News Summaries in May 2026

Note to readers: newly prepared summaries of older stories may sometimes be placed at the top to call attention to them, at least for a time. They also will be placed in chronological order.   

 

“The U.S. Boat Strike Campaign Has Now Killed Over 200 People,” New York Times, May 31, 2026

The  bombing campaign by the U.S. military against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean it alleges are smuggling drugs has now killed more than 200 people. The military said May 30 that a strike ordered by Gen. Francis L. Donavan killed three men, bringing the death total to 202 in more than 60 strikes, said Times reporters Max Bearak and José Maria León Cabrera. “The strikes have been shrouded in secrecy,” they wrote. “Few bodies of those killed have been recovered, and scant physical evidence exists of debris or the drugs the Trump administration claims the boats were transporting." They reported that a wide range of legal experts say the strikes are against the law. The military is barred from deliberately targeting civilians “even if they are believed to have committed a crime, unless they pose an immediate threat.” According to experts, there’s no evidence the strikes have reduced the amount of cocaine reaching the U.S. from South America. 

“Why Peter Thiel is Decamping to the End of the World,” New York Times, May 28, 2026

Right-wing tech billionaire and Trump donor Peter Thiel has decamped from his homes in Los Angeles and Miami to establish another dwelling place, this one in Argentina. In the past two months, Thiel has met with Argentina’s president Javier Milei and his ministers; bought a mansion in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Buenos Aires; and hosted a dinner with economists to talk about the Antichrist. “Mr. Thiel, who has a history of collecting backup countries as he hedges his bets against the United States, is considering making Argentina another plan B, according to two people familiar with his thinking,” wrote Times reporters Emma Bubola and Ryan Mac.  Thiel was born in Germany, raised in the United States, obtained citizenship in 2011 in New Zealand, and applied for a passport in Malta in 2022.  Among his concerns are that a ballot initiative in California could lead to a tax on billionaires. Thiel also is said to be drawn to Milei’s libertarian slash and burn style of governing and the vibrancy of Buenos Aires. He has enrolled his children in a local school, two sources said.  In addition, he has purchased land in neighboring Uruguay. "Argentina, a nation relatively insulated from potential conflicts in the Northern Hemisphere, also fits as a potential escape hatch  from other risks that Mr. Thiel has publicly warned about -- nuclear war and runaway artificial intelligence," the Times reporters said. Critics have spread theories that Thiel aims to meddle in Argentina's presidential elections next year, build large data centers, or sieze the personal data of Argentinians for Palantir, the big data firm he co-founded and now chairs. 

“Argentina’s ‘European’ Self-Image Under Renewed Scrutiny After Racist Incidents in Brazil,” The Guardian, May 28, 2026

Three Argentinians have been arrested this year for racism in Brazil --  the most recent case one in which an Argentine man riding on a train secretly took pictures of a 7-year-old Black boy who also was a passenger and sent them to a WhatsApp contact saying, “I could take him as a slave.” The 63-year-old Argentinian architect said, “He’s Black  but very cute….I’m  thinking of taking a slave, there are many here.” Passengers kept the man, Eduardo Ignacio Murias inside the train until it  reached its destination, where he was arrested for “racial insult,” a crime under Brazilian law, said Guardian reporter Tiago Rogero. Sixty-seven-year-old José Luis Haile was arrested in April after allegedly insulting on a racial basis a food delivery worker at a supermarket in Rio. In a third case, 29-year-0ld Agostina Páez was arrested in Rio "after being filmed mimicking a monkey towards a waiter at a nightclub,” said Rogero. “Although later released, she was barred from leaving Brazil for two and a half months while the investigation continued.” She claimed that she was being persecuted, a narrative echoed by parts of the Argentine media. She was welcomed on her return by Patricia Bullrich, a far-right senator who is a close ally of the president of Argentina, Javier Milei. Political scientist and African-Argentinian activist Federico Pita said “racism is inscribed within the very project of the Argentine nation," citing an article of its constitution saying that “the federal government shall promote European immigration.” Pita said that Argentina continues to regard itself as a “European” nation and denies the existence of African-Argentinians and Indigenous peoples. “Experts believe the majority of the population has Indigenous ancestry, even if they do not identify as such,” Rogero said. Cases of racism on the part of Argentinians toward Brazilians are not new – in 1920, Brazil’s national soccer team refused to play a soccer match against Argentina after being depicted in the Argentine press as monkeys. “To this day, fans imitating monkeys are caught in virtually every match involving clubs from the two countries,” said Rogero. He said there’s no evidence that such incidents are becoming more common, noting that there’s a large increase in Argentinians visiting Brazil because of the overvalued peso. Pita said “I don’t know what is more serious: a country like Argentina, which says its Black population does not exist, or Brazil, where a young Black man is killed every few minutes. They are equally grave.” 

“Violent Protests Paralyze Bolivia,” Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2026

Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz now has only a tentative grip on power, after the election victory that swept him into office last year and put aside nearly a generation of socialist rule. His grip on power has weakened after weeks of protests turned violent, said Samantha Pearson and Silivina Frydlewsky of the Wall Street Journal. “In Bolivia, cuts to long-standing fuel subsidies, rising food prices and tainted gasoline that has damaged engines led demonstrators to demand Paz’s resignation and clash with riot police in recent days,” they said. “The unrest has pushed the country to its worst political crisis in years.” Mine workers, transportation unions and indigenous groups joined supporters of the former leftist leader Evo Morales in blocking highways. They protested the austerity measures Paz introduced to stabilize the economy after taking office almost seven months ago. Four people died after roadblocks kept demonstrators from getting medical care, said Bolivian political scientist Natalia Aparicio. Some 130 demonstrators have been detained, according to police. Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivia analyst at Florida International University, said that Paz might survive the current protests but will struggle to govern. “Bolivians don’t really care about ideology,” he told the Journal. “What they want to do is to be able to feed themselves. They want to be able to have employment….If the government doesn’t solve some of these problems, it’s going to be very rough going.” The Journal reporters described  developments as “a test of whether the new wave of conservative Latin American leaders elected in recent years will have staying power.” They noted that other Trump allies also have faced protests. Austerity measures in Ecuador caused an outcry that nearly unseated President Daniel Noboa in an election last year. In Argentina, President Javier Milei “has watched his poll numbers plunge as he carries out a painful economic overhaul.” 

“Suicides Rise in ICE Detention; 911 Calls Detail Serious Cases of Self-Harm,” NBC News, May 21, 2026

More than 1,000 emergency calls relating to self-harm were made over the past year from six immigration detention centers around the U.S., according to an investigation by NBC reporters Laura Strickler, Julia Ainsley and Helen Graham. In one case, a 33-year-old pregnant immigrant began banging her head against a wall four days before Christmas at a detention center in Texas. Guards tried to get her into a vehicle to take her to the hospital, but she refused. So they called 911, one of 28 such calls involving serious cases of self-harm, according to logs obtained by NBC. “One man swallowed a razor blade, another drank cleaning chemicals and at least three cut their own wrists,” the reporters said. ICE data show such calls are increasingly common as the Trump administration increases detentions. “They’re also holding detainees longer, and without any possibility for release, a policy that has been challenged and is likely headed to the Supreme Court,” the NBC report said.  Five deaths by suicide in detention facilities have been reported so far this year, the largest number in two decades, with the year not yet half over. Over the four years of the Biden administration there were two suicides. “Overall, the total number of deaths in custody in 2025 tripled from the previous year, as the number of detainees has doubled under Trump, according to ICE data.” Sanjay Basu, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said that “if you see a spike, it indicates there is a much larger group of people suffering mental health challenges.” Immigration groups have complained for years that detention centers are often too cold, overcrowded and sometimes unsanitary. But the issue is not just bad conditions but the feeling of inmates that they don’t know when or even if they will get out, said immigration attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman denied that there has been a spike in deaths. “Consistent with data over the last decade, as of April 30, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population,” the spokesman said. “As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained a higher standard of care than most prisons that hold IU.S. citizens – including providing access to proper medical care.” In the case of the pregnant women, she was taken to the hospital but it’s unclear what happened from there, the NBC report said. “ICE declined to respond to questions about the case.” 

“Cuba Celebrates Raúl Castro After U.S. Accuses Him of Murder,” New York Times, May 21, 2026

Cuban officials and the state-run media turned to social media May 21 to project an image of rallying around former President Raúl Castro as a revered figure the day after he was indicted in Miami for murder. “An avalanche of posts from state-run newspapers and high-ranking Cuban government officials showed photographs of Mr. Castro as a young soldier, greeting children, chuckling with his brother Fidel, waving the Cuban flag and meeting outdoors with teenagers,” wrote Times reporter Frances Robles. “The posts included gushing messages about his honor and integrity.” Castro, almost 95, was indicted by U.S. officials May 20 on four counts of murder for the shooting down in 1996 of two civilian aircraft in international airspace just north of Cuba. The planes shot down were sponsored by Brothers to the Rescue, an organization that antagonized the Cuban government by flying over the island by dropping political leaflets and religious medallions. “After dozens of complaints to Washington, Raúl Castro had enough,” wrote Robles. Likely meant to force the Cuban government to cave in to pressure from the Trump administration, the indictments could have the opposite effect. Castro watchers say that “threatening to drag him to Miami in handcuffs is unlikely to make his comrades capitulate,” said Robles. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that the likelihood of a negotiated settlement was not high. In negotiations so far, the Trump administration has demanded that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel step down,  that Americans be compensated for property seized by the Cuban government and that Chinese and Russian listening posts be closed. Cuban officials have refused to make concessions. The indictment was celebrated in Miami by “hundreds of jubilant exile activists and Republican politicians,” said Robles. That sent the wrong message, according to Ricardo Zúñiga, a former Obama administration official. He said: “If you were sitting in Havana and saw what happened in Miami, why would you negotiate? What they have told you is: ‘We are going to come get you.’” 

“Pentagon Watchdog to Evaluate U.S. Military’s Boat Strikes in Latin America, Associated Press, May 18, 2026

The inspector general’s office at the Pentagon will evaluate the targeting procedures followed by the U.S. military in attacking dozens of boats alleged to be smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. At least 193 people were killed in the attacks, which began in September. “The evaluation will not probe the legality of the strikes, which have drawn intense scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars,” said AP reporter Ben Finley.  The watchdog unit, in the "self-initiated" review, will probe the six phases of the attacks, which include the intent of the military commander involved, target development, analysis, decision, execution and assessment. The military hasn’t provided evidence that the boats were carrying drugs, pointing instead to intelligence showing the boats were moving along “known narco-trafficking routes,” Finley wrote. The very first attack drew particular scrutiny. Two men survived the initial attack in which nine others were killed. The two men were clinging to the wreckage of the boat when it was attacked again, killing them. The review was reported earlier by the Bloomberg news service. 

“Gunmen Open Fire in Two Separate Attacks in Honduras, Killing at Least 16 People,” Associated Press, Latin America, May 21, 2026

At least 16 people including six police officers were shot and killed in two separate attacks May 20 on the coast of Honduras. In the first attack at a plantation in the Trujillo municipality in northern Honduras, at least 10 workers died, a National Police spokesman said. “The resource-rich region has been the site of a decades-long agrarian conflict,” AP said. The six police officers were killed in the second attack, which took place in the Omoa municipality near the Guatemalan border. The officers were part of an anti-gang mission and were killed by armed assailants while traveling to Omoa from Tegulcigapa, the capital, police said. The Security Ministry said the National Police and armed forces will respond to both areas, with teams that include forensic specialists and prosecutors. 

 “Over 145,000 US Children Separated from Parents Since Trump’s ICE Surge, Study Estimates,” The Guardian, May 18 2026

About 147,000 children who are U.S. citizens have had a parent detained during the Trump administration mass deportation campaign, said a study released by the Brookings Institution May 18. Of those children, more than 22,000 saw the detention of all of their co-resident parents, the study said. [The study noted that “even a short separation from a parent is likely traumatic for a child, but a majority of detentions are not short-lived separations.”] About 36,000 of the children were younger than six years old. That underscores “a hardline immigration enforcement strategy that has drawn widespread criticism from civil rights and immigration advocacy groups,” said Guardian reporter Maya Yang. Of the U.S. citizen children with a detained parent, almost 54 percent are linked to Mexico. Parents from Guatemala and Honduras together accounted for more than 25 percent. “Brookings researchers pointed to anecdotal evidence suggesting that many immigrants  are either not asked whether they have children or choose not to disclose that information out of fear,” Yang said. The researchers argued that “as immigration expands, ensuring that affected children have access to basic supports and protection should be understood not as optional but as a necessary government responsibility tied to the foreseeable consequences of family separation and displacement.”  A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said that “ICE does not separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.” But according to a March report by the Women’s Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights, the Trump administration deported many immigrant parents without asking whether they had children or letting them decide if their children would go with them. 

“A Political Dynasty Heiress and a Former Trader Minister Advance to Peru’s Presidential Runoff,” Associated Press, May 15, 2026

A final vote count released May 15 in Peru showed the two top vote-getters in its presidential election to be Keiko Fujimori, the conservative daughter of a disgraced former president, and Roberto Sánchez, a nationalist congressman and a former government minister. They will compete in a runoff election June 7 with the winner to be sworn in July 28 for a five-year term as president. Fujimori won 17.18 percent of the vote and Sánchez 12.03 percent in the April 12 first-round election that included 33 0ther candidates. Both candidates promise to fight surging crime in Peru. Fujimori called attention May 15 to the legacy of her father Alberto defeating the Shining Path rebel group and stopping the hyperinflation of the 1990s, said AP reporters Franklin Briceño and Regina Garcia Cano. “She pledged to bring that same resolve to modern security issues, promising to crush crime so Peruvians can ‘live in peace,’” the correspondents said. Sánchez promised that he would repeal laws Fujimori defended in the past that experts said make it more difficult to prosecute criminals, such as eliminating preliminary detention in some cases and increasing the threshold for seizing criminal assets. He has also called for renegotiating contracts with mining companies to raise more tax revenue and giving rural communities a share of the mines that operate in their territory. 

“Argentina Races to Find Origin of Cruise’s Hantavirus Contagion,” New York Times, May 15, 2026

Unconfirmed theories have been spreading that the hantavirus that struck the cruise ship MV Hondius originated in a landfill in Argentina’s southernmost city, Ushuaia. [As of May 4, three passengers on the ship died from the virus and four others were ill, one critically, according to the World Health Organization.] The health minister of the province that includes the city, a gateway to Antarctic cruises, said the theories are an attempt to smear its image as a destination for tourists.  “As health authorities raced to trace the origin of a contagion that was unnerving a world still scarred by the global coronavirus pandemic, the scientific investigation became entangled with international finger pointing,” said Emma Bubola of the New York Times.  The first deaths from the hantavirus were of a Dutch couple who had traveled throughout Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the MV Hondius, which has made it hard for investigators to figure out where the infection began. The Andes species which most likely caused their deaths is endemic in three regions in Argentina’s Patagonia region, where several cases are reported there each year. But authorities said the couple did not travel there during the days they were believed to have become infected.  The Andes species also exists in the Patagonia region of Chile but health authorities there said the couple visited the country before the incubation period of the virus. To contain the virus authorities can, in general, quickly isolate cases and stop the spread, but this was not the case in the close quarters of the MV Hondius. “This likely happened because it hit a foreign cruise ship with doctors who probably weren’t familiar with the disease and aware of human-to-human transmission,” said Rodrigo Bustamente, an Argentine epidemiologist. “Over here we’ve known about that for a long time.” Hantavirus hadn’t been detected previously in rodents in the Ushuaia landfill,  a prime spot for birders, some of whom were passengers on the MV Hondius. Argentine health authorities said it was unlikely though that the contagion started there. They said investigators would travel to Ushuaia “to capture and analyze rodents in areas linked to the couple’s itinerary, with the objective of detecting the possible presence of the virus in an area which they thought was unaffected by it,” said Bubola. 

“U.S. Nears Filing Charges Against Cuba’s Raúl Castro," Wall Street Journal, May 16-17, 2026

 

The Trump administration plans to prosecute the almost 95 year old Raúl Castro, the brother of the late Fidel Castro, on criminal charges. Despite his physical frailty and the fact that he is almost never seen in public, the co-leader of the Cuban revolution remains the most powerful person in Cuba, said José de Córdoba and Sadie Gurman of the Wall Street Journal. They said federal prosecutors in Miami could announce a criminal case as soon as next week. The charges could center on the Cuban military’s shootdown of civilian planes in 1996 when Raúl Castro was defense minister. “The attack, in which Cuban jet fighters downed two civilian planes flown by the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue, killing three U.S. citizens, was a defining episode with deep emotional significance for Cuban-Americans,” the reporters said. An indictment would significantly escalate the Trump pressure campaign on Cuba while leaving open the possibility of a deal that would end the economic stranglehold it has placed on the communist nation. However, an indictment also risks unraveling any such agreement in the works. The Journal noted that “real power in Cuba is exercised through the Interior Ministry and the island’s vast security apparatus, in which Castro has long exerted effective oversight." It said some 100,000 officials and informants spy on the population and monitor every street, workplace and university, according to Enrique Garcia, a former Cuban intelligence officer who defected to the United States. 

A Letter from a Reader on Accelerating Developments in Cuba, May 15, 2026

 

David Klein, a reader in Costa Rica and a close observer of developments in Latin America, writes the following:

 

Things are happening there.  The regime announced further energy cutbacks as the donated Russian oil has now been processed and used up with no more on the way. It was just a one-time gesture from a former patron whose own economy is not doing well enough these days to offer their allies in Cuba any kind of sustained assistance.   

 

Power will be rotated with everyone getting maybe two hours a day each in his own turn. Sometimes less. People are complaining about having to get up and cook, do laundry and rush to charge their devices in the middle of the night when they suddenly get some electricity.  

 

Another meeting with Americans took place apparently, the CIA director and CIA staff visiting Cuba's Interior Minister and staff.  There are also reports of more prolonged U.S. surveillance

of the island. Some of the leadership swear to hold onto the dictatorial regime no matter what. Others are reputed to want prosperity and stability even if it means giving up their one-party centralized version of communism once and for all.  

 

A lot of the powerful elites are used to living the good life with money flowing to them even when average Cubans are barely surviving. They see revenues collapsing with tourism just closed down now and threats to impact their range of state-run, money-making businesses 

may be enough to convince some that a good life is better than a failed revolution. 

 

Still more or less on the back burner, stories are popping up now of more contact and visits and possibilities of change as the energy dysfunction now reaches its lowest point after years of serious and noticeable decline.  Average Cubans are starting to pound their pots and pans in the darkened streets, signaling to their leaders that they are ready for something better. 

“Laura Fernández Takes Office as Costa Rica President With Tough Crime Agenda,” Tico Times, May 9, 2026

Laura Fernández was sworn in May 8 as president of Costa Rica, promising a tough stance against organized crime, drug trafficking and what she called weaknesses in her country’s institutions. She easily won a four-year term of office in a February 1 election in which she was backed by her political mentor,  outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves.  Despite its reputation as a safe and secure country, Costa Rica is facing rising violence because of drug trafficking. Fernández aims to toughen prison sentences and has promised to build a high-security prison modeled after the mega-prison in El Salvador its president Nayib Bukele has used to imprison gang members detained in mass arrests. Bukele has drawn criticism for arresting innocent people along with guilty ones, but Fernández says her government will respect human rights and Costa Rica’s democratic order, the Tico Times said. But she said that will be useless “if judges keep releasing dangerous criminals,” a criticism frequently leveled by her predecessor. Chaves isn’t going anywhere; he continues in the new administration as minister of the presidency and finance minister – “an unusually powerful combination that places him at the center of the government’s political and economic agenda,” the Tico Times said. Fernández supports strong ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attended her swearing-in ceremony. 

“13 Men Killed by US Military Boat Strikes Identified: ‘These Were Flesh and Blood People,’” The Guardian, May 15, 2026

A joint effort by 20 investigative journalists in Latin America has identified 13 of the nearly 200 people killed by the U.S. military in attacks on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Guardian reporter Tiago Rogero said that “it is unclear if the US ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House.” The Trump administration  has justified the killings on the basis that they were targeted “narcoterrorists” taking drugs to the United States. But the investigation led by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) said some of those identified showed no signs of being involved in drug trafficking. The report said that all of the 13 “came from extremely poor communities across Latin America and the Caribbean,” Rogero said. “Despite the US claim that the strikes are fighting narco-terrorism, what is actually happening is that young people living in extremely precarious conditions, doing whatever work they can to support their families, are being targeted,” said the director of CLIP, María Teresa Ronderos. “The US is not taking down any Pablo Escobar or Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzman,” she said. The investigation said the killings haven’t reduced the flow of drugs to the U.S. “There are communities where they stopped fishing for several weeks – and if they do that, people go hungry – because they were terrified of being bombed,” she said. She said the investigation was extremely difficult because people feared U.S. retaliation. Rogero of The Guardian said that “in the eight months since the airstrikes began, the US has not provided any evidence that any of the 194 victims were involved in drug trafficking.” A US Southern Command spokesman said all the strikes were “deliberate, lawful and precise, directed specifically at narco-terrorists and their enablers. We have full confidence in the operations and intelligence professionals who inform our missions.” 

“CIA Director Travels to Cuba as Fuel Reserves Hit Zero,” Washington Post, May 14, 2026

John Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA, made a surprise trip May 14 to Havana to meet with Cuban security and intelligence officials, the latest Trump administration move to pressure the island’s communist regime to restructure the government and economy. Ratcliffe arrived as “blackouts swept the country, protestors took to the streets in the capital and the government acknowledged it was ‘without any reserves’ to fuel power plants,” Karen DeYoung and Warren P. Strobel of the Washington Post reported.  The Trump administration is pursuing a strategy of economic strangulation of Cuba with the intent of changing its government but hasn’t said it will strike it militarily. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said May 13 “I don’t think we’re going to be able to change the trajectory of Cuba as long as these people are in charge of that regime.” A CIA statement said the Ratcliffe trip was undertaken to “personally deliver President Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.” A diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity said “the director of the CIA turns up unannounced. One assumes not for a history lesson and a cigar. There is a general sense here that Díaz-Canel cannot stick around much longer,” he said, referring to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. But a former senior State Department official, Tom Shannon, said “the fact that we are conducting talks through our security services highlights that our purpose is not regime change but regime management.” 

“ICE Moving Forward with Warehouse Detention Plan Despite Lawsuits, Probe,” Washington Post, May 14 2026

The Department of Homeland Security is ending its pause of a controversial program of purchasing massive warehouses to be used as immigrant detention centers. Officials said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is preparing to award contracts to oversee construction and operations at warehouses in San Antonio and El Paso it bought earlier this year in Texas. Washington Post reporter Douglas MacMillan said that in addition “ICE staffers are exploring what work can be done at a warehouse near Hagerstown, Maryland, without violating a preliminary injunction barring most construction at the site,” citing an internal memo. He noted that “a broad base of critics, including Democrats and Republicans, have come out against the plan, calling it inhumane or alleging that it will overwhelm local infrastructure in the communities where the centers are planned.” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered a review of the $38 billion warehouse plan soon after his appointment in March. The aim is to turn the warehouses into facilities that will house hundreds or thousands of immigrant detainees, a move the Trump administration says will allow more efficient deportation. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General announced May 14 it has begun an audit of whether ICE is buying warehouses in a cost-effective way. “Donald Trump’s plan to lock up thousands of people in warehouses made for Amazon packages is inhumane,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told the Post. She said the inspector general investigation is an important step toward accountability. 

“Brazil’s Lula Launches $2 Billion Anti-Organized Crime Project Ahead of Elections,” The Independent, May 12, 2026

The Brazilian government has begun a program targeting organized crime that some politicians say is an effort by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to shore up his public security credentials before elections in October. Mauricio Savarese of The Independent said the program allows for two billion dollars in public spending. Rivals have targeted Lula as being weak in that area. “The program includes beefing up the fight against arms trafficking; attacking the finances of criminal organizations; raising the quality of homicide investigations and investing in the country’s prison system,” wrote Savarese. It provides for buying an array of technology that includes drones, body scanners, metal detectors, cellphone signal blockers, X-ray machines, audio and video systems, radar, and DNA tracking equipment. The government is mainly targeting two criminal groups: the First Command of the Capital, or PCC; and the Red Common, called CV. Lula and President Donald Trump expressed common interest in fighting organized crime throughout Latin America when they met at the White House May 7.

 

“US Deportations to El Salvador Double as Bukele Aligns Himself with Trump Agenda,” Associated Press, May 13, 2026

The number of people deported to El Salvador from the U.S. has nearly doubled in the first months of 2026, said AP reporters Marcos Alemán and Megan Janetsky. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, “has positioned himself as an ally willing to help the Trump administration accelerate deportations, a central priority,” they said. During the first three months of the year a total of 5,033 Salvadorans were deported back to their country compared to 2,547 deportees in the first three months of 2025. U.S. deportation flights worldwide increased about 61 percent between 2024 and 2025, according to data gathered by the Asociación Agenda Migrante El Salvador (AAMES) and other groups. The U.S. has stopped regularly releasing deportation data. The upsurge in deportations “confirms a real hardening of the U.S. immigration system toward the region,” said César Rios of AAMES. Many migrants in the U.S. are watching the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision on whether to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti and Syria. Many of the more than 200,000 Salvadorans with temporary protection worry that decision might eventually affect them, the AP reporters said. 

“Mexico’s Sheinbaum Denies Reports of CIA Operations There While CNN Stands by Report,” Associated Press, May 13, 2026

The president of Mexico has denied that the CIA is carrying out deadly operations in her country. CNN reported May 11 that the spy agency assisted a targeted assassination of a member of the Sinaloa cartel on a highway outside Mexico City. AP reporter Megan Janetsky said the report fueled “a firestorm in Mexico.” “The New York Times later reported that Mexican forces carried out the attack and the CIA provided planning and support,” Janetsky added. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the CNN report “a lie” and the New York Times story “a fiction the size of the universe.” A CIA spokesperson called the report “false.” Both CNN and the Times said they stood by their stories. In April, two CIA agents died in a car crash in Mexico while returning from an anti-narcotics operation. “Sheinbaum has underscored Mexico’s sovereignty, a narrative that increasingly has been questioned,” said Janetsky. 

“What We Saw in Cuba Shocked Us,” New York Times Opinion Page, May 12, 2026

The U.S. blockade of Cuba is causing unacceptable levels of suffering,  two House Democrats said in a New York Times opinion piece. “As members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we spent five days in Cuba in April to better understand the humanitarian impacts of America’s monthslong energy blockade of the island,” wrote Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Jonathan L. Jackson of Illinois. “We came away shocked by the inhumane effects of the policy, whose goal appears to be strangling the economy until the Cuban people are brought to ruin and the country is available, as President Trump put it, for the ‘taking.’” They said “the U.S. blockade of fuel to Cuba, on top of the longest embargo in modern U.S. history, defies the norms of international law that provide for state sovereignty, nonintervention in domestic affairs and the right of nations to trade freely. It amounts to an economic assault on the basic infrastructure of Cuba, intended to inflict collective punishment on the civilian population by manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in which health care, running water, agriculture and transportation are no longer available.” They said they met with political dissidents, religious leaders, entrepreneurs and members of civil society groups and humanitarian aid organizations, as well as with the families of political prisoners. “Everywhere, there was agreement: America’s blockade must end, and a U.S invasion must not take place.” Cuba could be a natural trade partner, given opportunities to export U.S, agricultural products. The Cuban health system has produced advances including promising treatments for Alzheimer’s and lung cancer. Both countries could benefit from an increase in tourism. “The Cuban government can and must do more internally to improve political and civil rights, including ending arbitrary detention and mistreatment of political prisoners…,” they said. Changes the Trump administration says it wants through the blockade already are underway, such as allowing Cuban-American entrepreneurs to invest in private businesses. “Small and medium-size businesses now account for large parts of the economy and the work force,” they asserted. In the past few weeks the Trump administration has announced sweeping new economic sanctions on the basis that Cuba poses a threat to U.S. national security. “Further destruction in Cuba, including military action, would lead only to greater economic deterioration and more Cubans fleeing the island.” The U.S. and Cuba “can turn the page and enter real negotiations if they are based on mutual respect and aim to benefit the people of both countries.”  

“US Intelligence Gathering Flights Are Surging Off Cuba,” CNN World, May 10, 2026

Publicly available aviation data shows that the number of US military flights to gather intelligence off the coast of Cuba is surging. A similar pattern of flights, together with ramped-up rhetoric by the Trump administration, occurred before U.S. military operations in Venezuela and Iran, said CNN reporter Avery Schmitz. Since February 4 the US Navy and Air Force have conducted at least 24 intelligence gathering flights, most of them near the two biggest cities in Cuba, Havana and Santiago de Cuba. The data comes from Flightradar 24. Before February, “such publicly visible flights were exceedingly rare in this area,” said Schmitz, who noted that “Trump’s public utterances against Cuba hardened noticeably in the weeks before the surge.” Trump is now imposing an “expanded sanctions regime” on Cuba asserting that it represents a threat to US national security. Cuban officials say the country poses no threat to the U.S. and that they are open to negotiations. But they “also have vowed to conduct an extended guerilla war against US forces if attacked,” Schmitz said. The sanctions include travel bans targeting key economic sectors and sanctions aimed at non-US financial institutions involved in “significant dealings” with the Cuban government. 

“Venezuela’s Acting President Defends Country’s Territory and Rejects Trump’s 51^st State Remarks,” Associated Press, May 11, 2026

Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez told the press May 11 her country doesn’t plan to become the 51^st U.S. state. Earlier May 11, Fox News co-anchor John Roberts posted on X that President Trump had just told him that he was seriously considering making the South American country a part of the United States as the 51^st state. “We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history,” Rodriguez said. Venezuela is “not a colony, but a free country,” she said, according to AP reporters Molly Quell and Regina Garcia Cano. Rodriguez spoke to reporters in The Hague, Netherlands, on the final day of hearings at the International Court of Justice concerning the dispute between Venezuela and the neighboring country of Guyana over ownership of the huge Essequibo region and its enormous mineral and oil deposits. The court is likely to take months to decide which country is the rightful owner of the Essequibo. Guyana says 70 percent of its territory is at stake. 

“Facing Pressure, Trump Officials Reject Claims They’re Softening on Immigration,” New York Times, May 8, 2026

Recently appointed Homeland Security Department Secretary Markwayne Mullin paused plans to convert industrial warehouses into immigration detention centers. He told immigration agents to stop entering homes without judicial warrants. He’s “made clear from the start of his tenure as secretary that he wanted the Department of Homeland Security to stay out of the headlines and adopt a quieter approach after a tumultuous year under his predecessor, Kristi Noem,” said Times reporter Madeleine Ngo. The less aggressive stance responds to concerns that Republicans will suffer in congressional midterm elections from a Trump administration mass deportation strategy many voters  say has gone too far. But now slightly more Americans say the administration is doing too little to deport undocumented immigrants, Ngo said, citing an April Pew Research Center poll which showed 15 percent say that now,  compared to 10 percent in October. Trump officials are sending mixed signals amid the political crosscurrents. Mullin has signaled that he intends to focus on undocumented immigrants who are felons and said Americans would not see a repeat of the ICE operation in Minnesota that sparked a public backlash after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by ICE agents during protests. “At the same time, administration officials have tried to appease conservatives by repeatedly saying that no immigrants will be off the table if they are living in the country illegally,” wrote Ngo. ICE data show that daily average arrests have dropped to about 1,000, down from 1,500 in January during the ICE crackdown in Minnesota. But White House border czar Tom Homan said to those who say  President Trump is getting weak on mass deportation “you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” and that “this year will be a good year” and “mass deportations are coming.” Hardliners want ICE to go after work sites and not just focus on felons. “I don’t know how you do a mass deportation program quietly,” said Mike Howell, head of the Oversight Project, a branch of the Heritage Foundation. Trump “ran loudly on it. I don’t think it’s something to shy away from.” Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies said “the key is whether they step up work-related enforcement.”

“Trump and Brazil’s Lula Seek Reset, Easing Diplomatic Rift,” Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2026

President Trump met with leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio da Silva at the White House May 7 in an attempt to mend a relationship strained by a year of acrimony.  Their countries are the two most populous in the Americas. Trump said the talk was about trade and tariffs while da Silva said it also was about possible investments in Brazil’s vast store of critical minerals and a common interest in battling organized crime throughout Latin America. Da Silva spoke of the relationship between the two in terms of the chemistry of “love at first sight.” He said he hopes that continues. Trump said the meeting “went very well” adding that there would be more meetings. Da Silva offered to mediate U.S. negotiations with Cuba, with which Brazil has a good relationship. He also raised concerns about Trump’s policies in Iran and Venezuela, said Journal reporters Samantha Pearson, Vera Bergengruen and Natalie Andrews. "The invasion of Iran will cause more damage than Trump expects," said da Silva.  "He thinks that the situation in Venezuela is resolved. I hope it is." The reporters said “the 80-year-old da Silva, serving a third nonconsecutive term and running for reelection, faces a delicate balancing act domestically. He is eager to negotiate but is wary of appearing subservient to Trump, particularly to hard-liners in his party who view the U.S. as a threat.” 

“US Launches a Review of Mexican Consulates That Could Lead to Closures,” Associated Press, May 7, 2026

The Trump administration is conducting a review of 53 Mexican consulates in the United States, a move that may lead to closing some of them, according to a State Department official. AP reporters Matthew Lee and Megan Janetsky said no reason was given for the review, which was first reported by CBS News. They said “it is likely to further inflame tensions between the neighboring countries.” President Trump has acted more aggressively in Latin America than any U.S. president in recent decades, they noted. Recently, two CIA agents died in an anti-narcotics operation in northern Chihuahua state. In addition, Trump has threatened military action against Mexican cartels. And last week, the U.S. indicted a number of officials in the party of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on drug trafficking charges. Trump remarked earlier this week that “if Mexico doesn’t act, we will.” Mexico has by far the most extensive network of consulates in the United States, which provide Mexican citizens  with legal documents and legal and other assistance.  [Sheinbaum recently rebuffed a U.S. request to extradite the indicted Mexican officials, saying that any criminal charges against them if merited would be tried in Mexico.] 

“Federal and State Officials Discuss Closing Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’” New York Times, May 7, 2026

The controversial  immigration detention center opened last July in the Florida Everglades by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis may be too costly to keep operating. According to three sources, the Florida state government is in talks with the Trump administration about shutting it down, said Patrica Mazzei and Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times. DeSantis said a shutdown of the center Republicans call “Alligator Alcatraz” has been discussed but added that federal officials haven’t said they want it to close.  He said nearly 22,000 detainees have gone through the center and “if we shut down  the lights on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.”  Critics say the center has been operated under unsanitary and inhumane conditions. The Times reporters said their sources say the center has cost Florida hundreds of millions of dollars to operate. Its remote location has driven up the costs involved. Florida “has yet to receive the $608 million federal reimbursement it requested to run the center for about a year.” 

“Americans Are a Target in Immigration Crackdown,” Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2026

Protestors, observers and passerby taken into custody by federal agents during immigration crackdowns in cities were publicly identified as terrorists and attackers in hundreds of social media posts  by U.S. officials, a Wall Street Journal investigation found. The investigation by Brenna T. Smith, Hannah Critchfield, Brian Whitton, Belle Cushing and Emma Scott of the Journal concluded that “the Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against citizens.” Of 279 people accused by officials on the social media site X of attacking federal officers in the past year, 181 were U.S. citizens, the Journal said. Almost half of those Americans were never charged with assault, and none have been convicted at trial. “Yet names, mug shots and other identifying details posted by the government put a bull’s-eye on them,” the reporters said. “In a few cases, their home and workplace addresses were leaked online, drawing death threats.” Some of those accused took on the costs of bail, hiring a lawyer and taking days off from work to appear in court – “including cases where videos debunked the assault claims.” If they were exonerated, the government social media sites said nothing. In cities with high-profile crackdowns, federal prosecutors said they’ve been pressured to bring assault charges by Justice Department leaders even if the cases were undercut by contrary evidence or otherwise weren't worthy of prosecution. Fifteen of the Americans accused by the U.S. on social media of assault have pled guilty, 10 to lesser charges, including a man who threw rocks at a protest, a woman who brandished a knife, and a man who spit on an officer. Fifty-one more cases are pending. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said the agency is following the Constitution to uphold the rule of law and that the First Amendment “protects speech and peaceful assembly, not rioting.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said federal officers face daily threats, many from “violent left-wing rioters.” But “most of the assault allegations against American protesters posted on X were unsubstantiated,” the Journal said. David Bier of the libertarian Cato Institute said federal agents have acted as if civilians don't have the right to observe or record them. "Once you adopt those positions then everyone's a viable target," he said. U.S. officials accused 32 citizens in posts on X of intentionally using their vehicles as weapons. One person pled guilty of assault and three people had their cases dismissed. The Journal said that none of the others it identified were charged. Videos showed that a government vehicle sideswiped the car of a Chicago woman, a U.S. citizen on her way to work, the Journal said.  After the crash masked agents drew weapons and seized the woman. “Witnesses yelled, ‘You hit her,’” the Journal recounted. 

 

“Migrant Children Leave Shelter After Claims of Abuse,” April 20, 2026

Federal officials moved migrant children and adolescents out of a shelter in New York’s Westchester County after complaints that detainees there had been mistreated. Abuse was alleged  at a facility run by the Children’s Village, a shelter operator in Dobbs Ferry, a village in Westchester Country. “A lawyer who had visited the facility said that children who had been detained there had been punished with restraints and seclusion,” said Times reporter Ana Ley. Leecia Welch, legal counsel at Children’s Rights, a nonprofit that represents children in government custody, said adolescents complained about being placed alone for days in what they called “a red room.” Welch said “there’s just no question kids have been harmed. Children’s behaviors continue to worsen the longer they are detained in these facilities, and these types of harmful practices create a perfect storm for them to get seriously injured.” A spokesman for the Children’s Village said “we have zero tolerance for any form of punishment. All teens in our care deserve the highest level of care, support and professionalism from every adult responsible for their well-being.” Unaccompanied children have stayed at Children’s Village facilities in New York since 2004. “The organization tries to find relatives or suitable sponsors who can care for children until their immigration hearings,” Ley wrote.  Children’s Village, founded in 1851 to care for children legally removed from their parents, receives money from the federal government. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (O.R.R.) at the federal Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for unaccompanied migrant children. Andrew Nixon, a Health and Human Services Department spokesman, said “the safety and well-being of children in O.R.R. care is a top priority. Any credible concerns are addressed swiftly and thoroughly.”  

“U.S. Revokes Visas of Board Members at Costa Rica’s Top Watchdog Newspaper,” New York Times, May 4, 2026

Costa Rica’s leading newspaper broke stories in 2022 documenting a sexual harassment investigation  involving then-presidential candidate Rodrigo Chaves, who held a senior position at the World Bank. Chaves was elected president despite an investigation by his employer that led to his demotion. As president, Chaves has cozied up to the Trump administration, said Times reporter Emiliano Rodríguez Mega. And he has depicted La Nacíon, the publication that broke the stories, as the enemy of his administration. “He berated its journalists and accused them of wanting to damage his government,” said Rodríguez. On May 2 the U.S. State Department barred most of La Nacíon’s executives from traveling to the United States, revoking the U.S. visas of five of its seven board members without an official explanation. Analysts said the cancellations of the visas appeared to be part of a strategy to punish administration critics and reward its allies. The newspaper said in a May 4 editorial that the Trump administration aims to punish it for its editorial stance. But such cancellations are nothing new – a total of 15 Costa Rican officials and citizens have seen such revocations ever since U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the country in 2025. Rubio lavishly praised Chaves and Costa Rica and called it a model for what the Trump administration wished other nations would become. Rubio was happy with Costa Rica’s decision to ban Chinese 5G vendors including Huawei. Rubio said Chinese companies threatened the security of the region. Rubio pledged cooperation with Chaves to “impose costs on those within the country who use their positions of authority to undermine the interests of the people of Costa Rica.” A short time later the State Department canceled the visas of two lawmakers critical of the 5G decision. It did the same to Óscar Arias, a former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner who ended ties with Taiwan and recognized China. The moves against La Nacíon signal a broader effort to punish critics of Chaves, who Rodríguez wrote “sought to dismantle some of the country’s checks and balances.” The term of Chaves ends May 8. Chaves and his handpicked successor Laura Fernández, a government minister, have made major concessions to the United States including recently agreeing to accept up to 25 foreign-born deportees per week from the United States. Chaves has made no secret of the type of relationship he wants with the Trump administration. He said shortly after Trump began his second term last year that “we’ll dance to whatever tune they play.”  

“Little Clarity on Oil Money After Maduro,” New York Times, May 6, 2026

Where is Venezuela’s oil money going now that strongman President Nicolás Maduro has been removed from power? President Trump has said that the United States would control Venezuelan oil sales, and that the country would submit monthly budgets to the White House with the U.S. hiring auditors to check receipts, said Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times. The person designated by Trump to lead Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, said the public would be able to trace every dollar in oil money on a new website. “None of these initiatives, however, have thus far shed light on where Venezuela’s oil money has been going, prompting questions about the political will in Washington and Caracas,” said Kurmanaev. Washington’s plan to show how, and where, oil dollars are being spent would, even with the best of intentions, be a “gargantuan” task, he added. “Decades of plundering have left Venezuela with an opaque and deeply corrupt oil industry, which Ms. Rodríguez had largely failed to solve during her previous role running the national economy.” In this decade, one of every two dollars Venezuela earned selling oil was stolen, according to internal documents and official statistics. Much of the money has been going to Maduro insiders, Kurmanaev’s reporting suggests.  Now, for Trump, “his plan to unlock Venezuela’s massive oil potential with $100 billion of American investment hinges in part on convincing U.S. oil executives that his administration can establish the rule of law,” Kurmanaev said. For her part, Rodríguez must show that the Venezuelan oil industry benefits the many and not just the few if she is to improve her doubtful chances of winning a competitive presidential election the U.S. is pushing for next year. If she cuts back too much on the corruption that keeps more people from benefiting, she risks alienating the people in her government who have benefited from that corruption and so losing her grip on power, Kurmanaev suggests. As for the “Transparent Sovereignty” website she has promised to ensure accountability, it contains but a single entry saying that the government sold $300 million in fuel oil in March and that it was used to increase the minimum wage. It does not say who bought the oil or for how much. 

“Old Argentine Hurdles Slow Milei’s Radical Reforms,” Wall Street Journal, April 18-19, 2026

“Wild-haired libertarian” Javier Milei is at his lowest level of popularity as president of Argentina, say Samantha Pearson and Silvina Frydlewsky of the Wall Street Journal. And while Milei still has a good chance of being reelected president in October, his approval rating fell to 36.4 percent in late March, they said. That he may yet win in the fall reflects “a weak opposition rather than confidence in his administration.” Slightly more than half of Argentinians said they want a change of government next year, according to a recent poll. Milei has slashed government spending, lowered inflation and stabilized the currency, but voters have yet to see the benefit, said Benjamin Gedan, who heads the Latin America Program at the Stimson Center. Among the top concerns are low salaries and unemployment. Public spending under Milei has fallen about 30% and triple-digit inflation is now close to 30%. The production of oil and gas has surged in the country’s Vaca Muerta shale formation. Mining of copper and lithium have attracted new investment and generated needed dollars through exports. But “investment in job-creating sectors such as manufacturing and services remains weak, and unemployment has risen.” On the one hand, there’s a fast-growing export sector but on the other the domestic economy is stagnating and inflation still remains high by international standards, said Maurico Monge, Latin-American economist at Oxford Economics. Milei needs to persuade voters that his changes will eventually pay off but that trust is hard to win if the public suspects corruption. Milei is facing fresh questions about his role in promoting a digital coin that soared in value after he endorsed it on social media in February 2025 and then wiped out millions of dollars in investor’s funds when it crashed hours later. Recently published phone records show several calls between Milei and the lobbyist behind the digital coin  on the night of its launch. The records also showed calls between the lobbyist and Karina Milei, the sister of Milei who is his closest confidant. The case “will likely keep resurfacing…as it is one of the few issues on which the opposition has a specific and public line against him and his inner circle,” said Rafael Ch of Signum Global Advisers. Opposition from unions and the courts also have frustrated the Milei agenda. 

“Mexican Governor and Mayor Indicted by US for Drug Trafficking Step Down,” Associated Press, May 2, 2026

The governor of the state of Sinaloa in Mexico says he’ll will step down from his post to fight charges made against him in a U.S. indictment that charged him with taking bribes and receiving violent help winning his election in return for giving the Sinaloa Cartel free rein to commit criminal activity. Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya denied the accusations in a midnight announcement Friday, May 1. “To my people and to my family, I can look you in the eye because I have never betrayed you, and I never will,” he said. However, he said he would take a temporary leave of absence, said AP reporters Fabiola Sánchez and Isabel Debre. U.S. prosecutors indicted 10 current and former Mexican officials in connection with activities of the Sinaloa Cartel, including Moya and another politician who also denied the charges and took leave from his post. He is Juan de Dios Gámez Mendivil, the mayor of the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacán.  The U.S. has requested the extradition of those indicted. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she wouldn’t defend anyone who has committed a crime but that she will defend Mexico’s sovereignty. She said Mexico will investigate the allegations and if irrefutable evidence is found linking the ten to cartel crime they would be tried in Mexico, not the U.S. She said “this is a matter of the dignity of the Mexican people.” But the AP reporters wrote that  “many Mexicans living cartel violence almost daily in Sinaloa said on Saturday [May 2] that they welcomed news of the U.S. indictment and their governor’s resignation as a step toward accountability.” Raquel Campos, a 35-year-old doctor  in Culiacán, said “we are in an ungovernable state where the same party and the same governor essentially gave free rein to what has become a violent situation. Unfortunately it was another country that had to take action.” Sergio Estrella, a shopkeeper in Culiacán, said the alleged collusion between drug kingpins and senior officials is an open secret. “The government needs to take a different tack, to recognize how deeply drug trafficking is embedded in politics.” 

“Employee Testifies Club Knew of Risks,” Wall Street Journal (Associated Press), April 29, 2026

The owners of the legendary Jet Set nightclub whose roof collapsed and killed 236 people a year ago in Santo Domingo were fully aware that the structure had deteriorated, a former employee told a judge. The former employee, Gregory Adames, testified “they knew because I sent them photos. I sent them videos of all the problems that were there. That should not have happened, not a single person should have died there.” The owners, the siblings Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, have been accused of involuntary manslaughter and involuntary assault and battery. Victims’ families have asked that the siblings be accused of voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter carries a prison sentence of up to 20  years and involuntary manslaughter two  years. The brothers were arrested last June. Their lawyer told reporters after the arrests that “nobody wanted that to happen.” 

“Immigrants Fear Filing Taxes and It Could Cost the U.S. Billions,” New York Times, April 15, 2026

Millions of undocumented people who file tax returns fear they will be sent out of the country because the Trump administration has directed the Internal Revenue Service to give immigration officials the addresses of people subject to deportation – something the IRS has not done in the past. As a result, many are expected to stop filing tax returns, so much so that the nonpartisan Yale Budget Lab has projected lost tax revenue of about $300 billion over the next decade. “The shift sent shock waves through the I.R.S., where taxpayer privacy had been an article of faith, and through immigrant communities, where filing tax returns was seen as a way for people in the country illegally to show that they were complying with tax laws,” said Miriam Jordan and Andrew Duehren of the New York Times. Before the agreement last year between ICE and the I.R.S. to begin sharing information, unauthorized immigrants paid roughly $60 billion a year in federal taxes, estimated the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank.  Much of the money went to Social Security and Medicare, from which undocumented immigrants can’t benefit. “Many undocumented immigrants have taxes withheld in every paycheck, but experts worry some could shift into under-the-table jobs,” the reporters said. “Others with less formal earnings could now skip filing a tax return – and therefore not pay federal taxes at all.” An estimated 14 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, about 70 percent of them in the labor force, according to the Pew Research Center, based on 2023 data.  (Also posted under April summaries). 

“U.S. Commercial Jet Arrives in Caracas,” Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2026

An American Airlines jet landed in Caracas April 30, the first direct commercial flight from the U.S. since 2019. Vera Bergengruen of the Wall Street Journal said the 76-seat American Eagle flight was hailed at government celebrations in Miami and Caracas as the most visible symbol yet of what she termed “President Trump’s rapid normalization of ties with Venezuela” since the brazen U.S. military operation to bomb Caracas and remove strongman President Nicolás Maduro from power. John Barrett, who recently became the top U.S. diplomat in Caracas, said “commerce is flowing. Venezuela’s economic engine is ramping up, and we’re just getting started.”  A round-trip ticket for the three-hour flight costs $1,700. Bergengruen wrote that the Trump administration “has prioritized stability and oil and mining deals over a democratic transition, leaving most of Maduro’s political machinery intact.” The Journal reporter noted that “there was an uneasy tension behind the fanfare by U.S. and Venezuelan officials." Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said “what many Venezuelans here in Miami-Dade truly want – and what they dream of – is the day they can fly to a free Venezuela where democracy is restored, the will of the people is respected [and] institutions are strengthened. 

 “Oil Giants That Shunned Venezuela Take a New Look,” Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2026

Engineers, lawyers and others from the U.S. oil industry recently flocked to a heavily guarded hotel in Caracas to promote their plans to revive the rundown oil fields of Venezuela. “Dozens have met with a receptive Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s acting president,” said Collin Eaton, Vera Bergengruen and Kejal Vyas of the Wall Street Journal. Oil giants such as Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips that only months ago said Venezuela is too risky are reconsidering. Their assets were seized nearly 20 months ago and the former is seeking $1 billion in restitution and the latter $12 billion. “The main reason the oil industry’s attitude has shifted  is simple: the sustained jump in oil prices,” the reporters wrote. “They expect the fallout from the Iran war to keep prices at lofty levels for months, or even years.”  However, Brian Sheffield, managing partner of the investment firm Formenta Partners said he doesn’t expect significant U.S. oil industry investment in Venezuela until it holds democratic elections. But since the U.S. military attack on Venezuela in January that removed Nicolás Maduro from power more Venezuelan crude oil has been transported to the Gulf Coast. The U.S. imported 457,000 barrels a day in March, the most since January 2019 when President Trump imposed sanctions on government-run Petróleos de Venezuela.