Security & Strategic Review - October 2025

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the 3 September general election, rewarding Prime Minister Andrew Holness for the country’s impressive advances since he took power in 2016.... Read More

A US military build-up in the Caribbean Sea since late August has caused tensions to reach new heights between the White House and Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

A 4 September visit to Ecuador by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was notable for two reasons.... Read More

Over three years into President Gustavo Petro’s four-year term, hopes for a breakthrough in his flagship ‘total peace’ initiative have been all but extinguished.... Read More

With over a dozen coup d’états or attempted coups in Brazil’s history, only one has been punished in the country’s courts.... Read More

Federal and state authorities carried out major money laundering busts in late August which are believed to have exposed the possible infiltration of organised crime in companies across a variety of sectors, including gas stations and fintech firms.... Read More

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has attended the inauguration event of a new police base in the city of Manaus, the Centro de Cooperação Policial Internacional da Amazônia (CCPI Amazônia).... Read More

With opinion surveys frequently showing violence and crime as among the top public concerns in Chile, it was unsurprising that discussion about security proposals dominated the first televised presidential debate on 10 September.... Read More

Mexico’s navy has taken on an increasingly important role in helping authorities combat organised crime over the past two decades, becoming one of the country’s most trusted institutions in the process.... Read More

On 25 August Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García, the co-founder of the Cártel de Sinaloa, pleaded guilty in a US federal court in New York to charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (Rico) and of leading a continuing criminal enterprise.... Read More

Mexico marked the eleventh anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teacher training college in Guerrero state on 26 September.... Read More

In mid-August, retired general Álvaro Baltodano, a former Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) guerrilla, was formally accused of money laundering by Nicaragua’s authoritarian FSLN government led by co-presidents Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo.... Read More

In early September Panama’s Public Security Minister Frank Ábrego announced an “inter-institutional offensive” aimed at dismantling criminal networks that use containers to transport narcotics from Panama’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts.... Read More

At the end of August, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama joined forces in Panama City to try and halt the spread of New World screwworm (NWS), which occurs when NWS fly larvae (Cochliomyia hominivorax) infest the flesh of living mammals – primarily cattle but also other domestic and wild species, including human beings.... Read More

Guyana’s 2020 general election was always the one to win, which was why then-president David Granger and his then-ruling Apnu-AFC (A Partnership for National Unity-Alliance for Change) coalition took five months to concede defeat to Irfaan Ali’s People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in what was a closely fought election.... Read More