At 11:30 on the evening of Jan. 31, 2010, Jesús Enríquez and a group of close friends, all stand-out student-athletes at both the high-school and college level, were celebrating Jesús’ 17th birthday when four trucks packed with two-dozen heavily armed gunmen roared onto their block in Ciudad Juarez, closing off the street and blocking escape. The assassins descended from their vehicles and opened fire on the house, slaughtering 15 people and leaving another 14 injured in a matter of seconds. The majority of those killed were under the age of 20. The presence at the time of more than 10,000 […]

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In the first light of dawn on New Year’s Day 1994, indigenous campesinos wearing ski masks and toting assault weapons stormed major towns in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas. By midday, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in Spanish) had introduced itself to the world as the new face of social revolution. The nature of this face — or more accurately, the lack thereof — immediately distinguished the movement. Black balaclavas, worn at all times in public, along with the rugged attire of the indigenous population, captivated the lenses of the world’s media. So did the eloquent dispatches […]

In his 1996 classic, “The Clash of Civilizations,” Samuel Huntington characterized Mexico as a “torn country” — a condition produced by the Westernizing instincts of its elites pulling against the weight of its cultural heritage. Today, however, Mexico is not torn by internal discord, its drug violence notwithstanding. Rather, it is trapped — caught between dynamic global trends washing over Latin America on one hand, and the dogged political realities of North America on the other. In heralding the end of trade barriers between Mexico, the United States and Canada, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) cast modern Mexico’s […]

Global Insider: Brazil’s Offshore Sovereignty Claim

Recently, Brazil unilaterally expanded the offshore area in which drilling for crude oil and prospecting for other natural resources will require government approval. In an e-mail interview, Tulio Scovazzi, a professor of International Law at the University of Milano-Bicocca, explains the legality of Brazil’s offshore sovereignty claim. WPR: What is the basis for this claim, and what are the main factors driving it? Tulio Scovazzi: With this claim, Brazil reserves its right to examine requests for the authorization of scientific research activities carried out on the Brazilian continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast. The question is whether […]

MEXICO CITY — Top diplomats from 14 Latin American countries and the United States will gather in Mexico City today for a conference on transnational crime and migration issues. The conference’s host will be the Mexican secretary of internal affairs, José Blake Mora, whose Interior Ministry coordinates the Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM). The problem of organized crime and migration has become increasingly urgent this year after a series of incidents in which undocumented migrants fell victim to violence in Mexico. The incidents have become a source of international embarrassment for Mexico. While loudly protesting Arizona’s immigration law SB […]

When Ecuador’s police seized their station houses, shut down airports and took to the streets last week in protest against austerity measures that would eliminate their Christmas bonuses and restructure their promotion policies, it looked as though the administration of Rafael Correa might come to an untimely end. South American leaders quickly responded by sending their representatives to the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to Buenos Aires, where they “energetically condemned the coup attempt” against Correa. The UNASUR representatives also promised to introduce a new “Democratic Clause” at the group’s next meeting in Guyana on Nov. 26, specifying measures […]

BOGOTÁ — Colombia hailed the death last month of a top rebel commander as the most significant blow against the guerilla insurgency in its 46-year history. Jorge Briceno Suarez, known as Mono Jojoy, was the No. 2 leader of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “The symbol of terrorism in Colombia has fallen,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who ordered the air strike on the jungle guerrilla camp. Mono Jojoy was a veteran leader who was considered invincible. He masterminded a series of fatal attacks on southern towns and military bases during the 1990s […]

To kick off this weekly column, which will focus on national security, I thought I’d begin by introducing myself. My name is Robert Farley, and I work as an assistant professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. I write at Information Dissemination and Lawyers, Guns and Money, and have published defense-related work in several magazines. My focus is on military doctrine, maritime affairs, airpower, and anti-submarine warfare. In particular, I am most interested in defense policymaking in the United States and the United Kingdom, which makes today a great day to start […]

When examining the effects of globalization, the international arms market presents an interesting case. It is certainly a global market in terms of distribution, with almost every country in the world, as well as many non-state actors, buying and selling weapons. And its impact is also felt throughout the world, for good as well as ill. But when it comes to the most sophisticated weapons — such as advanced warplanes, warships, tanks and missiles — that can reshape the balance of military power between important countries, the same states that have dominated the high-end of the international arms trade for […]

With most U.S. political analysts — Charlie Cook, Larry Sabato and Stuart Rothenberg among them — now predicting that the Republicans will take back control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, the likelihood that Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi will be replaced as speaker of the house by the current Republican minority leader, Rep. John Boehner, is becoming more likely. But while this would mark a tectonic shift in American domestic politics, it might not lead to any immediate revolution in how the administration conducts foreign affairs. After all, the Democrats, under then-Minority Leader Pelosi, swept into power […]

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