- Colombia: Violence intensifies in southwest of the country as FARC holdout group attacks police and military
May 21, 2024
Violence intensified in southwestern Colombia on Monday when a bomb blast injured six people in the city of Jamundi and an attack by insurgents on a police station in the rural town of Morales left at least two officers dead, according to police. Colombia’s government attributed the attacks to the FARC-EMC a rebel group that broke ...
- Royal Bermuda Regiment soldiers get explosives training in Barbados
May 14, 2024
A pair of female soldiers with the Royal Bermuda Regiment are set to be the first women in the battalion trained in searching for explosives. Lance Corporal Co-shae Bartrum and Lance Corporal Ashley Grant are both undergoing training in Barbados as part of Exercise Tradewinds 2024. They are joined there by Acting Warrant Officer Class 2 ...
- Brazil’s participation in international cooperation in Mine Action
April 17, 2024
Although Brazilian territory is not affected by these threats, Brazil has not been left out of the global effort to eliminate mines and explosive threats and has become a signatory to the Ottawa Treaty. In compliance with Article 6 of the Ottawa Treaty, Brazil has participated in international cooperation and assistance in Mine Action since the ...
- U.S. Marine Fleet-Anti-terrorism Security Team (FAST) deployed to secure the U.S. Embassy in Haiti
March 13, 2024
U.S. Southern Command – “At the request of the Department of State, the U.S. Southern Command deployed a U.S. Marine Fleet-Anti-terrorism Security Team (FAST) to maintain strong security capabilities at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and conduct relief in place for our current Marines, a common and routine practice worldwide — and allow additional ...
- CARICOM: Emergency summit in Jamaica to address spiraling Haiti crisis
March 11, 2024
Envoys from key nations were set to meet Monday in Jamaica to address the spiraling instability in Haiti, where gang violence has crippled the impoverished nation’s capital and forced foreign diplomats to evacuate over the weekend. Armed groups, which already control much of Port-au-Prince as well as roads leading to the rest of the country, have ...
- Mexican Drug Cartels Employ Landmines and IEDs in Escalating Turf Wars
March 9, 2024
The series of blasts in the Tierra Caliente — an area along the border of Jalisco and Michoacán states that has long been a hot zone for cartel warfare — mark an alarming escalation of violence in Mexico as criminal groups arm themselves with ever-more sophisticated and deadly weaponry. The drug war in Mexico has come ...
- Haiti: Gangs try to seize control of main airport as thousands escape prisons
March 5, 2024
Heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport on Monday, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites in an explosion of violence that includes a mass escape from the country’s two biggest prisons. Hours after the airport assault, officials said Haiti’s police academy came under ...
- Ecuador: Armed men break into a live TV studio as the country is rocked by attacks
January 9, 2024
Armed men have broken into the set of a public television channel in Ecuador as it broadcast live and threatened people as the country reels from a series of attacks after the government imposed a state of emergency in the wake of the apparent escape of a powerful gang leader from prison. Men with their faces ...
- Ecuador: Video shows police blowing up explosive-laden drone on prison’s roof
September 13, 2023
A drone loaded with explosives blasted a hole in the roof of a prison that has held some of Ecuador’s most notorious drug lords, in the latest sign of the nation’s slide into chaos. Police special forces carried out a controlled explosion of the drone Tuesday after it landed on the penitentiary known as “La Roca,” ...
- Ecuadorian police arrest six after car bombs explode in Quito
August 31, 2023
Police in Ecuador have arrested six suspects after a car bombing in a commercial area of the capital, Quito, as the South American nation grapples with a surge in violence that authorities say is linked to drug trafficking. The explosion late on Wednesday did not cause any casualties, police said. Read more… Source: Al-Jazeera
- Mexico: Drug cartels are sharply increasing use of bomb-dropping drones
August 23, 2023
The Mexican army said Tuesday that drug cartels have increased their use of roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices — especially bomb-dropping drones — this year, with 42 soldiers, police and suspects wounded by IEDs so far in 2023, up from 16 in 2022. The figures provided by Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval appeared to include ...
- Mexican army says drug cartels are increasing their use of roadside bombs
August 22, 2023
The Mexican army said Tuesday that drug cartels have increased their use of roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices this year, with 42 soldiers, police and suspects wounded by IEDs so far in 2023, up from 16 in 2022. The figures provided by Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval appeared to include only those wounded by explosive ...
- Brazilian government launches programme to improve security at airports
June 22, 2023
On Wednesday, 21 June, the federal government launched a programme to improve passenger and baggage security at Brazilian airports. The programme, called Airports + Security (Aeroportos + Seguros), includes, among other measures, the installation of new X-ray equipment and scanners, more cameras in the check-in area, more thorough baggage screening and the use of liquid ...
- Ecuador police deactivate explosive device taped to guard
March 30, 2023
Police successfully deactivated a vest-like explosive device Thursday that an unknown number of people allegedly had taped to the chest of a security guard at a jewelry store in Ecuador’s main port city. The guard was uninjured. Authorities would question him to try to locate any suspects, said Francesco Tabacchi, governor of the state of Guayas, ...
- Colombia: Militants kill 9 soldiers in attack in Norte de Santander state
March 29, 2023
Militants in Colombia killed nine soldiers and wounded nine others in an attack early Wednesday on a military unit securing a northern pipeline, officials said, complicating efforts by the country’s new leftist president to negotiate a lasting peace. The assailants attacked with long-range weapons and improvised explosive devices in El Carmen, in Norte de Santander state ...
- Colombia: Civilians face heightened danger from landmines
February 22, 2023
Berna Nastacuas Pai held a dangerous job as a member of a patrol that guards his Indigenous Awa community in southern Colombia. His duty, to inspect the El Gran Sabalo Reservation for security breaches, exposed him to armed rebels and criminal gangs engaged in battles over drug routes. Recently, he had reduced his rounds as the ...
- Brazil: Man carrying explosive device and knife arrested, military police say
January 1, 2023
A man carrying an explosive device and a knife has been arrested while attempting to enter the inauguration of Brazil’s new president, according to military police. The man was trying to enter Brasilia’s esplanade for the inauguration of President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to a spokesperson from the city’s military police force. As many as ...
- Brazil: Police arrest man suspected of planting explosives at Brasilia International Airport ahead of presidential inauguration
December 26, 2022
The man arrested for being involved in a bombing attempt at Brasilia International Airport over the weekend said in a written statement to police that he intended to “create chaos” so a “siege state in the country” would be installed to prevent former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office again in January, The ...
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