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Monday, February 7, 2011 Podcast: The week ahead: February 7-11, 2011A guerrilla hostage release in Colombia. Upcoming battles over the foreign aid budget in Washington. Visits to the region from the Secretary of the Treasury and State's top counter-drug official. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download
Monday, January 31, 2011 Podcast: The week ahead: January 31 - February 4, 2011A visit from Colombia's defense minister. Cutbacks to control of arms smuggled into Mexico. Brazil's president visits Argentina, but America's president doesn't. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Podcast: Secretary Clinton's visit to MexicoUpon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's January 24-25 visit to Mexico, Adam talks to WOLA's Maureen Meyer about U.S. assistance, human rights, Mexico's struggle against drug-fueled violence, and the long leadup to the country's 2012 elections. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Podcast: The week ahead: January 17-21, 2011Adam talks about "Baby Doc's" unfortunate return to Haiti, the use of a Pinochet-era statute to put down protests in Chile, and emerging armed groups and free-trade ratification prospects in Colombia. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download Friday, January 14, 2011 Podcast: The U.S. fight to keep traditional coca use illegalThough cocaine is illegal, some South American indigenous groups have chewed coca leaves for centuries. This traditional use violates the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Bolivia is trying to amend this international convention, but the United States is blocking its efforts. Adam talks with WOLA's Coletta Youngers about what is happening. Incidentally, the website of the U.S. Embassy in La Paz no longer recommends coca tea as an altitude-sickness remedy, as Adam mentions in the podcast. The page where this recommendation appeared can still be viewed at the Internet Archive. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download
Monday, January 10, 2011 Podcast: The week ahead: January 10-14, 2011Adam looks at FARC activity in Colombia, drug-related violence in Mexico, and the question of Venezuela and the OAS Democratic Charter. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download Thursday, November 25, 2010 Podcast and more: Conference of Defense Ministers of the AmericasGreetings from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where the Ninth bi-annual Conference of Ministers of Defense of the Americas has just ended. It was four days of discussions and meetings between defense delegations from every country in the region except Cuba and Honduras, the two countries currently suspended from the Organization of American States. The main issues discussed were
Ministers could not agree on proposals to establish new mechanisms for either transparency or disaster response. However, the final declaration praises efforts that member countries have taken in both areas, and commits the members to study how to make both work better. A common theme in many of the discussions was the military’s involvement in internal roles like crimefighting, counter-drugs, and development projects. Some countries, especially in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay), came out in favor of a strict division between external defense and internal security, with the military restricted to the former. Others, especially in the Andes and Central America, both left and right, favored giving the military large internal roles and duties.
Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening.
Monday, November 15, 2010 Podcast: The Week Ahead, November 15-19, 2010Adam gives a quick overview of the lame-duck Congress, the Costa Rica - Nicaragua border dispute, an upcoming defense ministers' meeting in Bolivia, and public events in Washington this week. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download
Sunday, November 14, 2010 Podcast: "Preach What You Practice," a new WOLA report on military roles, police roles, and U.S. aid
U.S. law prohibits using soldiers as police, but U.S. aid programs encourage Latin American militaries to take on internal roles. At home, notes Preach What You Practice, a report the Washington Office on Latin America will launch later this week, "the United States has a clear separation between the uses of its military and the uses of its law enforcement agencies." In Latin America, though, our policies "often do just the opposite: encourage Latin American governments to use their militaries against their own people." WOLA's Regional Security Policy Program staff discuss this paradox and the new report's recommendations. Preach What You Practice will be released this week and will be available on the WOLA and "Just the Facts" websites. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download
Monday, November 8, 2010 Podcast: The week ahead: November 8-12, 2010In what we hope will be a regular weekly feature - as regular as we can make it - Adam looks at the likely new House leadership here in Washington, and the ongoing thaw in relations between Colombia and Venezuela. Subscribe to the "Just the Facts" podcast here and on iTunes. Thank you for listening. Download
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