Mexico's rival crime gangs are in an arms race, and the latest sign of that are the homemade "Mad Max"-type heavily armored vehicles they deploy to withstand fierce clashes with each other. The army found two more "narco tanks" over the weekend in Ciudad Camargo in Tamaulipas state along the border with Texas. In earlier discoveries in April and May, armored vehicles found by authorities contained swiveling turrets, snipers' peepholes and gadgets to dump oil and scatter...

Venezuela has broken off its relations with the United States after Washington hit Venezuela's state-owned oil company with sanctions for providing gasoline to Iran, according to Press TV, the state-owned Iranian news network. Examiner.com said that Caracas “froze” relations with the US on Sunday, citing a top Venezuelan diplomat. According to reports, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro suggested that renewing relations with the US might be...

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reported on Wednesday that Venezuelan forces had captured Guillermo Enrique Torres, aka "Julián Conrado," a guerrilla leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who was also known as the FARC's singer. Santos said that the arrest was made on Monday in a Venezuelan government operation, with the help of Colombian authorities, Efe reported. Conrado was also known in the ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of...

According to Defensa.com, Venezuela, Russia has exported the first batch of 35 T-72B1 main battle tanks. Reported that in September 2009 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that a total purchase of 92 Russian T-72 tanks, an unknown number of BM-multi-barrel rocket launchers, and a total of 2.2 billion missile defense system. Chavez stressed that the procurement loans provided by Russia to achieve. Has announced that: 'Sluisgratch responsible for transporting tanks, cargo ship, cargo...

A bomb was thrown at the offices of the Vanguardia newspaper in Saltillo, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, but no one was injured, the Attorney General’s Office said. Two vehicles and a window at the news company were damaged by shrapnel” in Sunday night’s attack, the AG’s office said. The evidence gathered by investigators does not point to any specific individual or group being behind the attack, the AG’s office said. Unidentified...

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez is moving to consolidate his hold on Honduras, after orchestrating the return last Saturday of his puppet, . Officials in Chávez's inner circle are wondering how their cash-strapped government can finance yet another "revolutionary" government in Central America. What they fail to realize is that Chávez's backup plan is to sow chaos in Honduras so it is hospitable territory for his partners in the illegal drug trade and a headache...

Bolivian Foreign Ministry sent an apology letter to for inviting Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is accused of planning the 1994 bombing of the Jewish center, which killed 85, a Reuters report stated. Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said on Tuesday that they had taken steps to ensure that the Defense Minister, leaves Bolivia at the earliest. Bolivia's Defense Ministry said to his counterpart in that Vahidi had come to help inaugurate a defense academy for members of...

US Senator Richard Lugar, the highest-ranking Republican in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, is afraid that sanctions on state-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) resulted from "Venezuela's unwillingness to break relations with terrorist organizations and with countries which sponsor them." The US Government on Tuesday imposed sanctions on seven foreign companies, including Pdvsa, for doing business with Iran. According to Washington, these firms...

A former deputy director of Colombia's intelligence agency DAS ordered the assassination of a leftist politician by paramilitaries, the Prosecutor General's Office said Tuesday. According to prosecutors, there is enough evidence that prove the responsibility of Jose Miguel Narvaez in the murder of the prominent Union Patriotica politician. Narvaez, already in jail for his responsibility in the illegal wiretapping of political opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe, has been accused by...

The U.S. government's decision to sanction Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela, SA), is the first formal acknowledgment by Washington of Hugo Chávez's critical support for the nuclear-terrorist regime in Iran. The significance of today's announcement reaches well beyond the several targeted measures. It represents a powerful message to the financial markets, the banking community, and legitimate businesses in the United States and elsewhere that...