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PRESENTATION
A radar in the U.S. security region
The report American Regional Security (ARS) launched by the Center for Global Affairs & Strategic Studies of the University of Navarra aims to address annually the most recent threats to the security of American countries. It deals with a space that is largely the security region of the United States, so many aspects transcend the national sphere and move into geopolitical consideration. The security of the Western Hemisphere is therefore also of concern to the European Union and Spain, which have an interest in stability and prosperity on the other side of the Atlantic.
American nations often blame the United States for not attending to the needs of the rest of the continent except when it perceives a direct threat to its security. But the same Latin American states often look the other way when their neighbors face serious problems, and only contravene what is a peculiar idiosyncrasy of the region - not to interfere in other people's sovereignty so that no one will question their own - when their own security is at risk. The most recent example is Venezuela. After a long period of authoritarian government and humanitarian crisis in that nation, the United States has reacted to feel somehow threatened by the Russian presence in the Caribbean, while the surrounding countries have reacted to the migratory spill-over caused by the Venezuelan collapse.
Security is thus the touchstone of hemispheric affairs, constituting its most truly regional aspect. Hence our desire to address this field as a priority. The report SRA aims to gather the most significant events of recent months in areas ranging from drug trafficking and terrorism to migration and the presence in the continent of extra-hemispheric powers, such as Russia and China. It is a radar-like sweep of the most relevant events of the last year in security matters in a region where geopolitics has returned.
Emili J Blasco
Center for Global Affairs & Strategic Studies
CONTENTS
SUMMARY EXECUTIVE
Geopolitics returns to the Western Hemisphere
EXTRAHEMISPHERIC PRESENCE
Russia increases its strategic focus on the Greater Caribbean due to the Venezuelan crisis
Irene Maspons
EXTRAHEMISPHERIC PRESENCE
China advances in Central America
Jimena Villacorta
EXGUERRILLAS
FARC dissidents consolidate their criminal activities
María Gabriela Fajardo
PIRATE
Growing alarm over piracy in waters between Venezuela and Guyanas
Manuel Lamela
NARCOTERRORISM
Significant steps forward in cooperation against Hezbollah in the TBA
Lisa Cubías
ISLAMIST TERRORISM
U.S. tracks return of ISIS jihadists to Trinidad and Tobago hotbed
Ignacio Yárnoz
MIGRATIONS
U.S. and Panama deploy task force to filter the Darien Passage
Alex Puigrefagut
DRUG TRAFFICKING
Efforts in Washington and Mexico are apparently deflating the opioid epidemic
Marcelina Kropiwnicka