News Summaries in February 2025
“Trump Seeks to Fast-Track Deportations of Hundreds of Thousands,” Washington Post, Feb. 28, 2025
The Trump administration will try to expand the use of “expedited removal” from within 100 miles of the border to the entire United States. It’s a step aimed at removing more than one million migrants admitted into the U.S. during the Biden administration. To find even more migrants to remove, Trump administration officials have instructed immigration officers to examine nearly 8 million deportation cases on the dockets. According to an internal administration memo, migrants could be quickly deported if they crossed the border illegally, were allowed into the country on parole or with a notice to report to immigration authorities, and have not applied for asylum. The memo says immigrants who arrived legally also could be targeted if they lacked documents or misrepresented themselves. The group could include Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and others who entered legally through a Biden parole program, President Trump ended, if they lacked any other immigration status. Migrants who booked appointments to enter the U.S. through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection app at a border checkpoint also could be removed. This approach means that authorities could use expedited removal not just for people who have been here a short time, said a former immigration official. Trump’s deportation efforts have fallen short because long-time residents are entitled to court hearings that may not happen for years. “This is an effort to really circumvent the most precious aspect of the asylum laws, which is we do not send people back to countries where their life or freedom would be threatened,” said Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration lawyer. Said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt: “the use of expedited removal at the border for recent arrivals has resulted in countless errors, but expanding a system that lacks due process to longtime residents in the interior of the country is problematic at a whole other level.” He said providing due process is built into the fabric of the U.S. but it “is step by step being eliminated by the administration.”
“Hegseth Warned of Military Action if Mexico Fails to Meet Trump’s Border Demands,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 28, 2025
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has privately warned Mexican military officials that if they don’t deal with what he said was collusion between their government and drug cartels, the U.S. is prepared to take military action. Top Mexican officials have reacted with shock and anger, believing Hegseth was suggesting military action inside Mexico. Hegseth’s threat, echoed by other Trump officials, looms over talks regarding trade, notably Trump’s statement he’ll impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada because of fentanyl smuggling and migrant trafficking. Trump says the 25 percent tariffs will go into effect March 4. Drugs “are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels,” he said Feb. 27. Tariffs would be imposed “until it stops, or is seriously limited.” Mexico has been making or mulling various moves to head off the tariffs, which would inflict severe harm on its economy. “Mexico’s extraordinary handover this week of 29 drug gang bosses facing charges in the U.S. marks another concession for Trump, said former U.S. officials,” Journal reporters said. Another possible concession might be Mexico imposing tariffs on Chinese goods, matching those of the U.S. Nothing could ever be good enough for Trump until he gets what he really wants, said international trade lawyer Barry Appleton. By declaring an emergency at the border he has much leeway to impose tariffs but “if he loses his emergency, he loses his authority.” Appleton added that “he wants a number of crown jewels, but he hasn’t actually decided what they are.” Mexican officials believe they can arrive at a deal with Trump on trade and migration but the military threat is harder to solve. Mexico analysts met Feb. 27 on Capitol Hill to map out the aftermath of U.S. military action in Mexico. These included “severe economic disruptions between the two countries, border closings, violent flare-ups, and civil unrest on both sides of the border,” the Journal said. Two dozen U.S. lawmakers that day released a resolution condemning any call for U.S. military action in Mexico without authorization from the U.S. Congress and the consent of the Mexican government.
“Mexico Extradites 29 Jailed Drug Bosses to U.S., Including Killer of DEA Agent,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 27, 2025
Mexico extradited 29 imprisoned Mexicans to the U.S. Feb. 27, including a drug boss who spent four decades on top of the most wanted fugitives list of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Rafael Caro Quintero, who was wanted for the 1985 killing of a D.E.A. agent, is viewed as one of the founders of Mexico’s international drug smuggling industry that began buying cocaine from Colombian gangs in the 1980s. “Mexican organized crime groups then became one of the world’s top smugglers and distributors of narcotics with a solid foothold in the U.S., Mexico and the rest of Latin America,” the Journal said. The extradition was unprecedented in size. Two of those extradited were leaders of the Zetas cartel, “notorious for carrying out massacres in Mexico.” Caro Quintero was indicted in New York in 2020 for smuggling tons of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the U.S. Prosecutors accused him of hiring hit men to carry out murders, assaults, kidnappings and acts of torture. Mexico extradited the drug bosses in response to a Trump administration pressure campaign on the country to crack down on drug and migrant smuggling into the U.S.
“The Guardian View on Spain: a Progressive Beacon in Dark Times,” The Guardian, Feb. 26, 2025
Across Europe, center-left parties have been exiled from power while the radical right has fueled anxieties over immigration and economic stagnation, The Guardian writes in an editorial. But Spain is an outlier to this dismal trend. It recorded the highest growth of any major country last year at 3.2 percent. This happened under a Socialist-led coalition government that has welcomed immigration as a driver of economic prosperity. Spain this year plans to offer residency and work permits to up to 900,000 undocumented migrants. Last year, over 400,000 vacancies were filled by migrants and dual nationals. Overall unemployment figures dropped to the lowest point since the 2008 crash. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez forcefully made the case for migration leading a country with one of the lowest birth rates in the European Union. His commitment to generous public spending is also at odds with the prevailing political mood. Government spending reached an all-time high at the end of 2024, aided by EU post-pandemic recovery funds. Most of the money has gone to upgrading important infrastructure and green investment. This includes urban low-emission zones and subsidies for small businesses. Spain also is proposing a doubling of spending under the EU’s next seven-year budget. It’s important to avoid hyperbole, however. A key growth factor is Spain’s booming tourism, creating tension in cities and resorts hollowed out by Airbnb. There’s an urgent need to address a related housing crisis. And the degree to which impressive GDP figures translate into the wellbeing of the public isn’t straightforward. But the Sanchez government achievements merit celebration. Sanchez recently observed: “Throughout history, migration has been one of the great drivers of the development of nations, while hatred and xenophobia have been – and continue to be – the greatest destroyer of nations. The key is in managing it well.” Making and acting on this argument has become rare. But Spain continues to show that there is another way at a time when Trumpism is at a peak across the west.
“Haiti Gangs Launch Deadly Attack on Capital’s Delmas Neighborhood,” NBC News (Reuters), Feb. 26, 2025
Armed gangs mounted a new attack before dawn Feb. 25 in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, killing an estimated 15 people in the Delmas 30 neighborhood and causing more residents to flee. More than one million Haitians have been displaced so far in the years of violence that has cemented gang control over much of the capital and surrounding areas, Reuters reported. “We haven’t slept since the day before yesterday because everyone was panicking,” said a local resident. “I have a friend who sells meat at the Delmas 30 market and they burned him in front of his child,” he told Reuters. “A woman who lived very close to me was taken with her child, and they burned them.” The head of the local rights group RNDDH said that “according to the information we’ve received, the armed gangs are on the rampage. They attack several areas at the same time, and it’s always the same modus operandi: murder, arson, gunshot wounds, rape, and so on.” Residents fled the Delmas 30 neighborhood carrying mattresses and other goods on their heads. “One man pushed a corpse in a wheelbarrow,” Reuters said. A local resident appealed to Jimmy Cherizier, a former policeman who heads the Viv Ansanm gang coalition aiming to become a political party. “The population is fleeing, they don’t know where to go,” the resident said. “What have we done to you?”
“Trump to Tighten Rules on Venezuela Oil Production,” New York Times, Feb. 26, 2025
President Trump said Feb. 26 he would end a Biden-era policy allowing more oil to be produced in Venezuela and exported. That’s a blow to the Venezuelan government and also to Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, which produces oil in Venezula. Trump said on his Truth Social social media platform that "the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole' U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to." Times reporter Rebecca Elliott wrote that “oil is the backbone of Venezuela’s deeply troubled economy. The country is believed to have the world’s largest oil reserves, but the government of President Nicolás Maduro has struggled to take advantage of those resources because of mismanagement and underinvestment in its state-owned oil company.” Trump’s move is harmful and inexplicable, said Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez. Seeking to harm the Venezuelan people will harm the United States, she said, adding that it would likely increase migration of Venezuelans with “widely known consequences.” Trump previously stopped imports of oil from Venezuela but President Biden allowed them to resume after giving Chevron permission in late 2022 to export oil it produced in Venezuela. The U.S. relies less on Venezuelan oil than it once did, importing the equivalent of about one percent of U.S. demand. Venezuelan oil is denser and more viscous, while U.S. refineries run on a mix of heavier and lighter oils.
“Hegseth Returns to Guantánamo, This Time as Defense Secretary,” New York Times, Feb. 26, 2025
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth along with Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham flew to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba Feb. 25 to visit migrant detention operations and get a briefing on the prison that houses detainees from the war against terrorism. The Defense Department described the trip as underscoring a “commitment to ensuring the security and operational effectiveness” of the Guantánamo facility, whose prison houses 15 foreign men from the war on terrorism, including six men charged in death-penalty cases stemming from Al Queda’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and its Oct. 12, 2002 attack on the U.S.S. Cole. “Mr. Hegseth has been enthusiastic about the migrant detention operation, which began holding ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] prisoners from the United States on Feb. 4,” wrote Times reporter Carol Rosenberg. A group of 178 deported Venezuelans held there recently was sent on to Venezuela Feb. 20. Three of those detainees alleged abusive treatment at Guantánamo (see story below). Hegseth served as an Army lieutenant at Guantánamo in 2004-2005 and has spoken fondly of his deployment there. In an appearance on Fox News in 2021 he said Guantánamo had become “a prison without a mission.” He complained that “it got mucked up very, very early when left-wing lawyers and other protections came in.” Hegseth added that “it could have been a great place to expeditiously interrogate, try and, you know, execute, because we are in a war.” Civil liberties lawyers have been pushing to get access to deportees there.
“Trump Administration Moves More Migrants to Guantánamo Bay, Feb. 23, 2025
[Posted out of chronological order – see story immediately below -- to highlight that more migrants are being moved to Guantánamo even after previous detainees alleged mistreatment there]. The U.S. military Feb. 23 moved 17 more detained migrants to the U.S. naval station at Cuba’s Guantánamo Bay after clearing it of 178 Venezuelans Feb. 20. Some of those detainees, who were sent on to Venezuela, alleged severe mistreatment while at the facility (see next story). The 17 included seven men from Honduras, four from Colombia, three from El Salvador, two from Guatemala, and one from Ecuador, wrote Times reporters Hamed Aleaziz and Carol Rosenberg. A U.S. official described them as “high-threat illegal aliens” who were being detained at a prison that had housed detainees in the war on terrorism. Juan E. Agudelo of U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement said the Trump administration was using Guantánamo to temporarily house aliens before removal to their home country or a safe third country. Agudelo didn’t predict the average length of stay for the detainees other than “the time necessary to effect the removal orders.” The transfer of the 17 detainees occurred without advance notice. Civil liberties lawyers had requested 72 hours of advance notice before more detainees were sent to Guantánamo but U.S. officials declined the request. “The government said in a filing that it had made arrangements for would-be deportees being held there to speak by phone with lawyers,” the Times said. Some previous detainees said they were denied access to lawyers.
“Invasive Frisks, Suicide Attempts: Three Migrants Describe Guantánamo Detention,” Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2025
Three deported men who were detained at the Guantánamo U.S. naval station in Cuba said they were denied calls to loved ones or lawyers despite their repeated pleas, subjected to humiliating and invasive strip searches, and placed for prolonged periods in isolation, and given only two one-hour opportunities to go outside over two weeks. The three were among a group of nearly 180 men flown by the U.S. to Guantánamo and then on to Venezuela Feb. 20. “Their testimonies echoed the fears expressed by human rights groups – that migrants transferred to a place known for its isolation and history of torture allegations could be vulnerable to abuse,” said Post reporters Silvia Foster-Frau and Ana Vanessa. Diuvar Uzcátegui said he was placed in a windowless prison cell and couldn’t tell when the days started and ended. He was given a blanket, a foam pad to sleep on, a Bible, and a bucket. Although he couldn’t see fellow detainees, he could hear them screaming or threatening to kill themselves. One detainee interviewed by the Post said he attempted suicide. When Uzcátegui was permitted outside, he was shackled. “They didn’t treat me like a human being,” he said. “They threw me in a cage.” All three men had crossed into the U.S. illegally, but the Post could find no other evidence of wrongdoing on their part. Uzcátegui said he was accused of being a Tren de Aragua gang member but said he had no connection to the gang. The most traumatic part was having to strip naked each time he was taken from or returned to his cell. He had to open up his backside and genitals and guards watched as he showered. Uzcátegui said he started to have panic attacks and felt he was losing his mind. José Daniel Simancas told the Post he tried to kill himself by cutting his wrists with plastic water bottles he tried to sharpen. He said another migrant tried to hang himself with a sheet and another tried to do so by swallowing 10 screws. “We all thought about killing ourselves.” Military staff are not supposed to be enforcing civilian law, said Eunice Cho, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. Immigration violations are civil law, not alleged war crimes as in the case of 9/11 detainees. Some analysts say the Guantánamo imprisonment is meant to cement the image of migrants in the U.S. as criminals and terrorists. A number of detained migrants have been found to have no criminal records at all, contrary to the Trump administration’s depiction of them as “the worst of the worst.” Cho said the conditions at Guantánamo “were horrific, and are far more restrictive, more severe and more abusive than what we would see in a typical immigration detention facility in the United States.”
“On $15 a Month, Venezuela’s Teachers Live Hand to Mouth,” Agence France-Presse, Feb. 22, 2025
A basket of food essentials for a family of four in Venezuela costs about $500 a month – 33 times the salary of a teacher. “Many in the crisis-stricken South American country are forced to work multiple jobs, or pool their money with family,” Agence France-Presse notes. Seventy-year-old Maria Cerezo told AFP that “for the past two years, the situation has been horrible; you can’t even buy shoes.” Cerozo has been a public school teacher for 39 years. She had just picked out a blue nylon dress with white polka dots that cost $2 but hid it among other clothes for sale, saying she didn’t have the money that day. In the past the yearly bonus paid teachers would allow them to buy clothes, shoes, and electrical appliances, she said, something that is no longer possible now. The Cerezo household also relies on income from her daughter, a teacher, and her husband, a lawyer. Over the past decade the Gross Domestic Product in Venezuela under the repression of President Nicolas Maduro has dropped 80 percent. One quarter of the population, eight million people, have left the country since 2013. Monthly income in the private sector averages about $200. Public schools for the most part are only open two or three days a week so teachers can work in other jobs, such as private tutoring, driving taxis or selling crafts. The El Ropero Solidario thrift store in Caracas is a teacher-led effort that tries to help the profession by creating access to clothing. “We are role models for the children,” said Kethy Mendoza, a teacher who runs the store, which also tries to help teachers with medicines, food and emergency hospital care. “If we go to school poorly dressed because the economic crisis doesn’t allow us to buy a change of clothes or decent shoes, how can we expect the pupils to come dressed properly presentable?”
“Brazilian City in Amazon Declares Emergency After Huge Sinkholes Appear,” The Guardian, Feb. 21, 2025
Huge sinkholes have opened up threatening hundreds of homes in the city of Buriticupu in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. Several buildings there already have been destroyed, and some 1,200 people are at risk of losing their homes. “In the space of the last few months, the dimensions have expanded exponentially, approaching substantially closer to the residences,” said an emergency decree issued by the city. The latest sinkholes represent the escalation of a problem that dates back 30 years. Rains are slowly eroding sandy soil. Deforestation and poorly planned construction also are contributing factors. A local official said the city doesn’t have the capacity to solve the complex problem amid fear that more sinkholes will appear.
“US Flies 177 Deportees from Guantánamo to Honduras En Route to Venezuela,” The Guardian, Feb. 20, 2025
U.S. authorities have apparently emptied the military installation at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba of migrant detainees. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said 177 migrants were transported from Guantánamo to Honduras, where the government said they would be sent “immediately” back to Venezuela. The move came days after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit seeking access to the deportees, who they said were being denied access to an attorney. The Trump administration began sending the deportees to Guantanamo on Feb. 4, calling them “the worst of the worst” criminals. But human rights lawyers said the U.S. government offered no proof that the detainees had committed serious crimes, and relatives of some of the men said they hadn’t been involved in wrongdoing. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the deportees included 126 people with criminal charges or convictions, 80 allegedly tied to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. The department said 51 had no criminal record.
“Migrants Deported by U.S. to Panama Are Taken to Jungle Camp,” New York Times, Feb. 20, 2025
About 100 of a group of 300 migrants deported by the United States to Panama (see story below) have been taken to a jungle camp described as “primitive.” It is unclear how long the group will be detained at the camp on the outskirts of the Darien jungle that overlaps Panama and Colombia. “It looks like a zoo; there are fenced cages, ” one of the deportees told the Times. The 27-year-old migrant from Iran said “they gave us a stale piece of bread. We are sitting on the floor.” The migrants had arrived recently at the U.S. border in hopes of entering the country and applying for asylum. A U.S. official said that none of them had asserted a fear of returning to their home country during processing, but some of the deportees interviewed by the Times expressed fear they would be put to death if they returned. The group at the camp includes eight children. Under pressure from the United States, Panama had agreed to take the deportees as an interim step; they come from countries to which they cannot be easily returned. However, a Panamanian official said Feb. 18 that 170 of the 300 or so migrants had volunteered to go back to their home countries on trips arranged by the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency. An Iranian woman contacted by the Times said she could see large containers at the camp that appeared to be the new homes of the migrants. She said the encampment was sweltering and overrun with cats and dogs. She said in a text message she feared her phone would be seized. “Please try to help us,” she said.
“Detained by U.S., Migrants Are Deported to Panama,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 2025
After arriving at the U.S. border from countries around the world hoping to apply for asylum, hundreds of migrants were detained, put in shackles, and flown Feb. 19 in an U.S. military plane to Panama. Their passports were confiscated, as were most of their cellphones. They were locked in a hotel, denied access to lawyers, and told they would be sent to a makeshift camp near the Panamanian jungle (see story above). Their flight began a new Trump administration strategy: send to a third country such as Panama deportees the U.S. cannot easily return to their home countries. Costa Rica is another new intermediary country (see next story). The migrants were from countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and China, as well as from Africa. Panama, under great pressure to appease Trump because he has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, agreed to take them. Panama now decides that happens to them. A U.S. Homeland Security Department spokeswoman said “not a single one of these aliens asserted fear of returning to their home country at any point during processing or custody,” and were “properly removed” from the U.S. The New York Times was able to interview a number of the migrants, all of whom said they were asylum seekers held against their will. A number of those interviewed feared reprisals including death if they were returned to their home countries. “In one window visible from a sidewalk below the hotel, a woman clawed at a latchless glass pane in an attempt to escape,” the Times recounted. “When she noticed journalists below, she held up a piece of paper that said ‘Afghan.” She made hand motions that indicated an airplane, then her head falling off. The message seemed to be clear: a flight home meant death.” An Iranian woman wrote “help us” in lipstick on a window, and texted a reporter that “only a miracle can save us.” She said she had converted to Christianity in an underground church, a conversion that under Shariah law is punishable by death. She said that all of the deportees on the flight except for children had their hands tied and feet shackled. After another detained migrant tried to commit suicide at the hotel, all glass and sharp objects were taken from the hotel rooms, the Iranian woman said. A Panamanian official said the migrants would be taken to a camp near the Darien Gap jungle. Until recently the camp, called San Vicente, was just a few shacks in a muddy area where migrants were often kept penned inside. “Dengue fever is a common danger in the region,” the Times noted. A Panamanian official said two United Nations organizations are charged with overseeing the migrants while in Panama. According to U.N. sources, a U.N. agency is helping to arrange returns where it is safe to do so, but is not detaining or restricting the movement of individuals; rather, Panamanians are tightly managing the deportees following a process that was not entirely clear. The Panamanian official said Panama and the U.S. are respecting human rights.
“Costa Rica to Accept Deported Migrants,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 2025
Costa Rica said Feb. 17 it would accept a deportation flight from the United States carrying 200 migrants from Central Asia and India. “Such flights appear to be the Trump administration’s new tactic for dealing with unauthorized migrants from countries to which it might not be easy to return them, as the administration seeks to ramp up deportations,” wrote Times reporter Annie Correal. Panama was the first country to begin accepting such flights (see story above). It’s not clear what will happen to the deportees. The Costa Rican government said the deportees would arrive Feb. 19. It said it would “serve as a bridge” for the return of the migrants to their home countries. It said the effort would be fully funded by the U.S. under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency. Costa Rica said the U.N. agency would be fully responsible for the care of the migrants. The migrants are to be housed in a migrant shelter in the canton of Corredores in southern Costa Rica. Costa Rican officials did not say how many migrants would ultimately be sent or how long they would stay.
“Brazil Charges Bolsonaro With Plotting a Coup After 2022 Election Loss,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2025
Brazilian Attorney General Paulo Gonet Branco has indicted the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for overseeing a vast scheme to stay in power after losing the 2022 election, including plotting to assassinate the current president after he was elected but before he took power. The indictment of Bolsonaro and 33 other people also includes plotting to annul the vote, disband the courts and empower the military, wrote Times reporter Jack Nicas. Brazil’s Supreme Court will now decide whether to arrest Bolsonaro and have him face trial. “If convicted, he could face 12 to 40 years in prison, according to the indictment, though political analysts expect any sentence to be shorter,” Nicas said. He said the indictment suggests Brazil came “strikingly close” to returning to a military dictatorship nearly four decades of democratic rule. Bolsonaro said in a statement that he is the target of “the weaponization of the justice system,” and that “this is the same failed strategy that was used against President Trump.” Trump’s media group, which owns his Truth Social social media site, has sued Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in U.S. federal court on grounds of censoring political discourse in the United States by ordering the Florida-based video platform Rumble to remove the account of a prominent supporter of Bolsonaro. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court in
“C.I.A. Expands Secret Drone Flights Over Mexico,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2025
The Trump administration is increasing secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt fentanyl labs, a program that began under the Biden administration. U.S. officials do not envision using the drones to conduct airstrikes, but to pass along the information they collect to Mexican officials. “The drones have proven adept at identifying labs, according to people with knowledge of the program,” the Times reported. Fentanyl labs are easily spotted from the air because of the chemicals they emit. U.S. officials said Mexico was slow to take action against labs identified by drones during the Biden administration, but did use the information collected to make arrests. The Times said the flights “have already caused consternation in Mexico,” but quoted President Claudia Sheinbaum as describing drone surveillance as “a little campaign” and part of longstanding cooperative efforts with the U.S. Airstrikes against fentanyl labs “would probably cause catastrophic fatalities, as they are often inside homes in urban areas,” said a person knowledgeable about the program. Officials said the purpose of collecting the information about labs wasn’t to kill cartel members but to disable the labs. But aides to President Trump have suggested that they may use military force to go after cartels in Mexico. Trump has announced a former C.I.A. paramilitary officer, Ronald Johnson, as his choice to become U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
“Who Controls the Gulf of Mexico?” The New York Times, Feb. 17, 2025
The United States, Cuba and Mexico have jurisdiction over different parts of the Gulf of Mexico. To consider who owns what, Times reporters Zach Levitt and Tim Wallace note that maritime zones consist of different categories based on their distance from the coast. “Territorial seas,” they write, “lie closest to the nation’s shore, and the laws of a country apply within and below those waters the way they do on land, for the most part.” Farther out lies a country’s “exclusive economic zone,” in which it controls what is in the water including fish, and what is in and below the seabed, including oil and gas. Beyond that are “high seas, where a country might also retain rights only to the natural resources of the seabed and the subsoil.” Sovereign Limits, a database of international boundaries, calculates that Mexico’s maritime claims account for 49 percent of the Gulf, the United States' 46 percent, and Cuba's 6 percent. Mexico’s 49 percent is made up of economic zones that account for 44 percent of the Gulf, territorial seas, 4 percent, and high seas 1 percent. United States’ maritime claim of 46 percent is made up of economic zones, 39 percent, territorial seas, 6 percent, and high seas 1 percent. Cuba’s 6 percent consists of economic zones, 5 percent, territorial seas 1 percent and high seas, less than 1 percent. The name change ordered by Trump, the Gulf of America, applies to U.S. federal agencies that map or refer to the Gulf. The maritime boundaries are mutually agreed upon by the nations along its coast. Sovereign Limits says the Gulf is covered fully by established maritime boundaries. The Times says “the Gulf of Mexico has appeared on maps for centuries, but geographic name changes are common throughout history.” [At least for now and in the context of this story, the Times is sticking to Gulf of Mexico because that’s how the story refers to the Gulf. Its statement that “geographic name changes are common throughout history” may be so, but according to Britannica, “the name Gulf of Mexico has been applied to the body of water since at least the late 16th century.”]
“Argentina’s Opposition Threatens Impeachment Trial After Milei Touts Crypto Coin,” Reuters, Feb. 16, 2025
Opposition leaders say Argentine President Javier Milei could face an impeachment trial after cryptocurrency crashed soon after he touted it. Milei Feb. 14 posted on Elon Musk’s social media site X a recommendation to invest in the crypto coin $LIBRA. Its value soon after shot up to almost $5 apiece. Hours later it fell to below $1. Sources in the “fintech”, or financial technology industry -- which delivers financial services through means such as online banking, mobile payment apps, and cryptocurrency, said the case could be a “rug pull” in which the makers of a crypto coin attract legitimate investments that pump up its value and then dump their stake. “This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request,” said Leandro Santoro, a lawmaker who is a member of the opposition coalition. Milei deleted the post which local media said was up for a few hours. “I was not aware of the details of the project and once I found out, I decided not to continue giving it publicity,” he said.
“ICE Raids Send Chill Through Migrant Work Forces,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 14, 2025
Escalating immigration raids are causing some migrants to stay home from work, unsettling employers in construction, food services and healthcare – industries that have long relied heavily on foreign labor. “Fear is pervasive among immigrant families, which often include a mix of U.S. citizens, those with authorization to be in the country and those without,” wrote Journal reporters Arian Campo-Flores and Chao Deng. “Oh, my God, it’s terrible now,” said Klayston Braga, the owner of Top Burger in Newark, N.J. “Legal or illegal, everyone’s scared.” When migrant workers were detained at a seafood depot near his restaurant in January, four documented immigrants who worked at Top Burger didn’t come to work. Braga and his wife “ended up having to work the kitchen and cash register on their own,” the reporters said. Under Trump’s new border czar Tom Homan, it isn’t just migrants with criminal records who are targeted for deportation, “anyone in the U.S. illegally is a potential target.” The Trump administration has stopped providing daily arrest totals. But partial data since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration show that an average of 822 migrants are arrested per day, up from 310 people per day in fiscal 2024. A contractor in the Washington, D.C. area said that among his crew of five workers, four have gone into hiding and do not return his phone calls. “Stress has gotten hold of people,” the contractor said. “Nobody wants to go out.” In the eldercare industry, some workers are staying home to care for their children, who are afraid to go to school. Migrants protected from deportation by humanitarian parole programs have work permits and have jobs in eldercare facilities in Wisconsin, for example, but their eligibility to stay is now in doubt after Trump said he is ending those programs. The owner of a taqueria in Chicago said about one-third of her 15 workers have stopped coming to work. “All of her workers have Social Security cards, so it isn’t necessarily their own status they are worried about,” the Journal said. A 17-year-old worker said he had to stay home to pick up two younger siblings from school if the parents got arrested. “The children are all U.S. citizens, but their parents are undocumented despite living and working in the U.S. for decades.” A migrant who has a permit to work in an insulation company outside Salt Lake City in Utah said he’s afraid to leave the house to take English classes. He and his wife limit their trips to the supermarket and stock up when they go, and their children no longer meet their friends for ice cream. “It’s disturbing,” the worker told the Journal. “We don’t know what is going to happen to us.” Undocumented immigrants make up an estimated 4.6 percent of the employed U.S. labor force. They account for 14 percent of construction workers, 13 percent of agricultural employees, and 7 percent of workers in the hospitality industry. An estimated two-thirds of the growth in nonfarm payrolls in 2024 came from undocumented immigrants. Because of that, Trump’s immigration crackdown could be much more disruptive than anticipated, said a report by Standard Charter Bank. To fill the void in the labor supply, employers would have to hire native-born citizens and legal immigrants; if that required higher wages the result would be higher inflation. Rekindled inflation already is a greater worry because of prices that rose more quickly in January than expected, according to a U.S. Labor Department report.
“Mexico Threatens to Escalate US Gunmakers Lawsuit With Terror Charges,” The Guardian, Feb. 14, 2025
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is warning US gunmakers they could face new legal action if Washington labels Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations. That designation would allow the US government to place broad economic sanctions on the groups and on people or entities tied to them (see next story). Sheinbaum wants the United States to crack down on firearms trafficking in Mexico. Sheinbaum said the US Justice Department has recognized that 74 percent of the weapons used by criminal groups in Mexico come from the United States. “If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our US lawsuit” against the gunmakers, Sheinbaum said. Mexico has said that between 200,000 and 750,000 weapons made by US gunmakers are smuggled across the US border every year, and many of them are found at crime scenes. A judge in the United States last year threw out a $10 billion Mexican lawsuit against the gun industry based on a lack of jurisdiction. Mexico said at the time the lawsuit would continue against Smith and Wesson and Interstate Arms. Mexico controls firearm sales so strictly that they “are practically impossible to obtain legally,” said the Guardian account prepared by Agence France-Press in Mexico City. But even with those restrictions an estimated 480,000 people have died in Mexico from drug-related violence since 2006, when the Mexican army began combatting drug trafficking. Sheinbaum angrily denied a charge by the US earlier this month that her government is closely tied to drug cartels. “We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” Sheinbaum said. “If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the US gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” she added. [It's not clear to me from this story on what basis Sheinbaum argues against the terrorist designation for the criminal groups.]
“How Venezuela Helps Fuel the Violence in Colombia,” New York Times, Feb. 12, 2025
The Venezuela of dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro is being used to unleash a new wave of destruction in violence-prone Colombia, observers say. The violence relates to the principal aggressor, the National Liberation Army (ELN), in a recent bloody battle in northeast Colombia between Colombian rebel groups over land and drug money. More than 54,000 people fled their homes, and an estimated 80 people died in a matter of days, the worst violence in Colombia in a generation. “Over the past decade, as Venezuela has descended into autocracy, its government has also drawn closer” to the ELN, writes Times reporter Julie Turkewitz. Created as a Marxist group in the 1960s, the ELN increasingly uses Venezuela as a refuge. It has moved “deeper into the country, enriching itself through drug trafficking and other illicit activities, tripling in size to roughly 6,000 fighters and strengthening relationships with Venezuelan officials,” said Turkewitz. Maduro benefits because the ELN serves as a powerful armed group that acts as buffer against domestic and foreign threats, including the possibility of a coup. Colombian President Gustavo Petro now refers to the ELN as a “foreign force” that is invading Colombia from Venezuela. He said “this is a problem of national sovereignty, not just an internal conflict which we’ve had since long ago.” A Venezuelan official denied that his country is a platform for armed groups. It’s unclear why the ELN recently decided to attack but the relationship between Petro, a leftist, and Maduro, a socialist, has soured. After Maduro claimed victory last year in a tainted presidential election that outside observers said his opponent had won, Petro urged him to publish election results and release political prisoners. Maduro reacted by ordering “a punch in the face” to anyone who meddles in Venezuela’s affairs. Petro refused to recognize Maduro as president. The bloodletting crushed Petro’s chances of fulfilling an ambitious campaign promise to bring about “total peace” between warring groups in Colombia. Petro ordered in Colombian troops to fight the ELN. The violence is such that a remarkable reversal has occurred; instead of Venezuelans seeking refuge in Colombia, thousands of Colombians have sought entry into Venezuela.
“State Dept. Draws Up List of Cartels to Be Labeled Terrorist Groups,” New York Times, Feb. 12, 2025
The State Department plans to name more than a half-dozen criminal groups in Latin America as terrorist organizations. “The designations mean the U.S. government can impose broad economic sanctions on the groups and on people or entities linked to them,” Times reporters said. Officials said the designation could be applied to eight groups, though the number could change, they added. The move follows an executive order announced by President Trump on Jan. 20 requiring a crackdown on Mexican cartels. “An organized crime group is considered a cartel only if it controls enough of the drug trade to allow it to determine the price of any given narcotic in places like New York or London,” the Times explained. The order said the cartels pose a national security threat greater than that of a criminal group. The order specifically named Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan group, and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a gang formed by El Salvadoran immigrants in the United States. The State Department also plans to designate these six Mexican cartels: the Sinaloa cartel, Jalisco New Generation cartel, the Northeast cartel, the Michoacán family, the United cartels and the Cartel del Golfo.
“U.S. Sending Nonviolent, ‘Low-Risk’ Migrants to
Guantanamo, Despite Vow to Detain ‘the Worst’ There,” CBS News, Feb. 12, 2025
At odds with President Trump’s statement that he would send “the worst” migrants to the U.S. Navy base in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, his administration also is sending nonviolent, low-risk detainees who lack serious criminal records or have no criminal records at all, according to two U.S. officials and internal government records. When Trump last month ordered the expansion of a small detention center for migrants at the Cuba-based U.S. Naval station, he spoke of the need for “additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens.” Trump aides then publicized military flights to Guantanamo they said carried migrants who committed crimes like murder and rape. They also alleged that a number of the migrants were members of the infamous Venezuelan gang Tren de Arugua. But at the same time they’ve sent low-risk detainees, and more were expected to be transported Feb. 12. “Federal immigration authorities define low-risk detainees as migrants who face deportation because they are in the U.S. illegally but who have not been arrested or convicted of violent offenses or other serious crimes,” said CBS reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez. “U.S. officials said they could include migrants who lack any criminal record but have been ordered deported because of civil immigration violations, like entering the country without proper documents.” The high-risk migrants are held in Guantanamo’s maximum security center, while low-risk migrants are detained at the Migrant Operations Center, traditionally used to house asylum seekers intercepted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson defended the transport of low-risk detainees by saying “every single alien at Guantanamo Bay has a final deportation order. All of these individuals committed a crime by entering the United States illegally.” Officials said that as of late Feb. 11, nearly 100 unauthorized migrants were being held at Guantanamo, all of them adults from Venezuela. The use of Guantanamo has alarmed civil rights groups who say it is a legal black hole used to keep migrants incommunicado.
“Pope Rebukes Trump Administration Over Immigrant Deportations and Appears to Aim Directly at Vance,” Associated Press, Feb. 11, 2025
Pope Francis rebuked the Trump administration Feb. 11 for its planned massive deportations of migrants. He said the forceful removal of people solely because of their illegal status robs them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.” Nations have the right to defend themselves and safeguard their communities, he said in a letter to U.S. bishops. But the dignity of many men and women and entire families is damaged by the act of deporting those who in many instances fled extreme poverty, persecution, exploitation and serious deterioration of the environment, he wrote. Those schooled in Christianity “cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” the Pope said. “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.” According to the White House, more than 8,000 people have been arrested in immigration enforcement actions since President Trump was inaugurated Jan. 20. The Pope’s letter also took aim at Vice President JD Vance’s defense of mass deportations on theological grounds. Vance cited a medieval Catholic theological concept known as “ordo amoris” that he says ranks care of family as most important, followed by neighbor, community, fellow citizens and then others. Pope Francis said the concept is based on “meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said “he wants to attack us for securing our border. He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?” Homan said Francis should stick to fixing the Catholic Church and leave U.S. border protection to his agency.
“Body in Concrete Turns Chile’s Eyes to Venezuela,” New York Times, Feb. 11. 2025
Chilean authorities are confirming the fears of Venezuelan dissidents hiding out around the world – the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the assassination of a former Venezuelan army officer who was dragged away in his underwear in the middle of the night in front of his wife and six-year-old son from an apartment in the capital of Santiago. The body of 32-year-old Ronald Ojeda was found nine days later in a carry-on suitcase buried under nearly five feet of cement, said Times reporters Jack Nicas, Pascale Bonnefoy and John Bartlett. “Inside, packed amid quicklime to speed up the decomposition, was Mr. Ojeda’s folded body,” they wrote. The government of Venezuela vehemently denies ordering the killing. But if so, “the case represents a dark escalation in Mr. Maduro’s efforts to crush any threats to his authoritarian rule,” they said. The murder in Chile suggests Maduro has adopted the tactics of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, his close ally, who has ordered assassinations in foreign countries of his political rivals. According to a lawyer for Ojeda’s family, Ojeda traveled in Dec. 2023 to the Colombian border to plan with other dissidents an uprising against Maduro. The leader of that effort was captured, but Ojeda escaped. He was murdered less than a month later. Chile has been holding hearings to charge 19 people who took part in some aspect of planning the killing, carrying it out and hiding the body. Most are thought to be members of the Chilean branch of the Venezuelan crime group Tren de Aragua. Chilean President Gabriel Boric said if Venezuela is proved to have ordered the killing “it is not only a violation of our sovereignty, it is a violation of human rights….” Zair Mundaray, a former Venezuelan top prosecutor, recently fled exile in Colombia to go to an unnamed country after being threatened by people he believed to be Venezuelan agents. “Everyone is terrified,” he said. The Trump administration recently entered into discussions with Maduro about taking back Venezuelan deportees, a development his government said marks a “new beginning in bilateral relations.”
“Ecuador’s Presidential Runoff Will Test the Influence of Former President Correa,” Associated Press, Feb. 10, 2025
Incumbent Daniel Noboa narrowly edged leftist candidate Luisa González Feb. 9 in Ecuador’s presidential election, setting the stage for an April 13 runoff contest between the two leading vote-getters. Noboa got 44.31 percent of the vote and González 43.83 percent, with the 14 other candidates far behind them. González, a lawyer, is a protégé of former leftist President Rafael Correa. Noboa, a wealthy businessman, won a shortened 16-month presidency in 2023 after campaigning on controlling Ecuador’s recent crime wave. AP reporter Regina Garcia Cano said “González, this year as in 2023, is appealing to voters’ nostalgia for Correa’s 2007-2017 decade in power that predated the drug trafficking crime wave and that was marked by free-spending policies of the still-influential Correa.” The era of “Correismo” was one of low rates of crime and unemployment but also authoritarian tendencies, corruption and huge debt. Among Noboa supporters, many have said they are rejecting Correismo rather than endorsing Noboa’s crime-fighting and governance, Cano wrote. She said many have been wary of his mobilization of the military in combatting drug traffickers and were angered when he authorized power cuts of up to 14 hours blamed on severe drought. Violence in Ecuador spiked four years ago tied to cocaine trafficking in the neighboring countries of Colombia and Peru. Under Noboa, the homicide rate dropped in 2024 to 38.76 people per 100,000, down from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023. “Still, it remained far higher than the 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019, and other crimes, such as kidnapping and extortion, have skyrocketed, making people fear of leaving their homes,” said Cano.
“U.S. Begins Migrant Flights to Guantanamo Bay,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2025
[Posting out of chronological order to highlight an earlier story.]
The Trump administration has begun the first phases of expanding a small migrant-detention center at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A Feb. 4 flight there from Fort Bliss in Texas had roughly a dozen migrants on board. “He’s not messing around,” a spokesperson said of President Trump. The Homeland Security Department did not respond to a request for information on the migrants and whether they had a criminal record. Trump ordered the construction of a facility at Guantanamo he said is meant to “contain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Journal reporters noted that the naval base “is better known for its notorious prison where the U.S. has kept suspected terror suspects for more than two decades. The lesser-known migrant center has been operational since the 1990s.” The Biden administration has used the facility for a small number of migrants to be resettled in third countries. Advocacy groups have urged that the detention center be closed. The center has been characterized as a dilapidated building with mold and sewage problems, according to a report by the International Refugee Assistance Project based on interviews with detainees and former staff at the center. They said it housed families with young children alongside single adults and that detainees were denied confidential phone calls, including with lawyers. They weren’t permitted to reveal any accounts of mistreatment. “These flights set the stage for egregious rights violations, indefinite detention, and crushing family separations," said Hannah Flamm of the International Refugee Assistance Project. “The United States has a deplorable history of detaining different groups of people unlawfully at Guantanamo to avoid oversight and the public eye, and this latest chapter is no exception.” The Feb. 4 flight was on a C-17 military jet that costs $28,500 an hour to fly compared to $8,500 an hour for a standard U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flight. The flights to Guantanamo take roughly five hours, the Journal said. Little is known about the center expansion plan and how it is being funded. Housing the small number of migrants there has been costly. The Biden administration last year signed a $163 million contract with the prison company Akima to run the facility for three dozen migrants. It’s unclear whether ICE will set up tribunals for adjudicating immigration cases. Due process will be followed and the migrants won’t be detained there indefinitely, said Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary. She also declined to rule out housing families at the center.
“Why Trump Blinked Before Imposing His ‘Beautiful’ Tariffs on Canada and Mexico,” The Guardian, Analysis, Feb. 9, 2025
Donald Trump claims that Canada and Mexico have been scrambling to bend to his will after he threatened 25 percent tariffs on imports from those countries. Mexico announced a series of measures to shore up its border, prompting Trump to delay by a month his threatened tariffs, and similar measures announced by Canada also resulted in a 30-day delay. “Yet, one reporter had the temerity to ask whether Trump had blinked,” noted Guardian reporter Callum Jones. “’There was no blinking,’ he shot back, claiming that illegal immigrants and fentanyl were ‘not going to come from Mexico any more as a result of initiatives cobbled together by its government that morning,” wrote Jones. “There was, in fact, some blinking – for the third time in two weeks.” A threat to impose the tariffs on Jan. 20, the first day of his administration, changed without explanation to Feb. 1. Then it became Feb. 4, and that was followed by the 30-day reprieve. Trump seems remarkably cautious about pulling the trigger. Tariffs on the scale he has threatened would be an “historic overhaul” of the way the U.S. government raises money. It would tax the world more and Americans less. But it would raise prices for American consumers. It also would mean weaker economic growth, many economists say. For the duties on Mexico, China and Canada alone it would mean an average tax hike per U.S. household in 2025 of an estimated $800. U.S. businesses would face retaliatory tariffs abroad. Also, Trump regained the White House after repeated promises to bring down prices rapidly, so price hikes would break those promises.
“Panama’s President Denies U.S. Claim of Free Canal Passage for U.S. Ships,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 6, 2025
The president of Panama Feb. 6 declared as false a statement by the U.S. State Department that his country has agreed to allow U.S. vessels to cross the Panama Canal for free. “I am incredibly surprised by yesterday’s statement,” José Raúl Mulino told a news conference. “They’re making an important, institutional statement from the entity that governs U.S. foreign policy…based on a falsity. And that’s intolerable.” Mulino said he lacked legal authority to waive fees for anyone. U.S. Secretary of State Marc Rubio had discussed with Mulino letting U.S. Navy vessels through without charge, and the countries had agreed to study the matter, sources said. “But Panamanian officials cautioned that such a measure would require legal analysis to ensure that it wouldn’t violate the 1977 canal treaty [in which the U.S. agreed to turn over the canal to Panama in 1999], which includes a clause that requires Panama to provide equal treatment and payment terms to all canal users,” said Journal reporters Vera Bergengruen and Costas Paris. Mulino said the fees weren’t much for the U.S. to pay given its wealth and denied that China has influence over the canal. “What is $10 million for a country like the United States? It’s not like the canal fees are bankrupting the United States economy.” Panamanian officials viewed the State Department claim as a way to back them in a corner. The Journal reporters said it was clear that President Trump did not believe Rubio obtained enough concessions from Panama on his trip.
“The Salvadoran Mega-Prison Offering to Take America’s Worst Criminals,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 2025
The maximum-security facility in El Salvador that houses the country’s most dangerous criminals – and that may also be used to incarcerate American criminals (see story below) – now contains almost 15,000 gang members. Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro has said that they will spend the rest of their lives there. Most of them were responsible for more than 80,000 deaths in the past 30 years, according to Villatoro. Inmates are denied any visits from wives, girlfriends or children. They sleep in “stainless-steel cots stacked several layers high in large cells packed with dozens of inmates,” the Journal said. “And roommates include some of the senior leadership of Latin America’s most notorious gangs.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who visited El Salvador this week, said that the U.S. would be open to imprisoning both criminal migrants and American citizens at the facility, the Confinement Center for Terrorism. “If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Feb. 4. “I don’t know if we do or not.” The Journal noted that a number of Trump allies have visited the huge facility “and posed for photos in its halls, hailing Bukele’s aggressive crackdown as a model to be emulated.” Human rights activists say the facility is another step by Bukele toward authoritarian rule. He suspended due process when in 2022 he began imprisoning huge numbers of gang members who had been terrorizing Salvadorans for decades. Activists say Bukele has arbitrarily detained thousands of people. The inability of children to see their parents causes psychological damage. El Salvador wants to be thought of as a first-world country now, the safest place in the world, but “we have no guarantees, no rights,” said Alfredo Mejía, the head of Movir, a group that advocates for families of detainees. He said his imprisoned 25-year-old daughter hasn’t been able to consult a lawyer or her family, which says she is innocent. Each month he pays $125 to deliver food and hygiene products to her in prison. The average salary in the country is less than $500 a month. Detainee families say they must pay bribes of up to $500 to visit loved ones for 20 minutes. “They turned it into a business,” Mejía said. Many in El Salvador believe gang members are suffering in proportion to the abuses they committed, notably against the poor. Since the crackdown, businesses “began to flourish in town plazas and street markets where extortion rackets of the gangs had prevailed, with children and teens retaking once-deserted public spaces to play soccer or basketball,” the Journal said. “The improvement of security conditions also led to a significant slowdown in U.S. bound migration.”
“El Salvador Offers to Take U.S. Deportees of Any Nationality Including Imprisoned Americans,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2025
El Salvador has offered to accept deportees of any nationality from the United States as well as imprisoned American citizens, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Feb. 3. They’d be imprisoned in the world’s largest prison, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), El Salvador’s maximum-security prison built to house 40,000 inmates. Rubio, who met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on the second stop of his trip to Latin America, said “no country has ever made an offer of friendship such as this.” Bukele offered to accept any “illegal immigrant in the United States who’s a dangerous criminal,” Rubio said, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gang members. Bukele said fees charged the U.S. for using the facility “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.” It was unclear whether the United States would accept the offer, said Journal reporter Vera Bergengruen. Legal obstacles to U.S. inmates serving sentences in an El Salvador prison include the Constitutional requirement that inmates get medical care, hygienic living conditions and freedom from excessive force, said Betsy Ginsberg, a Cardozo Law School professor at Yeshiva University. Another U.S. law requires that most federal inmates be housed within a few hundred miles of their primary residence, Bergengruen said. Another area of discussion with El Salvador has been taking in undocumented migrants in the U.S. whose native countries won’t take them. El Salvador imprisons one of every 57 Salvadorans, the world’s highest rate of imprisonment. Its crackdown on gangs has made the world’s one-time murder capital safer than Canada. Bukele is “massively popular” as a result, the Journal said. But Bukele has suspended key civil liberties as part of the crackdown. His government has been accused of abuses including forced disappearances, torture and deaths in custody. Rubio, who first visited Panama, is headed next to Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
“U.S. Begins Migrant Flights to Guantanamo Bay,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2025
The Trump administration has begun the first phases of expanding a small migrant-detention center at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A Feb. 4 flight there from Fort Bliss in Texas had roughly a dozen migrants on board. “He’s not messing around,” a spokesperson said of President Trump. The Homeland Security Department did not respond to a request for information on the migrants and whether they had a criminal record. Trump ordered the construction of a facility at Guantanamo he said is meant to “contain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Journal reporters noted that the naval base “is better known for its notorious prison where the U.S. has kept suspected terror suspects for more than two decades. The lesser-known migrant center has been operational since the 1990s.” The Biden administration has used the facility for a small number of migrants to be resettled in third countries. Advocacy groups have urged that the detention center be closed. The center has been characterized as a dilapidated building with mold and sewage problems, according to a report by the International Refugee Assistance Project based on interviews with detainees and former staff at the center. They said it housed families with young children alongside single adults and that detainees were denied confidential phone calls, including with lawyers. They weren’t permitted to reveal any accounts of mistreatment. “These flights set the stage for egregious rights violations, indefinite detention, and crushing family separations," said Hannah Flamm of the International Refugee Assistance Project. “The United States has a deplorable history of detaining different groups of people unlawfully at Guantanamo to avoid oversight and the public eye, and this latest chapter is no exception.” The Feb. 4 flight was on a C-17 military jet that costs $28,500 an hour to fly compared to $8,500 an hour for a standard U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flight. The flights to Guantanamo take roughly five hours, the Journal said. Little is known about the center expansion plan and how it is being funded. Housing the small number of migrants there has been costly. The Biden administration last year signed a $163 million contract with the prison company Akima to run the facility for three dozen migrants. It’s unclear whether ICE will set up tribunals for adjudicating immigration cases. Due process will be followed and the migrants won’t be detained there indefinitely, said Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary. She also declined to rule out housing families at the center.
“Rubio Threatens Panama’s President Over Canal, Saying Status Quo is ‘Unacceptable,’” Washington Post, Feb. 2, 2025
The presence of two Hong Kong-based companies and other Chinese firms around the Panama Canal is “unacceptable” and will require action by the United States if Panama doesn’t take certain measures, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the president of Panama on his visit to that country Feb. 2. Rubio did not say what the measures were. Nor did he specify whether the U.S. would consider military action, said Post reporter John Hudson. President Trump did not rule out military action in earlier statements saying he would take control of the canal. “The current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal,” Rubio said. Giving control of the Panama Canal back to the United States is “impossible,” Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has said. Many see Trump’s demand as a ploy to get Panama to agree to charge U.S. vessels lower fees for crossing the canal....
“In Panama, Rubio Says China Threatens Canal, Demanding ‘Immediate’ Action, New York Times, Feb. 2, 2025
In their account of Marco Rubio’s visit to Panama (see story above), Times reporters Michael Crowley and Annie Correal said the U.S. Secretary of State appeared to escalate Trump’s confrontation with Panama. He told Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino that Trump had determined that Chinese “influence and control” threatens the canal, and that the U.S. president demands “immediate changes.” Mulino said afterward that he didn’t believe Rubio conveyed a threat from Trump that he might move to reclaim the canal. Mulino said he saw little risk of that type of intervention, even as Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland Feb. 2 that “we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen.” A State Department summary of the meeting said Rubio told Mulino that Trump had made a “preliminary determination” that China exercised control over the canal. However, Mulino repeatedly played down the risk that Trump would seize the canal. “There is no question that the canal is operated by Panama and will continue to be so,” he said. “I don’t think there was any discrepancy on that. I did not feel any threat.” Trump falsely claimed that China operates the canal. Built by the United States in the early 1900s, it was turned over in 1999 under a treaty negotiated by Jimmy Carter when he was president. Panama then “undertook a massive expansion of the canal so it could accommodate larger ships,” the Times said. The Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison operates seaports at both ends of the canal. Trump and Rubio say that’s a threat because the Chinese government could order the company to block shipping, but “many experts are skeptical of that claim,” the Times said. The Panamanian government has directed that an audit of the company be carried out. Mulino said there could be “updates” after the audit is completed. Rubio was warmer in tone when not discussing the canal, thanking Mulino for a “joint repatriation” program that reduced the flow of migrants heading north through Panama to the United States from Colombia. Mulino said he and Rubio talked about further tightening security along the migrant route and that the U.S. could use an air strip in Panama as a transfer point to carry deportees from the U.S. to countries like Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Mulino also said that Panama won’t renew an agreement it signed in 2017 with China to take part in an ambitious infrastructure program called the Belt and Road Initiative. He expressed hope the U.S. would take a more active role in projects in Panama. “I think this visit opens a path toward building a new era in relations.”
“Trump to Send Venezuelans Back to Maduro’s Repressive State,” Washington Post, Feb. 1, 2025
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has agreed to take in Venezuelans deported by the United States, President Donald Trump said Feb. 1. That potentially clears the way for “hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the South American country to be sent back to the authoritarian socialist regime that many fled,” said Post reporters Samantha Schmidt, Peter Jamison and Maria Sacchetti. Trump says he's prioritizing the return of criminals and gang members. But “the deportees could eventually include hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans with temporary protected status that is set to expire later this year,” the reporters wrote. Trump said the agreement includes taking back Tren de Aragua gang members and Venezuela supplying the transportation. Human rights advocates and Venezuelan opposition leaders have warned against the return of people to a country marked by political repression and a failing economy. Critics said Trump’s decision to send envoy Richard Grenell to negotiate the deal confers legitimacy on the government of Maduro, who many foreign leaders and independent analysts say stole the Venezuelan election.
“Panama Girds for War as Trump’s Team Teases a Deal,” Politico, Feb. 1, 2025
Will the next four years be more like an imperial conquest or a hardball real estate negotiation? In the event of an American invasion “there will be many, many casualties on our side and international condemnation of the U.S.,” said former Panamanian President Ernesto Pérez Balladares. A Trump envoy meanwhile was sending a more pragmatic message, telling Panamanian officials to get ahead of this by preemptively offering concessions. Mauricio Claver-Carone suggested that Panamanians start by letting U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships cross the canal for free. Interviews with current and former officials in Panama and Washington “suggest there remains room to strike a deal that reaffirms American preeminence here and rolls back China’s presence without contesting Panama’s control of the canal,” wrote Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger. Balladeres noted that Panama could retaliate by no longer curtailing the flow of migrants heading north toward the U.S. from Colombia. Trump has claimed that transit fees overcharge Americans and that China is establishing a military presence at the canal, claims Panamanian officials say are untrue. They say transit fees are uniform and dictated by law and that Trump is wrong when he says there are Chinese soldiers at the canal. But it isn’t just Trump who is uneasy about China’s increasing presence in Latin America. “Many American critics who recoil at the American president’s rhetoric agree that the U.S. could do more to roll back Chinese encroachment in Latin America,” says Schreckinger. “Panamanian elites, on the other hand, are loath to step back from a lucrative trading partner whose presence they argue poses no real threat to American security interests.” And they feel blindsided by Trump after Panama’s President José Raul Mulino entered office last summer ready to curtail the flow of migrants northward from Colombia. Roberto Eisenmann, 88, the founder of Panama’s independent newspaper La Prensa, says Panamanian leaders are right to see Trump’s grievances as bluster. “I have a New Yorker friend,” Eisenmann told Schreckinger, “and he says to me, ‘Bobby, this is typical New Yorker bullshit when you want to get a discount.”
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