Tensions over the Trump administration’s ongoing strikes against alleged “drug trafficking boats” near Venezuela intensified this week, alongside growing threats of direct action to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Last Friday, a fourth strike killed four people.
Prospects for de-escalation took a huge hit on Monday after Trump instructed his envoy Richard Grenell to cease all diplomatic outreach. Grenell, who secured the release of American prisoners held in Venezuela in January, seemed to have good relations with Nicolás Maduro and was a key interlocutor between the two leaders. The move paved the way for possible military escalation against the Venezuelan government itself. U.S. officials acknowledge that multiple plans for intervention are on the table, including potentially Maduro’s removal.
Though Venezuelan territory has not been directly targeted, the ongoing strikes have been widely interpreted as a clear and direct threat against Maduro. In a classified legal opinion obtained by CNN this week, the Justice Department bolstered the administration’s claim that the strikes are legal under the president’s authority in order to counter the threat posed by cartels and drug traffickers that are “invading” the United States. Legal experts warn that the opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel effectively grants Trump open-ended war powers, a concern reinforced by a Department of Defense memo provided to lawmakers last week. The full opinion has still not been provided to Congress.
On Wednesday, Democratic senators Adam Schiff and Tim Kaine led a push attempting to block Trump’s ability to wage war in the Caribbean. They argued that only Congress has the ability to decide whether the country enters a war, an argument rooted in the 1973 War Powers Act. The resolution was struck down by the Republican majority.
Meanwhile, Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused Washington of killing Colombians in a recent strike, challenging the administration’s claims that the strikes target Venezuelan gangs. While the White House dismissed his claims as “baseless” and “reprehensible,” anonymous U.S. officials confirmed that Colombians had indeed been killed in a recent strike. On social media, Petro posted that this “war for oil must be stopped by the entire world.” The Trump administration’s aggressions have always been based upon a faulty premise—the majority of cocaine comes to the United States via the Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean.
Despite U.S. pressure, Maduro has consistently called for negotiations. The Venezuelan government has reportedly been encouraging Qatar—a U.S. ally known for its role in peace negotiations—to mediate between the two countries. Yet Maduro’s peace offers have been paired with warnings. At a ceremony inaugurating a hospital on Wednesday, he declared: “If the gringos attack us, we will respond.”
Los vetos de Milei a la financiación de las universidades públicas y la salud han sido revocados por ambas cámaras del Congreso, una victoria histórica para la democracia en Argentina.
Milei’s vetoes of funding for public universities and healthcare overturned by both houses of Congress, marking a historic win for democracy in Argentina.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
In November 2019, cocalero organizations carried the coffins of victims of the Sacaba massacre, perpetrated by the de facto government of Jeanine Áñez. As Kathryn Ledebur and Bret Gustafson detail in their piece this week for NACLA, the October 19 runoff vote between two conservative candidates will most surely mean impunity for the perpetrators of this right-wing violence. (Kathryn Ledebur, The Andean Information Network)
AROUND THE REGION
BAILOUT FOR MILEI—The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it had directly purchased Argentine pesos and finalized the terms of its $20 billion currency swap with the country’s central bank. The move came more than two weeks after the Trump administration initially floated the bailout for Argentina’s floundering economy. Democratic lawmakers and U.S. farmers have decried the credit swap as a politically-motivated bailout of a tight ally, a reading bolstered by the initial justification for the deal as a lifeline for Milei after his party’s drubbing in the Buenos Aires provincial elections. But reporting in The New York Times revealed that the plan may also be a bailout for wealthy investors who have previously poured money into Argentina’s precarious economy and have recently had direct conversations with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The announcement capped a difficult week for President Javier Milei, who is expected to visit the White House in the coming days. On Sunday, one of the president’s congressional candidates, José Luis Espert, resigned following revelations that he accepted money from a prominent businessman with ties to drug traffickers. Milei’s performance the next day at a rock concert drew criticism around the world.
NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS—The Trump administration has accelerated its attacks on city and state leaders resisting its effort to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland. On Wednesday, Trump posted on social media that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker “should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers.” Both have railed against the deployment of 500 National Guard troops—including 200 from Texas—to Chicago, with Pritzker calling it an “unconstitutional invasion of Illinois by the federal government.” Pritzker has also urged residents to film federal officials and instructed state police to shield protesters from ICE. On Wednesday night, nearly 1,000 people marched in downtown Chicago in opposition to the deployment. The same playbook is being used in Portland, where local officials say that ICE’s unprovoked attacks on protesters and troop deployments have only revitalized the city’s immigrant solidarity movement. On Thursday, a judge in Chicago issued a restraining order that temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois. The same day, oral arguments were heard on a parallel case in Portland, which is expected to conclude shortly.
TRUMP AND LULA—Relations between Brazil and the United States—chilly for months—may be warming following the latest exchange between presidents Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and Donald Trump. Weeks after a brief friendly encounter at the UN General Assembly, the two leaders spoke for 30 minutes via videoconference on Monday. Trump said he “enjoyed” the “very good” call—a sentiment echoed by Brazil’s Finance Minister, who described it as “positive.” The timing is surprising: it comes just weeks after Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Trump denounced the case as a “witch-hunt” and cited it as justification when imposing a 40 percent tariff on Brazilian goods in July. Though no concrete steps were taken to lift the tariffs—an explicit request from Lula— the two leaders exchanged phone numbers and expressed hopes of meeting in person soon.
NOBOA’S MOTORCADE—Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s motorcade was allegedly attacked by protesters throwing stones on Tuesday, amid nationwide unrest over rising fuel prices and creeping authoritarianism. According to the country’s environmental minister, who filed a formal complaint for “attempted assassination,” some 500 protesters targeted Noboa. Five people were arrested and set to be charged with “terrorism,” but a judge ordered their release on Wednesday. Officials also claimed that the car was targeted with gunfire, though no forensic evidence has been provided. Ecuador’s Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), which is leading the strike against Noboa that began on September 22, rejected the government’s accusations, accusing the president of deliberately provoking protesters and warning of “possible false flag operations” aimed at criminalizing the movement. CONAIE defended the larger mobilizations as a response to “state neglect and structural exclusion."
