier with its torpedoes and cruise missiles — a […]

It was billed as the, “chance of a lifetime,” by Panama’s President, Martin Torrijos, and 77 percent of Panamanian voters backed this view when they approved plans to expand the Panama Canal in a national referendum last month. The $5.25 billion expansion will make one of the engineering wonders of the world 60 percent wider and 40 per cent longer. The eight-year project involves enlarging existing locks, deepening navigation channels and adding a third set of locks to ease bottlenecks and allow larger container vessels, known as post-Panamax ships, to traverse the famous passage linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. […]

The Bush administration recently published an unclassified version of its new National Space Policy. Like the 2005 National Defense Strategy and the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, the new policy stresses the vital interest of the United States in remaining a major space power. Although it acknowledges the value of international cooperation in space and the right of “free passage” for all countries’ satellites and other space-based objects, the policy reaffirms the intent to protect U.S. space capabilities by all available means. The new policy will likely intensify Chinese and Russian fears that the United States intends to deploy weapons in […]

A C-295 aircraft, the first of two candidates to become a new “joint cargo aircraft” (JCA) for the U.S. Army and Air Force, appears to have passed its early flight tests, according to an official from Raytheon Co., the leader of a corporate team bidding for the JCA business. The Army is aiming to speed the acquisition of the new cargo aircraft because of its potential to reduce improvised explosive device attacks. The plane would do so by taking troop convoys off the roads in battle zones such as Iraq, transporting troops by air instead.The flight tests, concluded Nov. 1, […]

The news last week that six Arab states are beginning efforts to acquire nuclear technology — although the technology is ostensibly for civil power generation — is stark evidence that non-proliferation efforts around the world must not be neglected. The world has been focused on the Oct. 9 North Korean nuclear test and the Iranian nuclear program and its regional consequences. But the threat of nuclear proliferation is not limited to Asia and the Middle East. South America also poses a threat. South American allies Argentina and Brazil abandoned their relatively advanced nuclear weapons programs, signed the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) […]

Think Fidel Castro is going soft in his old age? A recently published report from Reporters Without Borders, “Going Online in Cuba: Internet Under Surveillance,” suggests you should think again. In fact, if authors Claire Voeux and Julien Pain with the French journalism organization are correct in their assessment, even the information age hasn’t changed much about daily life in this Caribbean nation of 11 million people. “With less than 2 percent of the population online, Cuba is one of the world’s most backward countries as regards Internet usage,” reads an excerpt. “The worst off by far in Latin America […]

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — While campaigning last April in the National Action Party (PAN) heartland of Los Altos, a dry region east of Guadalajara known for tequila distilling, blue-eyed inhabitants and conservative-Catholic politics, candidate Felipe Calderon scheduled a youth rally, an event that inadvertently highlighted his biggest shortcoming: a lack of charisma. Jaded members of the national press core — who had already been riding the PAN campaign bus for three months and had barely reached the halfway point of their sojourn — described him as gris (gray), a Spanish expression for dull. As he entered the boisterous auditorium that Sunday […]

All the sound and fury over Iraq in advance of the American midterm elections signifies nothing. The United States has been reacting to events — not dictating them — since shortly after the U.S. military seized Baghdad three and a half years ago. President Bush’s press conference Oct. 25 was a political gesture designed to convince the electorate that he is not terminally detached from Iraq’s brutal reality. His relatively clear-eyed description of violence and sectarian divisions were a long-form version of his decision to ban “stay the course” from his vocabulary. But Bush did not unveil a new policy […]

Africa is on the verge of yet another major war. For the past four months, Somalia has been battered by an internal conflict between an Islamic movement and a secular government. In recent weeks, troops from neighboring Ethiopia and Eritrea have entered the country. Thousands of refugees have been fleeing across the Somali-Kenyan border, threatening to overwhelm the Kenyan government. The escalating war in Somalia, coming on top of the conflicts in Sudan and the Congo, underscores the need for the United States to develop an improved means for managing African security issues. For many years, American strategists have argued […]

Still images of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on state television, Oct. 30, 2006. Photo by Andrew Cutraro/Aurora.

CARTAGENA, Colombia — Every day, around 860 people are internally displaced in Colombia. In the last 10 months, over 11,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, according to The Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (Codhes), a Colombian NGO that monitors displacement. There are glaring discrepancies between government and NGO displacement figures. But with an estimated 2 to 3.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), Colombia is home to the highest number of IDPs in the western hemisphere and has the second largest displaced population in the world, after Sudan. The crisis is a forgotten emergency that receives scant […]