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Kate Linthicum

@kate-linthicum

international correspondent for the Los Angeles Times

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03.07.2023
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Latest posts by Kate Linthicum @kate-linthicum

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Deported to danger: Returning migrants discover a Mexico transformed by cartels Deportees returning to Mexico find they must learn how to live in a land often controlled by cartels.

Trump is sweeping up migrants who have been in the U.S. for many years.

Deportees are now returning to Mexico after decades away -- and discovering a country transformed by violence.

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

20.01.2026 17:11 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Venezuelan 'Chavismo' revolutionized Latin America. Will it survive Maduroโ€™s fall? After the U.S. toppled Nicolรกs Maduro, Venezuelaโ€™s new leader bows to Washington, raising doubts about whether the once-defiant Chavista revolution can survive.

Now that the heir of Hugo Chรกvez's political movement is talking with the CIA and cooperating with Trump, what is the fate of Chavismo?

After the ouster of Maduro, analysts are debating whether Chavismo is finished or merely transformed. @kate-linthicum.bsky.social www.latimes.com/world-nation...

20.01.2026 17:06 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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'We just want our lives back.' Maduro's gone, but what's next for 8 million Venezuelans who fled? Nicolรกs Maduro's downfall has stirred a mix of relief, fear and uncertainty among Venezuelaโ€™s vast diaspora, many of whom were forced into exile by repression and hardship and now face the question of...

Damiรกn Suรกrez, an artist who left Venezuela in 2011, blames Maduro for what he sees as a โ€œspiritual voidโ€ among those who fled the country.

โ€œOur identity was shattered,โ€ he said, comparing migrants with โ€œplants ripped from their soil.โ€
@kate-linthicum.bsky.social
www.latimes.com/world-nation...

14.01.2026 21:01 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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'We just want our lives back.' Maduro's gone, but what's next for 8 million Venezuelans who fled? Nicolรกs Maduro's downfall has stirred a mix of relief, fear and uncertainty among Venezuelaโ€™s vast diaspora, many of whom were forced into exile by repression and hardship and now face the question of...

One of the darkest legacies of the Maduro regime was the 8 million people who fled Venezuela during his rule.

What happens to them now?

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

14.01.2026 20:21 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Trump has vowed to attack cartels. Many Mexicans welcome it. Many Mexicans, desperate for security, now back limited U.S. military help against cartels despite President Claudia Sheinbaumโ€™s vow to bar foreign intervention. President Trump has offered to send U....

This surprised me!

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum insists she will not allow the U.S. military to operate in her country.

Yet polls and interviews show that a good chunk of Mexicans actually want the Americans to come fight drug cartels.

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

05.12.2025 15:59 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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This L.A. car wash depends on immigrant labor. Can it survive Trump? The car wash industry, emblematic of California's highway culture, has long depended on immigrant labor. It's been hit hard by President Trump's deportation campaign.

Maxed out credit cards. Overdue rent. The looming threat of closure.

I spent time at an LA car wash that has been battered by ICE raids to show how American businesses that depend on immigrant labor are fairing under Trump.

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

25.11.2025 19:16 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Mexico's president was groped on the street. Now she's waging war on rampant sexual harassment Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's first female president, is pushing measures against sexual harassment after she was groped by a stranger on the street.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was groped Tuesday by a man on the street who kissed her neck and touched her chest.

โ€œIf they do this to the president," she said, "what must happen to all the young women women?"

She's calling for new measures to end harassment

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

05.11.2025 16:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 374 ๐Ÿ” 112 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 11 ๐Ÿ“Œ 11
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How Rubio is winning over Trumpworld on striking Venezuela U.S. military pressure on Venezuela is a major victory for Marco Rubio, who has swayed MAGA to his cause: toppling leftist Latin American authoritarians.

How did Marco Rubio win White House support for Venezuela strikes? He flipped the script.

To convince isolationist MAGA leaders, Rubio reframed Maduro as not just a dictator, but also a nefarious drug kingpin who is fueling crime and overdoses on US streets.

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

17.10.2025 14:48 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 5 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Is Tren de Aragua a real threat -- or a convenient villain? Trump uses Tren de Aragua to justify deportations and deadly strikes on boats. Experts say it doesn't pose a threat.

How Trump is using Tren de Aragua to justify mass deportations, deadly strikes in the Caribbean and -- some believe -- perhaps a push for regime change in Venezuela.

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

24.09.2025 18:31 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Mexico's Jewish president calls on Israel to end 'genocide in Gaza' Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, called Israel's war on Gaza a 'genocide,' marking a decisive shift in her government's foreign policy โ€” and putting it at odds with the United State...

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum -- one a handful of the world's Jewish heads of state -- is calling on on Israel to end โ€˜genocide in Gaza.โ€™

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

22.09.2025 21:27 ๐Ÿ‘ 307 ๐Ÿ” 73 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The Supreme Court today upheld the legality of immigration raids based solely on a person's race or profession, like the one on a car wash in Los Angeles that swept up Jesรบs Cruz, a migrant who had lived in the US for three decades, had four American kids and no criminal record.

08.09.2025 17:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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An ICE raid breaks a family โ€” and prompts a wrenching decision He came to Los Angeles 33 years ago. Now a man sent back to Mexico and his wife faced an impossible decision. Should she and their U.S. children join him in Mexico? Or stay in Inglewood?

The aftermath of an ICE raid.

I embedded with Jesรบs Cruz, who was recently returned to Mexico after working for 33 years in the U.S.

He and his wife now face an impossible decision: Should she and their four American children join him in Mexico? Or stay in LA?

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

08.09.2025 15:27 ๐Ÿ‘ 30 ๐Ÿ” 12 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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This Mexican city had one of the world's highest homicide rates โ€” so it fired most of its police Mexico once vowed to reform its police. That has been abandoned as the country deploys soldiers to fight cartels.

For decades, Mexican authorities promised to reform the country's notoriously corrupt cops.

But that's largely been abandoned in favor of militarization.

I wrote about what it means when there are more soldiers than police deployed across a country.

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

05.08.2025 18:14 ๐Ÿ‘ 14 ๐Ÿ” 10 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

CPAC of the left?

In Mexico, leftists and progressives from a dozen countries are convening this week to strategize about how to win elections and combat a well-organized and increasingly global far right.

x.com/katelinthicu...

31.07.2025 22:11 ๐Ÿ‘ 561 ๐Ÿ” 118 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 29 ๐Ÿ“Œ 7
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'Hell on earth.' A Venezuelan deportee describes abuse in El Salvador prison A Venezuelan man who was deported from California to El Salvador and held at one of the country's infamous prisons recounts his months in custody, recalling meager rations and the torture and beating ...

Jerce Reyes Barrios, a U.S. deportee, told The Times he was haunted by his experience in the Salvadoran prison, where he was repeatedly beaten, forced to drink contaminated water and subjected to other horrors.

@kate-linthicum.bsky.social & Mery Mogollรณn have more

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

29.07.2025 21:09 ๐Ÿ‘ 240 ๐Ÿ” 101 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 13 ๐Ÿ“Œ 4