[Ed. Note: This week, retired Venezuelan Gen. Hugo Carvajal was detained in Aruba at the request of U.S. authorities. Carvajal was the former head of Venezuelan military intelligence (DGIM) and a close confidante of the late Hugo Chávez. In 2008, he was designated by U.S Treasury as a "drug kingpin" for his ties to the Colombian narco-terrorist FARC. That year also, the highly respected Colombian magazine Semana published an exposé of Carvajal that reported on his...

On July 18, 1994, a hellish scene unfolded in Buenos Aires as a car bomb set by Iranian agents destroyed the AMIA/DAIA Jewish center, killing 85 people and wounding hundreds. Twenty years later, there is still no justice in the case - and a decision taken by the Argentine government is part of the problem. Last year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iranian government that was supposed to establish a so-called truth commission to bring resolution to the case. In April, the...

President Obama has requested $3.7 billion in emergency funding to cope with the humanitarian crisis along our southern border, which has been besieged by a surge in unaccompanied minors and thousands more trying to enter the United States from Central America through Mexico. Clearly, the administration is scrambling to undo the damage caused in part by its own rhetoric and unilateral actions on immigration that, whether intentional or not, sent the calamitous message to desperate families...

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Every day, as she travels to the food stall she operates, Mirna Isabel Villalta crosses an invisible but dangerous boundary. Her modest home is in a part of San Salvador controlled by the Mara Salvatrucha, a gang so ruthless and sprawling that the Obama administration has labeled it an international criminal organization. Her food stall is in the city center in an area controlled by Barrio 18, a gang that despises the Mara Salvatrucha. She knows she's breaking an...

The House of Representatives version of the Venezuela sanctions bill passed the full House on May 28th. Now a very similar bill is paralyzed in the Senate as senators continue debating whether or not such sanctions are worthwhile to pursue. Meanwhile, it is our understanding derived from various conversations with a number of members of Congress, that the White House and some Senators continue to oppose the bill. According to informal conversations with offices of some Senators, the main...

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...

For the past 15 years, the Castro regime has sought to entice foreign companies to Cuba by offering slave wages and stolen property. The cost of doing business there is that you pay workers' salaries to the regime, take the government as your business partner and agree to lobby against the U.S. embargo. As astonishing as it sounds, there are American businessmen who look upon these woeful conditions and ask, "How do I get in on this?" U.S. policy bars "trading with the...

Iran, Cuba and Venezuela have developed a close and cooperative relationship against the U.S. and in support of terrorist groups and states. The three regimes increasingly coordinate their policies and resources in a three way partnership aimed at counteracting and circumventing U.S. policies in the Middle East and Latin America. Within this relationship, Cuba plays a strategic role in terms of geography (proximity to the U.S.), intelligence gathering (both electronic eavesdropping and human...

Incidents in 2014 Brazil January 14, 2014 - São Paulo - A swastika was found spray painted on the external wall of the Jewish Cultural Center. Mexico January 8, 2014 - Mexico City - A banner was found near the Mexican Senate that read “All of Peña Nieto’s public authorities are Jews,” “They steal millions,” “Go leave for Israel,” “Jewish murderers,” and “Bring Peña Nieto to Israel and all of the PRI-PAN...

Criminal activity in northern Mexico threatens to undermine an ongoing effort to open the country to foreign oil and gas producers for the first time in decades, a new report from Rice University’s Baker Institute warns. The report comes as Mexico hammers out the details of constitutional changes approved last year that soon will allow foreign energy companies to bid on access to the country’s oil and gas resources, which for decades have been controlled exclusively by the...