News Summaries in December 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.

“Politicians’ Flip-Flops Can Be an Issue. In Brazil, Flip-Flops Are an Issue,” New York Times, Dec. 26, 2025

Flip-flops are in the middle of a political firestorm in Brazil. “Millions of people slip on the ubiquitous sandals – made by the Brazilian company Havaianas – to go to the beach or lounge at home, to run errands or meet friends at the bar,” writes Times reporter Ana Ionova. But the footwear became a partisan issue when the company launched an ad campaign featuring the popular Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, who became a global star and a progressive icon for her performance in “I’m Still Here.” The Oscar-winning film depicted the resistance to Brazil’s brutal military dictatorship. Instead of the popular expression of good luck urging others to start the New Year “on the right foot,” Torres in a Havaianas commercial urges, “Start the new year with both feet – both feet in the door, both feet on the road, both feet in the game.” The commercial “struck a nerve among conservative Brazilians who saw it as a thinly veiled attempt to urge Brazilians not to vote for right-wing candidates,” says Ionova of The Times. Prominent right-wingers including the sons of former President Jair Bolsonaro “saw the advertisement as political messaging aimed at their movement ahead of what is likely to be a momentous presidential election” in 2026. Bolsonaro remains a powerful force even though his conviction for launching a coup against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva excludes him from office for life. One of his sons is expected to challenge Lula for office in 2026. Now there’s a boycott against Havaianas among those on the right. Outside one of the company’s stores in Rio de Janeiro, a 73-year-old doctor, Cristina Galvão, scoffed that “everyone wears them – but won’t anymore. We’re boycotting them to show that this advertisement is ridiculous. It’s shameful leftist propaganda.” Rosileia Moreira, a 49-year-old human resources worker, saw nothing political in the ad. “This is not the left or the right,” she said. “To put on a pair of flip-flops and enjoy the beach, that’s Brazil.”

“Spain’s Government Cozies Up to Maduro,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 15, 2025

What follows are selected passages in an opinion column written by Mary Anastasia O’Grady of The Wall Street Journal based on an interview she conducted in Madrid. The passages are largely verbatim but sometimes condensed. Opinion columns occasionally summarized here tend to reflect my point of view but not always. They may be of interest because of some of the information presented and to get a sense of different ideological perspectives.

Few Spanish politicians make the case for Latin American liberty as well as Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, a member of Spain’s Congress of Deputies…Ms. Álvarez de Toledo says that if we want peace in Latin America, we have to work for freedom. She knows the region well. She spoke frankly about how populism is destroying democratic institutions in Mexico and how Spain’s socialist-led coalition government undermines efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela. This city is one of the fastest-growing on the Continent. But its success owes almost nothing to the Socialists who have governed the country more than seven years. The credit for the Madrid boom goes instead to market-friendly policies of the local government, run by the People’s Party, and the many Latin Americans who have come here to escape repression and poverty in their homelands. At the end of 2023…more than one million Latin American migrants called the greater Madrid region home, of a total population of 6.9 million. Some 184,000 were Venezuelan…at the end of 2024 only 56% of the region’s population was native. Another 23 percent were from different Spanish regions and 21% were foreign-born. The beginning of the great Venezuelan migration can be traced to 2014. That’s when the economy collapsed, inflation soared, food and medicine shortages intensified, and the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro ratcheted up the repression. In the last decade large numbers from every socioeconomic group have fled. Ms. Álvarez de Toledo told me that in 2019 she saw first-hand, at the Colombian border, the heart-rending scenes of migrants streaming over bridges with only what they could carry: “mothers with their babies, barefoot,” desperate to reach a safe place to live, work and feed their children…Spain could play a constructive role in pressuring [Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro] and his cronies to relinquish power. Venezuelans, many working here in menial jobs despite their education, could return to their cities of birth and rebuild their lives. Instead, the Socialists and their coalition allies are apologists for the regime. The Spanish government doesn’t recognize the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González in Venezuela’s July 2024 presidential election even though the results have been documented. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez refuses to congratulate Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He won’t call Mr. Maduro a dictator…Ms. Machado has both the insight and courage to confront Venezuela’s ethical decay, Ms. Álvarez de Toledo says…"She always knew this was not only a dictatorship, but a criminal organization. And she always knew that the only way out was with a regime change, the regime had to change entirely.”….One can only speculate what President Trump might do with U.S. Navy assets in the Caribbean, Ms. Álvarez do Toledo says. But it makes no sense “for the U.S. or any reasonable democracy” to allow “that kind of narco-regime, criminal organization with ties to enemies of security and freedom, to operate with total impunity.”

“Pinochet Is Smiling In His Grave,” New York Times, Dec. 19, 2025

What follows are largely verbatim but sometimes condensed selected passages from an opinion column by Ariel Dorfman, a Chilean American writer.

Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the strongman who imposed a reign of terror on Chile from 1973 to 1990, must be smiling in his grave. His brazen defender and admirer José Kast has just been elected president of Chile. It is the first time since democracy in Chile was restored 35 years ago that any supporter of the dictatorship has won such high office. Mr. Kast’s victory is not necessarily a public endorsement of his veneration for General Pinochet. His campaign promises appealed to an angry, weary and confused populace eager for radical change: a vow to expel hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, a crackdown on crime and narco-trafficking, a pledge to slash government spending and increase economic growth…But the attendant rehabilitation of one of the continent’s most infamous autocrats is a particularly agonizing setback in a country where many considered the long struggle for democracy to have been won. In 1973 the military with Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. The general proceeded to close Congress, torture and kill thousands of Mr. Allende’s supporters, and persecute and exile many more…Democracy was eventually restored to Chile in 1990. In 1998 [Pinochet] was arrested in London on charges of human rights abuses; subsequent revelations that he had illicitly accumulated millions of dollars fueled a general abhorrence that turned him into even more of a pariah…[But] supporters of General Pinochet never really went away. The general, they say, saved the country from communism; he imposed law and order; his neoliberal economic policies made Chile a modern country. But they invariably have been a minority…In this sense, Mr. Kast’s victory is a political and ethical earthquake. For the first time in Chile’s contemporary history, it’s possible that the most powerful man in the country will use the full force of the executive branch to sanitize Chile’s violent past so that the pain, the slaughters and exiles, the tortures and the concentration camps, can be expunged….[Voters at all levels and of all political preference are expressing a sense of ] “malestar,” which loosely translates to unease, unrest, malaise. Men and women around the country feel that something is obscurely wrong and off balance, and that this cries out for a return to the times when a strong leader enforced discipline and security, no matter the cost. This is what Mr. Kast’s victor signals: the belief that democracy itself is unable to deliver when it comes to the everyday problems of crime, cost of living and rampant immigration…[but] Mr. Kast may not have an easy ride. There are dissenters in his own conservative coalition who may try to rein in the new president’s worst instincts. Chile also can count on a vigorous and truly independent judiciary that is not inclined to tolerate an antidemocratic blitz. Nor is it certain that the armed forces…will become Mr. Kast’s dogs of war. The most important opposition to Mr. Kast’s plans will come from ordinary citizens…Any resistance that Chileans bring to the streets must be accompanied an equally valiant attempt to imagine our way out of this crisis. Mr. Kast could not have won if center-left parties and their elites had not failed to offer a viable alternative to the country’s chronic unhappiness. What Chile needs now is a deep intellectual renewal of its progressive forces, a painful reckoning with its shortcomings and fractures.

“ICE Plans $100 Million ‘Wartime Recruitment’ Push Targeting Gun Shows, Military Fans for Hires,” Washington Post, Dec. 31, 2025

Immigration authorities are planning to spend $100 million in one year to recruit new agents with messages that depict migrants as predators and enemies of the United States who, as a matter of patriotism, must be expelled from the country. “Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys?” asks one social media post that is part of the Trump administration campaign. Another asks “are you going to cowboy up or just lay there and bleed?” Spotify listeners have heard ICE ads urging recruits to “fulfill your mission.” Targets of the ads include gun rights supporters, military enthusiasts and attendees of UFC fights. Sarah Saldaña, an ICE director during the Obama administration, “said she worries the speed with which ICE is racing to bring on new hires – coupled with the ad campaign’s framing of the jobs as part of a war – will raise the risk that the agency could attract untrained recruits eager for all-out combat,” said Post reporters Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee.

“Trump Aims to Strip Citizenship of More Foreign-Born Americans,” New York Times, Dec. 19, 2025

The Trump administration is planning to pursue denaturalization on a massive scale, experts say. Guidance issued to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asks that its field offices supply 100-200 denaturalization cases per month in fiscal 2026 to strip people of their citizenship. By way of comparison, between 2017 and this year to date there have been just over 120 cases filed, said Times reporter Hamed Aleaziz. People can only be denaturalized under federal law if they committed fraud in filing for citizenship and in a few other limited instances. A former USCIS official said “imposing arbitrary numerical targets on denaturalization cases risks politicizing citizenship revocation.” The former official, Sarah Pierce, added that “requiring monthly quotas that are 10 times higher than the total annual number of denaturalizations in recent years turns a serious and rare tool into a blunt instrument and fuels unnecessary fear and uncertainty for the millions of naturalized Americans.” There are now an estimated 26 million naturalized U.S. citizens. More than 800,000 were sworn in last year, most of them born in Mexico, India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic or Vietnam. But Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Services said “I don’t think we’re anywhere close to denaturalizing too many people.” He said so many people need to be denaturalized that the administration’s planned effort would not pull in people who should not be targeted. Other than those who have committed fraud, others who can be denaturalized include gang members, individuals belonging to drug cartels, violent criminals, and well as those who have committed financial fraud.

“Trump’s Shadow War in Venezuela Grows, But Country’s Strongman Leader Still Clings to Power,” The Guardian, Dec. 30, 2025

Details remain sketchy concerning what President Donald Trump said almost a week ago was the first U.S. ground attack in his military pressure campaign to oust Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. The date, time and location of the attack remain unknown and no casualties have been reported, said Guardian reporter Tiago Rogero. “CNN and The New York Times reported late on [Dec. 29] that they had confirmed the CIA used a drone to target a ‘port facility’ allegedly used by the Tren de Aragua street gang,” said Rogero. But Maduro and the Venezuelan government have remained silent. The first land strike on Venezuela if confirmed would mark a new phase in the pressure campaign consisting of a big US naval buildup and rocket strikes from the air on boats and their occupants allegedly involved in drug smuggling, and most recently the seizure of oil tankers. “Obviously, the US doesn’t want to call it a war because that would trigger congressional oversight…but it is a war, as people are dying – and they’re dying in a very specific and loud way with these airstrikes on boats,” said Alejandro Velasco, a professor of Venezuelan history at New York University. Chatham House analyst Christopher Sabatini said “it’s not a war that involves massive amounts of US weapons yet, because I think neither side has the stomach to do that…so it’s more of a war of moving pieces and hoping one size folds.” That logic has driven all of Trump’s moves so far, he says. Andrés Antillano, a criminology professor at the Central University of Venezuela, said “if everything Trump has said is true, it still seems to me an attack with minimal impact, despite its media coverage. That was more or less what happened with the attacks on boats: they led to the deaths of fishers, possibly some linked to drug trafficking, but they had no impact on drug trafficking itself nor did they shake the foundations of the Maduro government,” he said.

“ICE Sweeps Into Ohio, Alarming Large Group of Somali Immigrants,” New York Times, Dec. 25, 2025

An upsurge of enforcement action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the past week is creating turmoil in Ohio’s capital city of Colombus and angering local leaders. The city, led by Democrats, is the latest target of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, said Times reporters Billy Witz and Kevin Williams. Colombus, the home of Ohio State University, is a blue city in a red state. Its population is booming while overall the number of people living in Ohio is declining. Immigrants accounted for 77 percent of the city’s population growth in 2024-24. Their numbers include the second largest Somali community in the U.S., an estimated 30,000 people according to census data, but others say the number is far higher. There are also sizable communities of Afghans, Venezuelans, Cubans, Nepalis, Bhutanese and Haitians. The Somali community has been shaken by attacks by President Trump, who has called Somalis “garbage" and says that he wants to send them back to Africa. The mayor of Colombus, Andrew J. Ginther, has said the ICE presence is unwelcome and that city police would not assist ICE arrests based on immigration status. That led to social media attacks on Ginther by Stephen Miller, the top White House official on immigration, and multibillionaire and former Trump adviser Elon Musk, who labeled the mayor a “traitor.” Hispanic immigrants also feel targeted. “Everyone is afraid to come out,” said Maria Benit, the owner of a financial services business that assists in money transfers to Latin America. A group called Volunteers at Our Helpers has been delivering boxes of food to immigrant families afraid to come out of their homes. The Catholic Diocese of Columbus announced that because of increased ICE activity parishioners in the city would be excused from Mass through the Christmas season. Protestors have responded by gathering outside of hotels where ICE agents are believed to be staying, creating a ruckus to try to keep them from sleeping. The evening of Dec. 22, for example, they “banged pots and pans, blew whistles and blared rock music from car stereos,” the Times reporters said. “They’re here with masks and unmarked cars – and we got no notice,” said one protestor. “If you come into our community without manners, why shouldn’t we do the same?”

“Noem Faces Questions in House Amid an Immigration Crackdown,” New York Times, Dec. 12, 2025

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced sharp questioning at a House hearing Dec. 11 about her department’s immigration enforcement tactics, rejecting requests from Democrats that she resign. “Sir, I will consider your asking me to resign as an endorsement of my work,” she told Shri Thanedar, a Democratic member of the House from Michigan. “Thank you very much.” Thanedar made the request after telling Noem he was “sick of your lies.” The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, came out firing, opening the hearing by asking Noem to resign. A focus of his questioning was the security review of the Afghan national charged with shooting two National Guard members Nov. 26 in Washington, one of whom died. The Trump administration has tried to pin the blame for the shooting on the Biden administration, whose withdrawal of the military from Afghanistan led to a wave of refugees from that country entering the United States. Noem repeatedly said the vetting of the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwall, occurred during the Biden administration. Thompson pressed Noem on who gave asylum to Lakanwall, said Post reporter Madeleine Ngo. “Your D.H.S. approved the asylum application,” Thompson told Noem. Thompson referred to the shooting as an “unfortunate incident,” prompting Noem to retort that it “was a terrorist attack.” Thompson later said it was “an unfortunate situation.” Much of the focus of the hearing was on increasingly aggressive enforcement and cases in which immigrants with no criminal records and U.S. citizens became targets of enforcement action. Since the shooting the Trump administration has stopped Afghans from obtaining visas and has paused decisions on asylum applications and pledged to review more than 50,000 asylum applications approved during the Biden administration. In addition, it has paused the approval of asylum applications from citizens of 19 countries subject to Trump’s travel ban. The administration said it also plans to reexamine immigration applications from the 19 countries approved during the Biden administration. Ngo noted that “in recent days, immigration lawyers have said their clients have had their green card interviews or naturalization ceremonies canceled with little explanation.”

“ICE Says It Has No Videos to Release of Chicago Operations,” New York Times, Dec. 12, 2025

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in response to a Freedom of Information request that it found no records of body camera footage during its immigration enforcement sweep in Chicago. The response to the request from the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit group, raised “concerns that [ICE] was skirting laws intended to ensure transparency and accountability,” said Times reporter Minho Kim. The response “contradicted the Trump administration’s sworn court testimony and the fact that it had previously submitted video footage to a judge,” Kim said. It also raised uncertainty about whether the administration was fully complying with a court order that required the use of body cameras in the enforcement operation. Kim said that neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security directly explained why the letter responding to the Freedom of Information request said there were no records of body camera footage even though administration lawyers had submitted such clips to a federal judge. A Homeland Security department statement seemed to imply that such footage might not even exist, added Kim. The statement emphasized the limits of body camera requirements, saying they applied to immigration agents who already had cameras and were trained to use them, and to no one else. “ICE never violated the court order,” the Homeland Security statement said. Lauren Harper of the Freedom of the Press Foundation said of administration officials that “they are trolling citizens and judges." The statement "indicates that ICE continues to feel increasing impunity and that it has the right to behave as a secret police that’s exempt from accountability.”

“ICE Documents Reveal Plan to Hold 80,000 Immigrants in Warehouses,” Washington Post, Dec. 24, 2025

The Trump administration plans to renovate industrial warehouses to be able to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time, according to a draft solicitation of contractors. Internal ICE documents show that the plan is to build seven large-scale holding centers housing 5,000 to 10,000 people each. The intent is to create a deliberate feeder system “rather than shuttling detainees around the country to wherever detention space is available, as happens now,” said Post reporters Douglas MacMillan and Jonathan O’Connell. The aim is to speed up deportations. Newly arrested detainees would be booked into processing sites for a few weeks before being funneled to one of the seven warehouses. They’d be located “close to major logistics hubs” in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri. In addition, 16 smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people apiece. The Trump administration has deported more than 579,000 people this year, border czar Tom Homan said earlier in December. ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons said at a border security conference in April that the goal is to deport immigrants as efficiently as Amazon moves packages – “Like Prime, but with human beings.” Tania Wolf of the National Immigration Project said “it’s dehumanizing. You’re treating people, for lack of a better term, like cattle.” According to commercial real estate experts, warehouses tend to be poorly ventilated and lack precise temperature controls. Because they usually aren’t near residential areas, they may not have access to plumbing and sanitation systems. The ICE plans call for modifications including housing units with showers and restrooms, a medical unit, and indoor and outdoor recreation areas, among other features. At the beginning of December ICE held more than 68,000 detainees, 48 percent of whom have no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. A former ICE chief of staff under President Joe Biden said workers will have to pass federal security clearances and receive medical or other specialized training. “We can always find more warehouses,” said Jason Houser. But the ability to safely operate facilities is “always limited by staffing.” The seven warehouses are planned for Stafford, Virginia; Hutchins, Texas; Hammond, Louisiana; Baytown, Texas; Glendale, Arizona; Social Circle, Georgia; and Kansas City, Missouri. The smaller processing sites are planned for El Paso, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Hagerstown, Maryland; Port Allen, Louisiana; Highland Park, Michigan; Roxbury, New Jersey; Jefferson, Georgia; Salt Lake City, Utah; Jupiter, Florida; San Antonio, Texas; Los Fresnos, Texas; Tremont, Pennsylvania; Merriville, Indiana; Woodbury, Minnesota; Chester, New York; and Merrimack, New Hampshire.

“’Minnesota Nice’ Confronts ICE in a Frigid Standoff,” New York Times, Dec. 18, 2025

Shortly after ICE agents cordoned off two migrants on the roof of a house under construction near Minneapolis on December 13, protestors began showing up with blankets, hand warmers and coffee to help the migrants ward off the subzero temperatures. They yelled at the two dozen agents and blew whistles in an hours-long standoff that became a test of wills. After the Trump administration deployed scores of immigration agents to Minnesota in early December, “activists have ramped up efforts to gum up the agents’ work and make them feel unwelcome,” noted Times reporters Ernesto Londoño and Hamed Aleaziz. ICE agents have detained more than 670 people in Minnesota in December, releasing the names of only a relatively small number who had been convicted of violent crimes. Minnesotans in the days before the standoff experienced a series of tense incidents involving ICE. Agents took a 55-year-old woman into custody for several hours after she confronted them in a pre-dawn raid in her neighborhood. Later that same day agents tackled a Somali immigrant on a downtown lunch break despite his screaming protest that he was a U.S. citizen, a fact confirmed by the mayor’s office. Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said of the roundup of migrants that Minnesota was safer with “these thugs” off the streets, though immigration lawyers said many of those detained had no criminal histories other than alleged immigration violations and that some had pending asylum cases. Immigration lawyer Sandra Feist, also a Democratic state representative said “this is not a public safety effort. This is an effort to terrorize people.” Activists have responded with various tactics, including boisterous protests outside the hotels where ICE agents are staying to keep them from sleeping, following the vehicles of ICE agents on icy roads, and nonstop honking to warn people of the presence of agents. “When arrests have unfolded, demonstrators have videotaped ICE agents with their phones, often taunting them for wearing masks,” the Times said. An hour into the construction site standoff, one of the men on the roof climbed down and was taken away in an ambulance. The second one stayed, as the crowd of protestors supporting him grew larger. Protestors pleaded with the agents to leave – and they finally did, jeered by the crowd as they drove away. The remaining man then climbed down and was wrapped in blankets by the protestors who believed the men had been targeted not based on specific allegations but on the fact that they were Latino. “If the ICE people think Minnesota Nice means we step aside, look the other way and don’t engage in conflict – no, we’re going to engage in conflict to protect one another,” said Alex Falconer, a Minnesota state representative. Two days later ICE said in a statement that the first man was in deportation proceedings. McLaughlin of Homeland Security said the second man was still at large because of the “ongoing efforts of rioters and agitators disrupting lawful enforcement operations.”

“In Honduras, Election of Trump Ally Is in Dispute,” New York Times, Dec. 26, 2025

The day after Honduran officials declared former Tegucigalpa mayor Nasry Asfura the winner of the country’s presidential election, the country awoke Christmas Day to potential political unrest. His rival, Salvador Nasralla – a sportscaster, game show host and frequent presidential candidate – contested the result, saying that some votes from the election hadn’t been counted even after days of reviewing ballot challenges. Nasralla, like Asufura a right-wing candidate, told The Times he hadn’t decided whether to appeal because he feared empowering the ruling leftist party Libre which has called for the election to be annulled. He said he would not ask Hondurans to take to the streets. Such protests turned deadly after a contested 2017 election. Officials said Christmas Eve their review of over 98 percent of tally sheets showed it was arithmetically impossible for Nasralla to win. Official results showed Asfura, the candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, to be the winner by only 27,000 votes – less than a percentage point -- in the three-way race. Asfura won just over 40 percent of the vote. Nasralla had three business days to file an appeal. Asfura is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 27. There had been some thought that the Organization of American States would challenge the results. Shortly after its leader Albert Ramdin posted a message online to that effect, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a message saying that all parties should respect the results and ensure a peaceful transition to Asfura. Not long after, the OAS issued a statement recognizing Asfura as the winner. Trump had threatened to withhold aid to Honduras if Asfura wasn't declared the winner. Nasralla said by backing Asfura the Trump administration had condemned Honduras to return to a “narco-government.” Nasralla has expressed fear that Asfura’s government will be controlled by the former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who recently was pardoned for narcotrafficking by Trump and released from a U.S. jail. Nasralla told The Times that “the United States has set Honduras back 15 years. It has put Hondurans back at the epicenter of drug trafficking in Latin America.”

“Colombia Will Use Drones to Destroy Coca Crops As It Grapples With Record Cocaine Production,” Associated Press, Dec. 22, 2025

Colombia will return to spraying coca crops with a weed killer, its government announced Dec. 22. Record levels of cocaine production in the country “have fueled tensions with the Trump administration,” said AP reporter Manuel Rueda. Colombia banned aerial fumigation in 2015 after the World Health Organization put the weed-killing ingredient glyphosate on a list of carcinogens. A Colombian official said that drones that do the spraying will fly no more than five feet from their targets to ensure that water sources and legal crops are not sprayed. The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro “became more aggressive on the issue of coca crops this year as it tries to defeat rebel groups funded by the illegal drug trade that have refused to sign peace agreements with the government and that have recently stepped up attacks in Colombian cities,” wrote Rueda. President Trump has attacked Petro for not doing enough to counter illicit drugs. He has imposed sanctions on Petro, accusing him of allowing drug cartels to flourish. He also has threatened land strikes in Colombia on drug traffickers. Petro vehemently denies the charges and says Colombian security forces are intercepting record numbers of cocaine shipments.

“Trying to Smother Amazon’s Flames With Better Farming,” New York Times, Dec. 12, 2025

In the Amazon last year, fires consumed an area larger than California, according to the World Economic Forum. Worldwide, a record acreage of tropical primary forests was consumed by fire, five times the forest loss of the year before, said New York Times reporter David Gelles. In the Amazon in 1985, a then-young researcher named Daniel Nepstad experimented with trying to set Amazon rainforest on fire, concluding that it was hard to do so. But that is no longer the case. Persistent heat from climate change makes it harder for forest vegetation to retain moisture. Fires set by farmers to clear land beget more fire. Nepstad said that “fire is the biggest threat to the Amazon, but it’s also a problem that’s possible to solve.” According to Nepstad, “this is the biggest climate solution that could happen over the next few years.” Working through his Earth Innovation Institute, he is joining with other groups to encourage small changes that might stop forest loss from fires. Farmers can do so by planting different crops, letting forests return, and buying machinery together with other farmers that clears land instead of resorting to intentional burns. For example, plants like açaí and cacao are in demand and sell at a premium. They can displace cattle and stop intentional fires from spreading. The stakes are huge. Fires take a toll on biodiversity and affect livelihoods. They also release vast quantities of carbon dioxide that accelerate global warming. “This marks a stark reversal of an age-old trend,” writes Gelles. “In recent centuries, the Amazon acted like like a filter, absorbing many of the planet-warming emissions from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.” Some areas can no longer serve as a reliable carbon sink. If Brazilians aren’t able to control fires, the Amazon will “cross the tipping point,” said Carlos Nobre, a Brazilian scientist. Nepstad tries to do his part by traveling to local communities to give talks to farmers about preventing fires. A farmer during one of his recent visits, Waldir Silva, said he’s trying to discontinue his use of fire. “The biggest challenge is to balance production with preservation of the environment,” he said. “You can’t balance anything with fire.” Changing practices is a gradual process, but Nepstad said he’s confident reform is possible.

“U.S. Oil Blockade of Venezuela Pushes Cuba Toward Collapse,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 22, 2025

The economy in Cuba is about to get worse, its access to cheap oil threatened by U.S. seizures of oil tankers going to and from Venezuela. “Were Venezuela’s oil shipments to stop, or sharply decline, the Cubans know it would be devastating,” said Wall Street Journal reporters Juan Forero and Ryan Dubé. Jorge Pińon, a Cuban exile at the University of Texas at Austin who tracks the country’s energy ties to Venezuela, says “it would be the collapse of the Cuban economy, no question about it.” As it is, the situation is such that Cubans are going hungry, disease among them is spreading, and many are sleeping outdoors with no electricity to operate fans through hot nights. An estimated 2.7 million people have fled the island since 2020, about a quarter of the island’s population, including those who are young and ambitious. Almost 90 percent of people live in extreme poverty, and 70 percent go without at least one meal per day, says the think tank Social Rights Observatory. The economy has shrunk 15 percent since 2018, says Ricardo Torres Pérez, an economist at the American University in Washington, D.C. Inflation from 2018 to November 2025 stands at 450 percent. Forty percent of the crude oil Cuba needs to import comes from Venezuela. “It really is bleak and desperate,” said Ted Henken, a Cuba expert who teaches at Baruch College in New York. “Hope is gone, and people are desperate to get out.”

“Venezuelan Oil Exports Reportedly Fall Sharply After US Seizure of Tanker,” The Guardian, Dec. 12, 2025

Exports of Venezuelan oil reportedly have fallen sharply since the US seized the oil tanker Skipper off the Venezuelan coast Dec. 10. “Since the seizure, only tankers chartered by US oil company Chevron have sailed into international waters carrying Venezuelan crude,” the Guardian said, citing data reviewed by the Reuters news agency. Chevron is authorized by the US government to operate in Venezuela through joint ventures with the country. Stuck in the waters of Venezuela are other tankers that have loaded about 11 million barrels of oil and fuel, according to Reuters. The Venezuelan government said the US seizure was “blatant theft” and “international piracy” at that it would file complaints with international bodies. Meanwhile, Venezuelan lawmakers are taking steps to withdraw the country from the international criminal court, which is now investigating human rights abuses in Venezuela.

“Venezuelan Nobel Laureate Backs US Seizure of Oil Tanker,” The Guardian, Dec. 11, 2025

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado said she supports the US seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast. Speaking in Oslo Dec. 11, Machado said it was “a very necessary step” against the “criminal regime” of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. She said Maduro has used her country’s oil wealth to repress his opponents, not to fund hospitals or feed impoverished teachers or improve security, according to the report prepared by Guardian reporters Tom Phillips, Miranda Bryant and Camille Rodríguez Montilla. Asked whether she supports US military intervention in Venezuela she said the country already has been invaded. “We have Iranian agents, and terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, who operate together with the regime.” She added that drug cartels have made Venezuela a center of criminal activity. Machado said her appearance in Norway has made Venezuelans opposed to Maduro realize that the world is behind them. Machado was reunited in Norway with her three children, who she had not seen in nearly two years, and with her mother, who she had not seen for 16 months. Machado, who had been in hiding for months, secretly made her way out of Venezuela to travel without a passport to Norway. “It is very, very difficult and very dangerous to leave Venezuela if you are persecuted by the regime,” she said. She thanked those who “risked their lives so that I can be here today.” Machado said she would have liked to visit several European countries, but planned to go straight back to Venezuela and remain in hiding there. “When I return, the regime will not know where I am. We have people to take care of me and the places I stay.”

“U.S. Plays a Game of Cat and Mouse in the Caribbean,” New York Times, Dec. 22, 2025

The U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend tried to intercept an oil tanker tied to Venezuela that was fleeing in the Caribbean Sea, U.S. officials said. The tanker, called the Bella I, which had been en route to picking up oil in Venezuela and was carrying no cargo, did not submit to being boarded and continued sailing, according to one of the officials. Another official called the situation “an active pursuit.” Earlier the same day, Dec. 20, the Coast Guard successfully boarded another tanker, the Centuries, which had picked up oil in Venezuela and was heading east. But unlike Bella I, the U.S. did not have a warrant to seize the Centuries. It was unclear how long the U.S. intended to detain the vessel, said the Times story reported by Nicholas Nehamas, Christiaan Triebert, Tyler Pager, Anatoly Kurmanaev, and Eric Schmitt. On. Dec. 10, the U.S. seized the oil tanker Skipper carrying Venezuelan oil. The Skipper’s crew sailed it to Galveston, Texas. The U.S. had a judge’s warrant to seize that tanker, as in the case of Bella I, based on its connections to Iran. But the U.S. hasn’t moved to seize the oil on the Skipper, which would require a separate legal process. “The U.S. actions represented a significant escalation of Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign against President Nicholás Maduro of Venezuela,” the Times said [the campaign aims to oust him from office]. Maduro has responded by ordering Venezuelan Navy vessels to accompany some of the oil tankers leaving his country, “raising the possibility of an armed confrontation at sea,” the Times said. The threat of seizures could deter tankers from sailing to Venezuela. According to TankerTrackers.com, some tankers that appeared recently to be heading to Venezuela have turned around.

“Outrage After CBS Pulls 60 Minutes Segment on El Salvador’s Cecot Prison,” The Guardian, Dec. 22, 2025

At the last minute Sunday night, CBS pulled an investigation from its flagship 60 Minutes program on brutal conditions at El Salvador’s Cecot prison that housed hundreds of Venezuelans deported earlier this year by the Trump administration. That decision by the controversial new editor in chief at CBS News, Bari Weiss, stirred anger inside the news operation, with some staffers threatening to quit. Weiss said the brutal conditions at the prison were already well known and that the story needed more reporting, reportedly to include comments from the Trump administration, and would air later. The top correspondent on the yanked story, Sharyn Alfonsi, expressed outrage, saying she had interviewed some recently released Venezuelans who described brutality and torture at the prison. According to Guardian reporter Edward Helmore, Alfonsi said in a note to her colleagues that her team had requested Trump administration comment from the State Department, the White House, and the Department of Homeland Security, to no avail. Alfonsi said “if the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.” [Critics say the appointment of Weis is an attempt by Paramount, the new owner of CBS, to push the vaunted 60 Minutes program to the right to appease Trump.]

“Crackdown on Immigration Creates Rift Among Baptists,” New York Times, Dec. 22, 2025

During a recent deportation campaign in Louisiana, Catholic priests privately brought the Eucharist to the homes of immigrants too worried to go outside of their homes. But Lewis Richerson, a Southern Baptist pastor in Baton Rouge, took the directly opposite position. “I would not knowingly extend communion to an illegal immigrant who is visiting our church,” he said. “That person would be in sin by being in this country illegally, and Christians should obey the law of the land,” he said. Elizabeth Dias and Shannon Sims of the Times note that “while Catholic bishops this year have repeatedly rebuked the Trump administration over its deportation actions, Southern Baptists are contending with an increasingly loud contingent in their ranks that, like Mr. Richerson, supports the immigration crackdown.” On the one hand, many evangelical leaders have, based on their commitment to the teachings of the Bible, emphasized caring for the stranger and honoring human dignity. But the Southern Baptist denomination has also shifted to the right in recent years, “and some leaders privately worry that speaking out will cause backlash from the more conservative flank,” say Dias and Sims.

“Trump Says Venezuela Stole U.S. Oil, Land and Assets. Here’s the History,” Washington Post, Dec. 20, 2025

In 1976 the Venezuelan government took control of the petroleum industry in the country. It nationalized hundreds of private businesses and foreign assets, said Post reporters Tobi Raji and Leo Sands. Among them were ExxonMobil projects. In 2007, the founder of Venezuela’s socialist state, Hugo Chavez, took over the last privately run operations in the Orinoco Belt, the location of Venezuela’s largest oil deposits. President Donald Trump said those expropriations of U.S. oil company assets justify a complete blockade of oil tankers arriving and leaving Venezuela in violation of U.S. sanctions. The blockade will continue until the return of all oil, land and other assets “they previously stole from us.” But the Post correspondents write that “U.S. companies never owned oil or land in Venezuela, home to the world’s largest proven reserves of crude, and officials didn’t kick them out of the country.” Trump’s claim of theft from the U.S. “is baseless,” said Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver. Both the right and the left in Venezuela worked over decades to regain national control of an industry that an earlier leader, the dictator Vincente Gómez, “had largely given away.” Gómez, in power from 1908 until 1935, granted concessions that left three foreign oil companies in control of 98 percent of the Venezuelan market. In 1943 Venezuela adopted a law that required foreign oil companies to turn over half their profits to its government. A 1958 pact ensured the access of Venezuela’s major political parties to oil profits. Rodriguez said “the writing was on the wall” by the time Venezuelan lawmakers began debating nationalization in 1975. The change was “relatively uncontroversial,” he said. “Nobody was going to resist Venezuela carrying this nationalization to its end, and the U.S. was much more interested in having Venezuela be a provider of oil – relatively cheap oil – than to have a production collapse in Venezuela.” Venezuela, the Post reporters said, “followed Mexico, Brazil and Saudi Arabia in a wave of resource nationalism aimed at trying to wrest control of energy resources, primarily from the United States, to achieve economic sovereignty.” American oil companies were hit hardest. The Dutch company Shell also was hit. They lost about $5 billion in assets but were only compensated $1 billion. But according to Rodriguez they didn’t ask for more and didn’t think it made sense to do so. Also, there was no mechanism to take the cases to court. When the private assets in the Orinoco Belt were seized, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips weren’t able to agree to contract terms and sought $40 billion in compensation through arbitration. The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes awarded ExxonMobil $1.6 billion in 2014 and ConocoPhillips $8.7 billion in 2019. Venezuela hasn’t paid the full amounts. Trump’s position says Rodriguez is “kind of like an odd argument. You owe me some money. We both went to court. The court said ‘You pay me this. You start paying me, then I – by force, by the imposition of sanctions – make it impossible for you to continue paying me, and then I accuse you of stealing something from me.”

“Four ICE Detainee Deaths in Four Days Spark Alarm as Arrests Grow,” Washington Post, Dec. 20, 2025

Four people held in federal immigration detention centers died over the course of four days this month, fueling concern about detention conditions. Overall in 2025, at least 30 detainees have died, suggesting conditions are deteriorating even as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency receives more cash from Congress. A death occurred Dec. 12, two more on Dec. 14, and a fourth on Dec. 15. A record number of 66,000 people are in detention. The Trump administration “is seeking to spend $45 billion to expand immigration detention after receiving an infusion of cash from Congress,” said Marianne LeVine and Douglas MacMillan of The Washington Post. Immigration advocates “emphasize that detention should not be punitive and have expressed alarm at the rising tally of deaths, which has surpassed annual detention deaths during the height of the coronavirus pandemic,” the reporters wrote. “Four detainee deaths in one week is a red-hot crisis,” said Eunice Cho, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. “There is no question in my mind that this represents a clear deterioration of of medical care and the worsening conditions in ICE detention.” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said “there has been NO spikes in deaths. As bed space has expanded, we have maintained a higher standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens – including providing access to proper medical care.”

“Claim of Stolen Oil Hits Nerve in Venezuela,” New York Times, Dec. 19, 2025

New York Times correspondent Simon Romero observes that “it is difficult to overstate the mythical importance oil holds in Venezuela. Like beauty pageant winners and baseball, oil is a source of national pride and a prism through which Venezuelans often compare their society to others.” So when President Trump justified his emerging campaign of seizing oil tankers going to and from Venezuela on grounds that the country had stolen the oil from the United States, that claim played into the core belief of the Bolivarian revolutionary movement started in Venezuela by Hugo Chavez in the 1990s – that the United States is plotting to seize Venezuela’s oil, said Romero. Venezuela’s oil reserves are collossal. Trump’s open declaration that he plans to regain the oil fields once controlled by American companies before they were nationalized “has touched a nerve involving sensitive issues of sovereignty and national identity, setting off a volatile new phase in the standoff between Caracas and Washington,” Romero wrote. Some in the camp of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado praise the Trump blockade, affirming her embrace of his military pressure campaign to oust President Nicolás Maduro from office. But Romero said “others warn that Mr. Trump’s belligerence could backfire by provoking a nationalist response that breathes new life into Mr. Maduro’s efforts to maintain his grip on power.” Louis Florido, an opposition figure, said “Venezuela belongs to the Venezuelans, period.” He said the cutoff of exports could devastate the livelihoods of normal Venezuelans. “To recover our sovereignty, we cannot destroy our own country.” Top Trump aide Stephen Miller appeared to express little regard for Venezuelan nationalism in regard to oil. “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela,” Miller said. “Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.” But a return to the era of full American control, when American companies didn’t just own the wells but built oil camps that were English-speaking enclaves for large numbers of American workers and their families stirs outrage. Such a return would be a deal breaker even for some Venezuelans who loathe Maduro or the political movement that preceded him, says Romero. “You can detest Chavismo with every reason,” said an economic commentator, Blanca Vera Azaf. “But from there to turning into a traitorous hyena shows that you sold your soul to Hades.”

“Refugees Tend to Start Out in Poverty, Catch Up Quickly,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 16, 2025

The Trump administration’s moves to tighten rules on people seeking approval to live in the United States on humanitarian grounds casts a spotlight on the three million U.S. residents who arrived as refugees. According to studies of U.S. Census Bureau data, they commonly start out in poverty when they arrive but catch up quickly. “They have high rates of entrepreneurship and over time produce more in tax revenues than they receive in government benefits,” said Journal reporters Konrad Putzier and Max Rust. They are less proficient in English than other immigrants and a minority remain poor years after entering the U.S. A 2017 study by economists at the University of Notre Dame found that refugees consume more in government benefits initially than they pay in taxes but that flips after eight years. During their first 20 years in the U.S., they pay $21,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits. A separate study by the Health and Human Services Department reported that refugees, people given asylum and their immediate family members cost federal, state and municipal governments $723.4 billion from 2005 to 2019 for benefits like Medicare, food stamps and Supplemental Security Income, but that they paid $739.4 billion in taxes. The Journal said that “among all refugees who have been in the country for 6 to 15 years, 45.9% spoke English very well or exclusively as of 2019, according to the American Immigration Council, compared with 50.4% of other kinds of immigrants.” Though they compete with native-born Americans for employment they also create jobs by starting businesses. Since the 1970s more than three million refugees have entered the U.S., a small percentage of the estimated 52 million immigrants in the U.S.

“Brazilian Lawmakers Vote to Reduce Bolsonaro’s Prison Time,” Washington Post, Dec. 17, 2025

Brazilian lawmakers voted to reduce the prison sentence of former President Jair Bolsonaro from 27 years and three months to 20 years and nine months. The mandatory time spent in prison for crimes against democracy would be reduced from 25 percent to 16 percent. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to veto the legislation. But Post reporter Marina Dias said “the votes in both chambers of Congress indicated enough support to override such a veto.” Bolsonaro was convicted of attempting a coup after the 2022 election to keep the winner Lula from serving as president. Once finally approved the legislation would allow the 70-year-old Bolsonaro to be transferred from prison to house arrest as early as 2028. Brazilian law permits some inmates after spending part of their sentence behind bars to be placed in a “semi-open regime, in which they are allowed to leave prison during the day to work or study and return at night, or be transferred to house arrest,” said Dias. His original sentence says he must stay in prison at least six to eight years before he can be transferred to a less restrictive setting. He began serving his sentence in November. Forty-seven percent of Brazilians oppose reducing Bolsonaro’s sentence while 43 percent support it, according to one poll. Bolsonaro’s son Flávio has said his father supports his bid to run for the presidency next year, irking right-wing and centrist leaders who would prefer that São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas challenge Lula next year. Flávio Bolsonaro said he’d be willing to withdraw if lawmakers approved amnesty for his father but they did not.

“Sheinbaum Urges UN to ‘Prevent Bloodshed’ After Trump Orders Venezuela Blockade,” The Guardian, Dec. 17, 2025

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has urged the United Nations to prevent bloodshed in Venezuela as U.S. President Donald Trump applies more military pressure on the leader of the South American country to leave office. Sheinbaum told reporters “the United Nations has been conspicuously absent. It must assume its role to prevent any bloodshed and to always seek the peaceful resolution of conflicts.” She was responding to the news that Trump planned a blockade of oil tankers leaving or coming to Venezuela. Mexico’s view is to reject “foreign interference” regardless of “opinions” about Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. “We call for dialogue and peace to be used in any international dispute and not intervention. That is our position by conviction and by our constitution.” She said Mexico could be a venue for negotiations between the U.S. and Venezuela. “The entire world must ensure that there is no intervention and that there is a peaceful solution.”

“Trump Orders Blockade of Some Oil Tankers To and From Venezuela,” New York Times, Dec. 16, 2025

President Trump escalated his campaign to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Dec. 16, announcing a “complete blockade” on sanctioned oil tankers going to and from the South American country, which has the world’s largest oil reserves. The scope and impact of the blockade remain unclear, however, said Times reporters Edward Wong, Simon Romero, Charlie Savage and Julian E. Barnes. Trump said on social media that “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.” Oil exports are the lifeblood of the Venezuelan economy, and the country relies entirely on tankers to export its oil. A blockade under international law ‘prevents all vessels from entering and leaving the ports of an enemy country during an armed conflict,” the Times said. But Trump’s qualifier “all sanctioned oil vessels” means he appears to be threatening sanctions against some of the tankers exporting oil. “If the U.S. Navy continues to allow most of the vessels to enter freely and leave Venezuelan ports, it is not a real blockade.” But any threat to seize tankers may be enough to scare away many companies that ship Venezuelan oil. Trump said the blockade would continue until Venezuela returns “all of the Oil, Land and other Assets that they previously stole from us.” He appeared to be referring to Venezuela’s nationalization of the oil industry, under which U.S. companies lost billions in assets. The U.S. seized an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast Dec. 10, and like that seizure, future ones could be based on U.S. federal court warrants aimed at vessels transporting Iranian oil. More than 30 vessels operating in Venezuela earlier this month were sanctioned by the United States. Trump’s escalation against Maduro also includes airstrikes on boats allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. Ninety-five people have been killed in the 25 attacks, killings many legal experts say are illegal. Typically, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicts those boats and arrests people for prosecution if the cargo is illicit as suspected. The White House says the killings are legal because the U.S. is in what it has designated as an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. [The most recent attacks took place Dec. 15 against three boats in the eastern Pacific killing eight people, according to the Washington Post – “Trump Announces ‘Complete Blockade’ of Sanctioned Oil Tankers to Venezuela,” Dec. 17, 2025 . The Post also reported that a high-level meeting Dec. 17 could result in more forceful U.S. naval operations in coming days. In addition, the Post quoted international consultant David Goldwyn of Goldwyn Global Strategies as saying “Venezuela’s natural resources never belonged to the United States. While there have been charges of expropriation, which have been arbitrated in an international tribunal, there is no basis for arguing that Venezuela’s oil was stolen from the United States.” Trump also said that he has designated the Venezuelan government as a foreign terrorist organization. But it was unclear whether he was referring to his administration’s designation of a group called Cartel de Los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization – that name is not that of an actual group but a figure of speech for Venezuelan military officials corrupted by drug money, the Times said. [The Post story also quoted a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver, Francisco Rodriguez, as saying “in practice, this decision amounts to a full naval blockade of Venezuela. Cutting off all oil revenue will lead to a massive reduction in food imports and is likely to trigger the first major famine in the Westen Hemisphere in modern history.” ]

“Venezuelan Oil Exports Reportedly Fall Sharply After US Seizure of Tanker,” The Guardian, Dec. 12, 2025

“Venezuelan Nobel Laureate Backs US Seizure of Oil Tanker,” The Guardian, Dec. 11, 2025

“Opposition Leader Fled Venezuela For Norway by Land, Sea and Air,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 11, 2025

Maria Corina Machado wore a wig and a disguise as she made her escape from Venezuela Dec. 8 to travel to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. First she went from a Caracas suburb where she had been hiding for a year and traveled to a coastal fishing village to get on a skiff. “Over the course of 10 nerve-racking hours, Machado and two people helping her escape hit 10 military checkpoints, avoiding capture each time, before she reached the coast by midnight,” wrote Journal reporters José de Córdoba, Vera Bergengruen and Alex Leary, citing a person close to the operation. After a few hours rest she and her two companions left the fishing village on a fishing skiff at 5 a.m., “with strong winds and choppy seas slowing them down” on the perilous trip across the open Caribbean to Curaçao. Before setting out they called the U.S. military to avoid the kind of aerial strike that struck more than 20 other vessels in recent months killing more than 80 people. After arriving in Curaçao the afternoon of Dec. 9 she checked into a hotel and stayed overnight. She then flew to Oslo stopping first in Bangor, Maine, on an executive jet provided by “a Miami associate.” She arrived in Oslo the night of December 10. Her daughter accepted the award on her behalf that day, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee telling the award ceremony that Machado had been through “a journey in a situation of extreme danger.” She greeted supporters from the balcony of her hotel early Dec. 11. She has been resting in complete isolation and hasn’t been eating well. After a week in Oslo to recuperate she will tour European countries to rally support for an end to the government of Nicolas Maduro and her assumption of the presidency. She will eventually visit Washington. She supports the military buildup of President Trump in his bid to oust Maduro, asserting that a believable show of force is needed to get him out of office. “Maduro started this war, and President Trump is ending it,” she said last month. Machado has said she will return to Venezuela, where she could be arrested and prosecuted.

“Opposition Leader’s Daughter Accepts Her Nobel Prize,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 11, 2025

The difficult journey to Oslo for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado (see above) caused delays that meant that her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize Dec. 10 on her behalf. The ceremony “turned in to a family affair…without the star attraction,” said Journal reporters Alex Leary and Sune Engel Rasmussen. “Maduro was expected to be reunited with her three children, who live outside Venezuela for their safety,” they wrote. Her daughter Sosa Machado told the ceremony that “almost nine million Venezuelans have had to leave” under the regime of President Nicolás Maduro. “And what keeps us moving every day is that love for family and the idea that we will be reunited soon in a free country.” The Journal reporters said “a host of U.S. officials” attended the event. Also attending were Argentine President Javier Milei, the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, and Panamanian President José Raul Mulino. Leary and Rasmussen wrote that in May, “a U.S.-backed operation extracted five of Machado’s aides who had been living in a besieged Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas and flew them to U.S. soil, along with the opposition leader’s mother.” The Maduro government said it was a negotiated exit. Machado has had close ties with the Trump administration and former President George W. Bush.

“For One ICE Detainee, Severe Pain and Neglect,” New York Times, Dec. 10, 2025

Several judges across the United States have criticized conditions at federal immigration detention centers or released migrants who lacked access to adequate medical care, says Times reporter Ana Ley. She describes the case of 23-year-old Javier Tomas Muñoz Materano, who arrived at immigration court in New York City with no obvious signs of illness, this way: “For more than three months he was held in detention and not allowed to bathe or change clothes for days at a time as he was transferred 10 times to eight facilities across four states. He eventually began feeling excruciating pain and discomfort in his genitals. At times his legs became numb and he lost the ability to walk.” A judge ordered his release in September, agreeing with his lawyers that he had a serious enough medical condition requiring his release, chronicling the graphic details of what he had gone through, and concluding that ICE had acted toward his medical needs “with deliberate indifference.” In other examples of neglect, a federal judge in August ordered the Trump administration to correct what detainees said were squalid and overcrowded conditions in migrant holding cells in New York City. In Detroit in October, a judge ordered that a Michigan man with leukemia be released or at least be given a bond hearing in immigration court. In Chicago in November, a judge placed restrictions on an ICE facility he said subjected migrants to unnecessarily cruel conditions. In the case of Muñoz Materano, a doctor retained by his lawyers concluded he’d been denied appropriate imaging, testing or follow up care and that officials showed no urgency about his condition and risked his death. Muñoz Materano said he’d fled Venezuela after his family was targeted and threatened with death at gunpoint by the Tren de Aragua gang. He got an appointment with U.S. immigration using a Biden era app to make appointments and was granted humanitarian parole to stay in the United States. “I tried to follow the laws of the United States and I was treated like a criminal,” he said. “Many other people are going through the same thing that I am.” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLauglin said Muñoz Materano got comprehensive medical care, receiving at least 23 medical appointments and intake screenings within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility. “This is the best health care many aliens have received in their entire lives,” she said. She called U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos who ordered him released a “lone activist judge,” saying “smears like these” are causing more assaults against ICE officers. Times correspondent Ley noted that in late October Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Osgood of Georgia released an investigation including 85 reports of medical neglect in immigration detention centers. They included cases involving life-threatening injuries and complications.

“Ultra-Conservative’s Election Win Gives Chile Its Most Right-Wing President Since Dictatorship,” Associated Press, Dec. 14, 2025

José Antonio Kast trounced the candidate of the leftist governing coalition in Chile’s presidential run-off election Dec. 14. Kast, whose German-born father was a member of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi party, won more than 58 percent of the votes with more than 95 percent of the votes counted. Kast sparked widespread condemnation during his failed campaign four years ago when he praised the bloody dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. But this time around he rolled to victory at a time when “fears about uncontrolled migration and organized crime have roiled the country,” said AP reporters Isabel Debre and Nayara Batschke. His challenger, communist candidate Jeannette Jara, the labor minister of leftist President Gabriel Boric, got about 42 percent of the vote. She called Kast to concede the election and congratulate him. “Democracy spoke loud and clear,” she said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that “under his leadership we are confident Chile will advance shared priorities to include strengthening public security, ending illegal immigration and revitalizing our commercial relationship.” Kast is a devout Catholic who fiercely opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. “Today his supporters run the gamut, including business people enthused about his free-market instincts, middle-class families scared of venturing out at night for fear of carjackings and extreme right-wing activists who glorify the military dictatorship,” the AP reporters wrote. “Among those waiting for Kast to speak late Sunday after his victory were young Chileans holding up framed photos of Pinochet.”

“Why Cocaine Has Ecuador On Its Knees,” New York Times, Dec. 10, 2025

In 2022 then-U.S. ambassador Mike Fitzpatrick phoned Washington to relay a plea for help by the government of Ecuador – gangs were running the prisons as recruitment centers, killings were rising fast, and more cocaine was running through the once-peaceful country in quantities greater than authorities could ever hope to seize. But Washington turned a deaf ear to those pleas, according to Times reporters Maria Abi-Habib and José María León Cabrera. Its focus at that point was understandably on fentanyl, which was causing an enormous number of overdose deaths in the United States. That has largely been the case under both the Trump and Biden administrations. “But the severity of the switch “gave room for cocaine traffickers, once a prime target of American law enforcement, to thrive – so much that Ecuador nearly collapsed into the grip of criminal groups, according to five current and former U.S. and Ecuadoran officials,” said the Times correspondents. Several of its cities are among the world’s most dangerous, car bombs terrorize Ecuadorans, violent clashes between gangs and troops are common and the allure of the culture of gangs is so strong that schoolchildren aspire to join them. While Ecuadorans want help, they fear an attempt by President Trump to dominate the region. In recent elections, they voted against allowing foreign military bases in the country – “a thinly veiled invitation for U.S. forces” in analysts’ reckoning. But Mexican cartels have worked with Colombian groups to push cocaine into Ecuador where gangs send it to the United States and Europe in a trade so strong they’ve formed partnerships with Europoan mafias. American officials now call Ecuador a “cocaine superhighway" and the country’s president, Daniel Noboa, has estimated that as much as 70 percent of the world’s supply of the drug goes through his country. In the U.S. State Department, a group of officials calling themselves the “Care About Cocaine Again” (CACA) brigade want more focus on the drug, saying its trafficking affects the U.S. through issues like mass migration.

“Hundreds Rally for Boy, 6, Who Was Separated From His Father by ICE,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 2025

Hundreds of people rallied at a Queens playground Dec. 7 to protest the forced separation of a 6-year-old boy from his father after they were arrested Nov. 26 during President Trump’s deportation crackdown. The boy, Yuanxin Zhen, and his father, Fei Zheng, were detained at what they believed was a routine check-in, said Times reporters Ed Shanahan and Stella Raine Chu. Taking children from their families is not normal, said Camille Hlaka, who helped organize the protest and whose six-year-old son attends the same school as Yuanxin. “It is cruelty….This is a human being, and he is being traumatized.” Sam Rasiotis, another protestor with a six-year-old son who also attends P.S. 166, said “many of us can trace back our roots several generations, and some of those generations were persecuted and mistreated when they came to this country, to the city. But here we are again,” said Rasiotis, a union organizer. “I never thought my son’s generation would face such barbarism.” The father and son were first taken into custody in April after illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico. Zheng said he told U.S. authorities he had come to the United States because he was afraid of being tortured in his native China. Immigration authorities said his fear was not credible and an immigration judge agreed. The father and son had been in and out of detention at least twice before being detained last month. ICE tried and failed twice to get Zheng on a flight to China. When arrested last month Zheng “became aggressive with officers and hit his forehead against a wall, according to internal records,” the Times reporters wrote. Officers put Zheng in handcuffs and he said he wanted to die. A Homeland Security spokeswoman emphasized that migrant parents have the option of leaving the country with their children. Zheng as of last week was being held at an adult detention center in Orange County, N.Y. and his son was being transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which holds unaccompanied immigrant children. “We understand that Yuanxin is safe, but he is being held somewhere where nobody who knows him or cares about him can see him or give him a hug and make him feel safe,” said Devora Fein of the anti-Trump group Indivisible. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has arrested at least 140 children in the New York City area through October since Trump’s second term began, according to the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Immigration Agents Target Family of Deported Student That Spoke to News Media,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 2025

Immigrant agents appeared Dec. 7 at the home in Austin, Texas, of a family whose daughter had been deported to Honduras when she tried to fly home Nov. 20 from her Boston-area college to pay them a surprise visit for the Thanksgiving Day weekend. The father of 19-year-old Babson College freshman Any Lucía López Belloza said agents arrived in three unmarked vehicles while he was washing his car. Francis López said the agents rushed him and he ran into his backyard and into his house and locked the back door. Times reporter Annie Correal said that according to López, “after about two hours the agents left, without ever trying to communicate with the family or knocking on the door.” One agent had a green vest marked Enforcement and Removal Operations, López said. Democratic House member Greg Casar of Texas said the visit was meant to send a message. “To be clear, the Trump administration is targeting a college student’s family because that college student spoke out about the unjust way that she was treated by the federal government,” Casar said. The López family immigrated to the U.S. almost 12 years ago, fearing for the safety of Any as crime rose in the city of San Pedro Sula in Honduras, her father said. A U.S. judge denied the family’s asylum petition when Any was still a child. López said the family did not know they had to promptly appeal the decision and that it was not notified of a deportation order. Immigration authorities said after they detained Any that she had been deported because she violated a 2015 deportation order but her lawyer Todd Pomerleau said he could find no such order. He said she was deported in violation of the Nov. 21 order of a federal judge that she could not be removed from the U.S. while her case was still pending.

“Spain Wants to Be a Beacon for Immigrants. But Only Some,” New York Times, Dec. 5, 2025

Latin American migrants increasingly are pinning their hopes on Spain rather than the United States as the place they can go to for a better life. And in a number of instances, they tell a happy story of their experience as migrants in the European country. For example, 53-year-old Fanny Arce Campiño, a Colombian, became what she called “another illegal immigrant” by overstaying her visa after arriving in Madrid. She became a resident of the small town of Paiporta, went to work in a restaurant, and has been granted legal status by the Spanish government and a pathway to citizenship, recounts Times reporter Jason Horowitz. Spain’s progressive government presents itself as welcoming the arrivals, a trend that counters shrinking birth rates and “a dearth of homegrown workers to support vast welfare benefits,” says Horowitz. Spain’s more than three million foreign-born workers – one million of whom have arrived since socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took power in 2018 – have helped give the country Europe’s fastest-growing economy by some measures. But critics see a glaring double standard in which migrants arriving from Africa “find border controls, closed doors or a purgatory of bureaucracy.” Sanchez replies that many legal immigrants come to Spain from Morocco and that it is the hard-right Vox Party that prefers Latin Americans to Africans. While unemployment in Spain is still more than 10 percent, the worst in the European Union, it’s half what it was a decade ago and migrants are taking low-paying or physically demanding jobs Spaniards are reluctant to fill. Carlos Flores, a Vox member of parliament, says the progressive government is blind to what he says is the cultural incompatibility of migrants from Africa and the security risks he warns they could bring. But the government says crime is down compared to 20 years ago and that in many instances it is not violent and that poverty is the driver. But Africans “who do make it in, migrant advocates say, often live in miserable conditions far from the Spanish dream,” writes Horowitz.

“White House Signals Campaign to Seize More Oil Tankers Near Venezuela,” Washington Post, Dec 11, 2025

The Trump administration has added six other oil tankers to a list of sanctioned vessels after seizing a tanker Dec. 10 off the coast of Venezuela (see story below). White House officials say more seizures are planned -- a strategy analysts say could have a devastating effect on a Venezuelan economy already in crisis. “If the ability to sell oil is completely eliminated, which can be done with a naval blockade, Venezuela would enter a very deep recession, worse than what it experienced between 2016 and 2020,” said Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver. The Post report, prepared by Samantha Schmidt, Karen DeYoung, Meg Kelly and Matt Viser, said “the seizure has unnerved Venezuelan authorities, according to one person in touch with the government; some, the person said are in ‘full-scale panic.’” The Venezuelan foreign minister said the Dec. 10 seizure was “a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.” Some analysts say Maduro has survived worse crises “and could tighten his belt to overcome this one,” the Post reporters said.

“Most Immigrants Arrested in City Crackdowns Have No Criminal Record,” New York Times, Dec. 11, 2025

Fewer than 30 percent of the people arrested by ICE in high-profile immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts and Illinois had been convicted of a crime, according to a New York Times analysis. Only a very small share had been convicted of a violent crime. “The most common nonviolent convictions were for driving under the influence and other traffic offenses,” said Times reporter Albert Sun. Across the nation in general, the share of people with criminal convictions that ICE detained fell from 48 percent on the day President Trump was inaugurated to his second term in office to 28 percent in mid-October. “Another 26 percent had pending charges,” Sun said. The share of people arrested under Trump with past violent convictions for crimes like assault, robbery or homicide was five percent in mid-October, down from 15 percent in 2024. Under President Biden, 63 percent of those arrested by ICE last year had a criminal conviction and 24 percent had pending criminal charges. Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said "D.H.S. is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens -- including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles and terrorists. Seventy percent of illegal aliens ICE arrested across the country have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the United States."

“Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner Ups Ante in Standoff With Maduro,” New York Times, Dec. 11, 2025

The decision of opposition leader María Corina Machado to leave Venezuela to travel to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize places her more squarely in the public eye, creating both rewards and risks in terms of influencing the future of the South American country. Though she missed the awards ceremony Dec. 10 – her daughter accepted the award for her – she was scheduled to meet Norway’s prime minister Dec. 11. Analysts say it’s highly unlikely Venezuelan President Nicholás Maduro will permit her to return “in the absence of a deal that would keep his government in power,” according to Times reporters Anatoly Kurmanaev, Henrik Pryser Libell and Simon Romero. “The obstacle she faces now is to ensure that she can turn this moment into a trigger for change rather than long-term exile,” said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the global threat intelligence company Recorded Future. While she can more effectively lobby now that she is abroad, she has to walk a line between statements that might expose her to criticism that she is war-mongering or ignoring due process that would cost her international support on the one hand, and statements that a notoriously thin-skinned President Trump would view as insufficiently supportive as he exerts pressure to remove Maduro. Machado “has already come under scrutiny for exaggerating Mr. Maduro’s ties to drug trafficking,” the Times correspondents said. She also has “waded into highly contentious political disputes” relating to false claims by Trump that he won the 2020 election, they added, referring to her amplification of debunked claims that the Venezuelan government rigged elections in the United States.

“Federal Judge Orders Kilmar Abrego García’s ‘Immediate Release,’” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 2025

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego García Dec. 11, saying Justice Department lawyers misled the court at a hearing in November. The Justice Department and an ICE witness said last month they had no choice but to deport him to Liberia because Costa Rica was no longer willing to take him -- but Xinis noted that both the Washington Post and ABC reported that Costa Rica hadn’t wavered in its willingness to take Abrego. The Maryland resident was wrongfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador and then was detained again after he was returned to the U.S. – “again without lawful authority,” Xinis said. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said “this order lacks any valid legal basis and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts.” The Post report, written by Maria Saccheti and Jeremy Roebuck, said “Abrego’s lawyers have said he is willing to go to Costa Rica, though they also said he has the option of applying for legal residency in the U.S.” [Here's a look at what might happen next: https://apnews.com/article/kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador-deportation-c6f255d11c8ce09be5e67a8df3de2f64]

“Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American,” Dec. 5, 2025

The following is taken verbatim from the free newsletter written by historian Heather Cox Richardson. It gives her perspective on the 2025 National Security Strategy released by the Trump administration, which reframes Latin America in U.S. foreign policy as a sphere of influence for the United States which values business dominance above democracy and above a more egalitarian approach to economic development.

In place of the post–World War II rules-based international order, the Trump administration’s NSS commits the U.S. to a world divided into spheres of interest by dominant countries. It calls for the U.S. to dominate the Western Hemisphere through what it calls “commercial diplomacy,” using “tariffs and reciprocal trade agreements as powerful tools” and discouraging Latin American nations from working with other nations. “The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity,” it says, “a condition that allows us to assert ourselves confidently where and when we need to in the region.”

The document calls for “closer collaboration between the U.S. Government and the American private sector. All our embassies must be aware of major business opportunities in their country, especially major government contracts. Every U.S. Government official that interacts with these countries should understand that part of their job is to help American companies compete and succeed.”

It went on to make clear that this policy is a plan to help U.S. businesses take over Latin America and, perhaps, Canada. “The U.S. Government will identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and present these opportunities for assessment by every U.S. Government financing program,” it said, “including but not limited to those within the Departments of State, War, and Energy; the Small Business Administration; the International Development Finance Corporation; the Export-Import Bank; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.” Should countries oppose such U.S. initiatives, it said, “[t]he United States must also resist and reverse measures such as targeted taxation, unfair regulation, and expropriation that disadvantage U.S. businesses.”

The document calls this policy a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, linking this dramatic reworking to America’s past to make it sound as if it is historical, when it is anything but.

President James Monroe outlined what became known as the Monroe Doctrine in three paragraphs in his annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823. The concept was an attempt for the new American nation to position itself in a changing world.

In the early nineteenth century, Spain’s empire in America was crumbling, and beginning in 1810, Latin American countries began to seize their independence. In just two years from 1821 to 1822, ten nations broke from the Spanish empire. Spain had restricted trade with its American colonies, and the U.S. wanted to trade with these new nations. But Monroe and his advisors worried that the new nations would fall prey to other European colonial powers, severing new trade ties with the U.S. and orienting the new nations back toward Europe.

So in his 1823 annual message, Monroe warned that “the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” American republics would not tolerate European monarchies and their system of colonization, he wrote. Americans would “consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” It is “the true policy of the United States to leave the [new Latin American republics] to themselves, in hope that other powers will pursue the same course,” Monroe wrote.

In fact, with very little naval power, there wasn’t much the U.S. could do to enforce this edict until after the Civil War, when the U.S. turned its attention southward. In the late nineteenth century, U.S. corporations joined those from European countries to invest in Latin American countries. By the turn of the century, when it looked as if those countries might default on their debts, European creditors threatened armed intervention to collect.

After British, German, and Italian gunboats blockaded the ports of Venezuela in 1902, and President Theodore Roosevelt sent Marines to the Dominican Republic to manage that nation’s debt, the president announced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. On December 6, 1904, he noted with regret that “[t]here is as yet no judicial way of enforcing a right in international law. When one nation wrongs another or wrongs many others, there is no tribunal before which the wrongdoer can be brought.” If countries allowed the wrong, he wrote, they “put a premium upon brutality and aggression.”

“Until some method is devised by which there shall be a degree of international control over offending nations,” he wrote, “powers…with most sense of international obligations and with keenest and most generous appreciation of the difference between right and wrong” must “serve the purposes of international police.” Such a role meant protecting Latin American nations from foreign military intervention; it also meant imposing U.S. force on nations whose “inability or unwillingness to do justice at home and abroad had violated the rights of the United States or had invited foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations.”

Couched as a form of protection, the Roosevelt Corollary justified U.S. military intervention in Latin American countries, but it still recognized those nations’ right to independence.

Now Trump has added his own “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, promising not to protect Latin American countries from foreign intrusion but to “reward and encourage the region’s governments, political parties, and movements broadly aligned with our principles and strategy.” In a speech in January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that the administration is “more than willing to use America’s considerable leverage to protect our interests.”

The administration says it will promote “tolerable stability in the region” by turning the U.S. military away from its European commitments and focusing instead on Latin America, where it will abandon the “failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades” and instead use lethal force when necessary to secure the U.S. border and defeat drug cartels. Then, it says, the U.S. will extract resources from the region. “The Western Hemisphere is home to many strategic resources that America should partner with regional allies to develop,” the plan says, “to make neighboring countries as well as our own more prosperous.”

Walking away from the U.S.-led international systems that reinforce the principles of national self-determination and have kept the world relatively safe since World War II, the Trump administration is embracing the old idea of spheres of influence in which less powerful countries are controlled by great powers, a system in place before World War II and favored now by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, among others.

National security specialist Anne Applebaum wrote: “The new National Security Strategy is a propaganda document, designed to be widely read. It is also a performative suicide. Hard to think of another great power ever abdicating its influence so quickly and so publicly.”

“U.S. Seizes Oil Tanker Off Venezuelan Coast, Trump Says,” New York Times, Dec. 10, 2025

The U.S. government seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Trump announced Dec. 1o. Trump administration officials said they expect additional seizures in coming weeks as part of an attempt to weaken the government of President Nicholás Maduro by undermining Venezuela’s market for oil, according to Times reporters Tyler Pager, Eric Schmitt and Nicholas Nehamas. The U.S. Coast Guard seized the tanker the morning of Dec. 10. Trump said the tanker was the “largest one ever seized, actually, and other things are happening.” Officials said there was no resistance from the crew and that there were no casualties. An official said the tanker is called the Skipper and was carrying Venezuelan oil from the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA. It was sailing under the flag of another Latin American nation and was destined for Asia, the official said. The Times said “a federal judge issued a seizure warrant roughly two weeks ago because of the ship’s past activities smuggling Iranian oil, not because of links to the Maduro government, the official said.” Prosecutors said Iran uses proceeds from oil sales to fund its military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist entity. When asked about the ship’s oil, Trump said “Well, we keep it, I guess. It was seized for a very good reason.” The White House didn’t immediately respond when asked if the United States had legal authority to keep the oil. More seizures “could impact Venezuela’s fragile economy because it is exceptionally dependent on oil, which accounts for the bulk of the country’s export revenues,” the Times said. “In turn, Venezuela’s government spends much of the proceeds from oil exports to import basic necessities like food and medicine.”

“Honduran Election Turmoil Grows as President Decries ‘Electoral Coup,’” Reuters, Dec. 9, 2025

Spiking tensions over a days-long vote count, the president of Honduras denounced Dec. 10 what she called an “electoral coup” as results of the country’s Nov. 30 presidential election remained unclear. “Tally sheets that have been marked as showing inconsistencies have become a focal point of the ongoing election chaos,” said Reuters reporters Laura Garcia and Fredy Rodriguez. “They could contain hundreds of thousands of votes, or enough to flip the election result, fueling uncertainty in the country.” Nasry Asfura of the National Party, who has been endorsed by President Trump, led the ballot tally by 1.32 percentage points with 99.4 percent of the tally sheets counted. Close behind was Salvador Nasralla, the candidate of the center-right Liberal Party. A distant third was Trixi Moncada of the left-leaning LIBRE party with just under 20 percent of the vote. The Trump administration said it is closely monitoring the vote and has threatened to cut off funding to Honduras if Asfura does not win. The estimated 14.5 percent of tally sheets with so-called inconsistencies will be reviewed by the Honduran electoral authority, party observers, and international observers. Election authorities have until Dec. 30 to declare a winner, who is scheduled to take office in January for the 2026-2030 term. Honduran President Xiomara Castro said the process has been marred by threats, coercion and manipulation of the vote transmission system. She called that an adulteration of the popular will and condemned Trump’s intervention in the race. “These actions constitute an electoral coup that is under way and we will denounce them,” she said. Manuel Zelaya, the current leader of the LIBRE party and the husband of Castro, urged demonstrations and a rejection of the electoral process.

“Lots of Oil, Little Production: A Primer to Venezuela’s Energy,” New York Times, Dec. 9, 2025

Venezuela has bigger oil reserves than any country in the world, according to Oil & Gas Journal. It has 303 billion barrels, compared to Saudia Arabia’s 267 billion barrels, the country with the next largest reserves. Canada has 159 billion barrels, the United States 81 billion barrels, and Russia 80 billion barrels. The figures are an estimate of how much oil could be extracted from a country’s territory. “Venezuela pumped almost five percent of the world’s oil in 1997, but years of mismanagement, underinvestment and U.S. sanctions have squeezed output,” wrote Times reporters Rebecca F. Elliott and Lazaro Gamio. “The difficulty of extracting the country’s tar-like oil has also complicated matters.” The U.S. bought most of Venezuela’s oil but that stopped in 2019 when the Trump administration slapped sanctions on its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela. Shipments to the U.S. began again in 2023 but at a low volume. Now China buys most of Venezuela’s crude oil. Venezuela goes back and forth between welcoming private oil companies and placing the industry under government control. When then-President Hugo Chávez partly nationalized oil almost 20 years ago oil companies had to accept less favorable contracts. Now the only western oil and gas producers there are Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, and Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol. Chevron, operating in Venezuela for more than a century, produces about a quarter of the country’s oil. Companies that left include ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, which have spent years trying to get Venezuela to repay them for seized assets with little success. Citgo Petroleum is owned by Venezuela’s state-owned company and operates three U.S. refineries. It is tied up in litigation over its debts, including over whether it will be sold to repay some of them. What lies ahead for Venezuelan oil? If President Trump launches military strikes against Venezuela, “that could further destabilize the country’s fragile oil industry, at least in the short term,” said the Times reporters. On the other hand, “a negotiated deal with Mr. Maduro could set the stage for a new era of foreign investment in Venezuela.” Many oil companies would likely be eager to return, “not least to recover what its government took from them.” U.S. oil production is expected to level off after 15 years of rapid growth. “The U.S would love to have an alternative source of supply in those scenarios,” said Francisco J. Monaldi, head of the Latin America energy program at Rice University. Maduro recently accused the Trump administration of trying “to seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the largest on the planet, through lethal military force against the country’s territory, people and institutions.”

“Mexican Composer Turns Fire and Ritual into a Musical Journey of Renewal,” Associated Press, Dec. 6, 2025

She’s a Mexican composer who believes music and fire have a powerful quality of renewal. Maria Leonora calls her 2025 series of performances “Through All the Fire,” says AP reporter María Teresa Hernández. “A fire can burn and destroy,” Leonora said. “But if you make it through, you can be reborn.” Leonora “encountered music’s healing power at age 16,” recounts Hernández. “She embraced punk rock as an adolescent going through a rough patch. And after learning how to play the drums, she first set foot on a stage. ‘I was able to transform so many things just by playing and standing in front of an audience,’ she said. ‘I can honestly say it saved my life.'’’ The composer says that “music is a powerful tool that can connect you to Earth, to life, to the universe and to other people. It’s a means for you to dig up and find things about yourself.” Her 2025 shows are inspired by a pre-Hispanic steam bath called a “temazcal.” She says “you sweat and your ego cracks. Even if you don’t want to, heat breaks you.” She describes her shows as “immersive concerts” in which sound, light, and visuals play a role. In “Through All the Fire” she begins by inviting the audience to leave the outside world. The first songs, amid warm and subtle lights, talk about love. Then the performance moves to a breakup and the pain caused by separation. “As my character is exhausted, to the ground, it starts to breathe again. The moment comes to walk through the fire, as you would in a temazcal.” Audience members are encouraged to howl and scream “or engage in whater ritual they feel they need,” writes Hernández. “Once free from what weighs on them, they scream.” The last song is meant to be like a ray of light. Temazcales are still in use today but date back to Mayan cities. “The temazcal was seen as the Earth’s interior and as a passageway between the world of the living and the underworld,” said the archaeologist Agustin Ortiz in a publication of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico. “It was conceived as an entrance to the ‘beyond.’”

“Mexico’s Bullied Pageant Contestant Gets Payback by Capturing Miss Universe Crown,” Associated Press, Nov. 21, 2025

Fátima Bosch Fernández of Mexico was named Miss Universe 2025 Nov. 21 after being publicly berated by one of its hosts. The 25-year-old’s dramatic victory followed “a sharp-tongued scolding” of Bosch by the event’s national director for Thailand, Nawat Itsaragrisil, said AP reporter Tian Macleod. At a livestreamed sashing ceremony Nov. 4 for the more than 100 contestants, Itsaragrisil “hectored Bosch for allegedly not following his guidelines for taking part in local promotional activities” and “called security when she spoke up to defend herself,” Macleod said. Bosch then “walked out of the room, joined by several others in a show of solidarity, including Miss Universe 2024, Victoria Kjaer Theilvig of Denmark.” Bosch told Thai reporters – the beauty pageant was staged in Bangkok – “what your director did was not respectful: He called me dumb. If it takes away your dignity, you need to go.” Nawat said he did not call her dumb but apologized, “appearing both tearful and defiant at the same time.” He said if anyone was affected and wasn’t comfortable “I am so sorry.” Then he turned to the contestants and said “It’s passed. OK? Are you happy?” Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said at a news conference that she wanted to recognize Miss Mexico for voicing disagreement in a dignified way. “It seems to me it is an example of how women should raise our voices,” Sheinbaum said. Separately, AP’s Fabiola Sánchez reported Dec. 5 that the bank accounts of the Mexican co-owner of Miss Universe, Raúl Rocha Cantú, were frozen by the Mexican government’s anti-money laundering office. It did so as part of an investigation into drugs, fuel and arms trafficking, according to an official.

“Bolsonaro’s Son Says He May Not Run for President,” Reuters, Dec. 7, 2025

It’s unclear whether the son of imprisoned former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will run for president after all. Flavio Bolsonaro said Dec. 5 that his father, behind bars because of a failed coup plot, had chosen him to run on the right-wing Liberal Party ticket, but two days later said “there’s a possibility I won’t go all the way.” The news that he would run “rattled Brazilian markets on Friday [Dec. 5], with the country’s currency slipping as much as 3% against the U.S. dollar,” Reuters said. Investors hoped for a more experienced candidate who could consolidate support on the right. Flavio Bolsonaro, who serves in the Brazilian Senate, said he would make a definitive announcement Dec. 8.

“Exclusive: Boat at Center of Double-Tap Strike Controversy Was Meeting Vessel Headed to Suriname, Admiral Told Lawmakers,” CNN Politics, Dec. 6, 2025

The vessel the U.S. military struck with four separate missile attacks that killed nine occupants and then two survivors clinging to the debris was not headed for the United States, said the Navy admiral who ordered the Sept. 2 attack. The Trump administration defended the operation on the grounds that the vessel was carrying lethal drugs headed for the United States. But Adm. Frank Bradley told lawmakers behind closed doors on Capitol Hill Dec. 4 that the vessel was traveling in the Caribbean Sea to link up with and transfer drugs to a larger vessel headed for Suriname, the small South American country east of Venezuela. “Bradley argued there was still a possibility the drug shipment could have ultimately made its way from Suriname to the US, [intelligence] sources said, telling lawmakers that justified striking the smaller boat even if it wasn’t directly headed to US shores at the time it was hit,” said CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand. Trafficking routes via Suriname are primarily headed toward European markets, according to US drug enforcement officials. “The new detail adds yet another wrinkle to the Trump administration’s argument that striking the boat multiple times, and killing survivors, was necessary in order to protect the US from an imminent threat,” Bertrand said. President Trump said in a post announcing the strike Sept. 2 that “the strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.” Bradley also said the boat had turned around before being hit because its occupants appeared to see the American aircraft in the air, intelligence sources said. “The survivors were also waving at something in the air, the sources said Bradley told them and the video showed, although it’s unclear whether they might have been surrendering or asking the US aircraft they had spotted for help,” Bertrand said. It’s considered a war crime to kill shipwrecked people in need of assistance and care who must refrain from any hostile act.

“Don’t Be Fooled by the Silence in America’s Backyard,” New York Times, Opinion, Dec. 2, 2025

The reaction in Latin America to President Trump’s increasingly aggressive moves in the region has been surprisingly muted so far, says Brian Winter, the editor of Americas Quarterly. But that may not last. “Today, the United States is once again throwing around its military and economic might in Latin America in ways not seen in decades,” Winter writes. Trump has dispatched a flotilla to the Caribbean, is bombing boats said to be carrying drugs, and threatening to bomb targets inside Venezuela in an apparent effort to oust its president, Nicolás Maduro. He has rewarded his “favorite president,” Javier Milei of Argentina, with a $20 billion bailout; promised to take back the Panama Canal; demanded a tougher line from Mexico on drug trafficking and migration or else face crippling tariffs; leaned on Brazil’s Supreme Court to drop a case against his ally former President Jair Bolsonaro; backed a conservative candidate in the presidential election of Honduras; and pressured countries throughout the hemisphere to reject Chinese influence. But the reaction to the so-called “Donroe Doctrine” has so far “been mostly muted – and often outright supportive,” says Winter. Countries that in the past bristled at American power have embraced the Trump administration’s renewed attention on Latin America. Governments aligned with Trump include the Dominican Republic, the target of two U.S. interventions in the 20^th Century; and Panama, invaded by the U.S. in 1989. Winter also counts in the Trump column Argentina, Ecuador and Guyana. A recent poll in Latin America found that 53 percent of people in the region would support a U.S. military intervention to depose Maduro, Winter said. People like Gustavo Petro, the left-leaning president of Colombia, wonder at the “silence of progressivism and of governments” in reaction to Trump. A leftist publication in Chile, Clarin, warned that “it’s urgent for Latin America to recover a common voice in the face of these aggressions.” Why the relative silence? Some leaders fear being in Trump’s crosshairs. Others, such as Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, are so economically dependent on the U.S. that they “may prefer quiet pragmatism as the only option.” But “a main reason appears to be that many Latin Americans agree with Mr. Trump’s decision to take a tougher approach against the region’s gangs and cartels.” Organized crime has worsened over the past decade. Cocaine produced in Latin America has doubled in that period. Cash-laden cartels “have diversified into extortion, illegal mining and human trafficking. Violence has flared even in countries like Costa Rica and Ecuador, once regarded as oases of relative tranquility.” Polls consistently show crime is the leading concern of voters throughout much of Latin America. The result is that Latin American politics seems to be shifting further to the right. A hard-right candidate is strongly favored to win Chile’s run-off presidential election in December. The first non-socialist president in two decades in Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, has restored full diplomatic relations with Washington and welcomed discussions of potential deals on mining and drug enforcement. Conservative figures are also polling well in upcoming elections in Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica and Brazil. Winter says “it’s possible to imagine a Latin America that will be even more strongly aligned with Mr. Trump a year from now.” But anti-imperialist sentiments that regard the U.S. as the invader of indigenous peoples in Panama and other countries “should still inspire caution.” U.S. interventions in Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the first half of the 20^th century left deep public resentment that later helped nourish anti-American movements including Castro’s revolution, the Sandinista rebellion in Nicaragua and “complicated U.S. business and diplomatic interests throughout Latin America for much of the 20^th century.” It would be “a mistake to assume that the historic aversion to Uncle Sam’s heavy hand has disappeared.” Trump’s military efforts targeting the Venezuelan government, which has few friends in the region, are one thing; but if he were to expand his antidrug bombing campaigns to democracies like Mexico and Colombia, “it could prompt a much bigger backlash.” Tipping the scales for supporters in upcoming elections also can backfire, as occurred in Brazil. Winter also notes that some of the leftist leaders “biting their tongues at Mr. Trump’s provocations are also quietly negotiating with Beijing and potential partners in Europe and the Middle East, hoping to find alternatives to the hegemon they find increasingly overbearing and unreliable.” Winter concludes, “When Washington uses too big a stick in Latin America, the cost can be measured not just in years, but in decades.”

“Massive Power Outage Hits Cuba’s Western Region After Transmission Line Fails,” Associated Press, Dec. 3, 2025

A massive blackout hit the western half of Cuba Dec. 3, causing millions of people to lose power on an island experiencing chronic shortages caused by a deteriorating electricity grid. A government official blamed the nearly 12-hour outage on the failure of a transmission line connecting two major plants. Although the grid was operational again that afternoon, “the government warned that the restoration of electricity would not be immediate and that generation deficits persisted,” said AP reporter Andrea Rodríguez. Cuba was hit by a total blackout in September. Officials blamed fuel shortages and an aging infrastructure. Thermal power plants have been operating more than 30 years and receive little maintenance. The eastern half of Cuba was hit by power outages in late October after it was struck by Hurricane Melissa. Thousands of Cubans there remained without power, water or proper shelter for nearly a month.

“Admiral Says There Was No ‘Kill Them All’ Order in Boat Attack, But Video Alarms Lawmakers,” Associated Press, Dec. 4, 2025

U.S. Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley told a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill Dec. 4 that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Sept. 2 military strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean – “but a stark video of the attack left grave questions as Congress scrutinizes the campaign that killed two survivors,” said AP reporters Stephen Groves and Lisa Mascaro. Legal experts say a follow-on strike to kill survivors of such an attack could violate the laws of military warfare. “Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, the Arkansas Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee. Cotton said the two survivors were “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so they could stay in the fight.” But Democratic House member Jim Himes of Connecticut said the video “was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” Himes said “you have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel" who "were killed by the United States.” Democratic House member Adam Smith of Washington said “the order was basically: Destroy the boats, kill the 11 people on the boat.” No written orders or audio of verbal commands were provided to the lawmakers. Democrats are demanding that information along with the release of the full video of the attack, which consisted of four missile strikes. The Washington Post reported (“Video Shows Second Strike Hit Before Survivors Could Flip Boat, Lawmakers Say,” Dec. 4, 2025) that House Republican Rick Crawford of Arkansas said that there was “no doubt in my mind about the highly professional manner” in which the attack was conducted. The Post said that two people familiar with Bradley’s discussions in at least five closed-door hearings through the day Dec. 4 said he confirmed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order ahead of the operation to kill the passengers and destroy the boat. According to Cotton, said Post reporters Noah Robertson, Ellen Nakashima, Alex Horton, and Maegan Vazquez, “Bradley considered the survivors to be viable targets, not shipwrecked, defenseless mariners.” Cotton said the two survivors could have radioed for help from associates in the area and continued what he called their “mission” to ship drugs to American shores. It’s unclear whether they attempted to do so or if they had equipment that wasn’t destroyed, the Post reporters said. One lawmaker said “there was no boat. There was no wreckage. There was no radio. There were two guys clinging to a tiny non-awash portion of the keel of a capsized boat.” A former U.S. official familiar with the matter said some uniformed personnel who watched the second strike as it happened or saw briefing slides afterward were disturbed by what they had seen – “basically it was, why are we killing people who are stranded and pose no threat?” the former official said. Meanwhile, the attacks continue, with the Defense Department announcing its latest strike Dec. 4. In the attack, four people were killed in the eastern Pacific Ocean. As with previous attacks, “the disclosure included no evidence verifying that those on board the vessel were drug smugglers or that their cargo included illegal drugs,” the Post said.

“Colombia’s President Warns Trump: ‘Do Not Wake the Jaguar’ With Threats of Military Strikes,” The Guardian, Dec. 3, 2025

US President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Dec. 2 that military strikes on land targets in Venezuela would start “very soon.” Trump also warned that any country producing narcotics was a potential target, naming as an example Colombia, which Guardian reporter Tiago Rogero noted “has long been a close ally in Washington’s ‘war on drugs.’” Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, struck back soon after, warning Trump that he risked “waking the jaguar.” Petro said “to threaten our sovereignty is to declare war; do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations.” He invited Trump to visit Colombia, the largest producer of cocaine in the world, to see it destroy drug-producing labs. “Come with me and I’ll show you how they ‘re destroyed, one lab every 40 minutes.” Trump threatened Colombia soon after the release from a U.S. prison of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was pardoned by Trump after being sentenced to a 45-year prison term for aiding the trafficking of tons of cocaine into the United States. “If you have some drug dealers in your country and you’re the president, you don’t necessarily put the president in jail for 45 years,” Trump said.

“Trump’s Former Campaign Manager Assisted Honduran Presidential Candidate,” New York Times, Dec. 3, 2025

The man who helped run Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign has been helping the right-wing candidate Trump endorsed in the still-too-close-to-call Nov. 30 Honduran presidential election. Brad Parscale’s involvement “offers a glimpse into the ways that right-wing political interests around the world have sought to affiliate with the American president,” said Times reporters Kenneth P. Vogel, David C. Adams and Jack Nicas. It “underscores Mr. Trump’s emergence as the leader of a populist wave sweeping the globe, as well as his increasing willingness to meddle in foreign politics on behalf of politicians who reflect his nationalist rhetoric,” they said. Associates and former advisers of Trump are finding lucrative opportunities to counsel politicians abroad who want to turn themselves into Trump-like figures in places like Albania, Republika Srpska and other countries. Parscale runs companies that process and analyze data for political groups and clients. In South America, he has joined with Fernando Cerimeda, an influential political operative. They have a political consulting firm in Buenos Aires called Numen. The firm has advised President Javier Milei of Argentina and the campaign of President Rodrigo Paz of Bolivia. In Honduras, Parscale provided advice on using data to target voters to the campaign of Nasry Asfura, the former mayor of Tegulcigapa. Trump’s endorsement “was widely seen as boosting Mr. Asfura’s campaign by signaling the prospect that he could usher in better relations between the two countries after four years of hostility,” the Times correspondents said. But at the same time Trump pardoned the former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who has just been released from a U.S. prison after being sentenced to 45 years in jail for aiding the movement of billions of dollars of cocaine into the United States. Asfura and Hernández both belong to the National Party. Trump’s pardon of Hernández, which had been aggressively advocated by Trump ally Roger Stone, “was viewed as a liability for Mr. Asfura, associating the candidate with an unpopular former president of the same party who is widely seen as corrupt.” Parscale’s partner Cerimedo, like Trump, has a history of claiming election fraud when he doesn’t like election results. In Brazil he posted a video in 2022 explaining why he thought the election had been rigged against the losing candidate, then-President Jair Bolsonaro. Brazilian police accused Cerimedo of pushing a false narrative about a stolen election to aid a broader plot by Bolsonaro to stay in power, but ultimately did not charge the operative.

“Venezuela Lets Deportation Flights Resume Despite Trump’s Airspace Threat,” Washington Post, Dec. 3, 2025

Venezuelan officials said deportation flights from the United States were scheduled to resume Dec. 3. This was the case “despite President Donald Trump’s warning over the weekend that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered closed as the threat of a U.S. attack loomed,” said Post reporter Leo Sands. The resumption marked “a rare moment of cooperation” between the two governments amid growing tensions. A post by Venezuela’s foreign minister said that a deportation flight operated by Eastern Airlines carrying 379 people was okayed to land at Simón Bolivar International Airport near Caracas Dec. 3. Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said last week that almost 14,000 Venezuelans have returned from the U.S. on a total of 75 flights. In November, the Trump administration revoked the temporary protected status of more than 600,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S., which had been granted to them by the Biden administration. The revocation made them vulnerable to deportation. Secretary of State said in 2022 while he was a senator that sending Venezuelans back would be a death sentence.

“Pope Leo Urges US Not to Attempt Military Ouster of Venezuela’s Maduro,” Reuters, Dec. 2, 2025

Pope Leo urged the United States to attempt dialogue or apply economic pressure to pursue change in Venezuela rather than try to oust its President Nicolas Maduro using military force. Speaking during his flight home from a trip to Turkey and Lebanon, the pope said the signals from the Trump administration regarding its Venezuelan policy were unclear. “On one hand, it seems there was a call between the two presidents,” he said regarding a phone call between Trump and Maduro in November. “On the other hand, there is the danger, there is the possibility there will be some activity, some (military) operation.” Leo added, “the voices that come from the United States, they change with a certain frequency.” Reuters reported last month that the Trump administration “is poised for a new phase of operations after a massive military buildup in the Caribbean….”

“Hegseth, Citing ‘Fog of War,’ Says He Learned of Survivors Hours After Strike,” Washington Post, Dec. 2, 2025

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Dec. 2 that “a couple of hours” passed before he was made aware that a military strike he authorized -- and said he watched live -- required a second attack to kill two survivors. In doing so he was “further distancing himself from an incident now facing congressional inquiry,” said Post reporters Tara Copp and Alex Horton. [Legal analysts say killing defenseless survivors of a military attack is a war crime.] Hegseth spoke in the Cabinet Room alongside President Trump. “I did not personally see survivors,” Hegseth said. “Hegseth and Trump deflected responsibility for the killing of two survivors, pointing instead to the senior military officer in charge of the operation on Sept. 2, Adm. Frank M. Bradley,” the Post reporters wrote. “And while they praised the military for conducting the mission, both sought to make clear that they had not known that a second order was given to kill the survivors as they were clinging to the boat’s wreckage.” There’s concern in Congress and the Pentagon that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat the admiral (see summary below). Bradley is the top commander at the U.S. Special Operations Command, which has not commented.

“Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández Freed After Trump Pardon,” Associated Press, Dec. 2, 2025

The man who was president of Honduras and was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that moved hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States has been released from U.S. Penitentiary Hazleton in West Virginia after receiving a pardon from President Trump. Juan Orlando Hernández was released even as the U.S. government carries out a campaign in which it has blown up boats killing at least 83 people in the Caribbean and Pacific on grounds they are smuggling drugs into the United States. The wife of Hernández, Ana Garcia, said he is in an undisclosed location for his safety but plans to address the Honduran people Dec. 3. She said her husband, whose conviction stemmed from accepting bribes from drug traffickers that permitted the flow of cocaine into the United States, “is the president who has done the most for Honduras in the fight against organized crime.” Trump said he was asked to issue the pardon by “many of the people of Honduras.” Trump said “the people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing.” The attorney general of Honduras said Hernández could face prosecution in that country, although the current president will step down in January. “Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports,” said AP reporters Christopher Sherman and Mike Catalini. However, they noted that the judge in the case that convicted Hernández said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernández acted like he was a staunch opponent of trafficking while using the police and the military to protect the drug trade. The New York Times reported Nov. 29 (see summary below) that Hernández once bragged that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.”

“Concerns Grow that Hegseth, White House Aim to Scapegoat Admiral in Deadly Boat Strike,” Washington Post, Dec. 2, 2025

The White House is emphasizing that it was a top military commander, not Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who directed a Sept. 2 military strike that blew up a boat allegedly involved in smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and then attacked it a second time, blowing up two men in the wreckage who had survived the initial attack. There’s growing concern in Congress and the Pentagon that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat the military officer, Admiral Frank M. Bradley, said Post reporters Noah Robertson and Tara Copp. The Post reported Nov. 28 that Hegseth gave a spoken order to kill the entire crew of the vessel. “When two survivors were detected, the military commander overseeing the operation, [Bradley], directed another strike to comply with Hegseth’s order that no one be left alive, people with direct knowledge of the matter told the Post.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged Dec. 1 that Hegseth authorized Bradley to conduct the strikes on Sept. 2, adding that Bradley “worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed.” Her remarks to reporters “elicited a furious backlash within the Defense Department,” the Post said. “This is ‘protect Pete’ bulls---,” one military official said. Another military official said Leavitt’s statement “left it up to interpretation” who was responsible for the second strike that killed the two survivors. The official implored the White House to provide clarity. “It’s throwing us, the service members, under the bus,” said one official. Hegseth said on social media Dec. 1 that he stands by the admiral “and the combat decisions he has made – on the September 2 mission and all others since.” [Legal analysts say killing defenseless survivors of a military attack is a war crime]. In her Dec. 1, 2025 "Letters from an American," Heather Cox Richardson wrote the following: "Senator Angus King (I-ME), a lawyer who sits on both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan that 'the law is clear. If the facts are as have been alleged, that there was a second strike specifically to kill the survivors in the water, that’s a stone cold war crime. It’s also murder. So the real question is who gave which orders, when were they given, and that’s what we’re going to get to the bottom of in the Congress…. It’s really a factual question. The law is totally clear.'"

“Conservatives Ahead of Governing Party in Honduras Presidential Vote, as Trump Effect Debated,” Associated Press, Dec. 1, 2025

Former Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura held an early edge over conservative Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla in preliminary vote tallies from the country’s Nov. 30 presidential election, but it was unclear whether that would hold, said AP reporters Christopher Sherman and Marlon Gonzalez. Each candidate had about 39 percent of the vote (the winner is whomever gets the most votes; the 50 percent threshhold need not be crossed). The AP correspondents suggested that the candidate to the left of them, Rixi Moncada of the LIBRE party, was not going to win because of dissatisfaction with high prices and a sense that life had been better under Juan Orlando Hernández, a member of the National Party who was the predecessor to the current president, Xiomara Castro of the LIBRE party. Castro was 20 percentage points behind in the preliminary vote tally. Although the number of murders has dropped under her tenure and the fundamentals of the economy have improved, “many Hondurans said they felt like their lives had been better under her predecessor” Hernández, said Sherman and Gonzalez of AP. Like Hernández, Asfura is a member of the National Party. He may have benefited from an endorsement by President Donald Trump, who warned that Moncada of the LIBRE party would take Honduras down the same path as Venezuela. Juan Carlos Aguilar of More Just Society, a nongovernmental organization, said Trump’s endorsement may have helped Asfura with undecided voters and those who had been leaning toward Nasralla. Either Asfura or Nasralla “is good; what we didn’t want was LIBRE,” said Eddy Xavier Vega, the son of Reyna Vega, who runs a two-table eatery in Tegucigalpa. She favored Asfura, who made her think of his time as mayor when he paved roads and improved the city’s infrastructure. Hernández, serving a 45-year prison sentence for his part in the trafficking of tons of cocaine in the United States, was on voters’ minds too. Trump announced that he would pardon him, and his criminal record didn’t seem to bother 20-year-old Jair Ávila, because he remembered life being easier during Hernández’s presidency. “He gave away houses, the basic market basket (of goods) was cheaper, the gasoline. We were better off with him, honestly,” he told AP. Nasralla expressed confidence that still-untallied votes in the north of the country would allow him to eventually overtake Asfura.

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