The Americas Archive

CARACAS, Venezuela — Known for military strongmen, Latin America has mostly embraced peace since the end of the 1980s era of right-wing dictatorships. Now flush with profits from a commodities boom, however, many Latin American countries are beefing up their military capabilities as they seek to ascend the ranks of regional power players. Brazil, Chile and especially Venezuela have invested heavily in arms purchases. With $4.3 billion in purchases since 2005, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, Venezuela’s recent spending surpasses even Pakistan, at $3 billion, and Iran, at $1.7 billion — major military powers in their own regions. […]

U.S. NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The recent conviction of Australian kangaroo-skinner turned globetrotting jihadist David Hicks may, at least temporarily, bring an end to years of judicial power struggles that have surrounded the creation of a special war crimes tribunal here. However, while the special tribunal will bring some form of justice for men like Hicks and other high-profile detainees — including admitted Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — the fate of hundreds of lesser-known prisoners is still undetermined. As Hicks inked a deal in late-March to plead guilty to providing material support for terrorism in exchange […]

PARIS — “The question that needs to be asked is — do we want to be vassals of the United States, do we want to be a 51st state?” observed Gilles Savary, a French Socialist member of the European parliament, to the London Daily Telegraph recently. Savary was referring to U.S.-European relations in tones the Telegraph described as “searingly anti-American.” But Savary is not just another left-wing French politician singing the familiar anti-American chanson. He is a foreign policy spokesman for Ségolène Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate. Savary’s comment carries added weight because the conventional wisdom about Ségolène Royal is […]

From Time magazine’s declaration that “you” were the person of the year in 2006, to Frontline’s recent airing of “News War,” a four-part series examining the changing news landscape, the Internet’s paradigm-shifting effect on the media has begun to dawn on many journalists and media executives alike. Strangely, however, a recent spate of opinion pieces about the grim state of foreign news reporting has ignored the promise of the Internet. Reports in January that the Boston Globe would shutter its remaining three overseas bureaus triggered a number of opinion essays decrying the trend. But few of these commentators recognized the […]

Editor’s note: The United Nations has declared April 4 as International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. BOGOTÁ, Colombia — As Colombia enters its fifth decade of civil war, landmines are causing what Colombia’s top military commander describes as the “greatest damage” to his nation’s armed forces, accounting for 50 percent of military casualties. In recent years, as Colombian troops have intensified their campaign against the country’s Marxist guerrillas, landmines have become the guerillas’ most effective and destructive weapon. Landmines, together with unexploded ordnance like hand grenades, mortars and bombs, claimed three victims a day last year […]