Security & Strategic Review - July 2025

One of the most divisive political figures in Argentina’s recent history, former president (2007-2015) and vice president (2019-2023) Cristina Fernández, began serving her prison sentence under house arrest on 17 June, after the supreme court (CSJN) upheld her conviction on corruption charges a week earlier.... Read More

A constitutional ban on foreign military bases was one of the defining legacies of Ecuador’s former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and one which continues to generate fierce debate between parties on the left and right.... Read More

The motivations behind an assassination attempt against conservative opposition Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay remained shrouded in uncertainty at the time of writing in late June.... Read More

Colombia was elected for a two-year term on the United Nations (UN) Security Council on 3 June as one of five new non-permanent members selected by the UN General Assembly.... Read More

The economic impact of Peru’s rising crime rate was underlined in late June in two surveys by local business lobbies and think tanks.... Read More

Argentina’s President Javier Milei signed a decree on 16 June to expand the powers of the federal police (PFA), which includes allowing arrests and digital surveillance without a warrant.... Read More

Brazil’s supreme court (STF) ruled on 26 June that social media companies could be held liable for not actively removing harmful content.... Read More

Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña held a launch event on 17 June to trumpet his government’s new 2025-2028 National Cybersecurity Strategy.... Read More

Mexico’s first-ever judicial elections have concluded with sweeping victories in key courts for candidates that appear to be aligned with the ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena).... Read More

President Claudia Sheinbaum and other federal government officials were delivering a regular morning press conference on 20 May when the news reached them that two high-level Mexico City (CDMX) officials had just been gunned down on a busy city street.... Read More

On 5 June the US supreme court dealt a fatal blow to the unprecedented lawsuit that Mexico’s government brought against the US arms industry in 2021.... Read More

Various international press freedom lobbies and institutions such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)’s Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (SRFOE) have flagged up concerns regarding reports of criminalisation of the press by the police (PNH) and military (FFAA) in Honduras, one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists.... Read More

In late May Margaret Satterthwaite, the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, released a preliminary report following a visit to Guatemala.... Read More

Amid the protests against Panama’s government led by President José Raúl Mulino over a recent social security reform and US security agreements (see our sister publications LatinNews Daily and Latin American Weekly Report for the latest on this), leading construction workers’ union Sindicato Único Nacional de Trabajadores de la Construcción y Similares (Suntracs) has denounced persecution by the government.... Read More

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is feeling even more vulnerable than usual in the face of multiple challenges ranging from US tariffs to rising sea levels.... Read More