Southeast Asia
Burma: new airstrikes on Kachin rebels
Burma's army claimed responsibility for air-strikes against Kachin rebel positions in the north—less than a day after the government denied the strikes had taken place.
Tag: narco wars
The Andes
Bolivia: progress seen in coca policy
Total area planted with coca in Bolivia dropped by up to 13% last year, as both eradication efforts and the areas where coca can be legally cultivated were expanded.
The Andes
Bolivia: prison corruption scandal widens
A Brooklyn businessman was freed from prison in Bolivia on money-laundering charges after he accused authorities of extorting him and illegally seizing his goods.
Mexico
Mexico: bloody Christmas in Michoacán, Sinaloa
A spate of shootouts between rival cartels and police forces left over 20 dead around the Christmas holiday in the Mexican states of Michoacán, Jalisco and Sinaloa.
Mexico
Mexico: prison seized by army after uprising
A prison in northern Mexico’s Durango has been siezed by the military after an armed uprising by inmates left nine guards and 14 prisoners dead.
North Africa
Mali: regime, rebels both divided
As Mali’s prime minister is removed by the junta, Ansar Dine rebels are embraced in peace talks—while the MUJAO rebels are sanctioned by the UN as an al-Qaeda front.
Mexico
Mexico: peasant ecologist killed in Guerrero
Juventina Villa Mojica, an environmental activist in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero, was killed along with her 10-year-old son in a mountaintop attack by 30 gunmen.
Mexico
Mexico: more mass graves in Chihuahua, Guerrero
A total of 19 bodies were found in clandestine graves in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state, after local police were tipped off by the US consulate in Ciudad Juárez.
Mexico
Mexico: pressure mounts for drug legalization
Mexican think-tanks say that state measures for cannabis legalization in the US will undercut cartel profits, and note that personal users bear the brunt of enforcement.
Southern Cone
Brazil: crime wars rock Sao Paulo
Brazilian police launched "Operation Saturation" to crush the Sao Paolo criminal network known as the First Capital Command (PCC), flooding the favelas with paramilitary troops.
Afghanistan
Treasury Department sanctions Taliban ‘kingpin’
The US Treasury Department sanctioned a senior Taliban official for his alleged role in the Afghan opium trade, saying the traffic is used to finance violence.
Central America
Criminal gangs threaten Maya Biosphere Reserve
Mexican drug cartels that use cattle ranching to launder narco-profits as well as Chinese-backed illegal timber gangs are eating into Guatemala's vast Maya Biosphere Reserve.