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Land Mines In Latin America And The Caribbean
Land mines in Latin America and the Caribbean are a by-product of the Cold War-era conflicts starting off in the 19th century. Contrary to the requirements of generally accepted international law, the minefields of Latin America and the Caribbean (including Central America), were usually unmarked and unrecorded on maps. Once placed, mines remain active for decades, waiting the pressure of an unwary foot to detonate. As of 2023, within all of the Americas the only nations not to ratify the AP Mine Ban Convention are Cuba and the United States. Background With an estimated 100,000 land mines buried across Central America, mainly in Nicaragua, there was grave concern over their location and removal or deactivation as the Cold War began to wind down. In August 1991 Nicaragua asked the Organization of American States (OAS) for assistance, and the Secretary General forwarded the request to the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB), which sent a group of staff officers to Nicaragua to ass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term ''Cold war (term), cold war'' is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and Nuclear arms race, nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, Economic sanctions, embargoes, and sports diplomacy. After the end of World War II in 1945, during which the US and USSR had been allies, the USSR installed satellite state, satellite governments in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guatemalan Army
The Guatemalan Armed Forces () is the unified military organization comprising the Guatemalan Army, Navy, Air Force, and Presidential Honor Guard. The president of Guatemala is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy, training, and budget through the Minister of Defence. Day-to-day operations are conducted by the Chief of the General Staff. History Guatemala is a signatory to the Rio Pact and was a member of the Central American Defense Council (CONDECA). The President of the Republic is commander-in-chief. Prior to 1945 the Defence Ministry was titled the Secretariat of War (''Secretaría de la Guerra''). An agreement signed in September 1996, which is one of the substantive peace accords, mandated that the mission of the armed forces change to focus exclusively on external threats. Presidents Álvaro Arzú and his successors Alfonso Portillo, Óscar Berger and Álvaro Colom, have used a constitutional clause to order the army on a temporary ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaime Perales Contreras
Jaime Perales Contreras was born in Mexico City. Mexican cultural critic, public commentator and scholar. He wrote the first full-fledged biography on Nobel Award Winner for Literature Octavio Paz. (Octavio Paz y su círculo intellectual (2013), finalist XX Comillas Award for Biography and History, Barcelona, Spain. Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Award Laureate, praised about Perales's book: "a mandatory reading for understanding the politics and culture of the last twenty years in the Americas of the twentieth century" Biography He earned his PhD in literature and cultural studies from Georgetown University, and a master's degree in International Relations from the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He did his undergraduate studies in social sciences at ITAM . His previous work on Paz influenced quite a few studies on the poet's work. He worked for 12 years at the Organization of American States in the fields of Democracy and Humanitarian Secu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ottawa Treaty
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or often simply the Mine Ban Treaty, aims at eliminating anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel landmines (APLs) around the world. By March 2025, 165 states had ratified or acceded to the treaty. Major powers, which are also past and current manufacturers of landmines, are not parties to the treaty. These include the United States, China, and Russia. Other non-signatories include India and Pakistan. Amidst use of mines by non-signatory belligerent Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukraine has not followed the treaty. In 2025, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland announced their intentions to withdraw. Chronology Early action and draft Conventions Threats to the compre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unexploded Ordnance
Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not explosion, explode when they were deployed and remain at risk for Detonation#Applications, detonation, sometimes many decades after they were used or discarded. When unwanted munitions are found, they are sometimes destroyed in Controlled explosion, controlled explosions, but accidental detonation of even very old explosives might also occur, sometimes with fatal consequences. For example, UXO from World War I continues to be a hazard, with poisonous gas filled munitions still a problem. UXO does not always originate from conflict; areas such as military training bases can also hold significant numbers, even after the area has been abandoned. Seventy-eight countries are contaminated by land mines, which kill or maim 15,000–20,000 people ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-personnel Mine
An anti-personnel mine or anti-personnel landmine (APL) is a form of land mine, mine designed for use against human, humans, as opposed to an anti-tank mine, which target vehicles. APLs are classified into: blast mines and fragmentation mines; the latter may or may not be a bounding mine. APLs are often designed to injure and mutilation, maim, not kill, their victims to overwhelm the logistical (mostly medical) support system of enemy forces that encounter them. Some types of APLs can also damage the tracks on armoured vehicles or the tires of wheeled vehicles. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has sought to ban mines and destroy stockpile. For this purpose, it introduced in 1997 the Ottawa Treaty, which has not yet been accepted by over 30 states and has not guaranteed the protection of citizens against APLs planted by non-state armed groups. Use Anti-personnel mines are used in a similar manner to anti-tank mines, in static "mine fields" along national borders o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicaraguan Revolution
The Nicaraguan Revolution () began with rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the ouster of the dictatorship in 1978–79, and fighting between the government and the Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution revealed the country as one of the major proxy war battlegrounds of the Cold War. The initial overthrow of the Somoza dictatorial regime in 1978–79 cost many lives, and the Contra War of the 1980s took tens of thousands more and was the subject of fierce international debate. Because of the political turmoil, failing economy, and limited government influence, during the 1980s both the FSLN (a leftist collection of political parties) and the Contras (a rightist collection of counter-revolutionary groups) received aid from the Soviet Union and the United States, respectively. A peace process started with the Sapoá Accords in 1988 and the Contra War ended after the signing of the Tela Accord in 1989 and the demobilization of the FSLN ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union
The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (in Spanish: ''Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca'', URNG-MAIZ or most commonly URNG) is a Guatemalan political party that started as a guerrilla movement in 1982. The party laid down its arms in 1996 and became a legal political party in 1998, after the peace process which ended the Guatemalan Civil War. History Background ''PBSUCCESS'' and early insurgency Since the CIA-backed coup in 1954, opposition groups were continuously forming in an attempt to fight against the repression that the military and wealthy landowners in Guatemala had created. The ensuing military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas immediately on 28 June 1954 banned the Guatemalan Party of Labour (PGT) and shortly later other labor unions and left-wing parties with suspected communist sympathies via Decree 4880. After the assassination of Castillo Armas by a left-wing member of the presidential guard, Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes prevailed in the ensuing p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honduran Army
The Honduran Army is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of Honduras, as established by the Constitution of Honduras, 1982 Constitution. Its recruits are all volunteers. History The Honduran Army has its roots in the post-independence years, in the early 19th century. In 1831, the first Military School was founded in the , an old nunnery. In the next few decades many wars were fought against neighbouring countries. There were also Filibuster (military), filibusters, hundreds of internal rebellions, and civil wars. In 1909, the Corporals and Sargeants School was created, aiming to organize the army's troops over the Prussian doctrine. Nearly a decade later, in 1917, the National Military School was created to form cadets and officers for the army which was based in Toncontin, Tegucigalpa. In 1937, a Machine Gun Corps was established (some 22 years after the British Machine Gun Corps had been established, and 15 years after it had been disestablished), and in 1946 the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicaragua
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and Honduras. Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean and shares maritime borders with El Salvador to the west and Colombia to the east. The country's largest city and national capital is Managua, the List of largest cities in Central America#Largest cities proper, fourth-largest city in Central America, with a population of 1,055,247 as of 2020. Nicaragua is known as "the breadbasket of Central America" due to having the most fertile soil and arable land in all of Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European, and African heritage. The country's most spoken language is Spanish language, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by the U.S. military) is a United States military base located on of land and water on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It has been leased from Cuba to the U.S., without expiry, since 1903 as a coaling station and naval base. It the oldest overseas American naval base. The lease was $2,000 per year (paid in gold) until 1934, when the payment was set to match the value of gold in dollars; in 1974, the yearly lease was modified to $4,085. Since taking power in 1959, the Cuban government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil, arguing that the base was imposed on Cuba by force and is illegal under international law. The lease requires either bilateral consent or full U.S. military withdrawal in order to terminate lease. Since 2002, the naval base has contained a military prison, for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically bordered to the south by the Pacific Ocean and to the northeast by the Gulf of Honduras. The territory of modern Guatemala hosted the core of the Maya civilization, which extended across Mesoamerica; in the 16th century, most of this was Spanish conquest of Guatemala, conquered by the Spanish and claimed as part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Guatemala attained independence from Spain and Mexico in 1821. From 1823 to 1841, it was part of the Federal Republic of Central America. For the latter half of the 19th century, Guatemala suffered instability and civil strife. From the early 20th century, it was ruled by a series of dictators backed by the United States. In 1944, authoritarian leader Jorge Ubico was overthrown by a pro-democratic m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
