News Summaries in October 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. 

  

“A Former Trump Golf Club Worker, Mistakenly Deported,” New York Times, Oct. 31, 2025

It’s the type of mistake people familiar with the deportation process say will occur more often – a former worker at a Trump golf club in New York mistakenly sent back to Mexico after being denied a chance to plead his case in immigration court. Immigration authorities were supposed to have sent 39-year-old Alejandro Juarez, who had crossed illegally from Mexico into the U.S. 22 years before, to a detention center in Arizona. “Their actions probably violated federal immigration laws, which entitle most immigrants facing deportation to a hearing before a judge – a hearing Mr. Juarez never had,” said Times reporters Luis Ferré-Sadurni and Hamed Aleaziz. “The sloppy handling of his case underscored the growing strain at an agency [ICE]  under mounting pressure from President Trump to accelerate the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants,” they added. “Critics warn that the missteps in his case could foreshadow mistakes poised to become more frequent as detentions expand.”  Juarez had been working seven days a week at two different jobs. His ten years at Trump’s Westchester golf club ended in 2019 when he was fired along with other undocumented workers. Left behind in Westchester County, N.Y., was his wife, Maria Priego, and children who are all U.S. citizens. Priego, working as a maid, was left to support their three youngest children, 10, 12 and 16. His oldest son, 20, is serving in the U.S. Marines. In 2022,  riding in his car with  his wife and two of his children, Juarez was pulled over and arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated. Juarez said he was charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to three year’s probation. ICE became aware of him and requested that he check in periodically, which he did three times without complications, he said. He said some ICE officers thanked him for coming in and praised his English skills and expressed gratitude for his son’s military service. But he was detained during a Sept. 15 check-in in Manhattan with his wife sitting outside in a car not knowing what was happening. ICE recently contacted Juarez’s lawyer and was making arrangements to bring him back to the United States and keep him in detention until his immigration case is resolved, said Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. But she said in the end he will be deported because he is a threat to public safety because of his driving arrest. The lawyer for Juarez, Anibal Romero, expressed hope that because his son is in the military he could be eligible for a type of relief known as "parole in place" traditonally provided to immediate relatives of those in the U.S. military.

“Trump’s Feud With Colombian Leader Threatens U.S. Drug Fight,” The New York Times, Oct. 29, 2025

President Trump’s decision to cut off narcotics control funding to Colombia  might ease the flow of cocaine across borders, even as he lambastes its leader Gustavo Petro as a drug dealer.  The fast-deteriorating relationship between Trump and the leftist Colombian president includes a decision by the U.S. to decertify Colombia as a cooperative partner on counternarcotics.  “But punishing Colombia broadly could destabilize the security cooperation that has been an anchor of relations between the two nations,” said Times reporters Edward Wong, Julie Turkewitz and Eric Schmitt.  It could weaken the ability of the Colombian government to fight armed groups, which have been increasing cocaine production. About a third of the $377 million in aid to Colombia in fiscal 2024 was designated to fight drug trafficking and support law enforcement. “Colombia is a critical listening post in the Andes region for U.S. intelligence agencies,” the Times reporters noted. Eighty-five percent of all information acted on by a Pentagon task force in Key West, Fla., originated in Colombia, said the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory W. Meeks of New York. Elizabeth Dickinson, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the United States would be flying blind if cooperation stopped and the power of armed groups in Colombia would surge. She likened the security situation in Colombia to a boiling pot. “Up until now, the security forces are sort of barely keeping the lid on it,” she told The Times. “Very quickly, if the U.S. cooperation stops, the security forces will no longer be able to fulfill that mission. The threat will greatly outstrip the capacity to control it.” For his part, Colombia’s ambassador to the United States, Daniel García Peńa, expressed optimism that the two countries would find ways to keep cooperating on security and economic and migration issues. There’s some thought that there may be an end in sight to the current hostilities. Daniel DePetris of Defense Priorities said “Trump and Petro just don’t like each other, and they’re polar opposites in terms of politics and ideology. Once Petro leaves, which is soon, I anticipate the Trump administration will try to turn the page.” Petro is limited under Colombian law to a single term in office, which ends next year. 

“Trump Caps Refugee Admissions at Record Low – With Most to Be White South Africans,” BBC, Oct. 31, 2025

Over the next  year the Trump administration will admit only 7,500 refugees to the United States  and give priority to white South Africans in doing so. The limit is a record low. The previous annual cap, set by President Joe Biden, was 125,000. “In February, the US president announced the suspension of critical aid to South Africa and offered to allow members of the Afrikaner community - who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers - to settle in the US as refugees,” said BBC reporter Bernd Debusmann, Jr. He noted that the  South African government” has vehemently denied that Afrikaners and other white South Africans are being persecuted.” A separate BBC story Oct. 31 (“South Africa Hits Back at US refugee plan to favour White Afrikaners”) said the South African government “highlighted an open letter published by prominent members of the Afrikaner community earlier this week rejecting the narrative, with some signatories calling the relocation scheme racist.”

“Rio Favelas Left Reeling After Lethal Gang Raid as Families Bury the Dead,” Associated Press, Oct. 31, 2025

At least 132 people were killed Oct. 27 when 2,500 police and soldiers raided the notorious gang Red Command in two favelas in Rio de Janeiro. The death toll, the highest ever in a Rio police operation, drew the  condemnation of human rights groups and the United Nations. A favela is a term in Brazil for an impoverished neighborhood. Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the conservative governor of the state of Rio, Claudio Castro, to provide detailed information about the operation, said AP reporter Eléonore Hughes. “This wasn’t an operation, these were assassinations,” said a local resident. “They didn’t come to arrest, they came to kill.” Castro described what happened as a successful operation against “narcoterrorism.” 

“U.S. Military Kills Four More People Accused of Smuggling Drugs on Boats,” New York Times, Oct. 29, 2025

Hours after the deadliest strike in the U.S. military campaign of blowing up alleged drug-running boats in Latin America – an attack Oct. 27 that killed 14 people – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the killing of 4 more people Oct. 29  in another attack in the Eastern Pacific. The fatal attacks are increasing in frequency even as anger mounts on Capitol Hill about the Trump administration’s rationale for the attacks, its lack of evidence to justify them, and its lack of briefings of lawmakers (see next story). More than 60 people have now been killed in the campaign that began in the seas of Latin America last month, said Times reporters Helene Cooper and Robert Jimison. “The president has named and targeted a number of drug cartels as ‘narcoterrorists’ and maintains that they are now enemy combatants who can be killed at will,” they said. More recent strikes have been in the Pacific off the coast of Colombia while earlier attacks were in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. 

“Democrats Condemn Trump Administration for Secrecy on Boat Strikes,” New York Times, Oct. 30, 2025

Democrats on Capitol Hill criticized the Trump administration Oct. 30 for withholding details of its plans to target purported drug traffickers on Latin American seas or the legal justification for blowing up their boats resulting in at least 61 deaths. Democratic Senator  Mark Warner of Virginia said the administration’s decision to exclude his party from an Oct. 29  secret Capitol Hill briefing about the campaign was “corrosive to our democracy,” said Times reporters Julian E. Barnes, Robert Jimison and Megan Mineiro. “Visibly agitated, Mr. Warner said that the Republicans-only meeting was a violation of a law requiring bipartisan briefings of congressional leaders on national security matters,” the reporters said. Warner said that “when an administration decides it can pick and choose which elected representatives get the understanding of their legal argument of why this is needed for military force and only chooses a particular party, it ignores all the checks and balances.” Meanwhile,  military legal experts scheduled to testify in a closed-door bipartisan House hearing did not appear because the administration decided not to send them. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said that as a result House lawmakers were unable to get an explanation of the legal basis for the military strikes. A senior Trump official said the administration had been far more forthcoming on their legal rationale than the Obama administration had been concerning its covert drone strikes on terrorist targets. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the Democratic complaints were “bogus” and an effort to distract from the government shutdown. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said Defense officials conceded they did not know the identities of all the people killed in the strikes. The officials said that was not necessary, she said. She said they said they needed only prove those targeted were connected to terrorist organizations even if the connection is “as much as three hops away from a known member” of a terrorist group. Both Democrats and Republicans are increasingly frustrated that the Trump administration has not provided the classified Justice Department memo presenting the legal argument for the strikes. Jacobs said that when pressed about details about the drugs on the boats that were struck,  the Pentagon briefers admitted that it was cocaine primarily coming out of this part of the world. Trump has said the boat attacks are saving thousands of Americans from overdose deaths, but those deaths are linked to fentanyl. 

“Taking Care of Families Devastated by Killings,” New York Times, Oct. 27, 2025

In the Mexican state of Sinaloa, warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, among the world’s most powerful criminal groups, have left more than 1,900 dead and 2,000 missing over the past year, writes Paulina Villegas of the New York Times. Victims include fathers, mothers, children going to school, and teachers. “They have been found in canals, open fields, sprawled on the asphalt and inside running cars. Bodies often bear signs of torture, but many who are killed were simply bystanders at the wrong intersection of place and time.” In Sinaloa’s capital of Culiacán, some 30 funeral workers recover the bodies, deliver them from morgues to funeral homes, help families with bureaucracy and paperwork, prepare corpses, arrange coffins, and perform burials and memorials. “I live alongside death, day in and day out," said one such worker, José Nahum García. “Not only do I see it every day, but I feel it too – in the pain and tears of the families who have lost their loved ones.” None of his 14 years of such work has matched the past year for the scale of violence involved. Villegas wrote that “as heavy as the psychological toll can be, the workers also  say they find purpose, even solace, in their duties, offering dignity to families scarred by violence as well as to those mourning deaths from accidents and natural causes.” Workers guide stunned families paralyzed by grief through often confusing paperwork and bureaucracy. “I want to believe that I help them in that way, at least a little bit, in the middle of all their pain,” Garcia said. But he wants to know when the killing will end. “It’s enough pain already,” he told Villegas. 

“Exclusive: US Military Officials Required to Sign NDAs Tied to Latin America Mission, Sources Say,” Reuters, Oct. 28, 2025

U.S. military officials involved with the Trump administration’s expanded military operations in Latin America are being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, officials say. The “development raises new questions about a military buildup that Venezuela fears may lead to an invasion,” Reuters reported. “The step is highly unusual, given that U.S. military officials are already required to shield national security secrets from public view, and comes as lawmakers in Congress say they are being kept in the dark about key aspects of the mission.” 

“U.S. Attacks Kill 14 Aboard Boats Off Pacific Coast,” New York Times, Oct. 29, 2025

The Trump administration launched attacks in the Pacific that killed 14 people on 4 boats, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Oct. 28. Its campaign against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific has now killed a total of 57 people since it began in early September, said Times reporters Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt. Hegseth said the attacks occurred Oct. 27 with one survivor but did not specify where other than to say in the Eastern Pacific. He said Mexican search and rescue officials assumed responsibility for the rescue of the single survivor. The Times referred to the attacks as being against “boat cartels.” It quoted Hegseth as saying “these narcoterrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same.” Cooper and Schmitt wrote that “a broad range of outside experts in laws governing the use of armed force have said the campaign is illegal because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians – even criminal suspects – who are not directly participating in armed hostilities. But the Trump administration has asserted that the president has the power to ‘determine,’ without any authorization from Congress, that drug cartels and those who work for them are enemy combatants.” Meanwhile, two Air Force B-1 bombers flew off the coast of Venezuela in international waters Oct. 27, the second time in less than a week that such flights have occurred. The bombers can carry the largest non-nuclear payload of any aircraft in the Air Force. Recently, at least two B-52 bombers also made such flights. And an elite Special Operations aviation unit also conducted flights near the coast of Venezuela. 

 

“Judge Admonishes Border Patrol Leader for Tactics in Chicago,” New York Times, Oct. 28, 2025

Federal Judge Sara L. Ellis ordered senior Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino Oct. 28 to appear before her in  court at the end of each workday to report on the day’s arrests and incidents in his  immigration crackdown in Chicago. Ellis acted following reports that her Oct. 9  order governing the use of teargas during the crackdown had been violated. That order said federal immigration agents could not use tear gas and other chemical agents on a crowd without first issuing two warnings. She also barred them from deploying the agents “above the head of the crowd” in most instances. She allowed for exceptions in cases where warnings were not feasible or in which someone posed a serious threat to officers or others. Her order followed a lawsuit accusing agents of “a pattern of extreme brutality” intended to “silence the press and civilians.” Outside a detention center in Broadview, Ill., agents shot pepper balls and tear gas at protestors who held regular demonstrations there. Times reporter Julie Bosman wrote that Ellis seemed “particularly incensed by an incident on Saturday [Oct. 25] when agents used tear gas as they were confronted by angry residents of Old Irving Park, a Northwest side neighborhood, not long before a Halloween parade was  to step off,” said Times reporter Julie Bosman. “These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday,” Ellis said.  “And it’s going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever.” She also questioned Bovino about his own lobbing of a tear gas canister into a crowd of angry residents at Little Village in another part of Chicago, saying a warning must always be issued. “The warning really has to be, include what it is that you’re going to do before you do it, and allow people time to comply.” Bovino said in response to questions from Ellis that he would assure that all Border Patrol agents in the crackdown wear body-worn cameras, including himself. A more detailed account of the Ellis-Bovino interaction can be found several paragraphs down when you open this link  https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/october-29-2025?r=2sew3&utm_medium=ios

“With Some GOP Backing, Senate Votes to End Trump’s Brazil Tariffs,” New York Times, Oct. 28, 2025

The U.S. Senate voted 52 to 48 Oct. 28 to end the 50 percent tariffs President Trump has slapped on Brazil. The vote was a rejection of Trump’s declaration that an emergency exists justifying the tariffs. The resolution approved by the Senate faces long odds in the House. However, it saw the movement of some Republicans to reassert Congressional power over tariff policy in the face of Trump’s widespread use of emergency declarations to seize control over whether the taxes on imports are imposed. Times reporter Megan Mineiro said “the vote signaled bipartisan frustration with the president’s tariffs on most goods from Brazil, a country with which the United States has a multi-billion dollar trade surplus.” Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said “emergencies are like war, famine, tornado. Not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency. It’s an abuse of the emergency power, and it’s Congress abdicating their traditional role in taxes.” Other Republicans voting along with Paul to end the tariffs were Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Trump added the tariffs on Brazil in response to its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of the U.S. president, on grounds Bolsonaro tried to engineer a coup. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said "the prosecution of the friend of the president -- how is that an emergency that threatens the United States? It doesn't." 

“Accused Drug Kingpin Nabbed After Escape,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 24, 2025

Authorities said that in Mexico he masterminded the transformation and distribution of Chinese chemical precursors into fentanyl, the opioid responsible for hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States. Under house arrest in Mexico and facing extradition to the U.S., he crawled through a hole in the wall between the house where he was detained and that of a criminal organization next door. He made his escape on a private jet to Cuba and then on to Russia. But authorities there, perhaps unaware of his true identity, denied him entry and sent him back to Cuba, which in turn extradited him to Mexico Oct. 23, which then delivered him to the U.S. Such is the saga of accused Chinese drug boss Zhi Dong Zhang, recounted by Wall Street Journal reporters Steve Fisher, Santiago Pérez and José de Córdoba. “Bringing Zhang to justice would mark a major blow for the global underworld network that links China to Mexico’s most powerful drug-smuggling cartels, and their narcotics distribution and money-laundering networks in the U.S.,” they said, based on comments by officials familiar with the case. Authorities consider Zhang a mastermind “because of his logistical prowess and expertise in developing new formulas for the addictive opioid." A fluent Spanish speaker who acquired Mexican citizenship, he also brought in Chinese chemists to train the cartels’ own lab operators. The U.S. extradition request alleges that he smuggled into the U.S. more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine, almost 4,000 pounds of fentanyl and more than 1,300 pounds of methamphetamines. He’s charged with laundering millions of dollars through U.S. banks. Zhang’s escape from house arrest infuriated Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is under pressure from the Trump administration to turn over cartel figures in order to avoid U.S. military action inside Mexico. Her security minister thanked Cuba’s government for its “valuable collaboration” in returning Zhang to Mexico. Journal reporters noted that “Mexico historically has had close relations with Cuba and has often acted as a go-between for Washington and Havana.” Officials believe Cuba took its time deporting him “as the island’s vaunted intelligence agents methodically extracted information about his vast criminal network in China, Mexico and the U.S.” Russia missed the boat, however: “Russian officials seem to have missed the value of  top fugitive wanted by the U.S. with information about the American underworld.” 

“Milei Triumphs in Argentine Midterm Elections Closely Watched by Washington,” Associated Press, Oct. 27, 2025

Argentina’s President Javier Milei won election victories in key legislative districts Oct. 27 strengthening his ability to continue radically reconstructing his country’s economy. The libertarian leader’s upstart La Libertad Avanza party won more than 40 percent of the votes compared to 31 percent for the left-leaning Peronist movement. He said his party and its allies picked up 14 seats in the Senate and 64 in the lower house of Congress, enough to uphold presidential vetoes and block impeachment efforts. AP reporter Isabel Debre said Milei “hailed the election sweep as a mandate to press forward with his spending cuts and introduce ambitious tax and labor reforms.” His victory followed moves by the Trump administration to swap $20 billion for Argentine pesos and line up an added $20 billion loan from private banks. Axel Kicillof, a prominent official in the Peronist alliance, “warned that the billions of dollars in financial aid from the U.S. Treasury and investment banks would do nothing to help ordinary Argentines squeezed by Milei’s cuts to subsidies or forced out of business by a contracting economy,” Debre said. “I want to make it clear that neither the U.S. government or JP Morgan are charitable societies,” said Kicillof. “If they come to Argentina, it is for nothing other than to take a profit.” 

 

“What U.S. Forces Face as Venezuela Puts Russian-Armed Military on Wartime Alert,” Military.com, Oct. 20, 2025

The big buildup of U.S. military power in the Caribbean calculated to force the ouster of Venezuelan strongman President Nicolás Maduro, although  intimidating, isn’t set up for ground operations in that country. At the same time, the mobilization by Venezuela of its anti-missile defenses  on land as the U.S. assembles so much firepower floating nearby on the sea ups the odds of an accidental incident “that could lead to significant escalation from both sides,” writes Allen Frazier of Military.com. “A Venezuelan jet conducting a routine pass could be read as an attack run,” he says. “A U.S. ship’s defensive systems could automatically engage an approaching aircraft. A Venezuelan mobile missile battery could launch on a U.S. jet, forcing retaliation against targets in Venezuelan territory – exactly the expansion of operations that would require forces and supplies the U.S. currently doesn’t have in place.” There are now 10,000 U.S. troops operating in the Caribbean. The U.S. has deployed an overwhelming strike force of Naval ships including destroyers, an amphibious assault ship, a nuclear powered attack submarine, F-35 fighters in Puerto Rico, and B-52 bombers [and now the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford].  U.S. cruise missiles can strike deep into Venezuela. U.S. forces can carry out precision strikes from submarines that operate undetected. But the U.S. troops “lack the supply chains, bases and support units for a prolonged campaign.” Meanwhile, Venezuela “can’t match U.S. firepower in a conventional fight.” It has an armed forces of 123,000 that is thought to be plagued by maintenance problems and is even described by analysts as being “in shambles.” Its submarines and surface weapons are “probably inoperable.” But it has spent billions on Russian missiles and jets designed to block U.S. jets and ships. It has anti-ship missiles sophisticated enough to have forced the U.S. to develop countermeasures in the 1990s “because of their speed and sea-skimming flight profile,” Frazier writes. It has thousands of surface-to-air missile systems near oil facilities, radar sites and “naval approaches.” Though aging these systems can threaten helicopters and lower-flying aircraft U.S. forces would need for operations beyond long-range strikes. Venezuela also has radar and other technology such that U.S. aircraft and ships can’t assume they’d operate undetected or that their communications wouldn’t be jammed. Maduro says he’s activated more than 8 million militia members, though experts doubt that figure and how well trained they are. Even if just a few million, “Venezuela has created to what amounts to just a territorial defense network spread across at least 20 of its 23 states.” However, the militia structure does include anti-tank systems, rocket-propelled grenades,  and locally refurbished armored vehicles along with older semi-automatic rifles. The strategy “relies on making any U.S. ground operation face heavy resistance in cities and harsh terrain – the kind of asymmetric warfare that American forces faced in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Frazier concludes. Meanwhile, Trump is facing increasing skepticism from some high-profile supporters about the wisdom of more “forever wars” and regime-change strategies (see “Trump Supporters Uneasy…,” Oct. 24, 2025).

“Trump Supporters Uneasy Over Actions Against Venezuela,” New York Times, Oct. 24, 2024

Many supporters of President Trump have rallied around his promise to avoid another “forever war” after long U.S. conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia, writes Edward Wong of the New York Times. But now some of his prominent conservative policy advisers and commentators are expressing concern about his administration’s increasingly aggressive military moves against Venezuela and in the Caribbean. “There’s supposed to be incentives for ending wars and conflicts around the world,” said far right activist Laura Loomer. “Yet here we have this conflict with Venezuela that is only going to escalate.” Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon posed this question on a recent episode of his podcast: “Is this just a breeding ground for neocon 3.0?” A guest he interviewed, conservative policy analyst Curt Mills, said the U.S. should avoid bloodshed. Mills later wrote online: “avoidable catastrophe continues to loom.” Mills said in another post that “we’re getting down to the real business of murdering people with no plan.” Wong wrote that Mills and Bannon “and some other restraint-oriented analysts view Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, with skepticism.” Rubo is widely viewed as driving the growing military buildup to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office. Rubio has been labeled a “neocon” for years, noted Wong, who described neoconservatives as “policymakers and advisers who promote aggressive U.S. intervention overseas to make other societies more pro-America and pro-democracy, including toppling governments.” CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Trump’s top domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller back Rubio’s aggressive strategy. “The regime change stuff is what I’m most skeptical of,” said Mills. “I think that is just so politically hypocritical. Trump ran against the deep state, and now we’re going to cooperate with the C.I.A. to overthrow a government? It doesn’t pass the laugh test.” Mills, who works for The American Conservative, said Trump “has been very clear – he has a phobia of regime-change wars.” The American Conservative was founded by Patrick J. Buchanan, an isolationist opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Mills said that the U.S. military killing of civilians in the Caribbean [referring to lethal attacks on alleged drug boats]  without due process “has implications for the way the government will treat its own citizens.” Wong wrote that “Trump and his aides insist the boats were smuggling drugs but have not presented evidence or stated a clear legal basis for the strikes.” Observers point to evidence that the administration is not killing important drug traffickers, even as it represents its military moves against Venezuela as an anti-narcotics campaign. Latin American officials note that some of the civilians killed were fisherman. Loomer questions why the White House is backing away from diplomacy. As part of diplomatic efforts that Trump recently called off,  Maduro offered the U.S. dominant stakes in its oil and mineral wealth. Loomer said she supports Trump’s goals of energy dominance and limiting China’s influence and that the easiest approach is to, in Wong’s words, “engage with Mr. Maduro and get him to give the United States more access than China to Venezuelan oil.” She told Wong she doesn’t know whether Trump has been fully briefed on “the level of control that China currently has there.” Loomer also has criticized Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, as “actively stoking and promoting violent regime change.” Several scholars from the bipartisan research center Defense Priorities, which advocates military restraint, are appointees in the Trump administration, including in the Defense Department. Jennifer Kavanaugh of the center said U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is calling drug cartels the new Al Qaeda.  She said "it does seem like a replay, especially of the global war on terror.“ Kavanaugh said "No. 1, the use of Al Qaeda, more generally as this boogeyman out there to justify all sorts of adventures in the Middle East  is something that restrainers would push back on. But also, the cartels are nothing like Al Qaeda.” Daniel Petris, also of Defense Priorities, said Trump  is a “primacist” intent on U.S. dominance of Latin America. He said “this is another instance of Trump using the military hammer and elevating military solutions to problems that don’t have military solutions.” 

“U.S  Imposes Sanctions on Colombian Gustavo Petro and His Family,” Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2025

The U.S. Treasury Department placed personal sanctions Oct. 24 on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his wife Veronica, their son Nicolas, and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti for allegedly “failing demonstrably” to stop illegal drug production. [These sanctions can involve blocking financial transactions with people in the U.S. or the ability to access, transfer or use property or property interests in the U.S.]. Since Petro came to power, “cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rates in decades,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.” Post reporter Tobi Raji said Petro called the sanctions a “paradox,” saying Colombia for decades has helped the U.S. crack down on drug trafficking. Raji noted that “relations between the U.S. and Colombia, for decades Washington’s most important ally in South America, have grown increasingly tense in recent months,” with the U.S. military launching attacks on boats it alleges without evidence are carrying drugs to the U.S. [Petro, a leftist, has claimed that Trump is trying to prevent him from being re-elected next year]. Petro accused the U.S. of blowing up a fishing boat in Colombian waters, killing a Colombian citizen, which he referred to as "murder." The U.S. previously revoked Petro’s U.S. visa. From the way the sanctions are tailored it appears that the White House “wants to keep the pressure as tightly focused on Petro and his inner circle as possible,” said Geoff Ramsey of the Atlantic Council. The administration seems to want to avoid imposing broad pressure on the country as a whole that Petro could use to try to score political points before the elections next year. A former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Kevin Whitaker, called it “the worst moment in bilateral history.”

“U.S. Says It Now Plans to Deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia as Soon as Oct. 31,” Associated Press, Oct. 24, 2025

The Trump administration plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia and could do so as soon as Oct. 31, according to a court filing by Department of Homeland Security.  He was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and was only returned to the United States under pressure from the U.S. Supreme Court. The filing says “Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’ s closest partners on the African continent.” Its language is English and its constitution “provides robust protection for human rights,” the filing says. Liberia is “committed to the humane treatment of refugees,” it adds. An attorney for Abrego Garcia said in reply that “after failed attempts with Uganda, Eswatini, and Ghana, ICE now seeks to deport our client, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to Liberia, a country with which he has no connection, thousands of miles from his family and home in Maryland." The attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg,  added that “Costa Rica stands ready to accept him as a refugee, a viable and lawful option. Yet the government has chosen a course calculated to inflict maximum hardship. These actions are punitive, cruel and unconstitutional.” 

“Pentagon Deploys Top Aircraft Carrier as Trump Militarization of Caribbean Ratchets Up,” The Guardian, Oct. 24, 2025

The Pentagon said Oct. 24 it is deploying the most advanced U.S. aircraft carrier to the Caribbean in a major escalation of the Trump administration’s war on drug cartels. Moving the USS Gerald Ford [described in a Washington Post story as the world’s largest aircraft carrier] will bring dozens of stealth fighter jets and surveillance aircraft to the coast of Venezuela. Having it there along with other U.S. warships “is the clearest sign to date that the administration intends to dramatically expand the scope of its lethal military campaign from hitting small boats alleged to be carrying drugs bound for the U.S to targets on land,” said Hugo Lowell of The Guardian. The jets increase the ability to hit air defense systems in Venezuela, clearing the way for U.S. special operations or drones to destroy land-based targets, according to current and former officials.  

“The Peril of a White House That Flaunts Its Indifference to the Law,” New York Times, Oct. 24, 2025

The expanding U.S. military campaign in the Caribbean and Pacific blowing up  boats and the people in them is occurring in the absence of a legal argument by the White House explaining its claim that the president has wartime power to summarily kill people suspected of smuggling drugs. “A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump’s orders to the military patently illegal,” says Times reporter Charlie Savage. “They say the premeditated extrajudicial killings have been murders – regardless of whether the 43 people blown apart, burned alive or drowned in 10 strikes so far were indeed running drugs.” Savage said  that “the irreversible gravity of killing, coupled with the lack of a substantive legal justification, is bringing into sharper view a structural weakness of law as a check on the American presidency. It is becoming clearer than ever that the rule of law in the White House has depended chiefly on norms – on government lawyers willing to raise objections when merited and to resign in protest if ignored, and on presidents who want to appear law-abiding.  This is especially true in an era when party loyalty has defanged the threat of impeachment by Congress, and after the Supreme Court granted presidents immunity from prosecution for crimes committed with official powers.”  

“Maduro Boasts of ‘Thousands’ of Russian Anti-Aircraft Missiles as Trump Threatens Military Action Inside Venezuela,” CNN, Oct. 23, 2025

As tensions rose over the growing U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean,  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed that his country has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in “key air defense positions.” The Russian Igla-S missiles are short range, low-altitude systems similar to American Stingers, CNN said. "They can shoot down small aerial targets such as cruise missiles and drones, as well as helicopters and low-flying planes," the news network added. Maduro said the missiles, which are light enough to be carried by a single soldier, have been deployed “even in the last mountain, the last town, and the last city of the territory.” Maduro said Venezuelans are “clear, united, and aware. They have the means to once again defeat this open conspiracy against the peace and stability of Venezuela.” He has claimed that there are more than 8 million reservists in  volunteer militias, a figure experts question along with expressing skepticism about the quality of their training. 

“Another U.S. Strike in  Caribbean Targets Alleged Drug-Running Boat, Killing 6, Hegseth Says,” Associated Press, Oct. 24, 2025

The pace of U.S. military attacks killing people and destroying boats allegedly involved in drug smuggling in Latin America is accelerating. At the same time, the Trump administration is upping the ante in its campaign of intimidation targeting Venezuelan President Nicólas Maduro. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Oct. 24 that the U.S. has conducted its 10^thstrike on a suspected drug-running boat, said AP reporter Konstantin Toropin. Hegseth blamed the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang for operating the vessel targeted by the overnight attack, which left six people dead in the Caribbean. The administration also has started attacking boats in the Pacific (see summary below, “US Attacks Boat Suspected…,” Oct. 23). “The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks in September when they first began to three this week,” AP noted. A video of the latest strike shows an apparently motionless small boat on the water struck by a long thin projectile triggering an explosion. “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Queda,” said Hegseth. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.” Hegseth is comparing the strikes on boats to the war on terrorism the U.S. declared following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants in an “armed conflict” with the U.S. Hours before the latest boat strike, the U.S. military flew two supersonic heavy bombers up the coast of Venezuela.

‘We Do Not Agree’: Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum Speaks Against U.S. Air Strikes,” Al Jazeera and News Agencies, Oct. 23, 2025

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum says her country does not agree with the lethal air strikes the U.S. military is carrying out against vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific alleged to be smuggling drugs. Sheinbaum said in a press conference Oct. 23 “There are international laws on how to operate when dealing with the alleged illegal transport of drugs or guns on international waters, and we have expressed this to the government of the United States and publicly.” The strikes have killed at least 37 people since they began in early September. President Donald Trump said later in the day at a roundtable promoting the aggressive campaign that “Mexico is run by cartels. I have great respect for the president, a woman that I think is a tremendous woman. She’s a very brave woman. But Mexico is run by the cartels, and we have to defend ourselves from that.” 

U.S. Attacks Boat Suspected of Drug Trafficking in Pacific,” New York Times, Oct. 23, 2025

The Trump administration’s controversial lethal  military attacks on vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking have spread from the Caribbean to the Eastern Pacific Ocean. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Oct. 22 the eighth such attack, which differed from the prior seven because it occurred in the Pacific rather than the Caribbean.  An unnamed official said it took place off the coast of Colombia.  Hegseth said in an X social media post accompanied by video footage that two people were killed. Trump bragged about the attack in speaking to reporters later in the day and suggested they could shift from the sea to the land as traffickers seek safer routes. “They had one in the Pacific and the way I look at it – every time I look – because it is violent and it is very – it’s amazing, the weaponry, you know they have these boats that go 45 to 50 miles an hour in the water, and when you look at the accuracy and the power – look we have the greatest military in the world.” Trump falsely asserted that the destruction of each boat saves 25,000 lives in the U.S., said Times reporters Eric Schmitt and Charlie Savage. “In reality,” they said, “about 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses, but most of those deaths are caused by fentanyl, which comes from labs in Mexico.” Trump asserted that he did not need permission to make attacks on the land but likely will  “go back to Congress and explain exactly what we are doing.” He said “we will hit them very hard when they come in by land.” The boat attacks have stirred bipartisan concern in Congress. A prominent Democrat has called for a House hearing to examine their legality and the evidence on which they are based (see below, “Hearing is Sought on Attacks in the Caribbean,” Oct. 21.)  Critics say the boats should be intercepted at sea and people in the boats detained and tried in court to establish their guilt or innocence rather than killed as enemy combatants.  “Who are we striking?” asked Colorado House Democrat Jason Crowe. “If these are narco-terrorists, as Secretary Hegseth reports, then why did we just repatriate two of them back to their country of origin, if they’re such bad guys?” The reference was to two survivors of a U.S. military strike on a semi-submersible vessel on Oct. 16, one from Colombia and the other from Ecuador. The Times reported Oct. 23 (“One Survivor of U.S. Strike Is Set Free By Ecuador”) that prosecutors in Ecuador declined to prosecute the man from that country and released him. A source said they did so because he had not committed a crime in Ecuadoran territory. 

“Trump Hopes Buying Argentina’s Beef Cuts Prices. Cattle Ranchers Aren’t Pleased,” New York Times, Oct. 21, 2025

President Trump said during a recent visit to the U.S.  by  Argentine President Javier Milei that he  might consider making a free-trade agreement with the South American country. Part of that could involve buying Argentine beef for the U.S. market  to bring down rising prices paid by American consumers. “The idea contradicts Mr. Trump’s guiding economic philosophy of erecting import barriers to encourage domestic production,” said Times reporter Alan Rappaport. “It also suggests that the president believes that in some cases, open markets can be an antidote to rising prices.” Ground beef prices have risen 15 percent this year, to a record high of almost $7 a pound. However, the idea of buying more Argentine beef is causing a backlash in rural America. Buying Argentine beef is a “horrible idea,” said Jason Tupper of the United States Cattlemen’s Association. Tupper said Argentina does not have the same quality safeguards as the United States. Meat producers would mix the cheaper imported beef with American beef to lower prices. “We’re bringing in something and taking down our own industry,” Tupper said. 

“Hearing is Sought on Strikes in the Caribbean,” New York Times, Oct. 21, 2025

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee demanded Oct. 20 that the panel hold a hearing to examine the use of military strikes by the Trump administration to kill people accused of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean -- “as if they were enemy soldiers in a war, rather than arresting them as criminals,” said Eric Schmitt of the Times. The administration has acknowledged killing more than 30 people in strikes on boats it alleges are trafficking drugs. The day before the Democratic lawmaker, Adam Smith of Washington, called for the hearing, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced another attack on a vessel, the seventh in the region since early September. Smith said “they have failed to demonstrate the legality of these strikes, provide transparency on the process used or even a list of cartels that have been designated as terrorist organizations.” Smith also called on Admiral Alvin Holsey to testify. He is the head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America. He announced unexpectedly that is he is stepping down less than one year into a three-year job. According to a current and former U.S. official, Holsey has raised concerns about the attacks on the alleged drug boats. The White House has determined that the United States is in a formal armed conflict with various drug cartels it has deemed to be terrorists, making the boat crews “unlawful combatants.” Some Trump officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have argued that designating a cartel as terrorist confers authority to use military force against it. Schmitt wrote that “that is false as a matter of legal reality. The law that empowers the executive branch to deem foreign groups terrorists enables steps like freezing their assets and making it a crime to do business with them – not attacking them.” 

“Trump Turns Up Heat on Latin America,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 2025

U.S. action in Latin America is blurring the lines between counternarcotics and regime change, say Wall Street Journal reporters Vera Bergengruen, Juan Forero and Alex Leary. The pressure applied on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been broadened to include Colombian President Gustavo Petro. “President Trump’s vow to intervene against drug smugglers in Colombia widened a U.S. counternarcotics campaign in Latin America that began with military strikes on ocean-going boats but is increasingly focused on threatening governments in the region,” they wrote. Trump threatened Petro by calling him an “illegal drug dealer,” saying he will cut off aid to Colombia, impose higher tariffs and take unilateral action if Petro doesn’t put a stop to drug trafficking. “The threats turned one of Washington’s most critical security partners into a target,” the Journal noted. Attacks destroying boats near Venezuela alleged to be transporting illegal drugs,  an increased military presence in the region, and  threats of strikes within the country are paying off, the Trump administration believes, although it has no immediate plans to attack the country. The idea is to make Maduro “miserable enough to go away,” said a senior administration official, acknowledging it could take time. The counternarcotics plan has been to close the southern border, stop the flow of drugs on the water, and then possibly shift to combatting air transport. The unprecedented use of lethal force against small drug boats has expanded to include nationals from other countries in addition to Venezuela. They include Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ecuador. The attacks on boats have aroused concerns on both sides of the aisle in Congress about their legal justification. The administration “had a very hard time explaining to us the legal rationale for doing this and the constitutionality of doing it,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.). “So all these people have been blown up without us knowing their name without any evidence of a crime,’ said Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.). 

“ICE Boosts Weapons Spending 700%,” Popular Information, Oct. 20, 2025

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has dramatically increased its spending on weapons in 2025, according to an investigation of federal government contracting data by the publication Popular Information.  Records show that ICE has increased spending on “small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing” by 700% compared to 2024. New spending from Jan. 20, 2025, the day President Trump was inaugurated, through Oct. 18, 2025, totaled $71,515, 762 in the small arms category. “Most of the spending was on guns and armor, but there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and ‘guided missile warheads and explosive components,’” said Popular Information’s Judd Legum. The spending dwarfs that during the Biden administration and Trump’s first term in office. The data “provides a window into how ICE and other agencies are bringing an unprecedented number of high-powered weapons into American cities.” The surge in spending coincided with a “wave” of violent incidents by ICE officers described by Legum. They included an ICE officer shooting a pastor in the face with a pepper ball. In September, an ICE officer pointed a gun at bystanders. Also that month, an ICE officer allegedly shot a pepper ball at the vehicle of a reporter with CBS News Chicago. Chemical agents allegedly engulfed the inside of  her truck, causing her to vomit. In August, a U.S. Marine veteran while protesting outside a federal facility in Portland , allegedly was tackled from behind by ICE agents and grabbed by the hair by an ICE agent and  his face slammed into the ground multiple times. ACLU Illinois  filed a lawsuit that said “all over the country, federal agents have shot, gassed, and detained individuals engaged in cherished and protected activities.” It blamed ICE and other federal agencies for “the dangerous and indiscriminate use of near-lethal weapons such as tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper balls, flash grenades, and other unwarranted and disproportionate tactics.”  

“Fired Justice Department Lawyer Says He Refused to Lie in the Abrego Garcia Case, CBS News, Oct. 19, 2025

A fired Justice Department lawyer turned whistleblower says he witnessed a disregard of due process and the rule of law at the federal agency. Erez Reuveni said Oct. 19 on “60 Minutes” that after a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, a superior at the Justice Department ordered him to argue that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 member and a terrorist in order to prevent his return. Reuveni said he responded up the chain of command that “that is a lie. And I cannot sign my name to that brief.” Reuveni said the important thing was not whether Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 or a terrorist, but whether or not he received due process so he could address the charges and have a chance to prevent his deportation. “What’s to stop them if they decide they don’t like you anymore, to say you’re a criminal, you’re a member of MS-13, you’re a terrorist,” Reuveni said. “What’s to stop them from sending in some DOJ attorney at the direction of DOJ leadership to delay, to filibuster, and, if necessary, to lie? And now that’s you gone, and your liberties changed.” Reuveni was fired after he refused to sign the brief. 

“Centrist Wins Bolivia’s Presidency, Ending 20 Years of Leftist Rule, New York Times, Oct. 21, 2025

Rodrigo Paz, a right-leaning centrist, defeated Jorge Tuto Quiroga, a conservative former president, in Bolivia’s presidential election Oct. 19 that ended two decades of leftist rule. Paz got 54 percent of the vote and Quiroga 45 percent according to preliminary results. “The campaign was dominated by economic concerns, as rising prices, fuel shortages and difficulties obtaining foreign goods and U.S. dollars fueled widespread anger at the government,” wrote Times reporter Genevieve Glatsky. The results were a rejection of the long dominant Movement for Socialism party, known as MAS. Its period in power was largely under former union leader Evo Morales, the first Indigenous president, who spent 14 years in office. Morales “cut poverty and invested heavily in infrastructure, education and health care,” Glatsky said. “But his contested 2019 bid for a fourth term sparked mass protests, deadly unrest and allegations of fraud that drove him into exile.” Analysts said Paz got support from left-leaning voters disappointed with MAS but wary of Quiroga’s plans for a sweeping overhaul to shrink government’s role in the economy. “Despite MAS’s decline, its focus on marginalized communities and its resistance to privatization and U.S. influence still resonate with many voters,” said Glatsky. The campaign of Paz was energized by his vice presidential running mate, Edmand Lara, a former police captain who became a whistleblower. “He comes from below,” said Maria Condori Nina, an Indigenous woman who sells goods in a small store. “He is one of us.” Paz “doesn’t know poverty, he doesn’t know how we live.” Paz has had a long political career as a councilman, mayor and senator. According to an Oct. 17 Associated Press story by Isabel Debre and Carlos Valdez, (“After Years of Socialist Rule…”), Lara became a folk hero a few years ago after the police fired  him for making TikTok videos denouncing corruption. The AP reporters said Lara has “an awkward habit of making populist promises – like universal income for women – in rousing speeches that contradict Paz’s goal of restoring fiscal order.” Paz has had to walk back some of Lara’s expensive proposals, such as a five-fold increase in pensions. Both “insist on balancing tough, free-market reforms with MAS-style social protections,” the AP reporters concluded. 

“Trump Calls Colombia President ‘Illegal Drug Dealer’ as US Says It Hit Another Ship,” The Guardian, Oct. 19, 2025

The Trump administration is voicing increasing belligerence toward Colombia -- historically one of the closest allies of the United States in Latin America -- under its leftist president Gustavo Petro.  President Donald Trump Oct. 19 called Petro an “illegal drug dealer” and threatened to immediately cut off U.S. funding to the country, said Guardian reporter Olivia Empson. He also reportedly will soon announce major new tariffs on the country. And U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media the U.S. military attacked a vessel in international waters associated with a leftist Colombian rebel group and killed “three terrorists.” Hegseth said “these cartels are the Al Queda of the western hemisphere. The United States will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are – they will be hunted, and killed.” Trump blamed Petro for  encouraging the mass production of illegal drugs. Petro “does nothing to stop it,” despite big U.S. payments and subsidies. “Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately” Trump said on social media. If he doesn’t, “the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.” Trump made his comments after Petro said the U.S. committed “murder” following a strike on an alleged drug boat in Colombian territorial waters in September. Petro said “we await an explanation from the U.S. government.” Petro identified a Colombian fisherman, Alejandro Carranza, as having been killed when US forces allegedly fired on his boat. Petro said Carranza had no ties to the drug trade and his boat was adrift with a distress signal up because of engine failure. The Trump said that two survivors of another U.S. military strike on an alleged drug vessel were being sent back to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia. Colombia is the recipient to the largest amount of U.S. aid to any country in Latin America. Petro angered Trump recently when he said at a pro-Palestine demonstration in New York City that US soldiers should “disobey Trump’s order” and “not point their rifles at humanity.” The Trump administration said it would revoke Petro’s visa. Petro said in reply to Trump’s most recent accusations that “I respect the history, culture and people of the  USA. They are not my enemies, nor do I feel them as such.” 

“In a Regional First, Uruguay Passes a Law Allowing Euthanasia,” Associated Press, Oct. 16, 2025

Uruguay has become the first country in Latin America to pass legislation allowing euthanasia. Colombia and Ecuador previously decriminalized the practice through Supreme Court decisions. The legislation allows euthanasia performed by a health care professional, but not assisted suicide. The latter practice involves a patient self-administering a lethal dose of a prescribed medication. Uruguay’s law does not set a time limit, unlike laws in U.S. states, Australia and New Zealand which limit euthanasia to people with a life expectancy of no more than six months or a year. There’s also no waiting period. It allows any mentally competent individual suffering from an incurable illness that causes “unbearable suffering” to seek assisted death. Two doctors must rule that the person is psychologically fit to make the decision. It does not allow euthanasia for minors. The Catholic Church opposed adoption of the law. But Daniel Borbonet, a member of Uruguay’s Senate, said “We all believe and feel that life is a right, both in health and in sickness, but it should never be an obligation because others don’t understand such unbearable suffering.” Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. It passed legislation allowing same-sex marriage and abortion more than a decade ago. 

 

“Rubio Promised to Betray U.S. Informants to Get Trump’s El Salvador Prison Deal,” Washington Post, Oct. 19, 2025

To be able to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed to betray confidentiality agreements with MS-13 leaders in U.S. custody. So states an exclusive Washington Post story reported by John Hudson, Jeremy Roebuck, and Samantha Schmidt.  To give the Trump administration access to the prison, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele demanded the return of nine MS-13 leaders, and Rubio promised him it would do so, officials familiar with the conversation told the Post.  Rubio told Bukele however that some of the MS-13 members he wanted were “informants” under the protection of the U.S. government. Rubio assured Bukele that Attorney General Pam Bondi would end Justice Department arrangements with those men and turn over all nine MS-13 members. The Trump administration’s “willingness to renege on secret arrangements made with informants who had aided U.S. investigations has not been previously reported,” the Post said. Bukele wanted the deal because he’d gain possession of individuals who threatened to expose the alleged deals his government made with MS-13 to help dramatically reduce violence in El Salvador, officials told the Post.  For Bukele that was critical to keeping his tough on crime reputation. “It was also a key step in hindering an ongoing U.S. investigation into his government’s relationship with MS-13, a gang famous for displays of excessive violence in the United States and elsewhere,” the Post said. The threat to end informant arrangements, said current and former Justice Department officials, undercut years of work to get the cooperation of members of one of the world’s most deadly gangs. “The deal is a deep betrayal of U.S. law enforcement, whose agents risked their lives to apprehend the gang members,” said Douglas Farah, a contractor who worked to help dismantle the MS-13 gang. And officials said it could threaten the ability to develop future informants. “At least three of the MS-13 leaders Bukele requested had divulged incriminating information about the members of his government suspected of cutting deals with the gang, officials said.” One, charged with directing MS-13 in the U.S. last year, was sent back to El Salvador two days after the Rubio-Bukele phone call, officials said. The others are still in the U.S. waiting to hear if they will be turned over to the government they were cooperating against, the Post said. Administration officials defended Rubio’s actions, saying Venezuelan gang members had been  deported and MS-13 members are being prosecuted in the U.S. and El Salvador. 

 

“U.S. Military Detains Survivors of Latest Boat Strike Near Venezuela,” Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2025

The United States military attacked another vessel alleged to be transporting drugs near Venezuela Oct. 16, killing an unspecified number of people and detaining two survivors. It was the sixth known attack on vessels allegedly smuggling drugs  in the Caribbean near Venezuela and the first known to have left survivors. They are being held in a Navy vessel in the region, two sources said. President Trump referred to the latest vessel attacked as a submarine loaded with drugs. “This was not an innocent group of people,” he said. Post reporters Tara Copp, Alex Horton and Noah Robertson said according to people familiar with the attack that the vessel was a semisubmersible.  Such vehicles move through the water partially submerged but cannot dive. If the administration decides to charge the survivors in a U.S. court, it likely would have to disclose details of the boat attacks kept secret so far, said Charles Dunlap, the former deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force. 

“We Found That More Than 170 U.S Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days,” Propublica.org, Oct. 16, 2025

When the Supreme Court recently decided immigration agents in the Los Angeles area could take race into account during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said citizens should not be concerned, notes ProPublica reporter Nicole Foy. Kavanaugh wrote that “if the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go.” This isn’t so, according to ProPublica. “Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.” Some two dozen Americans said they’ve been held for more than a  day without being able to phone family or friends. There’s little clarity on how widespread such practices are because the government doesn’t track how often immigration agents hold Americans, Foy says. So ProPublica created its own count, a tally it said is almost certainly incomplete. It found more than 170 incidents of agents holding citizens against their will, either during immigration raids or protests, during the first nine months of the second Trump administration. Agents are permitted to arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. ProPublica compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, in which they were accused of assaulting or impeding officers. In nearly 50 instances identified so far, charges were never filed or the cases were dismissed. The study found only a handful of cases in which citizens pleaded guilty, in most instances to misdemeanors.  

“Advanced Arms Deployed to Caribbean,” Wall Street Journal, Oct 15, 2025

 

The United States military has been moving an array of sophisticated weapons to the Caribbean as it increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro but the U.S. forces involved aren’t nearly enough to mount an invasion, analysts say. The buildup is the largest in the region in more than 30 years and it isn’t over. “Since August, the Pentagon has deployed guided-missile destroyers, F-35B jet fighters, MQ-9 Reaper drones, P-8 Poseidon spy planes, assault ships and a secretive special operations ship,” wrote Roque Ruiz, Shelby Holliday and Carl Churchill of the Journal. The ships deployed include those used in battle in the Persian Gulf in the invasion of Iraq and in the Red Sea to counter Houthi rebels. “The White House is clearly interested in signaling to disaffected elements of the regime that now is the time to rise up against Maduro,” said Geoff Ramsey of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. There’s speculation that an effort is underway to oust Maduro. But at the current troop level of 10,000, an invasion seems unlikely.  The U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 required 27,000 troops. “Taking on big countries with well-equipped armies requires far larger commitments,” the Journal said. The Iraq invasion that removed Saddam Hussein involved 160,000 troops. “Venezuela is twice the size of Iraq, with densely populated cities, high Andean peaks and lowland jungles that can challenge troop deployments.” Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said “the forces we have aren’t large enough for an invasion.” The U.S. would need at least 50,000 troops in the case of Venezuela, he said. 

“Maduro Fails to Appease Trump,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 10, 2025

Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro has struggled in various ways  to appease Donald Trump in recent weeks, without success. As the U.S. amps up pressure on the Venezuelan president, he has tried to persuade the American president his country isn’t the source of lethal drugs Trump claims it to be. In a letter to Trump in the first days after the U.S. military killed 11 people destroying a boat off the coast of Venezuela it alleged to be carrying narcotics, Maduro said he was sending “compelling data on drug production and drug trafficking…that demonstrates that Venezuela is a territory free of drug production.”  He said just 5 percent of the drugs produced in Colombia are shipped through Venezuela, “and 70 percent of those are neutralized and destroyed by Venezuelan authorities,” said Juan Forero and Vera Bergengruen of the Journal. Maduro also has accepted deportation flights from the U.S., and called upon Pope Leo XIV to help his country “preserve peace and stability” as it faces the U.S. threat. His regime has claimed it is protecting the closed U.S. embassy, without saying from what. U.S. officials counter that Venezuelan officials benefit from the drug trade and let armed groups operate in the country. “Still, in the midst of the unprecedented U.S. military strikes and agitations about regime change from Trump allies, the two continue to quietly cooperate on one of Trump’s signature policies, deporting Venezuelan migrants from U.S. cities,” the Journal  says. Venezuela has received more than 10,000 Venezuelans on 58 flights from the U.S. since February, according to one estimate. Nine of the flights have landed since the boat strike in early September. An official said Venezuela has remained “one of the best relationships” the U.S has had on deportations.  Nor has the U.S. canceled the license Chevron has to pump oil in Venezuela, providing the country with one of its most important sources of revenues. “You could argue that all of this happening is a de facto recognition of the [Venezuelan] government,” Michael Schifter of the Inter-American Dialogue policy group in Washington told the Journal. “At the same time [U.S. Secretary of State Marco] Rubio is saying it’s an illegitimate government and Maduro is a narco terrorist, they’re still dealing with the regime.” 

“Bessent Says Argentina Bailout Will Double to Boost U.S. Influence in Region,” Washington Post, Oct. 16, 2025

The Trump administration says it is lining up private sector financing that would double its bailout of the Argentine economy. It didn’t disclose details of the private financing. The move is part of a broader effort to swing Latin America to the right, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Oct. 15. Earlier this month, the U.S. government authorized an extraordinary $20 billion currency swap, said Post reporters Jacob Bogage, David J. Lynch and David Feliba. They said it was “essentially a loan – to prop up the sagging Argentine peso, which has fallen more than 24 percent against the dollar this year.” They noted that  “keeping the peso at an unnaturally high level has hurt exports and widened the trade deficit, leaving Argentina short of the dollars needed to service its foreign debt.” Bessent said an added $20 billion in private financing from banks and sovereign wealth funds will help Argentina make its foreign debt payments. Argentina has an economy smaller than the state of Michigan. But he calls it a “systematically important U.S. ally” and says U.S. funds would keep Argentina’s debt crisis from affecting the economies of other countries. He said the bailout is part of an “economic Monroe Doctrine” which U.S. President James Monroe asserted in the early 1800s to claim a broad sphere of influence in North and South America. He said propping up Argentina would influence upcoming elections in Colombia and Chile and domestic politics elsewhere in Latin America and counter China’s deepening influence on its economy. The political strength of Argentine President Javier Milei is in doubt after his party’s poor showing in provincial elections in September. An upcoming legislative election later this month is seen as crucial to his ability to continue revamping the Argentine economy. But it’s unclear whether the U.S. assistance is going to help Milei politically. Argentine pollster Gustavo Córdoba said “Trump’s backing adds absolutely nothing for Milei. The electoral dynamics are already set. It will be very hard for the government to reverse the September defeat.” Trump has said the aid won’t be forthcoming if the upcoming elections don’t go Milei’s way (see Oct. 14 story summary). Argentina’s repayment history is “checkered,” the Post said. It “has defaulted or restructured its sovereign debt five times.” 

“U.S. Authorizes Covert Action in Venezuela to Pressure Maduro,” New York Times, Oct. 16, 2025

The Trump administration has authorized covert action by the C.I.A. in Venezuela. “American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to drive [Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro] from power,” wrote Julian E. Barnes and Tyler Pager of the Times. President Donald Trump acknowledged Oct. 15 that he has authorized covert action and is considering strikes on Venezuelan territory. The stepped-up C.I.A. presence comes as the U.S. military is weighing its own escalation. In addition to drawing up options for Trump that include strikes inside Venezuela, it has built up its troop level to 10,000, mostly at bases in Puerto Rico. There’s also a contingent of marines in amphibious assault ships. In addition, a special operations unit under the Defense Department has directed attacks on allegedly Venezuelan drug-running boats in the Caribbean, killing 27 people. The authority to conduct covert action is known formally as a “finding” in intelligence circles. Trump said he made it because Venezuela “emptied their prisons into the United States of America.” He has called the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang a terrorist organization under Maduro’s control.  However, U.S. intelligence agencies have not found Maduro to be directing it. An Oct. 16 Washington Post story (“Trump Authorizes Covert Action in Venezuela”) notes that a finding “allows the C.I.A. to conduct covert operations in foreign countries, ranging from clandestine information operations to training guerrilla opposition forces and conducting lethal strikes.” The Post quoted a source as saying Trump hasn’t made a final decision on using force to overthrow Maduro. “Despite the looming confrontation, Caracas has continued accepting deportation flights of its citizens from the United States, which have occurred a a rate of two a week in recent months,” the Post said. It said a former CIA official expressed concern that the agency’s relationships in the region could be damaged, shrinking intelligence-gathering on other topics, if the U.S. acts unilaterally against drug traffickers and “foments a popular backlash in Latin American nations leery of U.S. intervention.” The Post also quoted Elliott Abrams, who headed Venezuelan policy at the U.S. State Department in the first Trump administration, as saying that “to say that there might be something covert is not to say that it has to involve shooting” and could instead involve infiltrating the military or undertaking psychological operations to force Maduro into exile. 

“Chilling New Tactic in Nicaragua: Arrest of Dissidents, Then Silence,” New York Times, Oct. 6, 2025

It’s something that occurred early this year in Nicaragua that is one example of something has been happening with increasing frequency inthe past several weeks. In January, police in Managua arrived one night at the home of José Alejandro Hurtado, saying he had to come to the station house because someone had rented a car using his ID and it had been stolen. “That’s the last anyone saw of him,” recounted Frances Robles of the Times. The 57-year-old computer systems engineer is a longtime political activist. He’s one of almost three dozen people who human rights groups say have been disappeared by Nicaraguan authorities. “In Nicaragua, they have been happening within the past two years, the majority of them more recently,” Robles said. “They have had no contacts with their families, and the crimes they were charged with are unknown. Families have gone from prison to prison, police station to police station, seeking their loved ones, without success, human rights groups say.” It’s a new tactic of repression in Nicaragua, where the brutal dictatorship of Rosario Murillo and her husband Daniel Ortega, the country’s co-presidents, has already killed hundreds of protestors and sent hundreds more into exile in recent years. Loved ones of the missing now fear the worst, since two of those who recently disappeared were returned to their families dead. Of the missing, at least a dozen are over the age of 60 and one is 81. The brother of Hurtado believes he was targeted because he released publicly a proposal for national dialogue and elections to address Nicaragua’s political crisis. The missing include community leaders, leaders of Indigenous communities, journalists and pastors. Forced disappearances “have long and painful history in Latin America,” noted Robles.  Throughout the region, “hundreds of thousands of people who have disappeared since the 1970s were taken to secret detention centers, tortured and executed. Many of their bodies were never found.” Mexico, El Salvador, and Colombia are other countries where the practice still occurs, more often by gangs or cartels with the acquiescence of local police or mayors, said María Adela Antokoletz, who heads the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared. 

 “Trump Threatens to Cut US Aid to Argentina if Milei Loses Election,” The Guardian, Oct. 14, 2025

President Trump is warning that he will cut financial aid to Argentina if its president Javier Milei fails to win crucial support in legislative elections Oct. 26. “I’m with this man because his philosophy is correct,” Trump said as Milei visited him at the White House. “And he may win and he may not win – I think he’s going to win. And if he wins we are staying with him and if he doesn’t win we are gone.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a $20 billion bailout for Argentina last week. “The announcement sparked a rally in Argentine bonds and stocks and helped ease pressure on the peso,” The Guardian said. “It also marked a rare instance of U.S. intervention in Latin American currency markets, underscoring Washington’s strategic interest in Milei’s success.” Argentines are speculating what Trump might want from Milei in return for the bailout. The country is a major producer of lithium, which before Milei became president had been strengthening its ties with China. When asked by reporters what the benefit was to the United States of the bailout Trump replied “we are helping a great philosophy take over a great country. We want to see it succeed.” 

“Trump Says Six Were Killed in US Strike on Another Boat Allegedly carrying drugs Near Venezuela,” The Guardian, Oct. 14, 2025

President Donald Trump said Oct. 14 that in an attack ordered that morning by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the U.S. military struck another small boat allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people. He said intelligence confirmed it was carrying narcotics and  was associated with “illicit narcoterrorist networks” but offered no proof, said Guardian reporter Anna Betts.  This was the fifth deadly U.S. strike in the Caribbean, according to the Associated Press. Trump reportedly has labeled cartels involved in drug smuggling as “non-state armed groups” whose trafficking constitutes an armed attack against the U.S. “The White House has argued that military action is a necessary escalation to disrupt the flow of drugs into the U.S.,” Betts noted. However, she quoted United Nations experts as saying “international law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers. Criminal activities should be disrupted, investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the rule of law, including through international cooperation.” 

 

“Why Blowing Up Boats Off Venezuela’s Coast Won’t Stop Drug Flow,” New York Times, Oct. 13, 2025

U.S. military strikes that have killed at least 21 people in small boats off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela allegedly carrying illicit narcotics  “are unlikely to alter the flow of the deadly drugs fueling America’s crisis,” according to Samuel Granados, Genevieve Glatsky and Annie Correal of the Times. President Trump’s focus on Venezuela in those attacks “is at odds with the reality,” they said, adding that “the vast majority of cocaine is produced and smuggled elsewhere in Latin America,” based on data from the U.S., Colombia and the United Nations. Colombia, Bolivia and Peru produce most of the world’s cocaine, and most of it smuggled to the United States moves through the Pacific, not the Caribbean.  But in recent years top U.S. officials have rarely named cocaine as a priority. Their focus has been on fentanyl, the drug tied to the U.S. overdose crisis. “Venezuela plays essentially no role in the production or smuggling of fentanyl,” which is almost entirely made in Mexico with chemicals imported from countries in Asia. 

“Venezuela’s Maduro Offered the U.S. His Nation’s Riches to Avoid Conflict,” New York Times, Oct. 10, 2025

The Venezuelan government led by authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro recently offered the United States a dominant stake in the country’s oil and minerals in a bid to stay in power. During months-long discussions, “the Venezuelan strongman offered to open up all existing and future oil and gold projects to American companies, give preferential contracts to American businesses, reverse the flow of Venezuelan oil exports from China to the United States, and slash his country’s energy and mining contracts with Chinese, Iranian and Russian firms,” according to Times reporters Anatoly Kurmanaev, Julian E. Barnes and Julie Turkewitz.  But the Trump administration rebuffed the concessions and cut off diplomacy last week, effectively killing the deal, at least for the time being.  Many observers think the administration is aiming to remove Maduro from power, after recent U.S. military attacks on boats in the Caribbean and a buildup of U.S. naval power in the region. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears to have prevailed for now in an internal debate between those urging military action and others favoring diplomacy. The latter group believes diplomacy could ultimately prevail given abrupt reversals by President Trump on other foreign policy issues. The sticking point in the recent negotiations was whether Maduro would remain in power; he refuses to step down. Meanwhile, María Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition, pitched her own offer to U.S. officials during a recent meeting in New York. “She argued that even greater economic wealth -- $1.7 trillion in 15 years – awaited U.S. companies in Venezuela if her movement launched a political transition,” the Times said. Her economic adviser Sary Levy argued that the concessions offered by Maduro would never occur without democracy, the rule of law, and individual freedoms. “What Maduro offers investors is not stability, it’s control – control maintained through terror,” she said. The administration has shown it won’t fall for these offers of “easy solutions.” Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, along with deposits of natural gas, gold, iron, bauxite and coltan, a mix of minerals used in batteries. It produces about one million barrels of oil per day, down from three million when the  government of Hugo Chavéz, the leftist predecesor of Maduro, seized control of the economy in Venezuela.  Most oil exports go to China except for 100,000 barrels a day the U.S. energy company Chevron sells in the United States. “Most experts agree that Venezuela could quickly ramp up oil output with a major injection of foreign capital, though they differ on whether this is achievable” under Maduro’s government, the Times said. Machado told U.S. oil companies in June that “we want you here producing millions of barrels a day.” Maduro has been trying to strengthen his position in Washington by reaching out to U.S. oil companies. He has given Chevron full control of joint projects and discussed giving the company a part of another major oil field. Venezuelan officials are trying to mend relations with ConocoPhillips, whose operations were seized by the government in 2007. Venezuela has stopped sending oil to Cuba, worsening electricity shortages there. The U.S. Treasury Department has also issued a license letting the largest energy company in Europe, Shell, begin producing gas from a huge offshore Venezuelan field. 

“Venezuela’s Opposition Leader Machado Wins Nobel Peace Prize, Dedicates to Trump,” Reuters, Oct. 10, 2025

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, has dedicated the award in part to U.S. President Donald Trump. He “has repeatedly insisted he deserved it,” noted Reuters reporters Gwladys Fouche and Tom Little. When first notified of the award by the Nobel committee, the 58-year-old Machado, who is in hiding, said “I thank you so much, but I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve it.” She later said in an X post: “I dedicate the prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!” Machado has praised the deadly U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean that Trump alleges were engaged in drug trafficking and says were thereby threatening lives in the U.S.  [The Trump administration is showing increasing signs of trying to use military force to remove authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, a particular focus of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio].  Machado has stated that the military strikes are “aimed at saving lives” in both nations, Reuters said. The award to Machado came on the heels of  Trump announcing a breakthrough in talks to stop the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. White House spokesman Steven Cheung said “President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives…The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.” Rubio, while still a U.S. senator, nominated Machado for the Nobel Peace Prize, along with other members of the U.S. Congress. 

“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. 

“Peru’s President Removed Amid Rising Crime, Corruption Allegations,” Washington Post, Oct. 10, 2025

Beset by widespread fear of crime and allegations of personal corruption, Dina Boluarte, Peru’s first female president, has been removed from office. Replacing her is José Jerí, president of the Peruvian Congress. He becomes the country’s eighth leader in the past ten years, wrote Tobi Raji and Matthew Hay Brown of the Post. “Boluarte took office in December 2022 on the impeachment, removal and arrest of her former running mate, Pedro Castillo,” they said. “Castillo was ousted after attempting to dissolve the Congress and rule by decree.” He had won office in 2021 as the candidate of the Marxist-Leninist Free Peru Party “challenging a serially corrupt ruling establishment.” Boluarte moved abruptly to the right after taking over, loosening restrictions on business and conducting a lethal crackdown on dissent. She was hit by criticism that she didn’t stop the right-wing Congress from undermining democracy. She also was accused of enriching herself in office, with reports that her personal jewelry collection grew to $500,000 in value on a monthly salary of about $4,200. The number of homicides across the country grew, with more than 6,000 people killed from January through mid-August, the highest total in that span of months since 2017. About 85 percent of Peruvian city dwellers of ages 15 and up said they thought they might be the victim of a crime within the next year, according to one poll. A shooting at a concert in Lima Oct. 8 wounding five “proved the end,” the Post said. She was impeached by a vote of 124 to 0. Jerí came into office promising a war on crime. He will serve out the remainder of the current presidential term which is due to end in July 2026.  The mayor of Lima, the capital of Peru, is expected to be among the candidates (see summary of Oct. 9 New York Times story below). 

“Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize,” Associated Press, Oct. 10, 2025

The woman who is the face of the opposition to Venezuela’s authoritarian president has won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel committee described María Corina Machado who ran in opposition to President Nicolás Maduro in what many regard as a stolen election as the “key, unifying figure” in the once deeply divided opposition. She “keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.” Committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes noted that Machado has been forced to live in hiding over the past year. “Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions,” he said. “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.” 

“The Peru Mayor Known as Porky Who Fights the ‘Murderous’ Left,” New York Times, Oct. 9, 2025

The mayor of Lima who has embraced the nickname Porky because of his resemblance to the cartoon character Porky Pig is aligning himself with President Trump as he prepares to run for the presidency of Peru next April. He is Rafael López Aliaga who Times reporter Mitra Taj describes this way: “Combative and prone to hyperbole, he dominates headlines in media outlets he rails against and is skilled at weaving fact and fiction into conspiracy theories for an electorate quickly losing faith in institutions.” The 64-year-old López Aliaga sees himself as part of a global struggle against the dangers posed by a “lying, thieving and murderous” left. On Oct. 4 he held a memorial for Charlie Kirk at a park in Lima, “to the bewilderment of some attendees who had never heard of the slain American activist.” Many residents of Lima have been impressed with his work to expand railways and roadways; the Peruvian capital is a traffic-choked city of 10 million where he was elected mayor in 2022. He attacks the left as corrupt and supporters of abortion rights and communism. He derides those who oppose him as “caviares” much as Trump labels his opponents “the deep state.” It comes from the word “caviar” and is used by both those on the far right and the far left to discredit progressives and centrists. “It’s like ‘limousine liberals,’ but broader," says Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist who wrote a book called “Caviar.” López Aliaga is calling for closing most government ministries, sending dangerous prisoners to El Salvador, sending troops to the border and having military courts try “urban terrorists.” He backs the U.S. bombing of boats in the Caribbean. In 2021 he called for the death of two leftist politicians.  He urged the “elimination” of the investigative journalist Gustavo Gorriti, saying later he meant only that he should be put on trial. Gorriti said his attacks are part of a “neo-fascist playbook,” adding that “this whole idea of a global conspiracy involving dark, mysterious forces, it’s very old….It’s a paranoid vision of the far right, applied here.” 

 

“We Found the ‘Enemy from Within,’ The Contrarian, Oct. 6, 2025,

ICE’s raid on an apartment building in Chicago and the ICE violence that followed makes it clear that President Trump “has initiated an unconstitutional brutal war against ordinary Americans,” said Jennifer Rubin of the Never Trumper website, The Contrarian.  She wrote that a “military attack more akin to an overseas military operation than a domestic police action unfolded in that Chicago apartment building on Tuesday [Sept. 30].”  “Families were separated, and children zip-tied together and left traumatized,” she recounts. The local public radio station said: “Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down their doors overnight, pulling men, women, and children from their apartments, some of them naked, residents and witnesses said. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building, and U.S. citizens were among those detained for hours.” Neighbors reported that “federal agents used flashbang grenades to burst through the building, and several drones and helicopters were deployed.” A local ABC affiliate quoted a neighbor who witnessed the agents: “One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, ‘f*** them kids.’”  Another raid in Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in suburban Elgin involved agents led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem riding in a military vehicle and blowing down the front door of a home where they detained six people including two U.S. citizens, according to WBEZ. Rubin quoted Illinois Governor JB Pritzker: “What happened at that building is shameful. Our Department of Children and Family Services are investigating what happened to those children who were zip-tied and held, some of them nearly naked, in the middle of the night,  and, again, elderly people being thrown into a U-Haul for three hours and detained, U.S. citizens.” Pritzker added that the raid was emblematic of what Trump and his enforcement officials are trying to do: “They want to create the war zone, so that they can send in even more troops….” Rubin said Trump’s “unprecedented assault on the city of Chicago and other American cities is the inevitable result of the MAGA Supreme Court’s acquiescence to the Trump regime’s violent assault on individuals who look Latino, speak Spanish, and/or live among undocumented migrants.” Rubin referred to the Supreme Court decision permitting racial profiling as the basis for stopping people to check on immigration status and possibly detain them. “The ‘enemy from within’ is Donald Trump,” she said. “In response to Trump’s brutal, racist, and unconstitutional campaign of terror designed to desensitize Americans to police state tactics, the country must mobilize collectively.” 

 

“Bipartisan Measure to Restrict Trump’s War Powers Fails in Senate,” Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2025

In the past two months the U.S. military has attacked at least four boats in the Caribbean Sea, killing at least 21 people the Trump administration calls “narcoterrorists” from drug gangs in Venezuela. However, Democrats say the attacks are unconstitutional and that military officials in classified briefings have not identified the victims or explained why lethal force is being used and not the standard response of interdicting vessels at sea. They put forward a resolution for a vote in the Senate Oct. 8 saying the attacks should stop unless authorized by Congress but it was defeated 51 to 48.  Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for it and Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania  against it, said the report by Noah Robertson, Katie Tarrant, and Ellen Nakashima of the Post. “Is it too much to ask to know the names of those we kill before we kill them, to know what evidence exists of their guilt?” Paul asked on the Senate floor. He called the strikes “extrajudicial killings.” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Oct. 8 that the most recent boat struck by the U.S. military was from his country and carried Colombian citizens, contrary to White House claims. President Trump in a move seeking legal justification for the attacks has notified Congress that the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels distributing narcotics in the U.S. He said the use of force is a matter of self-defense against attacks by “designated terrorist organizations” that are killing Americans. He has signaled that the attacks may broaden. At a hearing Oct. 7 the general counsel of the U.S. Army declined to say which groups the Pentagon considers as enemy combatants. “We’ve never had an instance where there’s a secret list of what I understand to be dozens of now terrorist organizations that the American public and certainly the oversight committees don’t get to know,” said Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. 

“Trump Issues a Directive: No Talking to Venezuela,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 2025

The U.S. military Oct.3 attacked another boat in international waters near Venezuela, killing four men, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It was the fourth known U.S. attack against boats the Trump administration said were trafficking narcotics. Now President Trump has called off attempts to reach a diplomatic agreement with Venezuela, U.S. officials said. That move paves the way for “a potential military escalation against drug traffickers or the government of Nicolas Maduro,” said the report by Julian E. Barnes, Tyler Pager and Maria Abi-Habib of the Times. Trump envoy Richard Grenell had been negotiating for months with Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian president. His aim has been to cut a deal avoiding a larger conflict and giving American companies access to Venezuelan oil. But on Oct. 2 Trump phoned Grenell to tell him that all diplomatic outreach must stop. “Mr. Trump has grown frustrated with Mr. Maduro’s failure to accede to American demands to give up power voluntarily and the continued insistence by Venezuelan officials that they have no part in drug trafficking,” the Times said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in the administration have been urging a strategy to  remove Maduro from power. They view Grenell’s diplomatic efforts as unhelpful and confusing, a source said.  Those in the administration who favor diplomatic efforts fear that an expansion into Venezuela of the anti-narcotics campaign or a direct attempt to remove Maduro from power would run the risk of involving the United States in a war with Venezuela. 

“Reporter Is Set to Be Deported,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 3, 2025

Mario Guevara, a Salvadoran journalist known for his coverage of immigration-enforcement activities in the Atlanta, Georgia area, was deported to El Salvador Oct. 3. He had been in detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than three months, his lawyers said. “Free speech advocates argue the Trump administration is using immigration enforcement to target critics of its policies,” noted Victoria Albert of the Journal prior to his deportation. Guevara was covering a No Kings protest in suburban Atlanta at the time of his arrest on June 14.  He was live streaming on Facebook to more than one million viewers, outdrawing CNN and Fox News combined (see summary of Guardian story, June 16, 2025). He frequently covered immigration and customs enforcement raids in metro Atlanta for MGNews, a publication he started. Guevara had lived in the U.S. more than 20 years. He fled El Salvador in 2004 after being threatened by left-wing paramilitary groups  while working for Diario CoLatino, the Guardian said.  He won an Emmy for criminal justice reporting as a journalist in the United States. Guevara sued the Trump administration in August, arguing his detention was in retaliation for his reporting, the Journal story said. “Mario’s detention should terrify any person in this country that cares about a free press,” his attorney said. Homeland Security has repeatedly denied he was detained for his reporting. It says it was because of his immigration status. According to a podcast by the Salvadoran news outlet El Faro [published in exile], Guevara while in ICE custody filed a motion to reopen his asylum case, which had been denied in 2012. His appeal before the Bureau of Immigration Appeals was still pending, the podcast said. El Faro said Georgia is home to an immigrant community of about 1.3 million people. El Faro podcast https://beta.elfaro.net/en/a-region-podcasted/deportation-mario-guevara-attacks-immigrants-journalists-collide. According to Amnesty International, Guevara was in solitary confinement for 69 days of his more than 100 days in ICE detention. It said on Oct. 1 a federal appeals court denied an emergency request to temporarily block his deportation order. Amnesty International  said he was deported in the early morning hours of Oct. 3 without being able to say good-bye to his family in person. According to El Faro, Guevara has described himself as a caretaker for one of his sons who suffered a stroke. Two of his children are U.S. citizens and another has DACA status, El Faro said. Guevara told CBS News Oct. 6 from El Salvador that ICE “destroyed my family.” He said  he will continue reporting in El Salvador, covering deportees there and also covering the Atlanta area. 

“Lawmakers Press Pentagon on Legal Basis for Boat Strikes,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 3, 2025

Senators on both sides of the aisle pressed the top Defense Department lawyer Oct. 1 for a better explanation of the legal rationale for destroying alleged Latin American drug boats in the Caribbean. The lawyer, Pentagon general counsel Earl Matthews, said in a classified briefing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that unilateral military force was justified because President Trump had declared some Latin American cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations. “Matthews refused to provide a written justification for the strikes, which legal experts say is necessary for transparency and accountability,” said the report by Lara Seligman, Alexander Ward and Siobhan Hughes of the Journal. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the committee, said the Trump administration offered “no credible legal justifications, evidence or intelligence,” for the attacks. “Every American should be alarmed that their president has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he calls an enemy.” No Republicans on the committee spoke out publicly against the attacks. Republicans Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa issued statements strongly supporting the use of military force. But both Democratic and Republican lawmakers at the briefing urged the administation to develop a stronger legal case. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is not on the committee, has strongly criticized the strikes. Todd Huntley, a retired Navy judge advocate, said that designating a group a foreign terrorist organization does not bring additional authority to use force. He said the designation is used to prosecute actors that provide “material support” to terrorist groups.

“U.S. Pulls Support for Haiti Textiles,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2, 2025

The expiration of a trade program that has allowed the U.S. import of Haitian textiles duty-free is expected to crush that country’s biggest industry. The so-called HOPE/HELP program accounted for 90 percent of Haiti’s exports and created tens of thousands of jobs there.  But it is falling victim to Trump tariff policy. “Without those jobs, we are going to see more people left on the streets, more people drawn to crime and gangs,” said Fernando Capellán, the head of an industrial park were 18,000 of Haiti’s 26,000 textile jobs are concentrated. “The development could force desperate Haitians to flee to the Dominican Republic or other nations,” said Journal reporter Kejal Vyas. The program “began in 2006 and expanded after the devastating 2010 earthquake,” Vyas noted. “It was designed to promote business in Haiti while offering incentives so American apparel makers could locate production close to the U.S. instead of operating in Asia, where much of the clothing industry had gone.” Cotton and other U.S. fabrics were used in Haitian textiles and revenue from Haitian labor was used to buy rice and fuel from the U.S., which ran a nearly $600 million trade surplus with Haiti in 2024. Brands using Haitian textiles include Hanes, Calvin Klein, Gap and Victoria’s Secret. 

“Judge Poised to Free Abrego Garcia if Officials Can’t Supply Deportation Plans,” New York Times, Oct. 6, 2025

Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court for Maryland expressed exasperation Oct. 6 that the Trump administration hasn’t submitted evidence that it plans to deport Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia soon. “She questioned whether the government was using a ‘trick bag’ to detain him indefinitely by claiming he needed to remain in immigration custody because of an imminent deportation when in fact it had not solidified any such plans,” wrote Times reporter Minho Kim. Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland but is now in U.S. immigration custody after he was wrongfully removed to a brutal prison in El Salvador. Xinis said she is inclined to release him and gave the government until Oct. 8 to submit its deportation plans.  After he was brought back to the U.S. following a Supreme Court order that the government “facilitate” his return, Abrego Garcia was criminally accused by the Trump administration of smuggling undocumented immigrants across the U.S., an action a federal judge in Nashville said Oct. 3 was likely a “vindictive prosecution.” The judge said Trump officials may have sought to punish Abrego Garcia for suing to stop his initial unlawful deportation to El Salvador. Two judges earlier this year ruled against his continued detention on the criminal charges. The Trump administration had to release him but then detained him again a few days later saying it would send him to Uganda. But it said Oct. 6 the only country it was discussing deporting him to is Eswatini, a small African country that isn’t promising it won’t send him back to El Salvador, where he expressed fear that his life is in danger. Abrego Garcia has expressed a willingness to go to Costa Rica, which has promised him legal residence and guaranteed he would not be sent back to El Salvador. His lawyer asked Xinis why the government is trying to send him across the ocean when he could go “this afternoon” to Costa Rica. Xinis referred that question to the administration lawyer who said he needed more time to respond.

“Bad Bunny Pushes Back on Kristi Noem Threat That Immigrants Stay Away from Super Bowl,” The Guardian, Oct. 5, 2025

The announcement that Bad Bunny is going to headline the Super Bowl halftime show has caused a wave of conservative outrage. Homeland Security Department Secretary Kristi Noem said only Americans should attend next year’s Super Bowl and ICE agents “will be all over” the event. She said the National Football League “will not be able to sleep at night” because it picked him. Born in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny is an American citizen who has criticized the aggressive immigration crackdown by the Trump administration (see Sept. 29 summary). He responded to Noem’s threats Oct. 4 during his guest host appearance on  Saturday Night Live, saying of the Super Bowl appearance “I think everyone is very happy about it.” Guardian reporter Olivia Empson said what followed was a quick montage of Fox News contributors, each one saying one word that was clipped together to say “He should be the next President.” He said in Spanish during the opening that “more than an accomplishment of mine, it’s an accomplishment for everybody, demonstrating that our mark and our contribution to this country will never be able to be removed or erased by anybody.” Then in English he said “if you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.” 

 “Hedge Fund Billionaire Pressed Treasury Secretary for Argentina Bailout, Argentine Media Reports,” Popular Information, Oct. 2, 2025

Major Argentine media outlets are reporting that hedge fund billionaire Rob Citrone, a friend of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, asked him for a bailout of the country’s troubled economy. So wrote Judd Legum of the newsletter Popular Information. On Sept. 24, Bessent announced a $20 billion bailout to rescue the Argentine economy, Legum noted. Citrone’s hedge fund, Discovery Capital, “had bet heavily on Argentina, purchasing Argentine debt and equity in numerous companies closely tied to the country’s overall economy,” Legum said. Citrone believed that Argentine President Javier Milei’s right-wing economic program emphasizing deregulation and sharply reduced government spending would revitalize the country’s economy. “That theory began to unravel as growth slowed, unemployment spiked, and Milei’s popularity tanked,” Legum said. In the spring of this year, Citrone reportedly asked Bessent to help Argentina obtain a separate $20 billion package from the International Monetary Fund. Money from that package began to arrive in April, but wasn’t enough to turn the economy around. Provincial election results in early September suggested Milei was losing political power sufficient to carry his program forward. Ariel Maciel, an editor at the large Argentine media outlet Perfil, wrote that after those elections Citrone turned to Bessent to ask for a second bailout from the U.S. Treasury.  Legum said that Popular Information then contacted Citrone’s hedge fund Discover Capital to ask if Maciel’s report and that of other Argentine media outlets that Citrone asked Bessent to bail out the Argentine economy were accurate. Discover Capital declined to comment, Legum said. Popular Information also reported that Maciel said that two weeks before Bessent announced the bailout Citrone bought additional bonds for almost nothing. Maciel said that raised suspicions that Citrone had access to confidential information, Popular Information said.  

“U.S. Pulls Support for Haiti Textiles,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2, 2025

The expiration of a trade program that has allowed the U.S. import of Haitian textiles duty-free is expected to crush that country’s biggest industry. The so-called HOPE/HELP program accounted for 90 percent of Haiti’s exports and created tens of thousands of jobs there.  But it is falling victim to Trump tariff policy. “Without those jobs, we are going to see more people left on the streets, more people drawn to crime and gangs,” said Fernando Capellán, the head of an industrial park were 18,000 of Haiti’s 26,000 textile jobs are concentrated. “The development could force desperate Haitians to flee to the Dominican Republic or other nations,” said Journal reporter Kejal Vyas. The program “began in 2006 and expanded after the devastating 2010 earthquake,” Vyas noted. “It was designed to promote business in Haiti while offering incentives so American apparel makers could locate production close to the U.S. instead of operating in Asia, where much of the clothing industry had gone.” Cotton and other U.S. fabrics were used in Haitian textiles and revenue from Haitian labor was used to buy rice and fuel from the U.S., which ran a nearly $600 million trade surplus with Haiti in 2024. Brands using Haitian textiles include Hanes, Calvin Klein, Gap and Victoria’s Secret.