American law enforcement agencies have significantly built up networks of Mexican informants that have allowed them to secretly infiltrate some of that country’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations, according to security officials on both sides of the border. Typically, the officials said, Mexico is kept in the dark about the United States’ contacts with its most secret informants - including Mexican law enforcement officers, elected officials and cartel...

Until Chavez assumed power Iran's presence in the Western Hemisphere was not as strong as it is today. Its proxy, Hezbollah, had presence and even committed a number of atrocities in Latin America such as the attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires. However, its presence increased manifold since Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution began to spread throughout the hemisphere. Not surprisingly the Iranians have tried to carry out another act of terrorism by attempting to...

OPPONENTS of Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, are eagerly awaiting the trial of Walid Makled, a businessman extradited from Colombia five months ago. Before he was sent home to face drug-trafficking charges, Mr Makled boasted that he had 15 Venezuelan generals, the interior minister’s brother and five pro-government legislators on his million-dollar monthly payroll. Described by a United States attorney as a “king among kingpins”, Mr Makled is wanted in New...

Wrenching political and economic forces are at play at the United Nations regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Colombia, which currently holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC), is receiving a great deal of attention for harmoniously aligning its position on the issue with that of the US On the other hand, there is a great divide between Brazil and Colombia, the two Latin American nations that currently have non-permanent seats on the UNSC, and which hold opposing...

The Guatemalan elections are taking place against a complex background of a largely impoverished population yearning for some semblance of law and order. The September 11th presidential elections resulted in a run-off between Otto Perez Molina, a conservative former general and Manuel Baldizon, a wealthy businessman running as a populist. Guatemala is far from being a solid state. It is a state where insecurity, corruption and drug trafficking has destroyed its foundations. Institutional...

The right to live in peace is a fundamental human right, according to UNESCO (See: unesco.org). This is the international dimension of the right to life, as said by Karel Vasak. "It's the most basic right," Amnesty International has touted, without which no rights would exist. Without peace there is no chance of life to many dead there are no human rights. All international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes) have been committed by violations of the right to...

Although Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez insists that he is making a miraculous recovery from cancer, a series of revelations in recent months paint the picture of a regime bracing for impact. In mid-August, opposition congressmen denounced a plan by the Chávez regime to move the nation’s $29 billion in international reserves out of traditional havens in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States to banks in Venezuela’s principal creditor nations, China and Russia....

The war against Mexican drug cartels is often portrayed as a war against a criminal operation taking place in Mexico. Furthermore, it is also portrayed as a problem between the United States and Mexico. However, we would argue as we have done repeatedly in the past that drug cartels constitute, willingly and unwillingly, part of an asymmetric war not only against the United States but against many countries in the region, as well. This asymmetric war is sometimes intentional and sometimes...

Events of 2010 Many of Mexico's most significant human rights issues in 2010 stemmed from violent confrontations between state security forces and organized crime, as well as clashes among criminal groups. The Mexican military continues to commit serious abuses in public security operations, yet those responsible are virtually never held accountable. Journalists, human rights defenders, and migrants are increasingly the targets of attacks by criminal groups and members of security forces, yet...

After decades of poking around crime scenes, digging into conspiracies and hanging out with cops and politicians, columnist Miguel Angel Lopez had earned his stripes as journalistic alpha dog of the crime and corruption beat in this steamy port on the Gulf of Mexico. But even Lopez hardly could have imagined the speed with which hit men would take his life and those of his wife and 21-year-old son. It was 6 a.m. on a June day when two vehicles arrived at the journalist's custard-yellow...