Talking About Latin America

Relations between the United States and close ally Colombia have hit their roughest patch in years. It is being aggravated by disagreement over the FARC peace accord and how to deal with coca eradication. A better-briefed Secretary of State could deal with this more effectively, but that doesn't seem to be Rex Tillerson's style.

April 25, 2017: The Trump White House came dangerously close to shutting down the U.S. government over funding for its proposed wall along the border with Mexico. Here I explain the budget process, what we know of the administration’s wall-building plans, and why it’s a bad idea. The White House’s 2017 budget request is here. Here is a report and a CBP document, released by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), with the best level of detail we’ve seen about wall-building plans. Here’s a piece I did for WOLA at the end of March called “Throwing Money at the Wall.”

April 6, 2017: Did you know that the U.S. government now has 107 programs that it can use to aid foreign militaries and police forces? Neither did I, before we started working on what turned out to be a huge report, or project, or "thing," that's now nearly complete. The new resource I discuss here doesn't have a name yet, but you can check it out in draft form at defenseassistance.org/program. (In mid-April this will move to defenseoversight.wola.org.) I also discuss the Security Assistance Monitor program, which I highly recommend you visit at securityassistance.org.

March 24, 2017: In this inaugural episode, I voice some gnawing concerns about whether, and how, Colombia is going to implement its peace accords. This may be a recurring theme. I refer to a few documents here: The UN monitoring mission's latest report. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' report on 2016 (English | Español). WOLA's statement about the transitional justice bill. Colombia's peace accord. The "Post-Conflict Colombia" tag on my blog.