"The operations in Iran come after a similar buildup of military assets in Venezuela cost the government approximately $31 million per day, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies" www.forbes.com/sites/alison...
NYT: "U.S. Special Forces soldiers are advising and supporting Ecuadorian commandos on raids across the country against suspected drug shipment facilities and other drug-related sites, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters."
Media outlets are reporting the US, Ecuador, and Europol "conducted joint military operations" against Los Lobos today #breakingnews #ecuador
"The Pentagon’s new inspector general has frozen a proposal to evaluate military targeting in the Trump administration’s strikes on boats suspected of smuggling cocaine from South America, telling his staff he wanted to consult department leadership" www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...
"Studies have found that at best, troop deployments in Latin America might temporarily suppress violence but do not address the structural drivers of crime, from poverty and inequality to generalized corruption" www.foreignaffairs.com/americas/per...
Reports coming out now saying the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), El Mencho, has been killed #breakingnews
"Jorge Piñón, a former oil executive who runs a team at the University of Texas at Austin tracking Cuba’s oil, said the team estimates that the country’s fuel reserves could be depleted by mid-March, triggering social unrest that could threaten the government."
“Among us longtime Cuba watchers, we’ve always resisted people using the word blockade,” said Fulton Armstrong, the former lead Latin America analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, who has been studying Cuba since 1984. “But it is indeed a blockade.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/w...
Chilean President Boric slams US visa restrictions on government officials over "regional security" concerns. The Trump administration "threatens, makes unspecific accusations, and applies unilateral sanctions," Boric says, adding Chile is "deeply respectful of national and international law."
Striking map from latest issue of Americas Quarterly: americasquarterly.org/article/the-...
As Jeri falls, it is clear that Peru is ensconced in an "impeachment trap" from which it cannot escape: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
I wrote here about why the Peruvian legislature keeps doing this:
www.gisreportsonline.com/r/peru-presi...
José Jerí is now impeached.
Peru will go to its 8th President in 10 years (with the presidential election being mere weeks aways).
"The Federal Aviation Administration is closing the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas for 10 days, grounding all flights to and from the airport." @apnews.com apnews.com/article/faa-...
Enjoyable book for anyone looking to read fiction that takes you from a 60’s revolutionary group in Venezuela to the 2002 coup attempt to Chavez’ last days through the eyes of multiple characters
“The number of .50-caliber rounds seized is small compared with that of other cartridges.But it’s the power of the .50-caliber ammunition, not its quantity, that has made it a game changer for the cartels, giving them the ability to overwhelm police and even the military” @icij.org
"Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as the superstar Bad Bunny, is a proud product of what Puerto Ricans call the 'crisis generation': those who grew up on the island in the 1990s and 2000s and have little memory of its better days." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/u...
"Keeping dollars 'under the mattress'—outside the formal economy—has long been a national ritual after wild swings in the peso, bank freezes and other capital controls destroyed Argentines’ trust in the banks over the course of decades."
"To the extent there’s any reason for Venezuelans to be optimistic, it’s because Venezuela policy is being implemented not by Trump, but by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Deny it though he will, Rubio’s approach is plainly different from the president’s."
More from @charlesflehman.bsky.social here: “The paper’s authors attribute the reversal not to any American or Canadian policy, but to a sudden fentanyl ‘drought,’ which they say may have its causes not in North America, but in China.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Good news: "provisional data from the Centers of Disease Control are from the 12-month period ending last August. Deaths dropped to an estimated 72,000 during that 12-month period, from an estimated 91,000 for the 12-month period ending August of 2024.” samquinones.substack.com/p/fentanyl-s...
"And the United States still has roughly 15,000 troops and a dozen warships in the Caribbean—including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. The U.S. has also reopened shuttered military bases in Puerto Rico" foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/29/u...
Gotta say that a "discombobulator" sounds a lot like a Looney Tunes weapon: "Trump said the professed new device was used during the elaborate operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro"
www.newsweek.com/the-discombo...
"On Jan. 21 Space Force Force Southern was formally activated [...] Under this new purview, it will coordinate space-related matters dealing with Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, where U.S. forces have been massed for months." taskandpurpose.com/news/space-f...
NYT also covered this: Even Nicolás Maduro’s Prosecutors Are Tied Up Reviewing Epstein Files www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/n...
"Still, the office has been roiled more than most by the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein mess; 125 out of its approximately 200 assistant US attorneys are currently assigned to review millions of pages of Epstein-related files. 'There are a ton of people on Epstein...'" www.vanityfair.com/news/story/s...
💯:"Who can even tell what Chavismo is at this point, other than some two million individuals linked by state jobs and self-interest. It is possible to read news sites and search the Internet for hours without understanding what happened on January 3."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Yoani Sánchez: "After 67 years of the same regime and a mass exodus of those most opposed to it, Cuba does not have a well-articulated opposition group on the island that would be capable, in the short term, of vying for power." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/o...
"But fentanyl labs are notoriously difficult to find and destroy, U.S. officials say, and Washington is still developing tools to trace the drug as it is being produced. The labs emit less chemical traces than meth labs — which can be detected by drones..."
"Instead of joint operations, Mexican officials offered counter proposals this month, including increased information sharing and for the United States to play a greater role inside command centers, according to a person familiar with the matter."
"Revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts controlled by the US government, as indicated in Friday’s order, according to the administration official. The main account, according to a second senior administration official, is located in Qatar" www.semafor.com/article/01/1...
