The Americas Archive

On Feb. 23, senior officials from Canada, Mexico, and the United States met to discuss ways to counter cross-border security threats while enhancing continental commerce as part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay, and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa also made further preparations for a third summit among their heads of government later this year. Since the SPP began in March 2005, its core implementation element has consisted of trilateral working groups. Those engaged in the “Security Dialogue” address such issues as common transnational threats, […]

Muslims often complain that the West only looks their way when there is something negative to say about Islam and its people. This time, they have a point. A most extraordinary event took place earlier this month in St. Petersburg, Fla., and it received only scant attention outside the blogosphere. The Secular Islam Summit brought together some 200 delegates determined to speak their mind about the direction of the Muslim world and to redraw the battle lines of today’s overarching ideological conflict. Describing themselves as “secular persons of Muslim societies,” and explaining that they are “believers, doubters, and unbelievers,” they […]

MIAMI — U.S. forces in Colombia may have pushed the outer envelope of their rules of engagement by accompanying Colombian troops on a recent raid of a rebel stronghold where American civilians were being held, said some experts. Others, including officials on Capitol Hill, maintain that the operation was well within the rules of engagement for U.S. military personnel operating in the restive South American country. According to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, which first broke the news over the weekend, American troops and their Colombian counterparts in late January entered a rebel base where three U.S. contractors have been held […]

A fresh analysis of the war in Iraq concludes that parts of the conflict can now be described as “civil war.” In its March report to Congress, the Pentagon says that while not all of the violence in Iraq falls into that category, “some” of it does. It is the first time the Pentagon has publicly used such language. Have the military elite finally wiped the tar from their field glasses and glimpsed reality? What makes this interesting is not that the Pentagon finally admitted what many have known for months, but the potential repercussions the admission may bring. For […]

On March 2, the Bush administration announced the winner of the year-long competition to design the first new U.S. nuclear weapon in almost two decades. The stated objective of the upgrade is to create a new generation of nuclear warheads that are environmentally safer, more secure from accidental or unauthorized use, and easier to maintain, despite their longer lifespan, than the existing stockpile of U.S. warheads designed and built during the Cold War. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), selected a design submitted by the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. […]

Editor’s Note: This article is the second of a two-part series on the gang culture and violence in Guatemala. Read Part I. GUATEMALA CITY — A few days after arriving in Guatemala City, we receive an offer to meet with members of MS-13, the notoriously violent international gang with active factions in countries across Central, South and North America. Photographer Angela Catlin and I came in October 2006 to document the escalating violence and lawlessness in a nation desperately struggling to overcome the legacy of a 36-year civil war that ended some 10 years ago. To coincide with the 10th […]

Editor’s Note: This article is the first of a two-part series on the gang culture and violence in Guatemala. Read Part II. GUATEMALA CITY — The ambulance arrives with its siren wailing and a team of medics runs to the emergency room entrance. The doors of the vehicle burst open and a trolley is lowered down with a young man lying on it groaning. It is 2:19 in the morning and Gersen Armando Ramirez Santus, a tattooed gang member, has just been shot twice in the chest on the crime-teeming streets of this city. Guatemala is a nation still traumatized […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — If Colombians were ever in doubt about the special relationship their leader enjoys with the White House, then President George W. Bush’s words last week left no room for speculation. As Bush embarked on his five-nation tour of Latin America, he gave Colombia’s President, Alvaro Uribe, a glowing report. “In my judgment, President Uribe has done a fabulous job in leading this country. He has been very firm and very dedicated and the results are impressive,” said Bush, in an interview with Latin American journalists at the White House last week. “I think his leadership places him […]

CARACAS, Venezuela — A former paratrooper, President Hugo Chavez is used to battling his adversaries without giving an inch. This time, Chavez has his sights set on Venezuela’s food industry, which he blames for shortages that have left many Venezuelans without basic foods, especially beef, chicken, milk and sugar. “On the hoarders and speculators, I declare war,” Chavez said on his “Hello, President” radio show recently. He added: “If you don’t want to sell beef, don’t — we will sell it. But we’re going to take away the butcher shop, we’re going to expropriate the butcher shop, no matter how […]

Russian dissatisfaction over U.S. plans to deploy missile defense radars and interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic has become so intense that senior Russian political and military leaders have recently warned that Moscow might withdraw from the two most important arms control treaties relating to European security. First, Russian policy makers have indicated they might renounce the December 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This accord prohibits Russia and the United States from developing, manufacturing, or deploying ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Its negotiation ended one of the most dangerous periods of […]