Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, the front-runner in the lead-up to Mexico's presidential election in July, told Reuters last week that if elected, he would seek to increase the size of the current Mexican federal police force. Pena Nieto also expressed a desire to create a new national gendarmerie, or paramilitary police force, to use in place of the Mexican army and Marine troops currently deployed to combat the heavily armed criminal cartels in...

RUSSIAN PRIME Minister boasted after returning from a visit to Venezuela on Monday that he had sold President Hugo Chavez another $5 billion in weapons -- a huge sum for a Latin American army. Hours later State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was asked for a reaction at his public briefing. First answer: "We don't care." Mr. Crowley went on to say that State didn't see a legitimate need for all that equipment and was concerned that it might "migrate into other parts of the...

Here's one from the Department of We Are The World: Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address the U.N.'s climate summit in Copenhagen. Say what you will about these two gentlemen-the support for terrorists, the Holocaust denial, the suppression of civil liberties-at least nobody can accuse them of being global warming "deniers." On the contrary, the two leaders, who met in Caracas last month for at least the 11th time, have been nothing if not cooperative when it...

Dmitri Medvedev and Barack Obama, presidents of Russia and the United States, will discuss, during the official visit of the American president to Moscow from 6th to 8th July, measurements to achieve a mutual compromise on nuclear arms reduction, of no proliferation, and the possibility of working together in an antimissile defense. However, analysts from the Latin-American Circle for International Studies (LACIS), a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to analyze, investigate...

Whether it's called an "arms race" or a "coincidental modernization" of existing stocks, a wave of weapons purchases by Latin American nations is causing neighbors to watch each other with growing mistrust and fear. Brazil says it must protect its newfound oil and gas riches. Venezuela says the U.S. military might attack it. Colombia is worried by Venezuela, Ecuador is watching Colombia, and Paraguay is keeping an eye on Bolivia. There's no question that weapons sales...

In mid-September, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton critiqued Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez for his ongoing purchases of mostly Russian military equipment, arguing that this could trigger an arms race in South America. The statement has added fuel to the ongoing discussions about what form South America’s rearmament is taking and what this could come to mean for the security of the region. Observers fear an inter-state war could break out due to geopolitical tensions. Ongoing...

South American presidents expressed deep concerns over a United States plan to increase its military presence in Colombia at a Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Summit in Quito, Ecuador, on Monday. Full details of the U.S.-Colombia military plan have not been released, but the U.S. is expected to have a significant presence at three air bases and two naval bases, in addition to the two Colombian military bases it currently operates in. The discussion of the U.S.-Colombia plan was...

Could the words “Brazilian fighter” begin evoking images unrelated to the Gracies? A proposed 50% boost to Brazil’s defense budget could be on its way to accomplishing that, and more. While the Navy and Army are also in line for funds to replace broken-down equipment, the fighters will be a critical centerpiece of the Forca Aerea Brasileira’s efforts. The 36+ aircraft buys under consideration are mostly the same set of 4+ generation fighters that were considered last...

It is no exaggeration to say that Venezuela's burgeoning alliance with Iran represents the greatest threat to hemispheric stability since the Cold War. Both governments have supported international terrorist groups operating in South America (including Hezbollah). Both have embraced other terror-sponsoring regimes (such as Syria). Both have initiated an arms buildup. Both have pursued close military cooperation with Russia. Both share a visceral anti-Americanism and are committed to...

Being a buffoon can buy a lot of time in international politics-you can do naughty things for a long while before people begin to take them seriously. This is the case of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, whose relationship with Iran was the subject of a recent presentation by Robert Morgenthau, the legendary Manhattan district attorney. Based on his office’s investigations, third-party collaboration and snippets of public information, Morgenthau concludes that Venezuela and Iran are...