Retired Army General Otto Pérez Molina (left) won Sunday's runoff presidential election in Guatemala, seizing on voters' concerns about growing insecurity in the Central American nation. Pérez led with more than 53 percent of the vote, Guatemala's election authority said. His opponent, businessman Manuel Baldizón, garnered 46 percent of the vote. Both candidates had promised to tackle growing insecurity and the presence of Mexican drug gangs in the country, an area of special concern to the Central American nation, due to its prominence as a key transit point for drugs from South America to the United States.

As a means to increase government revenues, which the government says will help reduce the nation’s ever-expanding federal deficit, the Department of Homeland Security is looking into a proposed change to border crossing policies that would force Canadians looking to visit the United States, arriving via air or sea, to pay more for the privilege.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) 2005 report “Building a North American Community" not only clearly outlined how George W. Bush’s lax policy on illegal immigration served to build the foundation of a North American Union, but also revealed the extent of Republican influence toward the creation of the NAU. Republican task force members who authored the blueprint for the NAU include Heidi Cruz (Economic Director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council under Condoleezza Rice), Richard Falkenrath (Bush’s Deputy Homeland Security Adviser and fellow at the neoconservative Brookings Institution), and Carla Hills (a former Assistant Attorney General and U.S. Trade Representative under Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush).

One of the most dangerous and pressing threats to American sovereignty is the proposed creation of the North American Union, a European Union-style amalgamation of the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a borderless, unified continental body. In the United States, one of the main proponents of the NAU has been former President George W. Bush, whose policy of open borders and a lenient approach to immigration is indicative of his desire to erase national borders, under the guise of a “Security, Peace, and Prosperity Partnership of North America.”

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa (left) is perceived by many to be leading his country down the road of Venezuelan-style statism, socialism, and dictatorship — increasingly so in the past several weeks.

In the most recent example, a May 7 constitutional referendum — despite opposition members and activists in the human rights community labeling the 10 proposed areas of reform a power grab on behalf of Correa’s government (including the proposal to give the President more of a say over judicial appointments) — the President's "reforms" received widespread support from Ecuadorian voters. While casting his vote, President Correa dismissed the opposition's concerns. "They've been saying it's totalitarian... [a word] used for a state in which things are done by force. We're doing this democratically," he protested.

In one of the most ironic and revealing moves in the unfolding of relations between the United States and China, China has announced that it is seeking a shift to the gold standard. According to the World Gold Council, the market development organization for the gold industry, China’s appetite for gold has been rapidly expanding: It consumed 175.2 tons of gold in the fourth quarter of 2010, bringing its grand total for the year to 579.5 tons, or 18.5 million ounces. By comparison, the United States consumed a mere 233.3 tons of gold in 2010. While it is unknown how much of China’s gold acquisitions were made by private citizens, industry, or central banks, speculations remain as to what the country's true intentions are regarding its continued massive purchase and use of the gold.

Texas Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry is no stranger to controversy. Perry’s record as Governor is marred by numerous instances of increased taxation, lackluster job growth, and fiscal impropriety and outright corruption, all tied together by a common ethos of fiscal liberalism, Keynesian economics, and statism — a desire for increased governmental power. While Perry’s economic record and association with the Bilderberg Group ought to be of legitimate concern to true conservatives, another aspect of his record must also be scrutinized: his associations with the Islamist Aga Khan Foundation, which has been linked to incendiary anti-American and anti-Western rhetoric and has been identified as a source of funding to numerous terror groups.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is no stranger to controversy. The protests have drawn extremists and radicals of various stripes, from labor union members, to far-left Democrats, and members of various communist and socialist movements. As reported earlier by The New American, the movement has even been home to several high-profile anti-Semites, who, like their statist intellectual heroes Marx, Keynes, and Proudhon, blame their woes on perceived Jewish involvement in free-market capitalism. However, an analysis of the movement also reveals deep-seated connections between its Marxist members and radical Islamist groups, a classical example of the Islamo-Communist connection identified on many occasions as fueling the “Arab Spring” protests.

For the past three weeks, protestors of various stripes have made their way to New York City’s Financial District as part of the movement known as “Occupy Wall Street,” a self-described “people-powered movement for democracy inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprisings.” Democratic Party bigwigs such as Al Sharpton, former Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and countless other elected officials have lent their support to the cause, which has also merited the participation of numerous labor unions, and a host of socialist, communist, and other radical leftist political parties and groups, including the International ANSWER Coalition (which has demonstrably provided much support and strategic input to the Islamist and communist forces protesting in Cairo).

After an intense summer of campaigning, political history was made last night in New York�s Ninth Congressional District, as Republican Bob Turner (left) emerged victorious over his Democratic opponent, Assemblyman David Weprin. In a stinging rebuke to Weprin and to his litany of liberal, statist positions, which voters associated with Obama, voters in the heavily Democratic district turned out in droves for Turner, putting into Republican hands a seat which has consistently been held by a Democrat since 1921.