Americas/Western Hemisphere October 2025-

1 February 2026
In the world’s driest desert, Chile freezes its future to protect plants
Vicuña, the birthplace of Chile’s first Nobel Laureate, writer Gabriela Mistral, is a dusty little town in the north of the country with colourful facades and cracked cobblestone squares.
The breeze fans its streets, billowing curtains out across empty sidewalks, and street sellers shrink away from the oppressive desert heat, taking their jams and sugar-coated papaya slivers into the shade of covered markets.
A few miles outside of this small town, nestled in the Atacama Desert — one of the driest places on Earth — camouflaged against the reddish brown of a harsh rocky slope, is a research facility dug into the hillside, its hum of activity carried on the dry desert breeze.
This is the Initihuasi seed bank, the mothership in a nationwide network of facilities which are preserving the biological record of Chile’s flora under the strictest of conditions.
“The most important thing for a seed bank is to be away from large populations, because the idea is to save the seeds from catastrophes like wars, among other things,” said Ana Sandoval, a researcher who has worked at the center for more than a decade.
12 February 2026
Apocalypse no: how almost everything we thought we knew about the Maya is wrong
For many years the prevailing debate about the Maya centred upon why their civilisation collapsed. Now, many scholars are asking: how did the Maya survive?
By Marcus Haraldsson
(The Guardian) Thanks to technological advances, we are entering a new age of discovery in the field of ancient history. Improved DNA analysis, advances in plant and climate science, soil and isotope chemistry, linguistics and other techniques such as a laser mapping technology called Lidar, are overturning long-held beliefs. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to Maya archaeology.
Last year, Estrada-Belli’s team, including his Tulane University colleague Marcello A Canuto, published a study with a central finding that would have seemed, just a few years ago, like an outrageously speculative overestimate. When Estrada-Belli first came to Tikal as a child, the best estimate for the classic-era (AD600-900) population of the surrounding Maya lowlands – encompassing present day southern Mexico, Belize and northern Guatemala – would have been about 2 million people. Today, his team believes that the region was home to up to 16 million. That is more than five times the area’s current population. This would mean that more people lived in the classic-era Maya lowlands than on the Italian peninsula during the peak of the Roman empire – all crammed into an area a third of the size.
A comparison between the classic Maya and ancient Rome is instructive in other ways. Some Maya cities were established hundreds of years before the founding of Rome, and they included significantly larger architecture that still stands. Both cultures developed sophisticated astronomy, mathematics, writing and agriculture, as well as elaborate trade arrangements across vast cosmopolitan lands.

23 June
Victory of Trump Ally Ends Colombia’s Crusade to Wean World Off Fossil Fuels
(Financial Post) Outgoing President Gustavo Petro banned new drilling and urged the world to decarbonize. His successor, Abelardo de la Espriella, wants “fracking to the max.”
Colombia Takes a Hard-Right Turn: Who Is Abelardo de la Espriella?
Elizabeth Dickinson of the Crisis Group explains the rise of a new political force in Bogotá
Mark Leon Goldberg
(Global Dispatches) Colombia’s President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella is an unusual politician. For one, he has never held elected office and does not represent a traditional political party. Rather, he built a career as a criminal defense attorney, including in Miami, where he represented high-powered clients facing corruption allegations. He also became a familiar presence in Trump circles, with appearances at Trump properties, and holds American and Italian passports. Trump personally endorsed de la Espriella, seeking a new ally in Bogotá.
De la Espriella’s populist message resonated with Colombians, who narrowly elected him on Sunday. So what does the sudden emergence of this new political force mean for Colombia’s long struggle with armed violence? How does this election fit into a broader pattern of right-wing victories in the region? And can Colombia’s landmark 2016 peace agreement with the FARC hold?

11 June
The Itaipú derby
By Sasha Issenberg, POLITICO’s Managing Editor, Enterprise.
(Politico) Donald Trump’s so-called Donroe Doctrine has included saber-rattling towards Venezuela, Panama, and Cuba; tough talk towards the leftist leaders of Colombia and Brazil; and overt interference in the elections of Argentina and Honduras.
But when it comes to small, landlocked Paraguay, the Trump administration has deployed a different playbook: assiduous, patient diplomacy enlivened by the government’s newly aligned interests in making the country a hub for U.S.-backed data center projects.
Paraguay shares the Itaipú Dam along the Paraná River with Brazil, and historically sold surplus hydroelectric power from the 14-gigawatt facility — more than twice the size of the U.S.’s largest dam — to its much-larger neighbor at rates that many Paraguayans resented as undervaluing a national resource.
In December, Los Angeles-based X8 Cloud announced it was investing $50 billion in a Paraguay data center that will draw power from both the Itaipú and Yacyretá dams, the latter of which borders Argentina. The company says the investment will be the largest AI data center in South America, potentially triggering the type of local resistance such projects have encountered elsewhere.
“Data centers are controversial in South America, amid concerns about water and energy use,” said Benjamin Gedan, a former U.S. State and Treasury Department official who now heads the Stimson Center’s Latin America program in Washington.
While the deal is making new friends for the United States in Paraguay, it risks antagonizing South America’s largest country, whose left-wing government Trump has already tangled with over social-media regulation.

6 June
Colombia’s presidential runoff could impact the future of the Amazon rainforest and fossil fuels
The upcoming Colombian presidential election between Sen. Iván Cepeda, an ally of President Gustavo Petro, and lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, whom U.S. President Donald Trump has endorsed, is shaping up as a stark choice that could impact the future of the Amazon rainforest, fossil fuel development and the rights of Indigenous communities.
(AP) — The June 21 runoff comes at a pivotal moment for Colombia, which under Petro emerged as one of the world’s most vocal advocates for protecting the Amazon and transitioning away from oil, gas and coal, the main drivers of climate change. Analysts say Cepeda would likely represent continuity of Petro’s priorities. He has emphasized Indigenous rights, environmental conservation and reducing Colombia’s dependence on fossil fuels, while signaling support for continuing Petro’s efforts to shift the country toward renewable energy and away from new oil and gas development.

23-24 May
Resurgent Political Risk Derails Rallies Across Emerging Markets
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
– Investors in emerging markets are getting slammed by a fresh wave of political turmoil that is derailing bets from Latin America to Eastern Europe.
– Markets in Colombia and Peru are selling off as traders recalculate odds of left-wing candidates prevailing, and Bolivian bonds have tumbled as street protests threaten supplies of food and medicine.
– The episodes are a fresh reminder of underlying risks that still plague the asset class, which has delivered strong returns for investors in the past year — even as tensions in the Middle East rattled global markets.
Bolivia’s Paz Says Protests Test Democracy Ahead of Talks
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
– Anti-government protests and roadblocks in Bolivia are testing the country’s transition to a democracy, according to President Rodrigo Paz.
– The roadblocks have choked off food, fuel and medical supplies to the administrative capital of La Paz and neighboring El Alto, prompting the US government to send humanitarian aid.
– Protesters, including farmers and supporters of former President Evo Morales, are demanding Paz’s resignation, arguing that he has failed to fulfill his pledge to solve Bolivia’s economic crisis.
The government invited the La Paz farmers’ federation for talks on Sunday and a socioeconomic council is scheduled to hold a monthly meeting Wednesday to discuss economic legislation involving key sectors including oil and gas, mining, lithium and investment.
Paz said he hopes these meetings will produce results, although he pointed out that the constitution allows the use of force.
Protesters resumed blockades Sunday after hours of clashes with security forces on Saturday. Public Works Minister Mauricio Zamora said he was ambushed three times by protesters wielding stones and explosives on Saturday.

28 April
High-level talks begin on moving away from fossil fuels at Colombia conference
(AP) — High-level talks to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels got underway Tuesday in Colombia’s Caribbean city of Santa Marta, where President Gustavo Petro warned the world could “reach a point of no return” without the Amazon’s role in regulating the climate.
The two-day segment of ministers and senior officials marks the political centerpiece of the First Conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels, where more than 50 countries have been discussing how to move away from oil, gas and coal — the main drivers of global warming — toward cleaner energy.
“The conclusion is unavoidable, we must transition away from fossil fuels — not just because it’s good for climate, but because it strengthens our energy independence and security,” said Stientje van Veldhoven, minister for climate policy and green growth for the Netherlands, which is co-hosting the conference with Colombia.

13 April
Peru election stretches into a second day after ballot delivery failures
(AP) — Thousands of Peruvians were back at the polls on Monday for a second day of voting after failure to deliver ballots to voting centers extended Sunday’s election by a day.
Electoral authorities granted the one-day extension to more than 52,000 voters in Peru’s capital, Lima. Peruvians registered to vote in Orlando, Florida, and Paterson, New Jersey, were also allowed to vote Monday for similar reasons.
Voting is mandatory for Peruvians from the ages of 18 to 70. Failure to do so comes with a fine of up to $32.
A former minister, a comedian and a political dynasty heiress are among 35 candidates vying to become Peru’s ninth president in just 10 years.
The election comes as a surge in violent crime and corruption has fueled widespread discontent among voters, who largely view candidates as dishonest and unprepared for the presidency.
10 April
Three high stakes elections in Hungary, Peru and Djibouti
(International Intrigue) Peruvians are now due to elect their ninth president since 2018! That’s a higher cast turnover than Grey’s Anatomy, and if that weren’t enough, a record ~35 contenders will appear on Sunday’s ballot! Two obvious questions:
Why so much turnover? It’s about party fragmentation in a dysfunctional congress using impeachment to dominate a weak executive
Why so many candidates? It’s about a low barrier to entry + deep popular distrust, eroding traditional parties and fuelling outsider candidates
This vote will go to a 2nd round in June, but the head-turning top names include…
The conservative heiress Keiko Fujimori, pledging to recreate her divisive late father’s fast-growth, low-crime success (just without the crimes against humanity)
The comedian Carlos Alvarez who, citing Ukraine’s Zelensky as inspiration, hopes sheer name recognition can deliver a win for his centre-right platform, and…
The hotel tycoon and mayor Lopez Aliaga (nicknamed Porky!), pledging straight-talking results as ‘Peru’s Bolsonaro’ (just minus the coup attempt)
So… where’s the intrigue?
Based on polls (see epic caveat), one way or another, Peru seems likely to join the region’s broader trend via a conservative president pledging a pro-business, tough-on-crime, US-friendly way to stabilise. All front-runners are hoping it’s enough to attract investment back into the massive copper and silver deposits fuelling the global energy transition.

6 April
How the Iran war is torpedoing the Donroe Doctrine
(Politico Forecast) The spillover effects of the U.S. and Israel military campaign against Iran are being felt around the world. But nowhere are the unintended consequences being felt in quite the same way as Latin America, where the ongoing war is throttling President Donald Trump’s “Donroe doctrine.”
As part of Trump’s refocusing of strategic resources on the Western Hemisphere, the administration worked aggressively over the past year to secure the election of a bumper crop of right-wing leaders in Latin America.
…rising fuel prices and the third-order disruptions associated with shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz — including feared global fertilizer shortages — are starting to make life significantly more difficult for those Latin American leaders.
The most dramatic example of this phenomenon is Chile, where the most dramatic increase in fuel prices in nearly half a century has nixed any honeymoon period for the country’s newly-elected president, Jose Antonio Kast. Kast, who took office just weeks ago, is now underwater in opinion polls, as voters decry recent governing missteps and the economic shocks the war has created for Chile.
The irony, of course, is that the country was one of the biggest prizes for the Trump administration. Chile is one of the largest copper producers in the world and enjoys extensive lithium and other critical mineral reserves, but its governments had long welcomed Chinese investment — to the point where China years ago eclipsed the United States as Chile’s largest trading partner.
Kast, a far-right acolyte of the country’s Cold War dictator Augusto Pinochet, pledged to change that by bringing the country closer to the United States.
… The problems in Chile go beyond high fuel prices. Chile is simultaneously one of the wealthiest and one of the most unequal Latin America nations. The rise in crime that accompanied Chile’s move to accept millions of Venezuelan migrants over the past decade has rattled citizens in a country that had for decades been spared the violence which has dominated Latin America. Pinochet’s long shadow and the ongoing struggle of the country’s main indigenous community, the Mapuche, for greater political inclusion also continue to scar Chilean politics. Any Chilean leader was destined to hit the shoals navigating this perfect storm of political issues.
But Kast will almost certainly not be the only Latin American leader to suffer a blow to their political stature as the conflict in Iran continues to create economic headaches. Latin America depends on fertilizer exports and cheap fuel to sustain its commodity-focused economies, and rising fuel prices and fertilizer shortages have previously provoked instability in the region.
“That right-wing trend could reverse if Latin America suffers an economic downturn as a result of high fuel prices,” Benjamin Gedan, who served as the White House National Security Council director for South America, said. “These leaders will only prevail if they show progress on sluggish growth, migration and crime, and those problems are harder to solve under bad economic conditions.”

12 March
Colombian president warns US against building an empire in Latin America
Gustavo Petro tells POLITICO his continent is not a “land to be conquered,” as he criticizes American top diplomat Marco Rubio’s view of the world.
Petro, a leftist and former rebel, has emerged as one of the world’s most vocal critics of this U.S. foreign policy, periodically landing himself on Trump’s blacklist.
The Colombian president avoided any direct barbs against Trump, instead citing their February meeting in the White House as an example of the intercontinental dialogue he wants to see. Prior to that meeting, Trump had called Petro a “sick man;” afterwards, he said Petro was “terrific.”
During the conversation with POLITICO, which took place in the gilded front room of the Colombian ambassador’s Vienna residence, Petro reserved his bluntest criticism for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and former Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk.
‘Kast is more like Trump’: Chile’s environmentalists prepare to do battle for the country’s future
Fears are growing that the new far-right president will slash environmental protections in favour of foreign investment
(The Guardian) The far-right president, José Antonio Kast, won Chile’s recent polls on promises of greater security and a “pro-business” platform under the slogan “fewer permits, more investment”. It was a swipe at what he considers the “excessive bureaucracy” of environmental permits, which he believes harms economic growth.
In the region of Arica y Parinacota, Kast won by a wide margin, receiving more than 62% of the vote. As Kast assumed the presidency on 11 March, many environmental activists were worried about what this presidential term might mean for their efforts, not only for conservation but also for Indigenous rights and access to water.

7 March
Trump convenes ‘Shield of Americas’ summit with 12 Latin American leaders
… In Miami, president calls for regional cooperation to counter Chinese economic and political interests
(The Guardian) Trump gathered the summit of leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.
… Donald Trump changed the channel from Iran to the western hemisphere on Saturday, convening a gathering of Latin American leaders at his Miami-area golf club to discuss regional interests and establishing what he called a “counter-cartel coalition”.
“Just as we formed a coalition to eradicate Isis, we now need a coalition to eradicate the cartels,” he told 12 regional leaders gathered at what the White House called the “Shield of the Americas” summit.
“We must recognize that the epicenter of cartel violence is Mexico,” where “the cartels are fueling and orchestrating much of the bloodshed and chaos in this hemisphere.”
Kristi Noem, who stepped down as DHS secretary on Thursday, making her the first cabinet secretary to leave the second Trump administration, spoke later in the afternoon in her new role as US special envoy to the coalition.
‘An ideological guest list’: Trump invites Latin America’s rightwing leaders to Florida summit
Tom Phillips, Latin America correspondent
Omission of presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, however, exposes failure of US president’s ‘theatrical’ doctrine, say experts
Trump Assembles a New Coalition to ‘Eradicate’ Cartels
(NYT) This month, the U.S. military launched joint operations with Ecuador. Experts say that Colombian trafficking groups and vicious gangs are exporting large quantities of cocaine from there, in cooperation with cartels from Mexico, Albania and elsewhere.
On the eve of the summit, U.S. officials released a video that showed the bombing of an encampment in rural Ecuador, and boasted of the U.S. role in the operation. The dramatic footage was similar to videos often released of strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs.
Earlier in the week, Mr. Miller told Latin American defense leaders at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Doral, Fla., that military force was the only tool that could defeat the cartels, and that the traffickers “should be treated ​just as brutally and just as ruthlessly” as groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.

24 February
Trump’s most important global export
(Politico) … Trump shaped elections last year across the Western Hemisphere. He put his finger on the scale for Argentinian President Javier Milei, a staunch ally who attended Trump’s inauguration. On the eve of Argentina’s legislative elections in October, Trump announced a $40-billion bailout for the South American nation — but under the condition that Milei remained in power.
“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump said. “If he does win, we’re going to be very helpful.”
In Honduras, where Trump endorsed conservative Nasry “Tito” Asfura for president, Trump further rattled the race in the run-up to the Nov. 30 election by pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez from Asfura’s National Party. Hernandez had been imprisoned on drug-related charges and was serving a 45-year sentence in the United States. Just as in Argentina, Trump made clear in a social media post that there would be consequences if his preferred candidate lost.
In Argentina and Honduras, the meddling advanced the principles laid out in the administration’s National Security Strategy document, which asserts that American policy should focus on “enlisting regional champions that can help create tolerable stability in the region, even beyond those partners’ borders.”

19-23 February
Trump Takes Anti-China Crusade to Chile Ahead of Latin America Summit in Miami
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
– The US imposed visa restrictions on three Chilean officials tied to an undersea digital cable project proposed by Chinese firms, alleging a security threat.
– The US ambassador to Chile warned the government over malign foreign hacking into its telecommunication network, and urged the country to screen investments or it could lose a longstanding visa waiver policy.
– The move is seen as a warning to the region that it must now choose sides as the US strives to reassert dominion over the Americas, prompting calls for soul searching in Santiago.
Just days ahead of a summit of Latin American leaders in Miami and two weeks before a right-wing government takes over in Santiago, the US imposed visa restrictions on three Chilean officials tied to an undersea digital cable project proposed by Chinese firms, alleging a security threat. The rare move sent a warning to the region that it must now choose sides as President Donald Trump strives to reassert dominion over the Americas.
Trump’s ultimatum for Latin America: It’s me or Xi
President Donald Trump offers many reasons for his aggressive foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, but one unites his top foreign policy advisers more than others – countering China.
(Politico) It’s a goal that ties Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime China hawk, with Vice President JD Vance, who has in the past criticized American involvement in foreign countries.
It also animates Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has long focused on countering narcotics and illegal immigration from Latin America, and the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby, who see China as the United States’ primary threat, said Alexander Gray, Trump’s national security council chief of staff in his first term.
What brings them all together is a belief the United States must clear the Western Hemisphere of Chinese influence.
“China’s economic expansion into the Western Hemisphere, especially via companies controlled or influenced by the [Chinese Communist Party] and the [People’s Liberation Army], poses risks to U.S. national security and prosperity,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO.
In a statement, the White House didn’t address China by name but did focus on battling “adversaries” in a larger effort to reinstate the Monroe Doctrine.
“As President Trump outlined in his National Security Strategy, the administration is reasserting and enforcing the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, counter adversaries, control migration, and stop drug trafficking,” …
The Trump administration is also destabilizing the Cuban government, threatening Panama, the first Latin American country to join the Belt and Road initiative, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature international infrastructure development program, and antagonizing Brazil, China’s largest trading partner.
Even when the administration isn’t engaging in gunboat diplomacy, it’s finding other ways to needle Latin American countries that have gotten in bed with China. …

12-17 February
Peru’s Congress removes interim President Jerí as he faces a corruption probe
(AP) — Peru’s Congress voted Tuesday to remove interim President José Jerí from office as he faces corruption allegations, triggering a fresh wave of political instability just weeks before the nation’s April presidential and congressional elections.
Jerí is under a preliminary investigation into corruption and influence peddling, stemming from a series of undisclosed meetings with two Chinese executives.
In blunt warning, the US says Peru could lose its sovereignty to China
(AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday expressed concern that China was costing Peru its sovereignty in solidifying control over the South American nation’s critical infrastructure, a blunt warning after a Peruvian court ruling restricted a local regulator’s oversight of a Chinese-built mega port.
The $1.3 billion deepwater port in Chancay, north of Peru’s capital of Lima, has become a symbol of China’s foothold in Latin America and a lightning rod for tensions with Washington.
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on social media that it was “concerned about latest reports that Peru could be powerless to oversee Chancay, one of its largest ports, which is under the jurisdiction of predatory Chinese owners.”

28 January
Latin American leaders call for unity against growing political polarization
(AP) — Latin American leaders, who gathered for a development forum Wednesday, called for regional unity in the face of increasing political polarization and the recent U.S. intervention in Venezuela.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva did not name the United States, but alluded to the country’s recent actions and the resulting political divisions that have caused paralysis in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) — the only organization that includes all the region’s governments.
“It has not been capable of producing even a single declaration against illegal military interventions that affect our region,” Lula said during the economic forum in Panama City hosted by the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“We’re experiencing one of the moments of greatest deterioration in the area of integration,” the Brazilian leader said.

27 January
Trump-backed businessman Nasry Asfura sworn in as president of Honduras
(AP) — Trump-backed businessman Nasry Asfura was sworn in Tuesday as president of Honduras, and pledged to create jobs, crack down on crime and improve key social services like education and health care.
Asfura’s rise to power was marked with controversy after U.S. President Donald Trump threw his support behind the Honduran conservative in the lead up to the election. Competitors called the elections fraudulent as vote counts dragged on for weeks and Asfura won by less than a 1% lead.

Wildfires flare again in Argentina’s Patagonia, burning more than 30,000 hectares
Around 500 firefighters have been deployed to Argentina’s southern province of Chubut to battle renewed flare-ups of wildfires that have burned over 30,000 hectares of forest since December.

18 January
In Monroe’s footsteps
Colombia, Panama and Grenada – targets of U.S. intervention in the Cold War – see Trump’s actions with dread and déjà vu
(Globe & Mail) … Operation Marquetalia is now largely forgotten, a small moment in a sprawling narrative of U.S. involvement down the length of the Americas, a history that has reached from the 19th century through to the moment its commandos seized Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro from his bedroom earlier this month.
Tactically, the seizure of Mr. Maduro was conceivable only in an era of stealth aircraft and electronic warfare. Philosophically, it belonged to a much longer chronicle, the sweep of a United States that has, since 1823, openly conceived of itself as an imperial power.
That year, the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine announced Washington not merely as the capital of a country – one still so young it had yet to establish its own English dictionary – but as the heart of an empire with a reach and ambition that extended far beyond its own borders.
American power would be exercised throughout the hemisphere in service of America’s corporate, political and ideological interests, a means to wage the Banana Wars and the Cold War alike.
U.S. soldiers occupied Nicaragua and Haiti. The country’s intelligence services toppled leaders and set up new ones, involved in so many changes of regime that scholars debate whether the correct figure is less or greater than 100. Its politicians deployed their military and economic might to push foreign powers from territory they alone sought to influence, seeking over the many decades to repel Spain and Britain, and then, in another age, Russia and Iran – and, now, China.
What’s old is new again. …

6 January
The ‘Donroe doctrine’: Maduro is the guinea pig for Donald Trump’s new world order
(The Conversation) Shortly after US special forces captured and extracted Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on January 3, Donald Trump said that the US would now “run” Venezuela.
Whatever Washington’s plans for the future of Venezuelan governance, this show of US force in Latin America looks like the first manifestation of a more assertive American foreign policy outlined in the national security strategy published in November 2025. This plainly asserted the Trump administration’s intention to “reassert and enforce the Monroe doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere”.
Rather than force regime change at this point, Trump has indicated that he is willing to work with Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, who has been sworn in as president. Rodríguez has adopted a conciliatory tone, inviting the US government to “work together on a cooperative agenda”. For the US president, “cooperation” will involve giving US oil companies unfettered access to Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Announcing the raid at a press conference held hours after American forces snatched Maduro, Trump appeared to issue threats of similar interventions in Colombia, which he said was run by a “sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the US”. His secretary of state, Marco Rubio – the child of Cuban exiles – also hinted at US intentions towards Cuba, saying: “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”

2025

16 December
As U.S. Threatens Maduro, a Caribbean Nation Is Drawn Into the Conflict
The United States and Trinidad say U.S. Marines installed a radar in Tobago to combat drugs — but this war materiel isn’t designed for operations based at sea or on land.
The people who live beside the new airport in the coastal Crown Point neighborhood of Tobago spent the last week of November listening to the deafening rumble of enormous U.S. military jets, which they said arrived in the dead of night.
They woke on Nov. 28 to see a mysterious large rotating machine pointed at the sky.
The device turned out to be a state-of-the-art mobile long-range sensor known as G/ATOR, or Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar, that is owned by the U.S. Marines and is worth tens of millions of dollars.
The effort to bring a military tool to the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, just days after a visit by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has become a flashpoint in a heated debate over Trinidad’s involvement in the Trump administration’s escalating conflict with nearby Venezuela.

15 December
Chile’s new far-right head is latest Latin American leader to ride hardline wave to power
Tiago Rogero
From the US to Hungary to Argentina, right-wing leaders are praising José Antonio Kast’s win in Chile’s presidential race

Kast’s Victory in Chile Is Another Win for Global Right-Wing Movement
José Antonio Kast, who was elected president on Sunday, is the latest conservative to rise to power promising strict law and order measures.
(NYT) José Antonio Kast had seen it coming. “Our ideas already won — they won in the United States, they won in Italy and they won in Argentina,” he said on Chilean radio one day after President Trump’s inauguration in January. “We are going to win, too.”
This Sunday, he finally did. Mr. Kast was elected as Chile’s president on his third try, scoring a resounding victory against his leftist opponent and pushing the country decidedly to the right as Chileans’ sought iron-fisted solutions to increased violence and illegal immigration.
Mr. Kast, a stern father of nine with deep ideological roots in conservative Catholicism and economic neoliberalism, belongs to a global right-wing movement that has risen to power around the world by prioritizing strict law and order and sealing borders. He obtained 58 percent of the vote on Sunday.

10 December
Honduras president alleges ‘electoral coup’ under way amid Trump ‘interference’
Xiomara Castro alleges US manipulation and blackmail as preliminary count shows two right-wing candidates closely tied
Honduras’s president, Xiomara Castro, has alleged that an “electoral coup” is under way in the country’s presidential election, which she says has been marked by “interference from the president of the United States, Donald Trump”.
The leftist president also said that “the Honduran people must never accept elections marked by interference, manipulation and blackmail … Sovereignty is not negotiable, democracy is not surrendered.”

17 November
The ‘Donroe Doctrine’: Trump’s Bid to Control the Western Hemisphere
President Trump has tightened the U.S. grip on the Americas by rewarding allies and punishing rivals. That has upended the region’s politics.
By Jack Nicas
President Trump opened the year with pledges to seize the Panama Canal, take control of Greenland and rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
He is ending it by bombing boats from South America, stationing the world’s largest aircraft carrier in the Caribbean and exploring military options against Venezuela’s autocratic leader.
In a sharp shift of decades of U.S. foreign policy, the Western Hemisphere has become the United States’ central theater abroad. In addition to military threats and action, the White House this year has carried out punishing tariffs, severe sanctions, pressure campaigns and economic bailouts across the Americas.
Mr. Trump has said he is seeking to stop drugs and migrants from entering the United States. But, in other moments, top administration officials have been explicit that their overarching goal is to assert American dominance over its half of the planet.

3 November
Trump’s Violent New Monroe Doctrine
Ana Palacio
US airstrikes in the Caribbean reflect President Donald Trump’s view of intra-American relations as hierarchical. Whereas previous US presidents tried to reconcile Woodrow Wilson’s idealism with Theodore Roosevelt’s realism, Trump merges both impulses into a single, volatile creed: exceptionalism without responsibility or restraint.
(Project Syndicate) “We’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country,” US President Donald Trump recently told reporters in the White House. His administration had already begun to do just that, using air strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean to destroy suspected drug-smuggling vessels and kill those on board – at least 64 people so far. With Trump now threatening to conduct similar operations on land, the contours of a violent new US foreign-policy doctrine are becoming sharper.
This new doctrine carries echoes of the one President James Monroe articulated in 1823, which held that the US would regard any foreign intervention in the Americas – specifically, European colonialism in Latin America – as a hostile act. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt expanded on this idea with his “corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” which stated that the US had a “responsibility to preserve order and protect life and property” in the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Lest this sound benevolent, it is worth recalling Roosevelt’s 1904 assertion that the US – as a “civilized nation” – may be “forced” to exercise “international police power” in response to chronic unrest or “wrongdoing” in Latin American countries. In other words, the US would decide what behavior was acceptable in sovereign countries in its “sphere of interest” – and was entirely justified in punishing whoever did not comply.

1 November
‘You’re either poor or rich’: the Argentinians struggling under Milei’s chainsaw austerity
(The Guardian) Despite falling inflation, a majority are failing to make ends meet as wages and purchasing power have nosedived
After taking office in December 2023, Milei, an economist and former TV pundit, launched a deep “chainsaw” austerity plan, cutting federal spending, freezing wages and pensions, halting public works and slashing subsidies.
To meet his zero-deficit target, he also introduced a “shock therapy” approach to the peso, initially devaluing it by almost 55%.
On one hand, the libertarian managed to bring inflation down from more than 211% in 2023 to 32% annually by September 2025 – still high by global standards, but a level Argentinians had not seen in years.
On the other hand, average incomes have fallen sharply, dragging down purchasing power, while household debt has risen and the poverty rate climbed above 50% before recently easing to 31.6%.

A timeline of US attacks off South America and what Congress has had to say
(AP) — In less than two months, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say, the U.S. military has killed at least 57 people in 13 strikes against drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. He has asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But as the number of strikes has grown, a debate in Congress has escalated over the limits of the president’s power. The attacks have occurred without any legal investigation or a traditional declaration of war from Congress, and some lawmakers have raised questions about the lack of hard evidence to justify the killings.
Meanwhile, an unusual naval buildup off South America has stoked fears of invasion in Venezuela and speculation that Trump could try to topple President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.
US launches strikes on 4 alleged drug-running boats in the eastern Pacific, killing 14

26 October
Big win in midterm vote for Argentina’s President Milei boosts markets and vindicates Trump
Argentine President Javier Milei has hailed his party’s resounding victory in midterm congressional elections as a mandate to press forward with radical free-market reforms.
(AP) — Markets in Argentina rallied, the peso surged and government bonds jumped on Monday as President Javier Milei hailed his party’s resounding victory in midterm congressional elections as a mandate to press ahead with radical free-market reforms of Argentina’s long-troubled economy.
The price movements following Milei’s party more than doubling its representation appeared to validate the Trump administration’s bet on its close ideological ally in South America.
16 October
US is working on doubling aid to Argentina to $40 billion by tapping private funding sources
(AP) — The Trump administration is looking to provide an additional $20 billion in financing for Argentina through a mix of financing from sovereign funds and the private sector.
That would come on top of the $20 billion credit swap line that the U.S. Treasury pledged to Argentine President Javier Milei and his government this month to bolster the South American nation’s collapsing currency.
At a White House meeting Tuesday with Milei, Republican President Donald Trump said his administration wanted to help “our neighbors” with the aid package, but he also suggested that the money could be pulled if Milei’s party did not prevail in the Oct. 26 midterm elections.

21 October
The Real Target of Trump’s War on Drug Boats
The Administration has blown up seven vessels in the Caribbean in recent weeks, but the President has been pushing for more dramatic military action in Latin America since his first term.
By Jonathan Blitzer
(The New Yorker) In late September, the White House sent a notification to Congress declaring that the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, which the government has designated as “terrorist organizations.” Those it killed in international waters were deemed “unlawful combatants.” In an escalation of hostilities against Venezuela, the Department of Defense has recently moved some ten thousand troops into the region, mostly to former military bases in Puerto Rico. Eight American warships and a submarine are now in the Caribbean, and, according to the Times, the Trump Administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert actions inside Venezuela. Last week, Alvin Holsey, the admiral in charge of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all military operations in Central and South America, abruptly resigned; the job is typically held for three years, but he had served for less than one.
Legal scholars and experts in the history of executive power have expressed alarm that Trump is acting well beyond the limits of national and international law.
… Venezuela’s Socialist government has, for years, propped up other leftist leaders across the region, chiefly in Cuba. There is a clear electoral constituency in South Florida, a vital Republican stronghold, that has opposed Maduro and demanded American action against his government. …