Making sense of US "assistance" to Latin America

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) recently asked a series of important questions concerning the explosion in US special operations deployments to Latin America over the last decade in U.S. Special Operations in Latin America: Parallel Diplomacy? As US military aid to the region has been decreasing, we have witnessed a simultaneous increase in the number of Joint Combined Exchange Training's (JCET) involving the deployment of US forces to the region to work alongside regional partners.

However, we don't know very much about what regional security forces we have worked with (outside of the destination country); who is making the decision and how to schedule these deployments; and the cost-benefit of these operations.

 Sarah Kinosian and Adam Isacson compliled the report.

While we are questioning US policy towards the region, you might want to check out a new CEPR paper that questions the effectiveness of various CARSI programs in Central America.