El Salvador will hold its presidential elections on February 2, 2014. In 2009, current president Mauricio Funes of the former guerrilla FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) became only the second leftist to be elected president in El Salvador since the 1930s. Many in the country attribute Funes' victory to the machinations of former president Antonio Saca (2004-2009) of the conservative ARENA party, who is alleged to have helped the FMLN to victory in a deal to avoid...

Central America constitutes an important strategic area for the United States. As discussed in my recent book “Latin America in the Post-Chavez Era: The Threat to U.S. Security”, legal and institutional collapse in Central America could have very serious consequences for regional and U.S security. Central America has been victim to increasing drug cartel activity as the situation in Colombia and Mexico has turned more complicated for the drug lords. In addition, Central America is...

Reporters Without Borders has registered more than 20 attacks on journalists by both police and demonstrators during a national strike by farm workers, miners and public sector employees that began on 19 August. As a result, Reporters Without Borders wrote to President Juan Manuel Santos today voicing concern about the ability of media personnel to work safely and calling on the authorities take whatever measures are necessary to protect reporters during demonstrations. President Juan Manuel...

To secure a lasting peace, talks between Colombia’s government and FARC rebels need to include a clear, credible and coherent plan for reckoning with decades of human rights abuses. In its latest report, , the International Crisis Group proposes a model for transitional justice in the context of the promising negotiations between the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end decades of civil conflict. This requires that...

Reporters Without Borders has registered more than 20 attacks on journalists by both police and demonstrators during a national strike by farm workers, miners and public sector employees that began on 19 August. As a result, Reporters Without Borders wrote to President Juan Manuel Santos today voicing concern about the ability of media personnel to work safely and calling on the authorities take whatever measures are necessary to protect reporters during demonstrations. President Juan Manuel...

MEXICO. - According to a report by the National Monitoring Council in Mexico, in the first four months of 2013, there has been an increase of 16.9% in kidnapping cases. The Mexican states that recorded the highest number of kidnappings are Hidalgo (11.21%), Michoacan (10.49%) and Tamaulipas (10.49%). In its periodic report of crimes with high impact, this NGO said that in the first quarter of 2013 there were 553 complaints of kidnapping, which would come out to about five cases of missing...

THE bizarre teaser election that Argentines had to take part in on August 11th was designed by Cristina Fernández, the president. She put her all into promoting her candidates, even flying her hand-picked hopeful for the most populous province of Buenos Aires to Brazil to be photographed with their compatriot, Pope Francis. Photographs of him, her and the pope were plastered across the province as campaign posters. The pontiff’s magic did not rub off. Ms Fernández’s...

As part of their online media strategy, jihadi groups have in recent years begun using Western websites and technologies - uploading videos to YouTube and to the Internet Archive, creating official Facebook pages, tweeting news flashes from the jihadi fronts, and most recently posting images on Instagram. Jihadis have come to depend on free web hosting, where content can be uploaded anonymously, reliably, and at no cost. The use of social media in the current conflict in Syria highlights the...

At a time when several Latin American economies should be "firing on all cylinders" to sustain growth and development, their critical petroleum sectors are under performing Despite hopeful projections, the biggest energy companies in Latin America are controlled by the state and are hampered by government interference and short-term political agendas. Although these companies should be the engines of growth for their national economies, resource nationalism and popular gasoline...

In the wake of Panama's seizing of a North Korean freighter laden with 240 tons of illegal weaponry traversing the Panama Canal from Cuba to North Korea, many observers have professed to be nonplussed by the brazenness of Cuba's role in the caper. After all, we have been told, this is a "new" Cuba under Raul Castro, who is ostensibly committed to reforming the outdated of his brother, Fidel, and ushering in a kinder, gentler Cuba. The reality is that the Panama incident only...