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...

Four members of the Bolivarian Alliance, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua have offered asylum to the National Security Agency (NSA) leaker, Edward Snowden. Snowden is believed to be in Russia where he has repeatedly asked for asylum that has not been conceded by the Russian authorities. Meanwhile, Snowden has not responded to the offer by the four Latin American countries. At the same time that the United States was applying pressure on them not to provide the requested asylum, the...

In the past six months, Iran has been making an offensive on all fronts - on the commercial, military, diplomatic and information fronts - with Latin America as the scene, and without minding the cost. Tehran considers the region as one of the points of principal support, in order to overcome their growing international isolation which it is experiencing as a consequence of its nuclear program, and it has decided to act on all levels, multiplying its presence in a region of the world which...

LIKE most clubs of governments, the Organisation of American States (OAS) is widely seen as little more than a debating society. It makes decisions by consensus, and cannot force its members to do anything against their will. But many of those who complain about the OAS’s lack of effectiveness still concede that its watchdogs, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, have proved their worth. The IACHR consists of seven jurists,...

618602 Ahmadinejad visits Venezuela in January 2012, seen here in the company of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez. Details Background Information 1. Since Ahmadinejad was elected president in August 2005, Iran has extended and solidified its relations with several Latin American countries, especially Venezuela and Bolivia, and increased its efforts to obtain a political foothold in the others. According to findings brought before the American Senate Foreign Relations...

After a decade of silence and an apologetic attitude towards the countries of the Bolivarian alliance (ALBA), the international community finally protested attacks against freedom of the press in Ecuador, forcing the Ecuadorian president to back off. For years the Organization of American States and countries of the region have been enablers and thus passive accomplices of the anti-democratic wave that has penetrated Latin America. Under the pretext of helping the poor and the...

Now that it is known that Iran is moving ever closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon, the United States is targeting sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank. Likewise, the European Union is moving in the direction of imposing an effective oil embargo on Iran. These sanctions are apparently having a more dire effect on Iran’s economy as evidenced by their threat to close the Straits of Hormuz. If anything the Iranian government’s animus towards the West and towards the U.S and...

Iran is quietly seeking to expand its ties with Latin America in what U.S. officials and regional experts say is an effort to circumvent economic sanctions and gain access to much-needed markets and raw materials. The new diplomatic offensive, which comes amid rising tensions with Washington and European powers, includes a four-nation swing through South and Central America this month by . His government has vowed to increase its economic, political and military influence in the United...

During the earlier part of this November, elections took place in Nicaragua. These elections displayed an element of fraud from the beginning. According to the European Union's electoral mission the vote tally was "opaque and arbitrary". Prior to the election the outcome was almost pre-ordained because, the Ortega-controlled Supreme Court nullified a constitutional provision that limited the President to no more than two terms. The Nicaraguan Supreme Court interpreted this provision...

The publication is published four reports of secret former U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trayvelli (Paul Trivelli), dated 2007, which alleged that Mohamed Lashtar cooperates with the Libyan secret services. "Mohamed Lashtar is a key figure of Daniel Ortega and the environment associated with the intelligence service Gaddafi. Through it carried secret funding Nicaraguan President "- said in a secret report dated January 23, 2007. In the secret dispatches the U.S. Embassy in...