News Summaries in February 2026
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.
“Four Men Are Convicted in 2018 Murder of a Brazil Councilwoman,” New York Times, Feb. 27, 2026
Two brothers who served on the Rio de Janeiro city council were found guilty Feb. 25 -- along with a former Rio police chief and a military officer -- of killing councilwoman Marielle Franco. Franco was “a Black, gay, feminist councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro who achieved global renown for fighting corruption and systemic racism and whose 2018 killing set off a lengthy quest for justice,” said Times reporter Ana Ionova. A four-member panel of the Brazilian Supreme Court led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes handed down the ruling convicting Domingos and Chiquinho Brazão, who also served on the council along with Franco. The brothers were accused of ordering the killing and then colluding with others to plan it and obstruct the investigation that followed. The 38-year-old Franco and her driver Anderson Pedro Gomes, 39, died when a gunman sprayed their car with bullets as they leaving an event about empowering Block women. Ionova wrote that Justice Moraes said the killing “was an attempt to silence Ms. Franco and issue a warning against speaking out against graft and paramilitary groups made up of former police officers that wield a powerful grip on many neighborhoods.” [Ionova’s words.] Over the years since her killing, the question “Who Killed Marielle Franco?” has appeared on T-shirts and protest banners. Ionova noted that Franco was a rising political star. “She grew up in an impoverished ‘favela’ on the outskirts of Rio before being elected in 2016 as the only Black woman on the City Council.” She quickly emerged as a critic of violence in her city that she said was based in chronic inequality and a corrupt police force. Her activism interfered with the business interests of the Brazão bothers, Moraes said: “Marielle was a poor Black woman who was challenging the interests of militias. What stronger message could be sent?” Her sister Anielle Franco gained prominence as an anti-violence advocate. “It has been eight years of waiting for justice,” she said. “Nothing will bring Mari back, but honoring her memory and her legacy is a life mission.” Each of the brothers was sentenced to about 76 years in prison. The military officer, Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira, was sentenced to 56 years in prison. The brothers had hired him to track Franco’s movements as they targeted her, evidence showed. Rivaldo Barbosa Araújo Júnior, who the prosecution said worked as police chief to stifle the investigation, was sentenced to 18 years.
“Venezuela Militias Control Mineral Riches,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 26, 2026
There are vast mineral resources in the Venezuelan jungle, writes Journal reporter Ian Lovett – “diamonds, huge deposits of gold and – of most interest to the Trump administration – coltan, a compound dubbed 'blue gold,' which contains elements needed for cellphones, electric vehicles and more.” Since the U.S. military captured the president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro and jailed him in the United States, Trump officials have repeatedly said they want access to the minerals as “part of a larger plan to break China’s stranglehold on the supply of critical minerals used in modern technology,” says Lovett. But it won’t be easy extracting these resources because armed criminal groups control the territories in southern Venezuela in which they are located, which include gold and coltan mines. The control of the guerillas around the mines is such that they collect a tax, employ child labor, force thieves to pick up trash, and have publicly executed murderers. The only governmental element present is the Venezuelan military, which aids the gangs’ control of the mines in return for a cut of the profits. To get safe access, American companies would have to oust armed groups like the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “At the moment I don’t see how that’s possible,” said Elizabeth Dickinson of the International Crisis Group, a research organization. Much of the territory is inaccessible by road and Colombian guerrilla groups have been given access to the territory by the Venezuelan government for decades. “The criminal groups understand that mining is the future,” said Dickinson.
“Havana to Get Some Oil Deliveries,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 26, 2026
The Trump administration said Feb. 25 it will allow sales of Venezuelan oil to Cuba’s small private sector on a case-by-case basis, a change that could mean fewer deaths stemming from the oil-starved country’s economic paralysis. Sales to Cuba’s communist government will remain illegal under U.S. sanctions. The last fuel shipment to Cuba was Jan. 9 from Mexico, said the report by Journal correspondents José de Córdoba, Vera Bergengruen and Deborah Acosta. They said “the amount of fuel in the process of being shipped to Cuba is tiny, but it would represent an important first step in preventing an economic catastrophe. Privately, some Trump officials have acknowledged that the humanitarian situation has deteriorated faster than expected.” Much of the humanitarian assistance that has poured into Cuba remains in ports because there is no fuel to transport it. Aldo Álvarez, a Cuban food importer and distributor, said “this could make all the difference between the brutal humanitarian crisis we are going through, and a total humanitarian catastrophe. People will die in this crisis, but perhaps less people will die.” Cuba produces 40,000 barrels of crude oil each day but needs at least 100,000 barrels daily. Álvarez laid off 100 employees during the current economic collapse. “I can’t work without fuel,” said Álvarez, who is hoping to get an initial diesel shipment next week. “There is total paralysis,” said Hugo Cancio, a Cuban-American businessman who owns an online marketplace that makes 1,500 deliveries per day. “Containers full of food are not getting out of the ports, and farmers and cooperatives in the countryside can’t get their rice and yucca…to markets in the city.” Trump officials say the Cuban government is to blame for unshipped aid, not fuel shortages.
“Regime Change in Cuba Appeals to Trump But Carries Risk,” New York Times, Feb. 27, 2026
The Trump administration is shifting its approach to Cuba after demanding an end to its Communist leadership. While the U.S. has choked off the supply of oil to the island pushing it to the verge of economic collapse, President Trump is hoping to reach agreement with its leadership “to avoid chaos even if it means the leadership change long sought by many of his close allies has to wait,” says Times reporter Michael Crowley. He now appears to be following a strategy similar to that in Venezuela in which a leftist dictatorship remains in power while negotiating changes. “After years of calling for Venezuela’s opposition leaders to take power, Mr. Trump has cooperated with Mr. Maduro’s successor to gain American access to the country’s oil, leaving questions about a political transition for later,” Crowley notes. Trump sources say he does not want a sudden power vacuum in Cuba. They say U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio may want an agreement with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Fidel Castro’s brother Raúl. Rubio said after a meeting with Caribbean leaders Feb. 25 that “Cuba needs to change.” But “it doesn’t have to change from one day to the next. Everyone is mature and realistic here.” He said “if they want to make those dramatic reforms that open the space for both economic – and eventually, political – freedom for the people of Cuba, obviously the United States would love to see that.” Ryan Berg of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the goal appears to be a slow transition from Cuba’s dictatorship to democracy. Crowley says that the concern about Cuba is that “an economic collapse or a political vacuum could lead to violent anarchy and perhaps unleash a flood of seaborne refugees toward Florida.” The Trump administration also said Feb. 26 that it would allow the Venezuelan resale of oil to Cuba if the transaction was with the private sector not Cuba’s government. In addition, it has begun sending humanitarian aid to the island through the Catholic church to avoid involvement of the Cuban government.
“Venezuelans Are Giving New Leaders a Chance,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2026
At a recent party meeting, supporters of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro gathered to denounce the Trump administration’s control over the South American country and to call his removal by the U.S. military illegal. But they praised the person the U.S. put into power, Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president and is now interim president. The Journal’s Juan Forero reported that “the meeting of the Fatherland For All party was full of unqualified praise for Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president now working closely with Washington to reopen Venezuela’s oil industry and revive its battered economy.” Ilenia Medina, the president of the party, said “the people continue to support Delcy Rodríguez. We’re absolutely committed to the approach outlined by the acting president when she says, ‘this is a new policy and we’re going to make use of diplomacy.’” Citizens are focused on efforts to tame inflation, restore services and create jobs. That means Rodríguez “may be able to leverage U.S. economic assistance to achieve something Maduro never secured: legitimacy,” Forero wrote. “The ruling movement faces its greatest test after 27 years in power.” There’s little concern that the U.S. is removing core nationalist policies of Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez, who railed against what he called American imperialism. High-ranking Trump officials have come to Caracas to announce new economic agreements. “I see all this as good,” Consuelo Godoy, who runs a kiosk in Caracas, told the Journal. “I see this as an advance for our beautiful country. It means a little more money, it means things are getting better. There’s uncertainty, sure, but things are better for now.” The U.S. pollster Gold Glove Consulting said that 72 percent of Venezuelans think their country is heading in a good direction, the inverse of what its polling found in 2024 when the Venezuelan government was cracking down on its opposition. “The level of optimism now is extraordinary, and I think that’s because they tried everything,” said Mark Feierstein, the head of Gold Glove and a former advisor to President Barack Obama who has conducted polls in Venezuela for years. “They tried negotiations before, they tried elections, they tried protests and nothing worked. And now something worked, which is U.S. military action.” [Notably, another Feierstein poll found that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado would win a landslide victory against Rodríguez in a fresh presidential vote, 67 percent to 25 percent.]
“Mexico Is Racing to Avoid a Drug War,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2026
One expert described the Feb. 22 killing of drug lord Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera as the biggest blow the Mexican government has ever struck against organized crime. The expert, Eduardo Guerrero, a leading security consultant in Mexico City, said “it has national implications, given the vast number of states where the cartel operates, and it’s too early to tell whether it turns into a great war.” Mexico is now “bracing for a civil war among his top lieutenants for control of a cartel that quickly rose to be the most powerful and deadly organized-crime syndicate in Mexico,” said Journal reporters Santiago Pérez and José de Córdoba. Mexico is enduring another cartel civil war in the state of Sinaloa which has left more than 2,000 people dead and 3,000 missing. But officials say a cartel war in Jalisco carries wider risks. That’s because of the great territorial reach of the cartel. “Oseguera exerted wide control over so-called plazas and smuggling routes that span from Mexico’s border with Guatemala to the Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas neighboring Texas and the Baja California peninsula in the Pacific,” said Pérez and Córdoba. Guerrero said a second cartel war would threaten the security of the World Cup this summer. Guadalajara, among Mexico’s largest and most affluent cities, is scheduled to host World Cup soccer matches. A brutal competition decides which kingpin is more skillful or violent, said Alberto Capella, former security chief for the city of Tijuana. Security analyst David Saucedo said homicides will increase “because what the Mexican government did was confront the Jalisco Cartel. Other drug-trafficking groups will perceive that there is weakness within the Jalisco Cartel.”
“Canada Prepares Aid Package for Cuba as US Fuel Blockade Continues,” Associated Press, Feb. 25, 2026
Canada announced Feb. 28 it is sending $6.7 million in food aid to Cuba as it faces an escalating shortage of fuel. AP reporter Rob Gillies said that Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she did not discuss the matter with U.S. officials. “This is Canadian foreign policy,” she said. “We are focused on the humanitarian situation.” The Canadian assistance will be delivered though United Nations agencies, not the Cuban government. Canada is the second-largest source of investment in Cuba, notably in the mining and tourism sectors. Oil shipments to Cuba have been suspended under U.S. pressure. Mexico has sent a second humanitarian package to Cuba, Gillies said. Two Mexican navy vessels transporting 1,193 tons of supplies including beans and powdered milk and other types of food are scheduled to arrive in Cuba Feb. 28. Earlier in February Mexico sent more than 814 tons of food and hygiene products to Cuba.
“Judges Lose Patience on Immigration Defiance,” New York Times, Feb. 24, 2026
A New York Times review found at least 35 cases since August in which federal district court or magistrate judges issued “show cause” orders requiring the federal government to explain why it should not be punished for violating court orders relating to immigration. The judges handing down the orders were in California, Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, West Virginia and Puerto Rico. “They all arose from cases in which the government had detained immigrants who had been living in the United States for years after entering the country illegally,” said Times reporters Mattathias, Zach Montague and Ernesto Londoño. In a case in Minnesota, a federal judge found Justice Department lawyer Matthew Isihara in civil contempt of court for not returning the identity papers of a detained immigrant she ordered be released in Minnesota who instead was let go in El Paso, Texas, where he had to spend the night in a shelter. The judge ordered Isihara to pay $500 a day until the papers were returned. Judges appear to be wrestling with whether the violations of court orders could be explained by the stress on the legal system created by a recent flood of immigration cases or whether there is a systematic effort by the government to defy the courts. “In court, Justice Department lawyers have generally responded like Mr. Isihara, with respectful apologies and beleaguered references to their workloads,” the Times reporters said. But Aakash Singh, an associate deputy attorney general, sounded a defiant note in a call in January with many of the 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices. “I want to just stress that an adverse decision from a judge is not a reason to stop doing what you know to be right,” Singh said. “We are the ones charged with keeping America safe.” A Justice Department spokeswoman blamed “rogue judges” for allowing high caseloads by not following the law. Natalie Baldassare said the administration was complying with court orders and fully enforcing immigration law.
“Training of ICE Recruits Is ‘Deficient’ and ‘Broken,” Whistle-Blower Says,” New York Times, Feb. 24, 2026
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer who quit his job training new recruits appeared at a Capitol Hill forum Feb. 23 as a whistleblower, warning that training has been reduced so much it will place the public in greater danger. “Deficient training can and will get people killed,” said Ryan Schwank. “It can and will lead to unlawful arrests, violation of constitutional rights and fundamental loss of public trust in law enforcement.” Schwank said for the last five months he’s watched ICE dismantle its training program as it undertakes a massive increase in hiring. He said 240 hours of vital classes were dropped from a 584-hour program. They included “classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and limits of officers’ authority.” Homeland Security Department agents have shot and killed at least three U.S. citizens over the past year, said Times reporters Nicholas Nehamas and Hamed Aleaziz. A spokeswoman for the department denied that hours have been reduced. She added that officers receive extensive firearms training, are taught de-escalation tactics, and are instructed in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The department also said it had streamlined training to cut redundancy. Schwank resigned Feb. 13 after filing a complaint concerning a new department policy allowing deportation officers to enter homes and arrest people without a judicial warrant. “ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution,” he said at the forum sponsored by congressional Democrats.
“Who Was El Mencho, the Former Police Officer Who Founded an Ultraviolent Cartel in Mexico?”, The Guardian, Feb. 22, 2026
The cartel boss “El Mencho” (see next summary) was the co-founder and leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) who turned the gang into Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization. He was killed by Mexican security forces Feb. 22. The Jalisco-based cartel “has been one of the most aggressive in its attacks on the military – including on helicopters – and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines,” said the Guardian report prepared by staff and news agencies. Authorities tried but failed to capture El Mencho in 2015, with cartel members downing an army helicopter using a rocket launcher, killing six soldiers. In 2020 the cartel tried to assassinate the head of Mexico City’s police force, now the federal security secretary, in an attack using grenades and high-powered rifles in the heart of the city. The cartel is viewed as a security threat on both sides of the U.S. border with Mexico. Security specialist Eduardo Guerrero said in 2021 that “they have huge amounts of money, the latest generation weapons, military-style paramilitary groups and vehicles…and they represent a very serious challenge to the [Mexican] government – above all in small and mid-sized cities where a detachment of 50 cartel operatives can obviously defeat any local police force.” The cartel has a presence in all 50 U.S. states. It’s among the main suppliers of cocaine to the U.S. Like the Sinaloa cartel, it makes billions of dollars from producing fentanyl and methamphetamines. El Mencho was from Aguililla in the state of Michoacán. He migrated to the U.S. when he was younger and was sent to jail there for nearly three years for conspiring to distribute heroin in northern California. He went back to Mexico and continued drug trafficking, working for the Sinaloa cartel. He and Erik Valencia Salazar, known as "El 85," created the CJNG about 2007 and eventually split from Sinaloa, battling it for territory for years across Mexico. “El Mencho prefers the shadows,” the Guardian said. “Few photographs of him exist.”
“Killing of Mexican Drug Cartel Boss ‘El Mencho’ Sparks Wave of Violence,” The Guardian, Feb. 23, 2026
Entire areas of western Mexico were all but shut down after the Mexican government, under pressure from the Trump administration, launched a military attack that killed “El Mencho,” the head of Mexico’s “most powerful and notorious criminal organization,” Guardian correspondents Tom Phillips and Oliver Holmes reported. The military operation that attempted to capture 59-year-old Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cerventes, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), set off a wave of violence. The cartel retaliated by torching cars and buses and blocking major roads. Officials said there were attacks in 20 of Mexico’s 31 states. At least 26 people were killed, including a pregnant woman caught in a shootout, according to the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. Seventeen were members of Mexican security forces and 8 members of CJNG. The governor of Jalisco, where the violence was centered, urged the 8 million residents of the state to stay home. Public transport was suspended. Fearful residents stayed home in Guadalajara, the second-largest city in Mexico and the capital of the state of Jalisco. “Armed men were seen torching vehicles in the heart of Guadalajara, which is scheduled to be one of the 2026 World Cup host cities,” said Phillips and Holmes. “Other video footage showed tourists on the beach as huge clouds of smoke rose into the skies above Puerto Vallarta, a popular resort city on the west coast known for its spectacular Pacific beaches.” Air travel into the city stopped in many cases. Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, called for calm and said Feb. 23 that all roadblocks had been cleared. CJNG is infamous in Mexico for displays of ultraviolence and a huge weapon arsenal that it displays in military parades. It has been accused of trying to assassinate Mexican government officials. Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Landau called El Mencho “one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins.” He said “this is a great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world.” The Guardian reporters wrote that “while the killing may relieve pressure on President Sheinbaum from Trump, it will also create a cartel power vacuum.” Sheinbaum in the past has criticized the “war on drugs” strategy she apparently is now employing in which military attacks often lead to major violence after which new cartel leaders emerge. If no successor can unite the CJNG, “you have four or five different lieutenants with the manpower, the weaponry and the criminal empires to build their own fiefdoms – and that could plunge Mexico into almost record levels of violence,” said Chris Dalby, the author of a book on the Jalisco cartel.
“Rio’s Grass-Roots Carnival Bash Is Hard to Find and Hates to End,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2026
It’s called “Boi Tolo” (“Foolish Bull’) and emerged 20 years ago when a group of would-be partygoers on Sunday during Carnival arrived at a public square in Rio De Janeiro and could not find a party that had been advertised in the newspaper. So they improvised with a tambourine, and then a drum, and then a trumpeter. Someone wrote on a piece of cardboard “Boi Tolo,” making fun of the fact that they had foolishly fallen for the faulty newspaper advertisement, wrote Times reporter Ana Ionova. “The tradition stuck and it now draws tens of thousands of people each year.” It’s “kind of a roving, marathon block party” that keeps going and going. To many of the people of Rio, known as “Cariocas,” carnival “is often akin to an extreme sport that requires grit and endurance,” Ionova said. Among the few rules of Boi Tolo is that it must keep moving. This year’s version began well before dawn. Musicians showed up, improvising with brass, drums and percussion instruments. “A giant human chain formed around the band and everyone set off through the narrow streets, paralyzing traffic.” Temperatures climbed higher than 90 degrees. Drenched in sweat, thousands of revelers marched through Rio “at a frantic pace.” As noon approached, a stilt walker collapsed to the ground under a scorching sun. Then came the highlight, passing through two tunnels heading out to the beach. “The beat quickened, echoing through the tunnel. The crowd burst into euphoric jubilation.” Twenty-six-year-old Perola Mendonça said, “It’s this incredible feeling of ecstasy.” Out of the tunnel, the party kept going, moving along the beachfront. When the boardwalk ran out it turned around and headed back to the tunnel. After 12 hours of marching, hundreds of partygoers wouldn’t stop. “With the light fading, they made their way back toward the city center where it all started.”
“Spain Finds a Path for Immigrants That Meets National Needs,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2026
It isn’t yet known whether the Spanish government’s recent decision to give legal status to half a million undocumented residents will actually become law. But there may be lessons in how it has approached the matter that other wealthy nations can learn to reap the benefits of immigration while lessening some of the downsides. “More immigration can make economies grow, increase tax revenues and supplement shrinking work forces,” note Times reporters Amanda Taub and José Bautista. “But there are few topics more politically charged than immigration, and accepting large numbers of migrants risks provoking voter backlash and creating political instability.” In Spain, the center-right Popular Party said the new policy would overwhelm public services. And the hard-right Vox party said “it attacks our identity.” But a broad societal coalition appears to support it, including many business leaders and the Roman Catholic Church. For immigration to be supported, it must be seen as under control, and immigrants must be seen as contributing to the economy or some other national interest, according to a political research group called More In Common. Spain has a track record of permitting undocumented immigrants to regularize their status within a few years of their arrival in the country if they show they have roots in the community such as employment, family or social ties. Many Latin Americans have been able to come to the country on visa waivers or tourist waivers and then stay “more or less permanently,” say Taub and Bautista. Nearly 40 percent of all new jobs in Spain since 2019 have been filled by immigrants, according to government data. “A recent study found that an earlier amnesty allowed immigrants to move from poorly paid off-the-books jobs in domestic labor and construction into better-paying formal jobs, and it increased annual tax revenues by about 4,000 euros per legalized immigrant.” Earlier amnesties did not appear to arouse much fear that immigrants would steal the jobs of native-born workers. That may be because migrants tend to compete with other migrants, said Ismael Gálvez, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands. A farmer in Catalonia, Sergi Balué, said it isn’t true that foreign workers are taking local jobs, saying fewer and fewer native-born workers are willing to do the hard job of farming six days a week. To right-wing politicians who say citizenship for the undocumented would be a reward for law breaking, the government and pro-immigration groups say amnesty “is a ‘pro-law’ measure that will bring more immigrants into the formal economy, where they will be more subject to legal obligations and contribute to society by paying taxes,” the Times reporters say. To the fear that an influx of immigrants will reduce the wages of native-born workers, research suggests otherwise because immigrants not only fill new jobs but help create new ones through their consumption of goods and services. How immigrants arrive in a country also matters. The undocumented tend to arrive in Spain legally as tourists on visa waivers, often at airports, who then overstay. There’s less of a sense that the borders are uncontrolled since the government could close that pathway at any time. Spain more than other countries has the advantage that many of the undocumented come from Latin America and so share a common language and religious heritage. The sense in the United States that President Biden lost control of the borders fueled hostility and skepticism toward immigration despite evidence immigrants contribute significantly to the U.S. economy. “Spain has advantages that are difficult to replicate,” note Taub and Bautista. “But its strategy – demonstrating control over borders while making the economic case for immigration – may offer a solution to a knotty problem that is shared by nearly every wealthy country.”
“Veterans Who Protest ICE’s Operations View Crackdown Differently,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 2026
Among those protesting ICE operations in Minnesota were veterans who express alarm about the domestic use of tactics used in military conflicts abroad. The Trump administration crackdown in the state began more than two months ago, an operation that dispatched thousands of agents on the grounds that such a show of force was necessary to detain violent undocumented immigrants. Officials said their tactics were lawful and made the state safer. Many veterans favor a crackdown on illegal immigration, and some have become immigration agents, said Times reporters Julie Bosman, Talya Minsberg, and Jasmine Ulloa. But veterans, who make up six percent of the U.S. population, “are often visible members of protests around the country,” they wrote. In the Twin Cities, they’ve been among those on the front lines of protests. “In interviews, veterans participating in anti-ICE efforts said they were especially dismayed to see ICE agents patrolling the streets recklessly in their own country, wearing masks and treating civilians roughly.” Chris Foreman, an Army veteran, referenced the 2015 film in which a clandestine team of federal agents takes on a Mexican cartel. “These guys are drawing weapons on observers who are in their cars and are driving around like they’re in ‘Sicario,’” he said. Foreman added that they were violating important military norms and were inadequately trained. “I believe in the institutions. I want them to work right. And they’re eroding the institutions.” Another veteran, Sara Teig, said she recognized tactics she had seen in Afghanistan and Kuwait, including the way in which heavily armed agents would go about searching a house. She said she’s been haunted by seeing military-style coordination by federal agents in her home state of Minnesota. Seeing the same tactics at home felt like something of a betrayal, she told the Times. “We’ve all been watching how they are acting, and it’s so unprofessional,” said Army veteran Andrew Mercado, a former Trump supporter who new describes his political views as center-left. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin described the criticism as “smears” that have contributed to a big increase in assaults against the agents. “To most Americans our brave ICE law enforcement are heroes,” she said. As Trump officials announced plans to scale down operations in the Twin Cities, some veterans said they wouldn’t stop observing agents even if they move on to other cities. “We’re not stopping because they say they are stopping,” said Ian Austin, who said he came to Minnesota from Pennsylvania. “I know at least among veterans, there will be a whole lot of people that, if they’re racking up somewhere else, will be transitioning to go and help in those places.”
“For No Apparent Reason, Mexico Has Fallen for the Capybara,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 17, 2026
The capybara, a giant rodent with a calm and friendly disposition, has become a national obsession in Mexico. For example, the popular singing duo known as El Coyote has launched a concert series called the “Capibaras Tour,” reports Xavier Martinez of the Wall Street Journal. “We identified a bit with the animal, which is chubby like us,” said Chuy Lizagarra, who forms El Coyote with José Angel Ledezma Quintero. “It’s a very friendly animal that gets along well with the rest of the animal kingdom.” Images of capybaras are everywhere. “Even in rural villages far from the city far from the city, capybaras decorate everything from balloons to shoes,” said Martinez. Some Mexicans are irritated. “My bet is that an opportunistic businessperson saw a trend, bought tons of capybara products from Chinese suppliers for very cheap and is selling them for a big profit.” So said a resident of the city of Puebla who declined to be named for fear of the public reaction. “A peaceful animal, perhaps, in a country that often feels anything but peaceful,” Tijuana resident Sergio Urista, who recently attended a capybara-themed baby shower, told Martinez. Capybaras aren’t native to Mexico. A South American creature, they are found in savannas and vegetated areas. They’re known for invading wetlands next to gated communities in Argentina. Urista from Tijuana observed that the presence in Mexican culture of the prehispanic “nahual,” a spiritual leader believed to shapeshift into animals, could help explain the obsession with capybaras. Mexico is only the latest country to experience a capybara outbreak. They are “yesterday’s news in much of the world,” wrote Martinez, and “gained popularity during the post-pandemic period of short, serotonin-induced videos. They have been beloved in Japan for decades.”
“11 Die as U.S. Bombs Boats in Pacific and Caribbean,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2026
The U.S. military blew up three boats overnight, killing 11 people in assaults it said were intended to disrupt drug trafficking. “The triple strike late Monday [Feb. 16] marked the first time the Trump administration bombed targets on both sides of the Panama Canal on the same day in its five-month string of boat attacks,” said Times reporter Carol Rosenberg. Of the 11 men killed, 8 were on two boats in the Pacific and the other three in the Caribbean. The killings raised the death toll in U.S. military attacks on people it says are smuggling drugs at sea to at least 144. “A broad range of legal specialists on the use of lethal force have said the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, even if they are suspected of engaging in criminal acts,” Rosenberg noted. The military is launching strikes every three or four days since Gen. Francis L. Donavan took over as head of the Southern Command from Adm. Alvin Holsey, who abruptly retired after expressing concern about the strikes.
“Lawmakers in Peru Vote to Impeach the President,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2026
Peru has “cycled through leaders with striking speed,” say Genevieve Glatsky and Mitra Taj of the New York Times. The latest heading out the door is President José Jerí, who took over as interim president in October after presiding over the removal of the previous president. “He is the sixth Peruvian president in the past decade to leave office before their term ended,” Glatsky and Taj noted. Peru’s Congress voted Feb. 17 to impeach him after he failed to disclose meetings with Chinese businessmen who were under government scrutiny. The Peruvian Congress is expected to choose a new leader Feb. 17. The country will hold a general election April 12 and the new president will take power July 28. Under Peruvian law, presidents must log their official activities. Jerí did not report meetings he had with the wealthy Chinese businessman Yang Zhihua. “Local outlets reported that one of Mr. Yang’s stores had been ordered closed for violating a municipal ordinance; three days later a federal regulatory body overturned the law that led to the closure,” the Times said. Adding to the controversy was a report that another Chinese businessman, Ji Wu Xiaodong, who was under house arrest because of his alleged ties to an illegal logging network, had visited the presidential palace three times while Jerí was in office. A number of presidents since 2106 have been impeached, forced to resign, or investigated. “Nearly every living former president has faced a criminal investigation, the paper noted. The crimes that led to recent convictions included accepting bribes, laundering campaign funds, and human rights abuses and corruption. The Wall Street Journal's Ryan Dubé noted Feb. 18 that "Peru's economy has been largely unfazed by the presidential turmoil ("Peru Ousts Another President"). He said its Gross Domestic Product rose 3.4 percent last year, "faster than many other of Latin America's largest economies." The inflation rate of 1.5 percent was the lowest in nearly a decade. The country's sol currency strengthened 10 percent against the dollar in the last year and the local stock market is booming.
“Protected Migrants Sent by U.S. to Third Countries,” New York Times, Feb. 17, 2026
The United States has deported hundreds of people to foreign countries that may not respect the removal protections granted them by the courts, say Times reporters Pranav Baskar and Hamed Aleaziz. The latest example was a secret deportation arrangement in which nine people, nearly all of whom U.S. courts granted protections from being sent back to their home countries, were sent to the African nation of Cameroon in January. “Most of the migrants and their lawyers say they have been detained since then at a state-owned compound in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital,” the reporters said. “They say they’ve been told by local authorities that they cannot leave the facility until they agree to return to their home countries, from which they fled to escape war or persecution.” The deportees said they’d been forcibly transferred to various immigration detention centers around the U.S., where some had been for more than a year, to a deportation hub in Alexandria, Louisiana. They said they were given no information about where they were being taken. Neither officials in Cameroon nor the U.S. State Department would comment on the removal. According to their lawyers, none of the deportees had any history of violent crime. It wasn’t clear whether Cameroon accepted anything in return for taking the deportees. But according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report released Feb. 13, the U.S. has paid more than $40 million in third-country deportation deals. Critics said the deals are basically a way for the Trump administration to circumvent U.S. court orders. Scott Schuchart, formerly an ICE official in the Biden administration, said “sending people to a third country where they are coerced into deportation into a country we cannot deport them to is flatly illegal.” Many of the nine deported said their lives would be in danger in their home countries. For example, a 32-year-old woman who said she fled Ghana because of murder threats from family members because of her sexual orientation said she fled to the U.S. for protection. A 20-year-old woman from Ghana said her tribe in that country told her they were going to kill her. The Times reporters noted that eight of nine migrants deported to Equatorial Guinea were sent back to their home countries in another unpublicized agreement.
“Mexico Could Lose Measles-Free Status Right Before Millions Arrive for World Cup,” New York Times, Feb. 13, 2026
Mexico appears to be on the verge of losing its hard-won place among nations that have eliminated measles. Canada lost its elimination status last year and the United States faces a review of that status by the Pan American Health Organization in April. Almost all of the reported cases of measles in the Western Hemisphere have been concentrated in Mexico, the United States, and Canada, said Times reporter Emiliano Rodríguez Mega. A PAHO panel that convenes April 13 will review data to decide whether Mexico loses the measles-free designation it has had for three decades. Mexico said the virus has spread to all 32 of its states. Confirmed cases since the start of last year have exceeded 9,000 and at least 28 people have died. Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said an intensive vaccination campaign is underway and that most Mexicans have been vaccinated. “The timing could not be more urgent,” the Times reporter said. “Mexico, Canada and the United States are hosting this year’s FIFA World Cup, with millions of fans expected to arrive in North America this summer.” An infectious diseases researcher in Mexico, Victoria Pando Robles, told the Times that “we are going to receive visitors who are probably not vaccinated. And if they go to a stadium, they’re going to find thousands of people susceptible to the disease. And then those numbers become significant. It’s exponential.” Mexico’s current outbreak started when a nine-year-old boy living in a Mennonite community returned from Texas where an outbreak was underway. He returned to the state of Chihuahua which has a significant Mennonite presence. Evidence shows that the virus was then contracted by agricultural workers who travel to different parts of the country, and then spread in unvaccinated people before reaching remote Indigenous populations.
“The Kids Aren’t Alright in Dilley,” by Adrian Carrasquillo, The Bulwark, Feb. 13, 2026
Liam Ramos, the detained five-year-old with a bunny hat discharged Feb. 1 from the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas after a national outcry, “was the tip of the iceberg,” says Bulwark writer Adrian Carrasquillo. The center “is a place where many other children are still being detained. Their stories are almost too much to bear.” According to ProPublica, more than 3,500 detainees have been at Dilley since it reopened, more than half of them minors. Among them, says Carrasquillo, was the 18-month-old baby Amalia, who was rushed to the hospital after suffering respiratory failure. She spent the next ten days there on oxygen. Officers took her right back to Dilley after she was discharged – and, according to a new lawsuit, was then denied daily medication prescribed after her hospital visit. She and her family were finally released after an emergency petition was filed. But “for many families in similar situations, there is no clarity about when they or their children might leave, or under what conditions.” Carrasquillo said he’d been told by Carmen Ayala, an aide to Democratic House member Jasmine Crockett of Texas, about Valery, a 13-year-old who tried to harm herself with a knife from the cafeteria in Dilley. She and her family arrived at Dilley Dec. 13, a day after they were detained at their home in South Florida. “The family fled Colombia for the United States because the father was sexually abusing the two daughters, aged 8 and 13, Ayala was told by the girl’s family. But after the asylum claim for Valery’s family was denied in January, they faced deportation.” Valery’s suicide attempt reflected her feelings of hopelessness. After so much time in Dilley she was depressed and wanted to get out and saw no way to do so. Ayala said “she thinks she’ll be there forever, and that was her way out.” Carrasquillo said he asked ICE why Valery’s sole treatment for self-harm seemed to be a prescription for sleeping pills and that it did not respond. In another case, 31-year-old Mariela Sobrero Chillitupa had inconclusive tests for breast cancer in the hospital in December and was advised to get a biopsy. But then she and her three children were detained and sent to Dilley before she got one. She complained to her sister-in-law Mari that they were only giving her her medication when the nurse arrived, and if she didn’t come she didn’t get any. Mariela told Ayala, Crockett’s aide, that her breast was turning beet red and was causing so much pain that she asked a guard to give her fussy two-year-old to his father, also in detention. But she was told she had to keep him, that he couldn’t be with his father. Mari said the two-year-old doesn’t understand where he is and is getting aggressive in a way he never was before. Mari said Dilley should be closed because it is inhumane and her sister-in-law should be able to come home with her children. Carrasquillo said Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin did not respond to specific questions about the treatment of Mariela, such as why when she was in pain she couldn’t pass her two-year-old to his father and what was being done to follow up on the order for a biopsy. However, McLaughlin did say “we’ll run this down.” The Bulwark reporter said he subsequently learned that a court gave Mariela until March 10 to contest her deportation from the United States. But the court ignored her medical records and said there was nothing it could do about her medical issues, that it was up to the detention center. A former employee at Dilley described taking a job inside of Dilley to help those detained. The former employee said “all the kids are sick” and that it was hard for them to sleep because the lights are always on in the rooms. “They’re treated like they’re criminals, but most of them have done it the right way – they were picked up at their court appointments,” the former employee told Carrasquillo. "People complain that they’re doing it the ‘wrong way,’ but when they do it the right way, you detain and deport them, so it’s a lose-lose situation.” Under a legal settlement, children can only be held in immigration detention for 20 days, but ProPublica said more than 300 children have been in Dilley more than a month.
“Democrats Push for Scrutiny of Venezuelan Oil Money That U.S. Controls,” New York Times, Feb. 12, 2026
Democrats in Congress are trying harder to ensure more oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan oil proceeds controlled by the Trump administration. They say that control is unregulated and opaque and susceptible to corruption, wrote Times reporters Carl Hulse and Robert Jimison. Top Senate Democrats introduced legislation Feb. 11 calling on the White House to submit to independent accounting of the funds and how they are used. They said President Trump is evading the law and Congress when he said on social media in January the money would be “controlled by me.” Democratic House member Sean Casten of Illinois said “neither I nor any of my colleagues have any idea under what legal authority the United States is claiming title to the sovereign assets of another country.” Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said the administration is handling the money outside of the appropriations process and that under federal law the administration can only spend money appropriated by Congress or put excess dollars into the Treasury under the control of Congress. Hulse and Jimison noted that “the administration says that its handling of the oil money is intended to prevent creditors who are owed large sums by Venezuela from trying to seize the funds. That framework is backed by an executive order from January declaring the oil revenue to be the ‘sovereign property of the government of Venezuela held in custody by the United States, and not as the property of the United States,’ while authorizing the U.S. Treasury to release it as directed by the secretary of state.” It’s questionable whether the legislation can attract any Republican support. However, “some Republicans have privately questioned the legality of the Trump administration’s handling of the oil money,” the reporters noted.
“’Enormous Progress’ Noted on Venezuelan Oil,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12, 2026
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is claiming “enormous progress” in overhauling Venezuela’s decrepit oil infrastructure, saying that the aim is an end to sanctions on the South American country and a transition to democracy. If things go in a positive direction, “that’s the goal…to have a representative government and free trade and free commerce.” Wright talked to a small group of foreign reporters after meeting Feb. 11 with Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, who spoke of a “productive association” between the two countries. Journal reporters Juan Forero and Ryan Dubé said Wright was asked whether Rodríguez is open to elections in a year and a half or so. He said “I think so. She’s well aware of that…I think she recognizes that’s a necessary condition. We have a plan. She knows the plan.” Although Wright depicts the development of oil production in glowing terms, investors are wary of committing to huge expenditures. “Years of decay have left oil fields, pipelines and refineries in disrepair,” the Journal reporters noted. “Nobody in their right mind would sink billions of dollars in oil investment in the Orinoco Belt until they figure out if this is a long term thing,” said Francisco Monaldi, a Latin American energy expert at Rice University.
“Mexico Sends Aid to Cuba as Sheinbaum Walks Diplomatic Tightrope with U.S.,” The Guardian, Feb. 12, 2026
Two Mexican navy ships docked in Cuba Feb. 12 laden with humanitarian aid but carrying no oil to the island shut off by the Trump administration from receiving petroleum from Venezuela. The ships carrying 536 tons of food and 277 tons of powdered milk were “part of Mexico’s efforts to support Cuba amid a deepening crisis exacerbated by Donald Trump’s economic pressure campaign,” said the Guardian story by Oscar Lopez and Ruaridh Nicoll. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said Feb. 12 she is seeking diplomatic measures to allow Mexico to resume sending oil to Cuba, emphasizing that as soon as the ships return to Mexico “we will send more support of different kinds.” President Trump has signed an executive order under which the U.S. can impose tariffs on any country selling or providing oil to Cuba, “effectively choking off fuel to the island,” the reporters said. Rafael Rojas, a Cuban historian at the College of Mexico, said “the energy pressure that Trump is exerting on Cuba places Mexico in a dilemma that is very characteristic of its entire history of diplomatic relations with the United States and Cuba. Mexico is yielding to the demands of the United States – and on the other hand it maintains solidarity with the island.”
“Judge Says U.S. Must Help Bring Back Some of the Venezuelans Deported to Notorious Prison,” Associated Press, Feb. 12, 2026
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled Feb. 12 that the Trump administration must make arrangements to allow some of the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador to return at government expense to the United States. Boasberg rejected the stance of the White House regarding his earlier order that it develop a plan to allow the men to challenge their removals from the United States. “Apparently not interested in participating in this process, the Government’s responses essentially told the Court to pound sand,” Boasberg wrote. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson attacked the legitimacy of Boasberg’s Feb. 12 ruling. She said it was “an absurd, unlawful ruling from a far-left judicial activist trying to undermine the President’s lawful authority” to carry out deportations. She said President Trump had been elected to carry out mass deportations and that Boasberg “has no right to stop the will of the American people, and this will not be the final say on the matter.” AP reporter Sudhin Thanawala noted that “the 137 men were later returned to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange brokered by the United States.” The attorney of the men in the U.S., Lee Gelernt, said a handful of them have managed to leave Venezuela for a third country and they are interested in clearing their names. [Few of the 137 men were found by a New York Times investigation to have committed crimes or to be gang members]. The Trump administration ignored an order by Boasberg that the planes carrying the men to El Salvador when they were deported be turned around and return them to the U.S. The men were deported in March under the Alien Enemies Act, which does not provide for due process. The men in third countries and those still in Venezuela can file legal documents arguing that the presidential proclamation under which they were deported illegally invoked the Alien Enemies Act, said Boasberg, as well as challenge their designations as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The judge said he could later decide whether to require hearings and how to conduct them. But he said it’s up to the government to “remedy the wrong that it perpetrated here and to provide a means for doing so. Were it otherwise, the Government could simply remove people from the United States without providing any process and then, once they were in a foreign country, deny them any right to return for a hearing or opportunity to present their case from abroad,” Boasberg wrote.
“’Big Step Forwards’: Emboldened Activists Take to the Streets of Venezuela,” The Guardian, Feb. 12, 2026
Protesters are taking to the streets of Venezuela, say Guardian reporters Tom Phillips and María de las Ángeles Graterol. It’s “the latest sign of an embryonic political shift after Nicolás Maduros recent downfall,” they say. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the campus of the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas Feb. 12. Demonstrators demanded the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela, the return of exiled activists and a complete transition to democracy. They shouted: “Who are we? Venezuela! What do we want? Freedom!” Their public show of dissent was “unthinkable just a few weeks ago, before U.S. special forces seized Venezuela’s 63-year-old dictator,” the Guardian reporters said. In another indication of a possible thaw, the protest was publicized by Venezuelan TV networks including Venevisión, which long had been prohibited from such coverage. Rallies also were held in a number of cities including Barquisimeto, Ciudad Guayana, Maracaibo and Mérida. “It’s incredible that we are back in the streets,” said an international relations student in Caracas. “They should know that they will never silence us.” Much of Maduro’s regime is still in place, but, led by his vice president Delcy Rodríguez, it has been forced to make concessions. They include freeing more than 430 political prisoners, proposing an amnesty, allowing a growing number of protests and rewriting energy laws to lure foreign oil companies. Also, a small number of foreign journalists have been allowed in to Venezuela. “It’s a really weird moment because we are not really in a transition to democracy,” said Jesús Armas, an opposition leader released Feb. 8 after 14 months in prison. “We don’t have a date for a fair and free election. The same regime is in power. But at the same time, because of the pressure of the United States, we are starting to see things like the freedom of political prisoners and the people are starting to lose [their] fear.” The day before the demonstrations U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright arrived in Caracas promising a “flood of investment.” He was “serenaded by a group of young Venezuelan musicians with maracas and harps,” the Guardian said. He said President Trump “is passionately committed to absolutely transforming the relationship between the United States and Venezuela, part of a broader agenda to make the Americas great again.” Delcy Rodríguez told Wright “we are sure this first visit will open the door to many more.” She recently told NBC News she’s considering accepting an invitation to visit the U.S. However, “observers remain skeptical about the degree to which Rodríguez’s interim administration will be willing to cede control and warn limited signs of democratic reform could easily be reversed,” the Guardian correspondents said (see next summary). Her brother, national assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, said no elections are planned in the immediate future while the country is being “stabilized.” Michael Paarlberg, a former Latin America adviser to Bernie Sanders, said “I think if they’re smart, they’re going to be stringing the Trump administration along until the Trump administration is no longer in office and then hope that everyone just kind of forgets about things.”
“Prominent Venezuelan Opposition Politician Detained Hours After Release,” The Guardian, Feb. Feb. 9, 2026
Sending mixed signals about their commitment to political reform, Venezuelan authorities detained a prominent opposition leader hours after his Feb. 8 release from prison where he’d been detained for nine months. The opposition figure, Juan Pablo Guanipa, is a close associate of Nobel laureate María Corina Machado. He was one of at least 35 political prisoners released Feb. 8. Guardian reporter Tom Phillips said “one of Guanipa’s first acts as a free man was to ride across Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, in a convoy of motorbikes to attend a rally outside the country’s most notorious political prison, El Helicoide.” The 61-year-old Guanipa told reporters outside the prison that “we are going to build a Venezuela of democracy, of freedom, of justice, of pluralism and coexistence.” He said he believed Venezuela had “completely changed” since the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. But Machado said on X that hours later “heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in four vehicles and violently took him away. We demand his release.” His 29-year-old son Ramon demanded proof of life, saying “I will hold the regime responsible for anything that happens to my dad.” Venezuela’s top prosecutor announced Feb. 9 that Guanipa hadn’t complied with the terms of his release and so his office requested his re-arrest. Activists say about 425 political prisoners have been released since Maduro was abducted. The country’s new president, Delcy Rodríguez, and her brother, national assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, want to make some concessions to the U.S. to aid the transition to a new government, even if only a “competitive authoritarian” one, said Orlando Pérez, a Latin American expert at the University of North Texas. But he suggested that the feared interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, wants to slow down a transition. “It’s an indication that we really are in a very slow process that can easily be reversed,” Perez said. Cabello said Guanipa’s detention showed that Venezuelan justice was working. “They thought they could do whatever they felt like and cause a commotion,” he said concerning Guanipa’s comments to reporters.
“Outrage in Mexico at Trump Praise for ‘Legendary’ 19th Century Invasion,” The Guardian, Feb. 3, 2026
A Feb. 2 statement by President Trump calling the 19th century U.S. invasion of Mexico “a legendary victory” is a veiled threat for future incursions, some Mexicans say. “Never, in the recent annals of Mexico-U.S. relations had we seen anything like this,” said Mexico’s former ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukahn. “This is not only spiking the ball in the end zone ; it’s an in your face F…You.” Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said “We must always defend our sovereignty.” Trump’s message said “the U.S.-Mexico war “reasserted American sovereignty, and expanded the promise of American independence across our majestic continent.” Guardian reporter Oscar Lopez said “the conflict has long been an historical sore spot for Mexico: Following the capture of Mexico City by U.S. troops in 1847, Mexico gave away 55% of its pre-war territory, including the present day states of California, Nevada, Utah, much of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona." Trump sought to put the conflict into a present-day context. He suggested that much of his Latin America policy was being “guided by our victory on the fields of Mexico 178 years ago” including defending “our southern border against invasion.” Trump has regularly suggested an incursion of Mexico against drug traffickers, saying “we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels.” Tony Payan, a Mexico expert at Rice University, said Trump “wants to go down as a great president who expanded the American empire. It’s just sheer 19th-century-style imperialism.”
“Amid U.S. Pressure, Nicaragua Blocks a Once-Popular Route from Cuba,” New York Times, Feb. 10, 2026
The Nicaraguan government has cut off a route used by Cuban migrants without a visa to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border. It did not say why but experts saw it as an attempt by Nicaragua’s co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo to reduce pressure from the Trump administration, said Times reporter James Wagner. Nicaragua had been allowing migrants from Cuba and other nations to fly to the country and then travel by land to the U.S. In doing so it charged them more than $1,000 in fees, said Manuel Orozco, a director at Inter-American Dialogue, a research group in Washington, D.C. Orozco said his research found that at least 100,000 passengers from Cuba and Haiti flew to Nicaragua in 2023 on their way to the U.S. border. He said it also permitted flights from Libya, Morocco and Venezuela. Now Nicaragua is requiring visas to enter. He said that since U.S, forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, there is fear in Nicaragua that “something can happen to them.” A week after the seizure of Maduro the government of Nicaragua said it had released dozens of detained people. It did so the day after the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua demanded the release of more than 60 political prisoners. The Trump administration has taken a more aggressive stance toward Nicaragua than the Biden administration did. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2025 called the regime of Ortega and Murillo an “illegitimate dynasty.” They have directed the elimination of opposition to their rule since anti-government protests in 2018. The Trump administration has dropped protections for Nicaraguans in the United States that prevented them from deportation. It recently said tariffs would reach 15 percent in two years on Nicaraguan exports not subject to a free trade agreement because of alleged labor and human rights violations.
“Appeals Court Lets Trump Revoke Deportation Protections for 60,000 More Migrants," New York Times, Feb. 9, 2026
A federal appeals court Feb. 9 gave the go-ahead for the Trump administration to end “temporary protected status” for some 50,000 Hondurans, 7,000 Nepalis, and 3,000 Nicaraguans. The decades-old TPS program permits people facing war, disasters, and other catastrophes to temporarily live and work in the United States. “Its protection for migrants from some countries have been renewed for years as turmoil in their nations continues,” noted Times reporter Chris Cameron. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has moved to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the U.S. who fled war and instability in their own countries. Noem perpetuated xenophobic stereotypes and racist conspiracy theories in her effort to end TPS protection, said Judge Trina L. Thompson of the Northern District of California last year. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted a request by the Trump administration to stay her ruling. It said in an unsigned ruling that Noem’s decision may not be subject to judicial review and that “the government can likely show that the administrative record adequately supports the secretary’s action. The three judges pointed to the Supreme Court in their ruling, saying “we are not writing on a blank slate.” Last year the Supreme Court allowed TPS to end for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. The three appeals judges said concerning the Supreme Court ruling, also unsigned, that it “contained no reasoning, so they do not inform our analysis of the legal issues in this case.” However, they added that “we have been admonished that the court’s stay orders must inform” rulings in their own cases. In total, the government has moved to end the program for more than one million people in eight countries, Cameron said.
“Canadian Airlines Cancel Flights as Cuba Runs Out of Jet Fuel,” New York Times, Feb. 10, 2026
Air Canada has announced that it is suspending its 16 flights per week to four cities in Cuba because the embattled island nation is running out of jet fuel. Another Canadian airline, WestJet Group, said it has begun winding down operations in Cuba “in order to lessen the strain on local resources,” said Times reporter Frances Robles. “Both airlines said they would send empty jets to Cuba from Montreal and Toronto to bring back roughly 3,000 Canadians currently visiting the island.” The loss of Canadian visitors will be a major blow to Cuba’s already struggling tourist industry. The Canadian foreign ministry said that before the pandemic at least one million Canadians visited Cuba per year. Russian tour operators said there may be between 4,200 and 4,700 tourists traveling in package tours going from Russia to Cuba. The Trump administration has shut off the supply of oil shipped to Cuba from Venezuela, which was Cuba’s main source of oil. The shutdown aims to end communist rule. Experts predict Cuba will likely deplete its oil reserves by the end of March. Jorge Piñon, a University of Texas expert on Cuban energy issues, said “this only impacts long-haul flights; the flights from Miami historically come with enough fuel to go back and forth.” He said if an oil tanker doesn’t arrive somewhere in Cuba during the second half of March, “we’re in bad shape.” Long-distance flights to Cuba would probably have to schedule refueling stops in other countries such as the Dominican Republic, he said.
“Portugal Elects a President, With Leftist Candidate Set to Beat Surging Far Right,” New York Times, Feb. 9, 2026
António José Seguro, a former leader of Portugal’s socialist party, won the country’s presidential election Feb. 8 in a landslide. The government said Seguro won more than 65 percent of the vote compared to 34 percent for André Ventura of the hard-right Chega (“enough”) party. Times reporter Jason Horowitz said “Mr. Seguro’s victory was due in part, analysts said, to mainstream conservative backing of his candidacy in order to beat back Mr. Ventura and his surging Chega party.” Horowitz said the level of support for Ventura showed that Portugal is not immune from the European trend toward growing support for what he referred to as “populism,” which the Times reporter appears to identify with the hard right. “Chega is the first hard-right party to surge so strongly in Portugal since the end of the nationalist dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar,” he said. The presidency in Portugal is considered to be a largely ceremonial job. However, the president can veto legislation and has special powers during a political crisis, such as dissolving Parliament. The growth of Chega reflects a reaction against immigration and corruption. Chega posters declare that “This is not Bangladesh,” shorthand for a doubling of the migrant population in Portugal in the last decade. Portugal’s center-right prime minister, Luis Montenegro, did not endorse a presidential candidate, a sign that Chega is becoming a permanent political fixture. But figures who describe themselves as “non-socialists,” including leading center-right conservatives, sent an open letter backing Seguro. Horowitz said they argued that “the election amounted to a fork in the road between liberal and illiberal forces, and that Mr. Ventura’s candidacy was beyond the democratic pale.”
“Meet Trump’s Partners in Venezuela,” Opinion column by Mary Anastasia O’Grady,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 26, 2026
What does it mean when President Trump calls Venezuelan dictator Delcy Rodríguez a terrific person – this “despite her monstrous human-rights record and her reputation for corruption?” It’s no longer perplexing when one considers that Chevron Corp., and Harry Sargeant, a Florida asphalt magnate, have lobbied Trump for a long time to grant them licenses in Venezuela, and that Rodríguez was their Caracas counterpart. “The Guardian reported last week that in October the U.S. began considering Ms. Rodríguez, right hand to then-dictator Nicolás Maduro, to replace him.” The British paper said it learned from sources that she told the U.S. she was on board with removing Maduro and willing to cooperate with Washington. One factor was that she promised to work with U.S. oil companies and that she knew Americans in the oil business. “Mr. Trump’s own obsession with oil might explain why he disparaged opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at a press conference the day the U.S. captured Mr. Maduro. He claimed the wildly popular Ms. Machado has neither ‘support’ nor ‘respect’ in Venezuela. That’s absurd. She is such a threat to the regime that it banned her candidacy for president in 2024. Edmundo González, who took her place, received 70% of the vote.” The real difficulty for Machado was that she opposed U.S. Treasury licenses for Chevron and for Sargeant’s asphalt operation because she wanted to starve the regime of hard currency. “For decades she has argued that Venezuelan economic development and a Caracas foreign policy that fosters peace in the region require democracy, open competition and the rule of law. She has been unwilling to trade her ideals for good reviews at Mar-a-Lago.” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello “still controls the armed forces, police, intelligence and the paramilitary known as colectivos. His henchmen roam the streets to put down dissent.” The “true measure of U.S. control isn’t the flow of oil out of Venezuela but how many political prisoners have been released. Some are out. But the U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States estimated last week that 1,000 remain behind bars.” The priorities of Rodríguez fit the goals of the Trump administration. She is on board with shipping oil to the U.S. for sale at market prices. The proceeds will go into special accounts, including one in Qatar. Some of the money goes to Venezuela to cover production costs and pay for imports. Venezuela reportedly has received $300 million.” Rodríguez is happy but “the 28 million other Venezuelans, not so much.” Whether the warmth toward Delcy is “a U.S. oil play” or “three-dimensional chess aimed at eventually transforming Venezuela into democracy, it’s a dangerous game.” She is “evil and manipulative and so is her brother,” Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly. Cabello and Delcy Rodríguez are “bitter rivals” and “it isn’t a bad idea to use her to check him and hold off any chaos until midlevel military officers, who are ready to restore democracy, can take command.” But it’s foolish to frame her as a U.S. ally. “She can’t be allowed to stick around.”
“DHS Has Requested Expedited Deportation Proceedings Against Family of Liam Conejo Ramos,” Minnesota Public Radio, Feb. 5, 2026
The Trump administration is moving swiftly to deport five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his family after a federal judge issued an order that led to his release from a Texas detention center and to his return home with his father to Minnesota (see summary below, “Detained Boy and Father Make Return to Minnesota,” New York Times, Feb. 2, 2026). Lawyers for the family said they entered the U.S. legally and have a pending asylum case. On the heels of the return of Liam and his father to Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security filed a motion Feb. 4 to expedite deportation proceedings, said immigration attorney Danielle Molliver. The government is seeking to end asylum claims for the family, according to the lawyer. A hearing was scheduled for Feb. 6 although Molliver is requesting more time to respond, said MPR reporter Regina Medina. Molliver described the government’s motion as “retaliatory.” She said “it’s really frustrating as an attorney, because they keep throwing up obstacles in our way. There’s absolutely no reason that this should be expedited. It’s not very common.” She said the government may not deport them to Ecuador, their home country and that the family instead could apply for asylum in a third country. Liam’s father, Adrian Conejo Arias, told Minnesota Public Radio that they don’t know what will happen to them. “The government is moving many pieces, it’s doing everything possible to do us harm, so they’ll probably deport us. We live with that fear too.”
“Venezuela’s Leader Eases Her System’s Authoritarian Grip,” New York Times, Feb. 4, 2026
In small ways, there are signs that the government of Venezuela, under President Trump’s designated ruler Delcy Rodríguez, is easing its authoritarian grip. But analysts note that such changes are reversible. Times correspondents Simon Romero, Isayen Herrera and Patricia Sulbarán cited several examples of a possible thaw in authoritarianism. A television network broadcast comments by an opposition leader. Other opposition leaders said they are coming out of hiding. A group of university students publicly confronted Interim President Rodríguez, demanding the release of political prisoners. Then Rodríguez surprised observers by saying she would close El Helicoide, a prison that rights groups say is a torture chamber. And she “proposed a mass amnesty law that could free hundreds of political prisoners still held in Venezuelan jails,” the reporters said. Nicmer Evans, a critic of the government who was detained by intelligence agents in December and released from Helicoide in mid-January, said it’s too soon to say that what’s happening is a definitive transition away from years of anti-democratic rule. But he added that “the fact that people are finding the courage to take a first step and show others that fighting for the rule of law and constitutional rights is possible is nothing short of extraordinary.” There’s plenty of skepticism that Rodríguez could lead far-reaching democratic reforms. She was one of the architects of the current authoritarian system she now leads. Her amnesty proposal could be manipulated to give immunity to Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations by international agencies. Then there is Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister who controls intelligence operations and paramilitary cells. After the private TV network Venevisión broadcast comments by opposition leader María Corina Machado, Cabello threatened the network. A short time later the network said it had been removed from broadcasting platforms in much of Venezuela. Pro-government owners continue to control newspapers and TV networks. Access to the social media platform X remains blocked, some Venezuelans say, requiring them to use virtual private networks to access it. Most foreign journalists can’t get in to the country and if they do they often are promptly deported. Among the handful of opposition figures that have come out of hiding is Juan Barreto, a former mayor of Caracas. He said because the government is under pressure from the Trump administration it has no choice but to make some changes. “The country has a gun to its head,” Barreto said. “The decisions being made are under this kind of duress.” Among the changes is that the Central University of Venezuela in recent days has re-emerged as a place where people debate the leadership of Rodríguez and where Venezuela is headed. Benigno Alarcón, a political analyst who took part in such a debate last week, warned that “transitions are not events. They are processes, and they are typically fraught with conflict. Real transitions tend to be lengthy and in many instances, reversible."
“Cuba Open to Talks With U.S. ‘Without Pressure’ After Months of Trump Threats,” The Guardian, Feb. 5, 2026
Cuba President Miguel Diaz-Canel said his government is willing to talk to the United States as long as it is “without pressure.” He said his country, at the hands of the Trump administration, has been subjected to “intense media campaigns of slander, hatred and psychological warfare.” President Trump suggested Feb. 1 that talks were already occurring, said Guardian reporter Ruaridh Nicoll. Trump said Cuba is a “failing nation” that no longer has Venezuela to support it. “So we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens. I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba.” A Havana-based businessman who has worked with the Cuban government more than 25 years said “There are strong rumors of talks already under way in Mexico.” Nicoll said “the island is already amid an economic slump that has seen people begging on the streets and rooting through bins for food. In recent years, hyperinflation has slashed state salaries and pensions.” He said widespread power outages continue, with the whole east region of the island offline on Feb. 5.
“Spain Leader Seeks to Ban Under-16 Use of Platforms,” New York Times, Feb. 4, 2026
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced Feb. 3 that he plans to enact a ban on anyone under the age of 16 accessing social media. “We will protect them from the digital wild west,” Sánchez said in a speech in Dubai at the World Governments Summit. A growing number of countries are moving to limit access of the young to social media. “Last month, Australia became the first country in the world to ban social media for children younger than 16,” Times reporter José Bautista noted. “Countries including France, Malaysia, Denmark and others are considering or working on similar measures amid growing concerns over online abuse, mental health, and social media addiction.” The Sánchez measure, which must be approved by the Spanish Parliament, “includes an effort to make company executives legally responsible if illegal or hate-based content is not removed from their platforms, and to criminalize the manipulation of algorithms and the amplification of illegal content.” Spain’s leading conservative party, the People’s Party, supports the idea of a ban but the far-right Vox Party opposes it as part of a strategy to impose a government narrative on social media. It’s unclear how easily the left-wing coalition of Sánchez, a socialist, can pass the measure because it lacks a majority in Parliament.
“Detained Boy and Father Make Return to Minnesota,” New York Times, Feb. 2, 2026
Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, detained by immigration agents in Minnesota with his father and sent to Texas, is now back home in Minnesota, his school district said Feb. 1. “The boy and his father were released from the immigration detention center where they were being held in Dilley, Texas, after a federal judge demanded they be set free in a fiery opinion on Saturday that condemned the government for pursuing daily deportation quotas ‘even it requires traumatizing children,’” said Times reporter Anushka Patel. The picture of Liam being detained while wearing a blue bunny hat and a Spiderman backpack “caused outrage in the Twin Cities and across the country.” Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas accompanied Liam and his father Adrian Conejo Arias from Texas back to Minnesota. His school district said Liam’s release was an “important development, and we hope it will lead to positive developments for other families as well, including our other four students who are being held at the Dilley facility in Texas.” The district said “We want all children to be released from detention centers and hope for the reunification of families who have been unjustly separated.” Federal officials say Conejo Arias, who is from Ecuador, entered the U.S. illegally in December. However, lawyers for the family said they entered legally and have a pending asylum case.
“China Loses a Foothold in Panama,” Wall Street Journal Opinion Column by Mary Anastasia O’Grady, Feb. 2, 2026
The Jan. 29 decision by Panama’s highest court declaring as unconstitutional contracts to operate ports at either end of the Panama Canal means that China has lost a foothold in that country. The two ports are at Bilboa on the Pacific and Cristóbal on the Atlantic. Panama Ports Co. has the contracts to operate the ports. Panama Ports Co. is owned by the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchinson Holdings Ltd. The U.S. company BlackRock agreed in March 2025 to buy most of Panama Ports and some 43 other ports around the world. Reportedly, the Chinese government held up that deal, demanding that its state-owned shipping company Cosco retain control of Panama Ports Co. “The high court’s decision means Panama Ports is no longer authorized to operate in Panama. It’s a win for the Trump administration, which has been complaining for more than a year about the Chinese presence in the country.” The Panamanian government must now auction off the concessions for the two ports, and it’s unclear “how Panama will ensure that China is blocked from the bidding, but it almost surely will be.” The decision of Panama’s Supreme Court of Justice could bring greater transparency to how the port concessions are operated and to whether the government is being paid properly. “The court’s decision also puts to rest Trump administration assertions that China is running the canal and that the U.S. needs to invade Panama to kick Beijing out. There was no need to believe that in December 2024, when President Trump began loudly insisting the interoceanic passage belongs to the U.S. The claim is even farther-fetched today.” The charges that the Panama Canal Authority is in league with China have always been spurious. “Panamanian air and maritime services guard the waterway. Outlandish claims by the U.S. president that Chinese soldiers are ‘lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal’ are demonstrably false.” The ports are not part of the canal. It’s untrue as the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission claimed last year, that ships using Panama Ports facilities can block passage. The U.S. Embassy in Panama applauded the high court decision, but China is another matter and has said it might take legal action against it.
“Trump, Colombian Leader Signal Détente After Talk,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 4, 2026
Just weeks after blasting Donald Trump as a fascist “complicit in genocide,” Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, emerged from the White House Feb. 3 “grinning with a red MAGA hat in hand and an autographed copy of ‘The Art of the Deal.’” So wrote Journal reporters Vera Bergengruen and Juan Forero of the meeting of the two leaders after Trump called Petro a “sick man” and threatened to remove him from power the way he’d removed Venezuelan President Nicholás Maduro. “He and I weren’t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn’t insulted because I’d never met him,” Trump said after they met. Saying they’d discussed narcotics control and other issues, Trump added “I thought he was terrific.” Petro said they’d discussed “concrete problems and possible paths forward” but said neither had changed their way of thinking on many issues. Colombian officials said they hoped to show Trump and administration officials another side of Petro – a side they described as being a tireless fighter against the cocaine trade. Petro, the Journal reporters said, took a pen and added an “S” to the hat Trump gave him so it said: “Make Americas Great Again.” Former U.S. assistant secretary of state for international narcotics Todd Robinson said that if the meeting went well that is good for both the U.S. and Colombia. “The U.S. needs Colombia if we are going to be serious about fighting crime and insecurity in the hemisphere.” Forero said in a Feb. 2 story (“Cocaine Clouds U.S.-Colombia Talks”) that Colombian security forces say they are destroying a cocaine-production lab every 40 minutes. They’ve cut cocaine supply so much that prices are rising, they say. But former U.S. diplomat James Story said “you have record seizures, sure, because you have record production of cocaine.” Colombia is producing almost nine times as much cocaine as in 2012. Heavily armed narcotics-trafficking militias are carving up the countryside. “Since Petro took office in 2022, drug militias, each fielding thousands of heavily armed fighters, have doubled in size to more than 25,000 members,” wrote Forero. For example, the National Liberation Army has 6,700 members, hundreds of whom are in Venezuela. The Gulf Clan has 9,000. Other groups of renegade guerillas who rejected a 2016 peace agreement among warring factions in Colombia have 9,200 members. A leader of a cooperative group of farmers in the southwest province of Cauca disputed claims by the government to have won back some of the territory. “The armed groups have taken territory, and so people from one place can’t cross over to where the other group is,” said Uverney Ujaji. “The farmers around here find themselves caught in the crossfire.”
“Letters From an American,” Heather Cox Richardson, Feb. 3, 2026
U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes Feb. 2 blocked the termination of temporary protected status for about 353,000 Haitians living in the United States. That status was scheduled to end Feb. 3 under a decision by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. At stake was not only the fate of Haitians facing deportation to their violence-torn homeland, but the “Trump administration officials' rejection of both facts and the rule of law on which the United States was founded in order to advance their white nationalist ideology,” wrote Richardson, a history professor at Boston College. Richardson, paraphrasing Reyes, said Congress established “Temporary Protected Status” in 1990 “to change previously haphazard executive decisions about whether to receive immigrants from disaster-stricken countries that left recipients unclear about their immigration status.” The TPS program created by Congress established criteria and a process for granting the status. The Homeland Security Secretary has the power to evaluate and grant extensions. Judge Reyes said Noem ignored the process and the criteria, relying on ideology instead in deciding to end protection against deportation for the Haitians. Noem posted the following on Dec. 1, 2025: “I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom – not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.” Richardson said Noem’s statement echoed that of Trump when he called Haiti a “sh*thole country” and tried to end temporary protected status in 2017 for Haitians, who have living in the U.S. legally since the devastating Haitian earthquake of 2010. During the 2024 campaign Trump falsely accused Haitians of eating the pets of people living in Springfield, Ohio and said he would deport them. Reyes said it “seems substantially likely” Noem ended protected status because of her white nationalist ideology. Reyes said Noem characterized the Haitians as criminals without any actual evidence. Instead of being “killers, leeches and entitlement junkies,” the five Haitians who filed suit against Noem’s termination are a neuroscientist, a software engineer, a toxicology lab assistant, a college economics major and a registered nurse. Reyes also noted that TPS holders participate in the workforce at the exceptionally high rate of 94.6%. Noem also ignored the public interest in the fact that Haitian TPS holders pay $1.3 billion a year in taxes and add about $3.4 billion a year to the economy through working in sectors desperate for workers. Noem is constrained by the Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act to faithfully apply facts to the law in administering the TPS program and has yet to do so, Reyes said, according to Richardson’s account. Miriam Jordan of the New York Times reported Feb. 2 that the protected status of the Haitians will remain in place until the case is fully litigated (“Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks End of Protection for Haitians in U.S.”). Jordan said the fate of the Haitians could be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the administration will appeal to the high court. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench.” Haiti has been facing gang violence, political instability and shortages of food. Reyes said the administration has not conducted a necessary assessment to decide whether it is safe for TPS holders to return to Haiti. The U.S. State Department assigns its highest warning against travel to the country, indicating its belief that travel to the country poses life-threatening risks. Reyes said Noem had determined conditions in Haiti to be merely “concerning.” That, Reyes said, “cannot be squared with the ‘perfect storm of suffering’ and ‘staggering humanitarian toll’ describe in page after page” of the record, Reyes wrote in her decision.
“The Information Networks Connecting Venezuelans in Uncertain Times,” Wired, Feb. 1, 2026
Venezuelans are now relying more than ever on tools they’ve developed learning resilience in the face of censorship, disinformation and repression. When the U.S. military began dropping bombs on Caracas in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 3, residents couldn’t turn on the TV or radio to get information as the U.S. began simultaneously attacking 11 military installations in Caracas and three other states, said Wired reporter Lisseth Boon. “During the darkest moments of that confusing morning, there was no team of independent reporters able to go out and record what was happening on the streets,” she wrote. “After years of harassment, censorship, and imprisonment of journalists by the government, there were instead only empty newsrooms, decimated resources, and a complete lack of security, which made it impossible to keep the public informed as the crisis was unfolding.” Many Venezuelans experience the same fear that journalists felt – “the fears of arbitrary detention, of being imprisoned without cause, tortured and extorted.” What Caracas residents such as Maria G. could do, however, was receive WhatsApp messages on their cell phones. She received dozens saying, “They’re bombing Caracas!” Individuals recorded videos of explosions from their windows or balconies or the beach and circulated them. To survive, citizens have adopted certain digital safeguards. “They have learned to restrict chats, move sensitive material to hidden folders, and automatically delete any ‘compromising’ messages.” They leave their cell phones at home whenever possible. If they have to take their phones with them, they delete photos, stickers and memes that authorities could regard as subversive. For the most part, ordinary citizens created this information network. Their “state of collective paranoia has…allowed Venezuelans to stay informed and not succumb to the dictatorship,” Boon said.
“In Legalizing Migrants, Spain Bucks EU Trend,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 29, 2026
Although immigration has become the most toxic and divisive issue in much of Europe, Spain is taking a more relaxed attitude, say Wall Street Journal’s Marcus Walker and Cristina Gallardo. The attitude, they write, is that “if people live and work here, they might as well pay taxes.” Under a new policy of the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, if undocumented immigrants have lived in Spain for at least five months before the end of last year and they don’t have a criminal record they can “regularize” their status in coming months. The government says 500,000 people could gain residency that way while analysts say it could be more. “The move will be fast-tracked via royal decree, avoiding a vote in Parliament, where the government lacks a majority,” the Journal says. The economy in Spain is buoyant, unemployment is falling, and there are shortages of workers. There’s broad support for the new policy, including from unions, many businesses and the Catholic Church. The government expects to take in more taxes and contributions for social security. There’s been a pattern of mass legalizations of migrants in Spain over the past 50 years. “It’s nothing new in Spanish politics,” said Rut Bermejo, an analyst with the Madrid think tank , the Elcan Royal Institute. There’s been mass legalizations of migrants six times, by both governments of the left and right. The most recent time was in 2005, with the legalization of some 576,000 migrants. But not everyone in Spain likes it. The far-right Vox party has gained strength in recent years because of the belief that mass immigration has put too much strain on public services and increased crime. The new policy will attract more illegal immigrants, says Vox leader Santiago Abascal, who says the government is promoting an “invasion.” However, the mainstream conservative People’s Party questioned the details of the policy rather than the principle. Some 840,000 undocumented migrants live in Spain, more than 90% of them from Latin America, according to Funcas, a think tank in Madrid. “The fact that we have a shared language and shared cultural references means that the experience of integration is not the same as in other European countries,” said María Miyar of Funcas.
“Conservative Populist Laura Fernández Wins Costa Rican Presidency, Preliminary Results Show,” Associated Press, Feb. 2, 2026
Laura Fernández, a conservative populist whose political sponsor is the outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves, captured the presidency of Costa Rica in a resounding first-round win, preliminary results show. With 93.7 percent of polling places accounted for, Fernàndez of the Sovereign People's Party had 48% of the vote, said AP reporter Javier Córdoba. The next highest vote total went to economist Álvaro Ramos of the National Liberation Party, who won 33% of the vote. Ramos conceded the night of the Feb. 1 election. “In democracy dissent is allowed, criticizing is allowed,” said Ramos, who pledged a “constructive opposition.” Fernández said “the mandate the sovereign people give me is clear: the change will be deep and irreversible.” Countering the surge of crime in historically peaceful Costa Rica was a major issue in the campaign. Córdoba wrote that many see a continuation of the confrontational style of Chaves “as the best chance for Costa Rica to tame the violence.” Fernández views El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, whose severe crackdown on gangs in his country propelled him to overwhelming popularity, as a model (see summary of “Costa Rica Presidential Election Could End in First Round, Tico Times, Jan. 28, 2026). The Feb. 1 election included voting for the National Assembly. The party of Rodriquez and Chaves was expected to make gains but perhaps not large enough to win the supermajority the two hoped for to allow their party to pick Supreme Court magistrates.
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