By Joseph Kirschke
10 Apr 2009 |
World Politics Review
Citing a need to
crack down on drug trafficking, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez used federal agents to take over major seaports and airstrips in four
states last week. Chávez opponents blasted the move as a bid to
tighten political control amid plunging oil prices. The true motives of the
controversial Venezuelan leader may be as varied and complex as the
nature of his 11-year-old presidency.
By Joseph Kirschke
30 Mar 2009 |
World Politics Review
WASHINGTON -- U.S. border-control measures have
pushed illegal Mexican immigration routes deep into desert areas, making the
journey more difficult to navigate for the traditional "mom and pop" coyotes. Into the breach have appeared well-organized criminal gangs. Their role in the current violence in Mexico is not often acknowledged.
By Joseph Kirschke
26 Oct 2008 |
World Politics Review
While renewed concerns about al-Qaida, reconstituted and ready to plan
new attacks against the U.S., have become the subject of headlines
and presidential debates, the threats posed to American and
international interests by al-Qaida subgroups in places like Chechnya,
Somalia and, most notably, Algeria have gone largely ignored. While experts agree that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb must be taken seriously, a consensus is emerging that after some initial successes, the North African franchise just might be on the ropes.
By Joseph Kirschke
11 Sep 2008 |
World Politics Review
Heightened sea
interdiction by the U.S. and the EU along the transatlantic route has forced cocaine traffickers to venture
further south in the Americas, making Venezuela and Brazil Europe's main suppliers of cocaine. At the same time, hamstrung Colombian cartels have been forced to rely on the
outright hospitality of one country to ship cocaine internationally:
Venezuela. Corrupt officials in Venezuela have proven mercenary
in their active encouragement of the trade. Last in a three-part series.
By Joseph Kirschke
10 Sep 2008 |
World Politics Review Exclusive
The drug trade in West Africa is a growing problem for the region's law enforcement officials, who are already overburdened by the rise of violent non-state actors with extremist
goals, including the spread of fundamentalist Islam. The drug trade brings with it organized crime, including networks that are modeled on their violent ken in Latin America, as well as the possibility that extremist groups will find in drug smuggling a lucrative funding stream for carrying out politically inspired violence.
By Joseph Kirschke
09 Sep 2008 |
World Politics Review Exclusive
Stepped up U.S. drug enforcement in Latin
America, coupled with a falling dollar and a surging demand for cocaine
on the streets of Europe, is leading to political and economic chaos
across West Africa, where international narco-traffickers have
established their most recent staging grounds. In fact, the drug trade is fast making large parts of the region ungovernable. In a three part series, WPR explores the threats that shifts in cocaine trafficking pose to regional stability in West Africa and South America.
By Joseph Kirschke
08 Feb 2008 |
World Politics Review Exclusive
WASHINGTON - Despite little evidence that a massive program of
aerial coca crop fumigation has worked in Colombia, and despite serious
reservations by the Pentagon and by Afghan president Hamid Karzai, the
U.S. State Department, backed by the White House, is mulling the
expansion of aerial poppy eradication into Afghanistan as a way to
fight the Taliban. With the Afghan war entering a tenuous new phase, the stakes are high. But critics say crop spraying in Afghanistan is bound to be counterproductive.