Security & Strategic Review - January 2025

The 12 December extradition to the US of Maximiliano Dávila, who headed Bolivia’s counter-narcotics agency (FELCN) in 2019, dealt yet another hammer blow to the organisation’s reputation.... Read More

Salvatore Mancuso, the former deputy commander of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group, was sentenced on 27 November to 40 years in prison for crimes committed during Colombia’s internal conflict.... Read More

Peru’s President Dina Boluarte issued a decree on 26 November declaring a two-year state of emergency in the country’s prison system and in the national prison authority (Inpe).... Read More

In November and December, the federal police (PF) arrested military officers who are believed to have been involved in a plot in 2022 to overturn the election defeat that year of former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023).... Read More

Public concern over accountability for Brazil’s law enforcement institutions has risen in the past few months, following incidents of police killings and excessive force that received considerable media exposure.... Read More

With crime ranking as the top public concern in surveys, the government led by President Gabriel Boric sought to advance a raft of security measures in 2024.... Read More

In an episode described by national media outlets as an embarrassment that undermined the seriousness of Paraguay’s declared commitments to addressing drug trafficking and organised crime, last month Jalil Rachid, the head of the national anti-drug agency (Senad), announced Senad would suspend cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), only to subsequently backtrack.... Read More

Mexican authorities hailed the largest seizure of the synthetic opioid fentanyl in the country’s history on 3 December.... Read More

On 31 December Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum published by decree a reform to expand the list of crimes for which pretrial detention is mandatory.... Read More

The end of November saw two boosts for reproductive rights in Mexico, as the state congresses of Estado de México (Edomex) and Chiapas voted to decriminalise abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.... Read More

“An historic step backwards”.... Read More

A recent report by Honduran civil society group Asociación Para una Sociedad Más Justa (ASJ) has cast fresh doubt on the impact of the state of exception, which has remained in place since it was first rolled out by the leftist Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre) government led by President Xiomara Castro in late 2022 as part of its security policy to tackle extortion [SSR-23-01].... Read More

On 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, women’s groups in Central America, as in other parts of the world, took to the streets to demand justice, effective public policies, and an end to impunity underpinning gender violence.... Read More

In December, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its 2024 Article IV Consultation report for Haiti following consideration by the IMF’s executive board on 20 November.... Read More