News Summaries in September 2025

Note to readers: summaries may sometimes be posted in two places, at least for a time, when older stories are involved. They temporarily will be placed at the top to call attention to them but also placed in chronological order farther down. Summaries of older stories no longer will say “posted out of chronological order.” Thank you for your attention to this matter.

“Trump Dragnet Is Sweeping Up Citizens of the U.S.,” New York Times, Sept. 30, 2025

Since January, at least 15 U.S. citizens have been arrested or detained and questioned about their citizenship by U.S. immigration agents, according to a New York Times review. Many are Latino men who agents suspect are living in the U.S. illegally. Many of the ones detained have immediately declared their U.S. citizenship but routinely have been ignored, the Times said, according to the men, their lawyers and court documents. “In some cases they have been handcuffed, kept in holding cells and immigration facilities overnight, and in at least two cases held without access to a lawyer or even a phone call,” said the Times story reported by Jazmine Ulloa, Allison McCann and Jennifer Medina. In California, twenty-five-year-old George Retes Jr., said he was taken into custody while trying to go to work while people near him were protesting an immigration crackdown. The U.S. Army veteran, who works as a security guard, said that he kept telling officers who had taken him into custody that “I’m a U.S. citizen, I’m American. I’m a veteran. I didn’t do anything wrong.” He was held for three days and wasn’t permitted a phone call during that time. A federal spokeswoman said he was arrested for assault but the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles asked that the charges be dismissed. In several cases the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said the person detained was guilty of assault but then prosecutors did not pursue the charges. In another case, 18-year-old Kenny Laynez-Ambrioso, an American citizen, was arrested on his way to work in Florida and was held for six hours. During the arrest he said he was told “you got no rights here” despite saying he was born and raised in the United States. A Supreme Court ruling earlier in September “effectively allows agents to stop anyone on suspicion of being an immigrant living in the United States illegally,” the Post said. It noted that “during some immigration sweeps in heavily Latino communities, particularly in Southern California, federal agents have roamed the streets, courthouses and workplaces demanding proof of citizenship from residents. The roving patrols and impromptu interrogations have been a striking departure from the understanding that the Constitution allows citizens to remain silent and places limits on who officers can question, hold and detain.” It’s hard to say what the actual tally is of U.S. citizens detained since immigration agents aren’t required to document their stops of citizens.

“Colombia’s President Singles Out Men Called Brayan, Causing Derision and Anger,” New York Times, Sept. 30, 2025

Whereas in the United States “Karen” has become a derisive name describing an entitled, demanding woman, in Colombia “Brayan” is a stigmatized first name, says Times reporter Genevieve Glatsky. Also spelled Brian, it is “often used to refer to a reckless, low-income delinquent.” This month, Colombian President Gustavo Petro stereotyped all men with that name in that way. He said they are “vampire men,” who leave women “pregnant and abandoned.” The backlash was swift. Brayan Mantilla, a popular figure on social media, called for a National Brayan Day and announced the founding of the National Brayan Association. “We are tired,” he said. “For years we have been unfairly singled out, turned into memes and denied the right to be taken seriously in our professional and personal lives.” Some say the derision reflects classism. “He’s speaking ill of all poor people saying that,” depicting young men from poor neighborhoods as irresponsible womanizers, said Colombian journalist Juan Mosquera. Mosquera said names like Brayan often come from English or foreign influences that are a sign of aspiration in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Interior minister Armando Benedetti sought to deflect the criticism of Petro by emphasizing that the government has expanded access to higher education. “Free education is the ultimate proof that we are open to everyone, especially the working classes,” he said. But others say Petro has an improvisational style that makes him prone to gaffes. “Contentious proposals to revamp the public health system, corruption accusations against government officials and a confrontational foreign policy have eroded Mr. Petro’s popularity,” according to Glatsky. “This Brayan thing just shows how he just doesn’t care anymore” about what he says, political analyst Sergio Guzmán. “We’re just so numb,” he said. “He’s just so annoying that we’re all sort of fed up with him.”

“UN Authorizes a Much Larger Force to Fight Gangs in Haiti with New Power to Arrest Gang Members,” Associated Press, Sept. 30, 2025

The United Nations Security Council voted Sept. 30 to authorize a 5,500-member international force with added powers to help stop growing gang violence in Haiti. The current multinational force led by Kenya will become a “Gang Suppression Force.” Unlike the current force, it will have the power to arrest suspected gang members. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Walz, said the change “offers Haiti hope.” Gangs now control 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. They have expanded their looting, kidnapping, sexual assaults and rapes into the countryside. They have grown in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Haiti has not had a president since then. The Kenyan force that arrived in Haiti in June 2024 was supposed to have 2,500 troops but because of underfunding has fewer than 1,000. Walz “urged countries to provide personnel and money,” said AP reporter Edith M. Lederer.

“Bad Bunny Tapped for Super Bowl Halftime, Spotlighting Latin Pride and His Clashes with Trump,” Associated Press, Sept. 29, 2025

The selection of singer Bad Bunny as the top entertainer at the Super Bowl halftime show will turn a spotlight on Latin American culture during America’s most watched television event. It also “raises fresh questions about how much space there will be for his trademark symbolism and social commentary,” said AP reporters Jonathan Landrum Jr. and Adriana Gomez Licon. That includes his past criticism of President Donald Trump. Bad Bunny is one of the world’s most streamed artists, with albums such as “Un Verano Sin Ti,” all of which is in Spanish. Born as Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, the 31-year-old Bad Bunny has won 3 Grammys and 12 Latin Grammies. He is “also an artist who ties his music to Puerto Rican identity, colonial politics and immigrant struggles,” the AP reporters say. During the 2024 election campaign he backed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris after a comedian at a Madison Square Garden Trump rally mocked Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” This year he shared a video on Instagram showing immigration agents making arrests in Puerto Rico with the voice behind the camera cursing at the agents. He has skipped U.S. tour stops, expressing fear that ICE agents could show up to detain people. Now he says “I think I’ll do just one date in the United States.” He says his Super Bowl appearance “is for my people, my culture, and our history.” How far will he go? The National Football League has a record of pushing back when entertainers get political. Still, Jennifer Lopez in 2020 would not cut out a segment showing children in cages as a protest against U.S. immigration policy. Dr. Dre and Eminem in 2022 knelt and referenced police despite being advised not to do so. Reaction to his selection has been strong. California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said his state “is excited to welcome you to Super Bowl LX.” The chair of Students for Trump, Ryan Fournier, said “whoever picks these people should be fired.” Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson said Bad Bunny is “a massive Trump hater” and an “anti-ICE activist.” He criticized the fact that he doesn’t have songs in English. “Bad Bunny has long shrugged off such critiques,” AP noted. “Asked by the New York Times earlier this year how he felt about fans who don’t understand his lyrics, he sang into the microphone: ‘I don’t care.’”

“Rubio Shapes a U.S. Strategy to Remove Venezuela’s Leader,” New York Times, Sept. 30, 2025

President Trump’s top aides have intensified their pressure in recent days to remove authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power. Spearheading the drive is U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who frames the removal effort as a counternarcotics operation. The U.S. military has launched lethal attacks on boats it says Venezuelans are using to smuggle drugs to the United States. The Pentagon also has built up a U.S. force of 6,500 troops in the region. Also, “the U.S. military has been planning potential operations targeting drug trafficking suspects in Venezuela itself as a next phase, although the White House has not yet approved such a step, current and former officials say,” according to Times reporters Julian E. Barnes, Edward Wong, Julie Turkewitz and Charlie Savage. The operations also would aim to tighten a vise on Maduro, who officials depict as sitting atop Venezuela’s cartel network. The U.S. Justice Department indicted Maduro in 2020 on drug trafficking charges, and Rubio calls him “a fugitive from American justice.” Meanwhile, two senior figures in the Venezuelan opposition say they have been planning for Maduro’s ouster and talking to the Trump administration about that possibility. Administration officials haven’t confirmed those talks. But Rubio met in May with five opposition figures who secretly fled to the U.S. An aide to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told the Times that under a plan for the first 100 hours after Maduro’s removal, power would be transferred to Edmundo Gonzalez, who ran for president last year and in a tally of paper ballots confirmed by outside analysts defeated Maduro handily. Then-President Biden recognized González as president, but Maduro refused to leave office and launched a campaign of repression that led González to flee to Spain. Under international law it’s generally illegal to use force in another country without its consent or the approval of the United Nations Security Council. But the thinking is that if Gonzalez approved a violent intervention the Trump administration could say that was consent. However, the ouster scenario is problematic for a number of reasons. “Law experts say the lethal military strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats have been illegal,” the Times noted. According to another published report, those attacks haven’t weakened Maduro’s grip on power as much as Trump officials hoped. The military in Venezuela is loyal to Maduro. Also, some senior U.S. officials say an attempt to remove Maduro using force would be misguided. Those officials include Richard Grenell, Trump’s envoy to Venezuela. They fear it could put the U.S. into an extended war of the kind Trump has promised to avoid. Grenell said recently there’s still time for diplomacy. “I believe in avoiding war.” Meanwhile, Maduro sent Trump a three-page letter Sept. 6 calling for talks to ease tensions, multiple sources said. Venezuelan foreign minister Yván Gil also urged discussions, saying that a large conflict would lead to excessive migration and an economic collapse that would destabilize the entire region. But he added that Maduro’s exit was not on the table in any negotiation.

“This Conquistador Changed History: Neglect Haunts His Tomb,” New York Times, Sept. 25, 2025

The remains of the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés lie in a church where trash piles up outside its windows, worshipers rarely fill more than a few pews, and the “unhoused of Mexico City’s old center perform their bodily functions in its shadows.” So writes Post reporter Simon Romero, who notes how Cortés, who died in 1547, changed the world: He “overthrew the Aztec Empire five centuries ago, setting a pattern for European conquests and changing the course of history.” The tomb of Cortés is simple and unadorned, unlike some of the other tombs in the Church of Jesus the Nazarene. The scant attention it receives reflects “the disdain many Mexicans still hold for Cortés over atrocities such as starving, massacring and enslaving Native peoples during the conquest.” Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has called on Spain to apologize for the atrocities, her stance reflecting “antigachupinismo,” the concept in Mexican politics and art that reflects animosity toward Spain because of the conquest and Mexico’s struggle for independence. But an apology from Spain does not appear to be forthcoming. He is viewed in a softer light in his native land, eliciting no sympathy from Mexicans. Says Romero: “When the far-right Spanish party Vox demanded in recent years that the Mexican authorities clean up Cortes’s tomb and make it more welcoming, responses in Mexico ranged from chortles to suggestions that the remains be shipped off to Spain.”

“Cuban Prisoners Forced to Work Making Cigars and Charcoal for Export to Europe, Report Claims,” Sept. 15, 2025

A report released by a Madrid-based group called Prisoners Defenders estimates that at least 60,000 prisoners in Cuban jails are being forced to make the country’s world-famous cigars and marabu charcoal sold to European consumers. According to Guardian reporter Tiago Rogero, the non-governmental organization says the prisoners “are being forced to work with little or no pay, under threats, in exhausting conditions and without adequate equipment, with reports of violence including the sexual abuse of female detainees.” The report blames the Cuban government for a “national and institutionalized system of forced labour” across the island. The Cuban government did not respond to a request for comment. The charcoal is shipped mainly to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey. It is labeled as “ecological” but is “produced in a state of absolute modern slavery,” the report says. To carry out the study, researchers between April and August 2025 interviewed 53 individuals from 40 prisons. They interviewed either prisoners or their families using a 61-question survey. The group said it carried out 60 further interviews and cross-checked the information with documentary sources. Almost half of the respondents said they suffered physical violence during work. The group estimated that 7.5 percent of Cuba’s annual cigar production is made using forced labour. A Black former inmate interviewed by The Guardian said “most of those sent to forced labour are Black; white prisoners are employed in cleaning and cars – in other words, easier tasks – in canteens, food stores, kitchens, and so on.” Prisoners Defenders said the Cuban government “must be held internationally accountable for these crimes.”

“US Revokes Visa for Colombian President Gustavo Petro After ‘Reckless’ Actions in New York,” The Guardian, Sept. 27, 2025

The US State Department said Sept. 26 it would revoke the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro after he stood on a street at a pro-Palestine protest in New York City “and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence.” The State Department said “we will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.” Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, was in the city for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He spoke in Spanish to a large crowd urging nations of the world to contribute soldiers to an army “larger than that of the United States.” He said “that is why, from here in New York, I ask all soldiers in the United States army not to point their rifles at humanity! Disobey Trump’s order! Obey the order of humanity!” While in New York Petro rebuked President Trump “fiercely,” said the Guardian story based on reports from news agencies. Petro “called for a criminal inquiry into recent US strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean.” Petro said unarmed poor young people died in the strikes, more than a dozen in total. Trump has sent eight warships and a submarine to the southern Caribbean, a deployment that has raised fears in Venezuela of an invasion. Colombia’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti, said on X Sept. 26 that the visa of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have been revoked, not that of Petro. “But since the empire protects him, it’s taking it out on the only president who was capable enough to tell him the truth to his face.”

“U.S. Preparing Options for Military Strikes on Drug Targets Inside Venezuela, Sources Say,” NBC News, Sept. 26, 2025

U.S. military strikes inside Venezuela against drug traffickers could begin within weeks, four sources told NBC News. The U.S. military previously struck at least three boats from Venezuela the Trump administration alleged were carrying narcotraffickers and drugs that could threaten Americans. “Striking inside Venezuela would be another escalation in the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged drug targets and its stance toward Venezuela’s government,” said the NBC story reported by Courtney Kube, Gabe Gutierrez and Katherine Doyle. In the case of the boats, the administration hasn’t provided evidence that drugs were on all of them. President Trump hasn’t approved any strikes yet inside Venezuela, the sources said. The plans for attack mainly call for drone strikes against the leaders and members of drug trafficking groups. They also would target drug labs. Asked to comment, the White House referred to a previous statement in which Trump said “We’ll see what happens. Venezuela is sending us their gang members, their drug dealers and drugs. It’s not acceptable.” Venezuela isn’t a significant producer of cocaine but is viewed as a major departure point for flights carrying the drugs to other places. It isn’t thought to be a source for fentanyl taken into the U.S. Trump administration officials haven’t ruled out ending the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as an aim of the military operations. Previously, a source said the administration’s goal is to force Maduro into rash decisions that would lead to his ouster without American boots on the ground. The U.S. and Venezuela are talking to each other through Middle Eastern intermediaries. Some administration officials are disappointed that the boat attacks haven’t appeared to weaken Maduro’s grip on power. There has been more pushback to the attacks than the administration expected. That has prompted the administration to think carefully about next steps, an official said. The official said Maduro has spoken to the intermediaries about what concessions he would be prepared to make to remain in power. Venezuelan political analyst Anibal Sanchez Ismayel told NBC News that “an attack on Venezuelan soil would have consequences from diplomatic protests to an increase in political persecutions of those they classify as collaborators, to further uniting the population with the need to defend sovereignty reaffirmed.”

“Rosa Roisinblit, Champion of Argentina’s ‘Stolen Grandchildren,’ Dies at 106,” New York Times, Sept. 12, 2025

A human rights activist whose pregnant 25-year-old daughter disappeared in 1978 during Argentina’s “Dirty War” against the opponents of its dictatorship has died at the age of 106. Rosa Roisinblit refused to heed the dictatorship’s warnings not to look for her daughter and became an early member of the “Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.” Wearing white head scarves, members of the group, an offshoot of an organization of mothers whose children had disappeared, gathered weekly to protest at the plaza in the heart of Buenos Aires. They did so at “great risk” to themselves, wrote Post reporter Adam Nossiter. Added Nossiter: “Human rights groups estimated 30,000 Argentines were kidnapped, tortured, drugged, pushed from airplanes and never heard from again, in a ‘system of licensed sadism,’ as the Oxford legal scholar Ronald Dworkin wrote.” Roisinblit’s daughter Patricia, whose husband also was abducted, was never seen again. Both she and her husband had been members of the left-wing guerilla group Montoneros, but reportedly had left that life behind at the time they disappeared. Roisinblit later learned that her daughter had been taken to the Naval Mechanics School, a detention and torture center near Buenos Aires, where she gave birth in captivity in November 1978. Her baby son was given to a civilian Air Force Intelligence officer and his wife. Nossiter said “the boy was one of reportedly hundreds of those born in clandestine torture centers who were, under false papers, transferred to childless military couples.” Roisinblit was eventually able to find her grandson, who eventually changed his surname after confronting the couple who raised him in what he called an abusive home. Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo says some 300 stolen grandchildren remain to be found and 140 have been given back to their families. The group said in a statement on Roisinblit’s death “the greatest recognition she received is that of the grandchildren she found, who at every meeting embraced her as if she were their own grandmother.”

“One Key to Living to 117 May Be 3 Yogurts a Day,” New York Times, Sept. 25, 2025

Born in 1907 in San Francisco to Spanish parents who had come to the United States to work, Maria Branyas Morera died in Olot, Spain in August 2024 at the age of 117. She was at that time the world’s oldest person, noted Times reporter Gina Kolata. Her request late in life was that Dr. Manel Estelier, a geneticist as the University of Barcelona School of Medicine, study why she lived so long. Estelier, along with other scientists did so, examining her blood, saliva, urine and stool for clues. Their new study shows that the answer in part, according to Kolata, is that she took care of herself. She and her mother moved back to Spain at the age of 8 after her father died. She married and had three children – a son who died at the age of 52 and two daughters, now 92 and 94. Members of her extended family died from common causes but she lived on and on. She followed a Mediterranean diet and did not smoke or drink. She walked an hour a day until the early 2000s. Kolata added that “she won the genetic lottery with variants that, the researchers said, could predict longevity,” protecting against high cholesterol, dementia, heart disease and cancer. She had cells that seemed younger than her age, Estelier said. Scientists caution that the genetics of long life can be confusing and that it’s important not to overinterpret individual cases. But she had other prerequisites hypothesized to lengthen life. Microbes that lived in and on her body were associated with low levels of inflammation. She had an abundance of a type of beneficial bacteria called Bifidobacterium. Its growth “can be spurred by bacteria in yogurt. Ms. Branyas ate three yogurts a day.” She had a close circle of family and friends. As friends died, she made new ones. She lived in the same town as her family. She lived on her own until 2001 when she had trouble walking and entered a nursing home. She played the piano until five years ago. “She lived a healthy life,” Estelier said.

“Milei’s Revolution in Argentina Faces a Backlash,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 24, 2025

Nearly two years after he began a radical overhaul of the Argentine economy, the recovery President Javier Milei promised from what he called his fiscal “shock therapy” is nowhere in sight. “The economy is contracting,” wrote Journal reporters Ryan Dubé and Silvina Frydlewsky. “Tens of thousands of jobs lost during Milei’s tough austerity drive have yet to come back. Clothing stores have shut their doors. Pensioners and teachers say they can’t make ends meet. Financial markets are beset by growing turmoil.” Milei has won praise for slashing both triple-digit inflation and unchecked public spending. However, his policies have been painful and have become unpopular. A poor performance in congressional elections in October could doom his free-market experiment. Milei says doubts about his future have been fueled by “political panic” from an election this month in the province of Buenos Aires, which is considered a bellwether for the October elections. Milei had predicted a solid victory, but his Freedom Advances party lost badly. The far-left governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, who has emerged as a top rival to Milei, said “the people have risen up. Millions of people from Buenos Aires said no to the austerity and the cruelty.” Milei took a hit in the poorest neighborhoods, where people have seen jobs disappear, transportation costs increase and pensions decline. Whereas 50 percent of the public supported him last year his approval rating this year is down to 40 percent. A poll showed that almost 60 percent of Argentines think the economy is worse this year than last year. But a possible lifeline emerged Sept. 22 when U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged U.S. economic support for Milei’s sweeping overhaul (see story below). “We’re backing him 100 percent,” President Trump said at the United Nations Sept. 23 while seated next to Milei. The Argentine leader claims his handling of the economy has reduced poverty for millions and created booming investments in the mining and oil and gas industries. “Let’s not give up, let’s keep moving forward,” he said in a recent speech. “Is there still a long way to go? Yes, but we have achieved a lot.” But at a bakery in the community of La Matanza, about 300 people per day line up for bread. The baker, Celia Cisneros, said many families don’t have the 75 cents for a bag of already subsidized bread. Others say the bread is probably the only thing they will eat that day. “It’s sad,” she told the Journal. “People are really concerned about what is happening.”

“China Snaps Up Argentine Soybeans After Tax Suspensions,” AgDaily, Sept. 24, 2025

China has booked shipments of Argentine soybeans for arrival in November after that South American country temporarily suspended its taxes on exporting grain. The move put Argentina at a competitive advantage to the United States, where soybean farmers are at a loss for customers after China as part of its tariff battle with the U.S. suspended purchases of U.S. soybeans. China’s purchases of Argentine soybeans came during America’s prime export window, AgDaily reporters said. U.S. soybean farmers missed out on billions of dollars in sales. “China is trying to avoid the U.S. during our export window,” said Ted Seifried of Zaner Ag Hedge. “Every time China turns to South America instead of the U.S., soybean farmers and our farm families here at home lose out,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland told Reuters. Argentina suspended its 26 percent tax on soybean exports through October or until declared exports reach a cap of $7 billion.

“Dissent Rises in Pentagon Over Boat Strikes,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 18, 2025

Some officials inside the Pentagon are expressing concern about the Trump administration’s jump straight to using lethal force without prior warning in waging military strikes on boats in international waters allegedly involved in trafficking drugs. The standard rules of engagement for dealing with boats suspected of being used by cartels to transport drugs has been to interdict them, said Wall Street Journal reporter Lara Seligman. Some military lawyers and other officials inside the Defense Department are concerned about the legal implications of the strikes, which in the case of two boats have caused a total of 14 deaths. These people believe they are being ignored or deliberately sidelined, one of them told the Journal. “News of the internal dissent is likely to intensify scrutiny of the campaign, which lawmakers and outside experts have condemned as a series of illegal, extrajudicial killings,” said Seligman. “How do we know [the boat] was coming to the U.S.?” asked Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) “Are we going to blow up every boat? It is just insane.” When using lethal force against terror groups in the Middle East the military has relied on congressional authorization, but it’s an entirely different situation when dealing with members of Latin American cartels, said one of the people questioning the actions. A concern is providing legal protection for military members involved in the strikes. They “might be personally liable,” the person said. Trump administration spokespeople said the strikes were lawful under both U.S. and international law and denied that any Defense Department lawyers questioned their legality. They said the actions defend the U.S. and other nations against the harm to people done by drug trafficking as well as violent cartel actions. However, critics say the targets posed no direct threat to the U.S. and military action was taken without congressional authorization. “Debate over the campaign’s legality comes amid worries that the Trump administration is politicizing the military’s legal apparatus,” Seligman wrote. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this year fired top military lawyers saying they weren’t well suited to their jobs and might block military orders. That action “chilled any type of legal dissent across the Department of Defense,” said Sarah Harrison of the International Crisis Group. President Trump “ordered this execution without any public dissent from the military. And so that should concern everyone, given there’s no clear restraints on, now, the military’s use of force.”

“U.S. Vows Extensive Aid for Argentina’s Economy,” New York Times, Sept. 23, 2025

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sept. 2 the United States is prepared to offer loans to Argentina’s central bank, direct purchases of its currency, and purchases of U.S. dollar-denominated debt – whatever is needed to help the country’s struggling economy and embattled President Javier Milei going into legislative elections next month. The value of the Argentine peso has dropped in recent weeks amid doubt about his continuing power over government. Milei has been hit by double-digit losses in the provincial mid-terms, corruption allegations against his sister (see story below), and congressional votes overriding his vetoes and restoring funding for public health and education, said Times reporters Alan Rappeport and Colby Smith. “Bessent’s comments carry outsized weight at this fragile juncture,” said Alijo Czerwonko of UBS Global Wealth Management. “They provide the Milei administration with a critical window to reorient ahead of October’s midterms.” Bessent said he and President Trump, who has called Milei his “favorite president,” will meet with the Argentine president in New York Sept. 23. Milei has slashed government spending and reduced subsidies but faces huge debt payments along with currency problems. “Argentina is increasingly important to the United States as it competes with China for influence in Latin America and scours the globe for strategic minerals such as lithium, which Argentina possesses,” the Times said.

“US Military Strike Off the Coast of Venezuela Disrupts Life in Impoverished Fishing Communities,” Associated Press, Sept. 19, 2025

It’s an open secret among residents of Venezuela’s Paria Peninsula that the boats of local fishermen sometimes transport both fish and drugs. “Fishermen in the peninsula told The Associated Press they do not entirely blame those who enter the illegal trade, as living off fishing alone in Venezuela today is to accept a life of poverty,” wrote reporter Regina Garcia Cano. She visited the “breathtaking peninsula” along an idyllic stretch of the Caribbean coast after a Sept. 2 U.S. military strike against a boat that the Trump administration said killed 11 members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang involved in trafficking drugs. “There is no revolution here,” retiree Alberto Diaz told her. He was referring to the promise of the late leftist leader Hugo Chavéz that Venezuelan oil would be used to improve the lives of the country’s poor. “What there is here is hunger, sacrifice, pure pain.” The local fishing industry once offered a living wage, he said, but that’s no longer the case because of overfishing. Some fishermen supplement their income with drug trafficking because they are desperate, said Christopher Sabatini, a researcher at Chatham House in London, a British think tank. But he says the Trump administration has completely exaggerated their unlawful activity by tying them to the Tren de Aragua gang and calling them an immediate threat to the U.S. “If you look at (the boats), these could never make the journey all the way up the Caribbean to the United States,” Sabatini told AP. “These are small-scale fishermen – and now small-scale drug traffickers – that don’t represent the crux of the issue.” Junior Gonzalez, a local fisherman, said rules restricting fishing for sardines could cut income to below $100 a month, not enough to pay for a week of groceries. But drug running can pay thousands at once. Kira Torres, a local resident, noted that a member of her husband’s fishing crew returned last week with no sardines and so “he doesn’t have food this week.” She said “many make the mistake because they are in dire need” and have reasons like hunger or a sick relative. When someone makes a successful drug run local businesses know because they get paid in crisp dollar or Euro bills and customers might treat themselves to a burger and fries. A local restaurant owner said he imagines that people working in the illegal drug trade are now lying low. “This week I sold 10 hamburgers out of the 90 I was selling (before the strike),” he told Cano.

“America Loves Cocaine Again – Mexico’s New Drug Boss Cashes In,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 18, 2025

Fifty-nine-year-old Nemesio “Mencho” Oseguera reigns as the new drug king of Mexico, aided by America’s resurging love of cocaine and the Trump administration’s greater focus on going after fentanyl. So write Steve Fisher, José de Córdoba, and Santiago Pérez of the Wall Street Journal, who note that his Jalisco New Generation Cartel has displaced the strife-torn Mexican Sinaloa cartel “as the world’s biggest drug pusher.” His ascendancy reflects the much wider U.S. distribution of cocaine, which is cheaper and is as pure as ever for retail buyers in the drug trade. Cocaine use is up 154% in the western U.S since 2019 and 19% in the eastern U.S, says the drug testing company Millenium Health. “His cartel transports the addictive powder by the ton from Colombia to Ecuador and then north to Mexico’s Pacific coast via speedboats and so-called narco subs,” the Journal says. The Jalisco cartel gets money from various sources in addition to drugs. It “acts as a parallel government in the southwestern state of Jalisco and other parts of Mexico, taxing such goods as tortillas, chicken, cigarettes and beer…[and] controls construction companies that build roads, schools and sewers for the municipal governments under cartel control.” It also gets cash from selling gasoline and diesel stolen from Mexican refineries or smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. without paying taxes. The fuel is sold at below-market prices to small and large businesses. The cartel also profited from the movement of migrants toward the U.S. by charging them each thousands of dollars to pass through its territory. It also operates more than two dozen call centers to fleece senior citizens of hundreds of millions of dollars in vacation-timeshare fraud, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Oseguera is seen as an altruistic patriarch by some poor Mexicans because he organizes town fiestas and hands out food, medicine and toys. But his status as top drug trafficker “puts him in a very dangerous spot, according to a senior Trump administration official.”

“Funicular Tragedy Rattles Lisbon’s Sense of Self,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 2025

Is Lisbon for wealthy foreigners or its own lower income residents? In the early 2010s, Portugal offered tax breaks and golden visas to attract wealthy people to the economically troubled city. Other social and immigration policies drew foreign investors, digital nomads and ex-pat surfers who created a cosmopolitan culture that thrived on the low cost of living. But the Sept. 3 crash of the iconic Elavador da Glória funicular, which killed 14 people when it sped out of control on a steep incline and crashed into a wall, brought underlying economic tension to the surface. Jason Horowitz of the Times writes that “in the days leading up to a mayoral election, advocates of increasingly alienated and frustrated locals have seized on the accident to ask what Lisbon has become and who it is for. They argue that in its courting of wealthy transplants, Lisbon has created gross inequality and priced locals out of their neighborhoods. An administration focused on keeping alive the aura of innovation and growth, they say, has failed to maintain Lisbon’s basic infrastructure and character.” Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas counters that the crash has been politicized and calls that “disgusting.” Maintenance issues didn’t cause the accident, he says, but adds that an explanation of the cause must await the findings of an investigation. However, he and his critics do agree that Lisbon must manage growth without becoming a city of foreign haves and local have-nots. Moedas said it’s not bad that Portugal and Lisbon became trendy but the people of the city must be protected. He said he has sought to aid those left behind in Lisbon’s new economy through free transportation for the young and the elderly, increased health services and investments in housing. However, many locals are leaving, a big reason for which is high real estate prices driven up by foreign residents and speculative investors. But others say there are now “gleaming hotels and pleasant plazas” where before there were open air drug markets and abandoned lots, Horowitz notes. And more Portuguese young professionals are choosing to stay in the country working for an influx of new companies. “I don’t blame the rich people who move to Lisbon,” said 74-year-old city resident Mario Rodrigues. But all foreign investment “should be used for the protection of people who live in Lisbon.”

“Judge Blocks Deportation of Guatemalan Children,” New York Times,” Sept. 19, 2025

A federal judge Sept. 18 extended for the foreseeable future an order blocking the deportation of Guatemalan children, saying the Trump administration had misled the court by saying their return was a “reunification” effort to bring the children back to Guatemala to parents who had requested their return. The children involved came to the United States as unaccompanied minors and have been housed in shelters under government supervision or with families in foster care. The judge said the federal government roused the children in the middle of the night on the Labor Day weekend to put them on planes to go back to Guatemala. Their departure was blocked by court action. “There is no evidence before the court that the parents of these children sought their return,” said Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee. Judge Kelly grew frustrated at a hearing last week after lawyers representing the children presented a report by the office of Guatemala’s attorney general, said Times reporter Zach Montague. The report said that when the Guatemalan government tried to contact the families of the children involved, some could not be found but none of the others had sought their return. Montague said that according to the report, “many believe their children were secure in the United States. Some expressed fear for their safety if they were forced to return to conditions in Guatemala.” Kelly noted Sept. 18 that more questions emerged because of a report submitted to Congress by anonymous whistleblowers. The report asserted that the office at the federal Department of Health and Human Services that monitors the children ignored its own data showing that at least 30 of them had signs of having been abused and neglected in Guatemala. Federal officials “do not claim to have asked the children whether they want to go back to Guatemala, whether they were abused or neglected, or whether they want to return to their parents or legal guardians,” Kelly wrote in his opinion. Tricia McLaughlin of the federal Department of Homeland Security said the lawsuit against the administration on behalf of the children and the judge’s ruling were “all just to ‘get Trump.’ This judge is blocking efforts to reunify children with their families. Now these children will have to go to shelters.” Kelly wrote that “while defendants plunged ahead in the middle of the night with their ‘reunification’ plan and then represented to a judge that a parent or guardian had requested each child’s return, that turned out not to be true.” As many as 327 minors appear to be involved. Kelly “extended the prohibition to all minors from Guatemala who entered the United States alone and had not exhausted their immigration appeals,” Montague said. While his ruling was limited to Guatemalan children, he said that should not be viewed by the government as an opportunity to expand its deportation effort. His protective order could be expanded to include other children, he said. Kelly’s order continues the block while the lawsuit over the fate of the children plays out.

“Cuban Prisoners Forced to Work Making Cigars and Charcoal for Export to Europe, Report Claims,” Sept. 15, 2025

“Deportation Fears Are Fueling Money Transfers to Latin America,” New York Times, Sept. 10, 2025

Over the past several months the amount of money migrants working in the United States are sending back to their home countries has jumped by billions of dollars. “Across several Central American nations, money transfers have jumped 20 percent,” says Times reporter James Wagner. The countries they are sending money to include Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. People afraid of being deported are trying to get out as much money as they can while they can. “There is fear,” says an undocumented Guatemalan who works as a plumber in California. “Because if they catch you, then you can’t do anything. And they send you home with nothing.” Migrants fear President Trump will act to seize or block the bank accounts of people in the U.S. without authorization. “The money transfers, called remittances, are a critical lifeline for many countries and families around the world, especially in Central America and the Caribbean. There, the funds sometimes make up a huge chunk of a nation’s economy – as much as a quarter of a country’s gross domestic product, as in Honduras and Nicaragua." The recent increases are the biggest in decades, except in the wake of the Covid pandemic. The jump in remittances is a boost to regional economies. But because they are used for basic needs rather than savings, the increases could boost inflation. Also, the flow of money could stall or shrink if more migrants leave the U.S. or if the U.S. government cracks down harder on transfers than the one percent tax recently enacted into law by Congress. “In the medium and long term, it is worrying,” said Hugo Noé Pino, the vice president of the Honduran Congress. There’s another worry on the part of the migrants in the U.S. sending the money. The undocumented plumber in California used to go to remittance transfer shops without concern, but “now he scopes them out beforehand, looking for the authorities,” says Wagner.

“Country’s President is First Woman to Lead Mexico’s Cry of Independence,” New York Times, Sept. 17, 2025

Commemorating an 1810 call for revolt, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum led the national call of independence the night of Sept. 16, the first time in the 215 years of Mexico’s history that a woman has done so. The moment was “deeply symbolic” for Sheinbaum, said Times reporter James Wagner. She has asserted the country’s sovereignty repeatedly as she weathers intense pressure from President Trump on issues like trade and drug cartels. The traditional call, the Grito de Dolores, voiced the evening of Independence Day, “refers to Dolores, the small town where the priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, called for revolt, setting off the war against Spain in 1810,” Wagner said. Standing on a balcony before a teeming crowd in Mexico City, Sheinbaum repeatedly emphasized the importance of Mexican women. “Mexican women and men,” is how she began her address, which highlighted female rebel fighters. “Long live the unsung heroines!” she shouted. “Long live the heroines and heroes who gave us our homeland! Long live indigenous women! Long live our migrant sisters and brothers!” Even as she copes with challenges other than U.S. relations, such as cartel violence, persistent corruption, and rising housing costs, Sheinbaum “remains hugely popular, with approval ratings as high as 79 percent this week,” Wagner noted.

“Colombia’s President Lashes Out at Trump Administration Over Drug War Designation,” Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2025

Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro blasted the Trump administration Sept. 16 for decertifying his country as a partner in the war on drugs. For the first time in three decades, the administration added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war, said Associated Press reporter Manuel Rueda. Petro said the United States is trying to “participate” in Colombian politics and seeks a “puppet president” in Colombia’s 2026 presidential election. The Trump administration’s Sept. 15 decertification designation “is a stunning rebuke for a traditional U.S. ally,” said Rueda. “It comes amid a recent surge in cocaine production and fraying ties between the White House and Colombia’s first leftist president.” However, by issuing a waiver of sanctions, the Trump administration elected not to make major cuts in aid to Colombia. The decertification will not affect consular services, humanitarian projects and defense cooperation, said John McNamara, the charge d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Bogota. “We are going to do everything we can to fight with the Colombian people against the global threat” of drugs, McNamara told a Colombian radio station. Following the signing of a 2016 peace agreement between the government and armed violent groups in Colombia, the amount of land used to cultivate coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, has almost tripled. Petro has favored going after drug traffickers rather than coca farmers. He said he would not allow peasants who grow coca to get “beaten up.” Colombia’s efforts to take on drug traffickers are not expected to diminish because military cooperation is expected to continue. Decertification could rally support for Petro by tapping into anti-American sentiment, said Sandra Borda, a professor at Los Andes University in Bogota. And it could hurt the economy and harm efforts to restore security in the countryside (see next story).

“A Second Chance for Peace in Colombia is Slipping Away,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 2025

Less than a decade after an agreement was signed in Colombia to stop the violence among its warring factions, the peace that had come to the country’s southern Guaviare region is now gone. “A former stronghold of leftist insurgency, Guaviare shook off decades of rebel control in 2016, when Bogotá signed a peace deal to demobilize the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,” said Elizabeth Dickinson in a Times op-ed piece. She is a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “Rural residents looked on in hope and disbelief as police, rather than guerillas, patrolled their towns. Peace, it seemed, had finally arrived.” But now the reemergence of armed groups has ended it. A young community leader said residents can either do what the armed group says, leave, or be killed. Though Colombia is still far from the “brutal chaos” of the 1990s and early 2000s, “new armed groups have expanded and multiplied across the country, fueling an explosion in violent crimes ranging from extortion to kidnapping and child recruitment.” A wave of terrorist-style bombings and drone attacks along with the assassination of presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay portend further violence leading up to the 2026 elections. This does not mean the 2016 deal failed. But it shows “how hard it is to sustain progress toward peace.” With a year left in office, President Gustavo Petro, a former geurilla, can turn the security situation around. “Meaningful dialogue and investment in conflict-prone parts of the country are essential to dismantling armed groups’ control. By linking its continuing talks to robust social programs and a targeted security strategy, Mr. Petro can still revive the 2016 accord and work toward the total peace he has promised.” [Dickinson notes, however, that the Trump administration would deal a devastating blow to Petro’s ability to combat rising insecurity if it decertifies Colombia as a partner in the war on drugs. It appears the administration has now done so. See story summary above.]

“Funicular Tragedy Rattles Lisbon’s Sense of Self,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 2025

“Argentine President’s Sister Goes From Asset to Liability,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 15, 2025

Corruption allegations against his sister Karina are casting doubt on the ability of Argentine President Javier Milei’s to deliver on his radical overhaul of the country’s economy. Karina is so important in Milei’s government that she is sometimes referred to as his co-president, said Journal reporters Ryan Dubé and Silvina Frydlewsky. She and others have been alleged to have taken bribes from pharmaceutical companies seeking public contracts. In a recording leaked to local media, the head of Argentina’s disability agency, Diego Spagnuolo, said “I think 3% goes to Karina. You know that they’re stealing.” She has denied the allegations – “but they have bruised Milei’s reputation as an outsider cleaning up government and are partially blamed for his party’s poor showing in provincial elections in Buenos Aires this month,” the Journal said. The “unexpected walloping” has aroused fears that Milei’s party will do badly in congressional elections Oct. 26. His Freedom Advances Party has to gain considerable ground in that vote if his ambitious overhaul is to be completed. According to one pollster, almost 60 percent of Argentines think Karina should resign. “People are doing their best and it turns out that they were taking a 3% cut from a pharmacy company,” said a small business owner in Buenos Aires. “They are just as corrupt as the ones before.” For Milei, his sister’s appointment as his top advisor “is jeopardizing the future of his plans to remake Argentina’s economy, take a chain saw to rampant public spending and raze a political class disdained as corrupt,” the Journal said. But Andrés Malamud of the University of Lisbon, noted that Karina Milei, who essentially functions as her unmarried brother’s first lady, is “the one in command, the one who decides who gets close to Milei, the final authority on all decisions. Politics bores Milei. He is interested in the economy so he leaves the politics to her.”

“For Many Families, Every Meal Is a Struggle in Venezuela’s Economic Crisis,” Associated Press, August 27, 2025

Triple-digit inflation, low wages, the drop in foreign aid, and sharp cuts to food subsidies leave millions of Venezuelans struggling to put food on the table, says AP reporter Regina Garcia Cano. Many necessities including food have become unaffordable, and children are suffering the most, according to experts. For example, in Coro, Venezuela, 51-year-old Alnilys Chirino’s “tiny fridge and pantry are almost empty – a handful of peppers and wilting herbs, a kilo of rice, half that of beans, a bit of canned meat, some flour.” She must make those items stretch for days to feed her three teenagers. “They sleep, study, work, pray, and play hungry.” According to experts, a famine is not imminent in Venezuela but severe food insecurity means there will be lifelong physical and mental health challenges for the population. President Nicolás Maduro “has created economic conditions that largely limited people’s access to food nationwide, with the value of wages plummeting,” writes Garcia Cano. “Soup kitchens that fed thousands, mostly children, have been forced to close as he targets real and perceived opponents through a new law restricting the work of nongovernmental organizations.” In the case of Chirino’s family, it rarely eats protein. The children often skip school when hunger leaves them with headaches. The last time she bought meat – enough ground beef for maybe two servings – was in May. Along with headaches, the poor nutrition can lead to stunting, fatigue and other health issues in children. Overall, an estimated 80 percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. Rev. Gilberto Garcia, whose Catholic church runs a soup kitchen, said “It’s becoming more difficult every day for people to access food of a certain quality. People eat, but they usually eat carbohydrates. And that’s how people survive.”

“U.S. Strikes a Second Venezuela Boat, Killing Three, Trump Says,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 2025

President Trump said Sept. 15 the U.S. military struck a Venezuelan boat carrying drugs that was heading for the United States. It was the second such military strike this month. Trump said the latest strike occurred in international waters and killed three people. He labeled the latest attack as targeted against “positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” He didn’t offer more precise details about the location, said the report by Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and Charlie Savage of the Times. A video posted by Trump showed a fiery explosion engulfing the boat. It was unclear how the U.S. military attacked the boat. In the first attack on a Venezuelan vessel, 11 people were killed. Legal specialists condemned both attacks as illegal. The Trump administration has suggested that drug smuggling amounts to an imminent threat when some 100,000 Americans per year die from drug overdoses. It says Trump has directed military action as a matter of national self-defense. “Specialists in the laws about use of force have strongly rejected that idea, noting that the crime of drug smuggling has never been seen as equivalent to an imminent armed attack that can trigger a right to use lethal force in self-defense, and that Congress has not authorized any armed conflict with drug cartels,” said the Times. Laws that allow the executive branch to designate foreign groups as terrorists permit economic sanctions like freezing assets but not legal authority to use wartime force – “killing drug smuggling suspects as if they were combatants in a war,” the Times said.

“Lawsuit Says U.S. Deported Migrants to Ghana to Sidestep Restrictions,” Washington Post, Sept. 13, 2025

A new lawsuit says five migrants who judges had ordered not be returned to their home countries because they could be tortured or persecuted there instead were sent by the Trump administration to Ghana – but were told by an ICE officer they would then be sent to their home countries. Post reporter Guya Gupta said the lawsuit “alleges that judges had granted fear-based immigration relief to the five plaintiffs, ruling that they faced persecution or torture if they returned to their home countries of Nigeria and Gambia. But during their deportation flight, the complaint said, the plaintiffs were told by an ICE officer they would still be transferred to their home countries after landing in Ghana.” The advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice filed the lawsuit Sept. 12. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered the Trump administration Sept. 13 to provide more information about what it has done or plans to do about preventing the plaintiffs from being moved to their home countries. The suit alleges that four of the five plaintiffs were placed in straitjackets for 16 hours during their flight to Ghana. It said that in Ghana some of the plaintiffs were sent to an outdoor camp with “abysmal and deplorable” conditions with tents for housing and inadequate running water. One of the plaintiffs has already been returned to his home country of Gambia where same-sex relationships are criminalized, the suit said. It said he had been granted protection by U.S. judges because of his bisexuality. He was taken there without valid travel documents, it added. It also said none had ties to Ghana. The lawsuit requests that the court order the government to "immediately facilitate" the return of the plaintiffs to the U.S. and to stop the administration from using Ghana as a transit hub. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin denied the plaintiffs were in straitjackets. She called that “smears against our brave ICE law enforcement.” She added that “this type of garbage is contributing to our officers facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them.” The State Department and White House did not respond to requests for comment.

“Official Says Gangs Killed Dozens in Small Fishing Village in Haiti’s Latest Massacre,” Associated Press, Sept. 12, 2025

At least 42 people were killed in the fishing village of Labodrie north of Haiti’s capital in a massacre carried out by gangs, a local government official said. Gang violence had been concentrated in Port-au-Prince, but in recent years has spread to communities outside the capital. The official, Joseph Louis Baptiste, said the killings began over the weekend and are continuing. Those killed include a 4-year-old child and his family. Baptiste said gangs set Labodrie on fire and now are trying to attack the neighboring town of Arcahaie. He said the massacre apparently was caused by the killing of a local gang leader. “This tragedy highlights the urgent need for effective state intervention to end impunity and restore security in the region.”

“Justices Convict Brazil Ex-Leader,” New York Times, Sept. 12, 2025

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in prison after being convicted of attempting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 presidential election (see next story). His lawyers are likely to request that he be placed under house arrest because of health problems, said Times reporters Ana Ionova and Jack Nicas. “The conviction is a landmark ruling for Latin America’s largest nation,” the reporters said. “In at least 15 coups and coup attempts with links to the military since Brazil overthrew its monarchy in 1889, Thursday marked the first time the leaders of one of those plots have been convicted.” The conviction also could deal a definitive blow to Bolsonaro, while also escalating the conflict between the Trump administration and the Brazilian government. The coup plans, the Times said, “envisaged declaring a state of emergency that would have dissolved the Supreme Court, annulled the election result and given the military sweeping powers. It also included a plot to assassinate” current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his running mate, as well as Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the election and launched investigations of Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro denied the charges or knowledge of an assassination plot. But Bolsonaro “faced damaging testimony from his personal secretary and records showing that the assassination plot was printed out and brought to the presidential palace, among other evidence,” the Times said. “In Brazil, a country with a long history of leaders who have tried, and at times succeeded, to seize power through coups, Mr. Bolsonaro’s conviction was seen by many as a victory for democracy.”

“Brazilian Supreme Court Panel Convicts Bolsonaro of Attempting a Coup,” Associated Press, Sept. 11, 2025

A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices voted 4 to 1 Sept. 11 to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup in 2022 to remain in office after he lost the presidential election. The ruling “will deepen political divisions and likely prompt a backlash from the United States government,” said AP reporters Mauricio Savarese and Gabriela Sá Pessoa. The panel is deciding on a sentence that could put him in prison for decades. U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “very unhappy” with the decision and called it “very bad for Brazil.” Bolsonaro’s lawyers said they’ll appeal the verdict to the full Supreme Court of 11 justices. Justice Cármen Lúcia, among the four who voted to convict, said Bolsonaro “is the instigator, the leader of an organization that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.” The sole dissenting justice, Luiz Fux, said Bolsonaro should be acquitted of all charges. “No one can be punished for cogitation,” he said. “A coup d’état does not result from isolated acts or individual demonstrations lacking coordination, but rather from the actions of organized groups, equipped with resources and strategic capacity to confront and replace the incumbent power.” Bolsonaro previously was banned from running for office until 2030. But he remains a powerful political player. He is expected to choose an heir to challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 2026 presidential election. His son, lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, is pushing the Brazilian Congress to grant his father amnesty. Trump has imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazil to punish it for what he has called a “witch hunt” of Bolsonaro. “Observers say the U.S. might announce new sanctions against Brazil after the trial,” the AP reporters said.

“Deportation Fears Are Fueling Money Transfers to Latin America,” New York Times, Sept. 10, 2025

“Judge Temporarily Blocks US Effort to Remove Dozens of Immigrant Guatemalan and Honduran Children,” Associated Press, Sept. 11, 2025

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez in Tucson extended at least until Sept. 26 an order barring the Trump administration from deporting dozens of Guatemalan and Honduran children living in shelters or foster care who crossed the border into the U.S. alone. She expressed concern whether the administration had arranged for any of the children’s parents or legal guardians in Guatemala to take care of them. A lawyer for the children said none of them had expressed a desire to be repatriated because of concerns they could face neglect, child trafficking or hardship associated with their medical conditions. A Trump administration attorney said the repatriations were negotiated with Guatemala at high diplomatic levels. They would not involve lengthy prohibitions on returning to the U.S., the lawyer said. Judge Márquez said she found it “frightening” that U.S. officials may not have coordinated with the children’s parents, AP said. Lawsuits are also pending in Illinois and Washington, D.C. trying to block the government from repatriating unaccompanied children. “Children began crossing the border alone in large numbers in 2014, peaking at 152,060 in the 2022 fiscal year,” said the AP story by Jacques Billeaud and Morgan Lee.

“New Fears in Los Angeles After Justices Back Trump,” New York Times, Sept. 11, 2025

In recent weeks a sense of normalcy returned to immigrants in Los Angeles after a federal judge blocked what local officials described as random, indiscriminate raids. Most of the troops ordered in by President Trump had been withdrawn. “Street vendors in Los Angeles returned to sidewalks, workers returned to construction sites, and families hosted birthday parties at local parks,” recounted Jill Cowan and Ana Facio-Krajcer of the Times. But now that “thin veil of safety” has been ripped away by the Sept. 8 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing immigrants to be stopped based on race or ethnicity or speaking Spanish. Roberto Cordero, 67, an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the region more than four decades and says he has worked almost nonstop since then doing jobs including installing flooring, said the Supreme Court gave ICE agents “the green light to treat us all the same, like criminals.” He said people will be afraid and stop going to work. Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol head who has been leading the Los Angeles raids, said he was no longer thinking of taking his team out of town to crack down on immigrants in Chicago, a new Trump focus. “The mean green team is not going anywhere,” he said, referring to the color of their uniforms. “We are here to stay.” Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, compares the situation under the threat of aggressive stops and detention to the way people lived in attics in Nazi Germany. Some undocumented people have returned to their jobs but now have emergency plans in place for their families in case they are detained. Many aren’t leaving their homes, “relying on volunteers for deliveries and falling into deep depression,” the Times reporters wrote. “School car pools have been carefully structured so that only parents or relatives with legal immigration status drop off students.” Maegan Ortiz, whose organization runs day labor centers, said many laborers are legal residents but are afraid of being thrown to the ground or detained without an opportunity to contact loved ones. She wants local officials to go farther than simply denouncing the Supreme Court decision. “She wants to see a more confrontational approach, such as using city vehicles to block off Home Depot parking lots or having police officers respond to raids and protect residents from agents whose identities are concealed,” the Times said. She wonders if more people now are going to get hurt.

“Boat Suspected of Smuggling Drugs Is Said to Have Turned Before U.S. Attacked It,” New York Times, Sept. 10, 2025

The Venezuelan boat the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week on grounds it was carrying lethal drugs headed for the U.S. appears to have turned around before the attack started because it apparently saw a military aircraft stalking it. So said American officials familiar with the matter, according to Times reporters Charlie Savage and Helene Cooper. President Trump had authorized the attack, which killed 11 people. Trump said they were members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. A video posted by Trump on the attack does not tell the whole story, the officials said. “It does not show the boat turning after the people aboard were apparently spooked by an aircraft above them, not does it show the military making repeated strikes on the vessel even after disabling it, the officials said,” the Times reporters wrote. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said after the attack “we smoked a drug boat, and there’s 11 narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, and when other people try to do that, they’re going to meet the same fate.” It’s an open question however where the boat was headed. At first U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was headed for Trinidad or Tobago or another Caribbean country. Another question is what it was carrying. Some people expressed doubt a vessel of that size would need an 11-member crew. Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky called it “despicable and thoughtless” to glorify killing people accused of crimes without trials. He has argued that the boat was more likely carrying cocaine, rather than the drug most responsible for overdoses, fentanyl. Democratic U.S. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island said the administration has provided no evidence the boat was taking drugs to the United States. The Times characterized the attack as a “startling departure from using law enforcement means to interdict suspected drug boats.” It said legal specialists view it as a crime to kill suspected low-level smugglers as if they were wartime combatants. And they said the revelations about the boat turning away further undercut the claim by the Trump administration that the attack was legally justified as an act of self-defense to defend the U.S. from drugs because 100,000 Americans per year die from overdoses.

“Brazilian Right Is Waving a New Flag: Old Glory,” New York Times, September 10, 2025

On Independence Day, an occasion to hoist the yellow and green flag of Brazil, right-wing celebrants in that country unfurled a different banner -- an enormous United States flag the size of a basketball court. Demonstrators in Sâo Paulo were holding the flag Sept. 7 as they protested the expected conviction this week of former President Jair Bolsonaro on charges of planning a coup, said Times reporter Jack Nicas. “The flag was a message of thanks to President Trump for trying to intervene in Mr. Bolsonaro’s case,” wrote Nicas. “It became the defining image of the day’s enormous protests, plastered across social media and newspaper front pages.” Right-wing demonstrators in other countries such as South Korea and Israel also have embraced the U.S. flag as an emblem of solidarity with the Trump administration in their bid to win his support. In Brazil, two congressional leaders asked the federal police to investigate where the giant American flag came from. They suspected it was the same flag displayed at a National Football League game in Sâo Paulo 36 hours earlier. They said if it was given to protestors by the NFL or another international company, that would violate laws against participation by foreign entities in Brazilian politics. An NFL spokesman denied its own U.S. flag was used at the protest.

“Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 2025

The order of a federal court barring government agents from making indiscriminate immigration-related stops in Los Angeles relying on a person’s ethnicity or the fact that they speak Spanish has been lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court. “The court’s ruling for now allows what critics say are roving patrols of masked agents routinely violating the Fourth Amendment [barring unreasonable searches and seizures] and what supporters say is a vigorous but lawful effort to enforce the nation’s immigration laws,” said Times reporter Adam Liptak. Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the ruling. She said in a written dissent that the Trump administration along with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh (the only member of the court who offered a written explanation of the ruling), had “all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.” She said that during what Kavanaugh called brief stops for questioning, “countless people in the Los Angeles area have been grabbed, thrown to the ground and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents and the fact that they make a living by doing manual labor. Today, the court needlessly subjects countless more to these exact same indignities.” The lower court ruling was lifted in a 6 to 3 vote with no written decision explaining the ruling. As a result, it was unclear whether the ruling only applied in Los Angeles or more broadly in the country. The lower court ruling said agents could not rely on several factors, alone or in combination, in deciding who to stop for questioning in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. The factors were race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or accented English; presence at a day-laborer or agricultural site; or doing a certain type of work. Kavanaugh’s support for lifting the ruling came in a concurring opinion. He said the four factors identified by the lower court judge can play a role in deciding whom to stop. He said for example that unauthorized immigrants often work in landscaping, agricultural or construction jobs and many come from Mexico or Central America and do not speak much English. He said ethnicity by itself is not a permissible reason but can be used in combination with other factors. Kavanaugh said if agents use excessive force victims may be able to sue. Liptak wrote that the decision by the Supreme Court “is not the last word in the case, which is pending before a federal appeals court and may again reach the justices.”

“A Second Chance for Peace in Colombia is Slipping Away,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 2025

“Hundreds Arrested in Immigration Raid at Hyundai Site in Georgia,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 5, 2025

The U.S. launched Sept. 4 its largest ever immigration raid of a single site, detaining almost 500 foreign workers at a Hyundai Motor battery plant in Georgia. The raid injected “fresh risk to overseas firms eyeing American investment to satisfy President Trump’s trade demands,” said the Journal’s Timothy W. Martin, Ryan Felton and Jiyoung Sohn. The initial targets of the raid were four Hispanic workers. Among the detained were 300 South Koreans, a South Korean official said. Steven Schrank, an agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, said those arrested had illegally crossed the border, entered through a visa waiver program that barred them from working, or had overstayed their visas. “The raid rattled South Korea, a close Washington ally and top trading partner,” the Journal said. “Seoul-based Hyundai, whose U.S. sales have hit record monthly highs for nearly a year straight, has pledged $26 billion in fresh American investments since Trump took office earlier this year – including $5 billion after South Korea’s leader visited the White House early last week.” South Korea, which wasn’t given advance warning, protested the raid to the Trump administration. The South Koreans working in Georgia were for the most part given visas suitable for training purposes, and many were working as instructors, according to a South Korean official.

“Appeals Court Says ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center Can Stay Open,” Sept. 4, 2025

A federal appeals court Sept. 4 paused a lower court ruling saying the migrant detention center in the Everglades that Florida officials call Alligator Alcatraz must close because it violates environmental law. The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^thCircuit in Atlanta says the facility can remain open and the state can resume sending detainees there, said Times reporter Patricia Mazzei. Florida officials pushed the boundaries of immigration enforcement by opening the center; it was the first state to open such a center, normally an entity run by the federal government. “Other states have since announced plans to house federal immigration detainees in state-owned facilities,” wrote Mazzei. The higher court disagreed with the lower court that the center was subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, whose terms it did not meet. It reached that conclusion because the detention center has been funded with state dollars, even though the state expects to receive federal reimbursement for its outlays. Even if that reimbursement occurs it’s insufficient to bring the environmental law into play, the appeals panel decided in a 2 to 1 vote. Elise Bennett, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said environmental groups hope to “ultimately prevail in defending the heart of Florida from this brutal and destructive facility.”

“Turned Away at US Border, Venezuelans Languish in Panamanian ‘Purgatory’,” The Guardian, Sept. 4, 2025

More than 14,000 migrants, most of them Venezuelans, have turned back south since President Donald Trump closed down the US-Mexico border, part of a building trend toward “reverse migration.” The Guardian’s Harriet Barber reports that “migrants are mostly travelling back by bus through Mexico and Central American countries until they reach Panama, from where they take overcrowded boats to Colombia.” Many of them wait in the Panamanian port village of Miramar, hoping to raise money for the next phase of their trip. “We can’t swim, but there’s no other choice,” said Gabriela, a 26-year-old Venezuelan mother. Barber says “the migrants wait in abandoned houses and makeshift tents, the air heavy with unease. Few know how they will pay for the passage on a crowded boat to their next destination, 10 hours south. All are weary and despondent.” The trip back is as dangerous as the trip north, with migrants again exposed to gender-based violence, human trafficking, discrimination, kidnapping and extortion, as well as facing a lack of access to water to drink, food and shelter. Their abusers go unpunished. Says Abril Staples of the Panamanian Red Cross: “People went to chase the American dream, and they are coming back crushed.” They go back to a country crippled by authoritarian rule that has been mired in a deep political and economic crisis for years, Barber says.

“Trump Administration Rescinds Protected Status for 250,000 Venezuelans,” Washington Post, Sept. 3, 2025

The Trump administration announced Sept. 3 that it is ending temporary protected status granted in 2021 for more than 250,000 Venezuelan migrants. “The group represents the earlier waves of exile from the South American nation: families, students and professionals who fled political persecution, economic calamity and crime before the mass migration surge of recent years,” reported Marianne LeVine and María Luisa Paúl of the Post. The migrants now face a return to potentially dangerous conditions in Venezuela. Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Department of Homeland Security to go ahead with ending temporary protected status for a different group of Venezuelans; that group was granted that status in 2023. The high court permitted the Department of Homeland Security to do so while the issue was adjudicated in the lower courts. “That case is under the jurisdiction of a federal judge whose decision could affect all of the estimated 600,000 Venezuelans who have received temporary protected status in the United States,” the Post reporters said. If the district court recognizes the illegality of the administration’s actions, as it did before, they should regain their humanitarian protected status, said Emi MacLean, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. The U.S. State Department issued a strong warning in May to all U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in Venezuela to leave the country immediately because of the risk of wrongful detention, torture and substandard health care. Yet the Trump administration said conditions have improved in Venezuela in reaching its decision that temporary protected status should end. In 2022, then Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, now the U.S. Secretary of State, said protections for Venezuelans should be expanded because returning them to their country would be “a very real death sentence for many Venezuelans.”

“Top Biden-era Official Warns US Could Stumble Into ‘Disastrous’ Intervention in Venezuela,” The Guardian, Sept. 3, 2025

The man who served as the top Latin America official in the Biden White House is warning that the US could stumble into a protracted guerilla war with Venezuela after President Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that killed 11 alleged drug traffickers. The strike off the Venezuelan coast Sept. 2 reportedly was carried out by an attack helicopter or a Reaper drone, said Guardian reporter Tom Phillips. It followed a major naval deployment by Trump to the region his administration said is designed to counter drug traffickers. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the attack was intended to send a clear message to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who many observers believe stole his country's presidential election last year to continue his authoritarian regime. “The only person that should be worried is Nicolás Maduro…who is effectively a kingpin of a narco-state,” Hegseth said. Some wonder if Trump intends to remove Maduro by force. Juan Gonzalez, who served on the National Security Council when Biden was president, said he thinks hardline members of the Venezuelan opposition are aiming to get the US into a situation where there is a conflict with Venezuela. He called it “a bit naïve” to think you can replace Maduro “and all of a sudden you have a Jeffersonian democracy.” Instead, there could be protracted internal conflict involving various armed groups and government-linked paramilitary forces, criminal organizations and Colombian rebels of the National Liberation Army, Gonzalez said. “It’ll become the cause celebre for every kind of criminal or illegal armed group in the Americas…you’ll end up having people going to Venezuela to fight the Yankees and I think it’ll get messy.” Trump said of the attack that it "occurred while the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States," according to a separate Guardian story by Phillips ("US Conducts 'Kinetic Strike' Against Drug Boat...", Sept. 2, 2025). The US has announced a $50 million reward for the capture of Maduro and Trump has approved the use of military force against drug cartels in Latin America. Former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn said Trump's moves are proof he intends to remove Maduro from office. But many experts are skeptical the US plans a military intervention. They note that sanctions against Venezuela have been softened and the two countries have been coordinating on deportation flights. Geoff Ramsey of the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center said the military mobilization is partly an attempt to "throw some red meat to a part of Trump's base that has been dissatisfied with the reality of sanctions relief" and a perceived softened policy toward Maduro.

“Court Ruling Blocking Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act Hailed ‘a Victory’”, The Guardian, Sept. 3, 2025

A federal appeals panel issued a preliminary injunction Sept. 2 preventing the Trump administration from using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify rapid deportations. The 2 to 1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the fifth US circuit court of appeals said Trump had no basis for saying that the presence of members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang in the U.S. constituted an invasion justifying their deportation without due process rights under the wartime act. The opinion said there was no “predatory incursion” on U.S. soil allowing use of the Act. ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said Trump’s use of a “wartime statute during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly shut down by the court. This is a critically important decision reining in the administration’s view that it can simply declare an emergency without any oversight by the courts.” The case is expected to eventually be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump proclaimed March 14 that he would use the Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua. Almost immediately, said Guardian reporter David Smith, immigration authorities deported 130 people they said were members of the gang to a notorious prison in El Salvador. [Other reporting concluded that many of those deported were not members of the gang and did not have criminal records].

Search This Blog

Latin American Lowdown

News Summaries in September 2025

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

News Summaries in December 2025

News Summaries in July 2026

News Summaries in June 2026