Competition between criminal groups over drug routes has made the frontier between Guatemala and Honduras one of the most violent areas in Central America, with murder rates among the highest in the world. In the absence of effective law enforcement, traffickers have become de facto authorities in some sectors. Crisis Group’s latest report, , examines the regional dynamics that have allowed criminal gangs to thrive and outlines the main steps necessary to prevent further violence as well...

Why is Sen. Patrick J. Leahy threatening to kill vital U.S. anti-narcotics support in a key smuggling corridor when his home state of Vermont is awash in illegal drugs? He must have a heck of a reason, right? You be the judge. Despite months of investigation by various authorities, Mr. Leahy, a Democrat, continues to second-guess the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) eyewitness accounts of a firefight that took place on a river in the middle of the Honduran jungle in the dead of night....

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...

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...

Uncertainty was high as the police closed in, but instead of pursuing a criminal, they had surrounded a democratically elected president, aiming to overthrow him. Another coup attempt was underway in Latin America. On Sept. 30th, 2010, a group of police officers led a protest over benefit cuts, in Ecuador’s capital, Quito. After President Rafael Correa spoke to the group of revolting officers, he was attacked with tear gas and was rushed to a hospital. He later declared he was being...

AT DAWN on September 16th 1810 Miguel Hidalgo, the parish priest of Dolores, a small town in central Mexico, rang the bells of his church to raise the cry of rebellion against the Spanish crown. Mexico, Spain’s richest American colony, thus joined a struggle for independence which had already seen the colonial authorities ousted and rebel juntas installed in Caracas, Buenos Aires and other South American cities. Two years earlier, following Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of the...

Given the challenges that President Obama faces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, China, and elsewhere, the fact that he has thus far neglected Latin America is hardly surprising or scandalous. Obama has committed several unforced errors in the Americas, however, most notably in Honduras, and his relatively weak performance has raised concerns about declining U.S. influence. Obama's Latin America policy has evolved through four stages. During stage one, Obama practiced what...

Sometimes I ask myself if Hitler wasn't right when he wanted to finish with that race, through the famous holocaust, because if there are peoplethat are harmful to this country, they are the Jews, the Israelites. Today Mr. Romero Ellner is pure zelayista, hungry for power and not ashamed to say so. This explains why he has joined Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Mr. Zelaya in targeting Jews. Mr. Chávez has allied himself with Iran to further his ability to rule unchecked in the...

As the tense political stalemate in Honduras continues, there are troubling signs that the current crisis has given rise to anti-Semitism and disturbing anti-Zionist conspiracy theories. The stalemate has led to charges from political leaders, media pundits and other key figures in the country that Israel and Jews were behind the ouster and intimidation of President Manuel Zelaya and that they are in cahoots with the de facto president, Robert Micheletti. These charges have emerged despite...

I have been reading a book on the history of the Ostjuden, or Eastern European jews, a sub-branch of the Ashkenazim. One almost constant theme during several hundred years of East European history is that whenever there was a major political conflict, Jews were blamed often by both sides for the problems of the country. Each time Poland rebelled against Russia, the Poles attacked the Jews for beings sympathetic to Russia and the Russians attacked the Jews for being sympathetic to Poland. Often...