Relations with US

LAB's Sue Branford witnessed the failure of successive Venezuelan governments to use the country's resource wealth wisely to invest in skills and diversify from dependency on a single commodity -- oil.

There is absolutely no justification, says LAB, for the unilateral US military action against the sovereign state of Venezuela, leading to the abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, and their rendition to New York where they have been charged with a number of offences including drug trafficking.

The Trump administration has sent 12 military warships to Caribbean waters near Venezuela, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, a submarine and four amphibious vessels for landing troops. US forces have killed 83 people in extrajudicial strikes on boats since September, claiming, without evidence, that these were transporting drugs. Donald Trump has now threatened land strikes on Venezuela. Grace Livingstone author of America’s Backyard, has spoken to Venezuelan and US experts about US military build-up.

President Trump has unleashed a barrage of actions against Brazil in an attempt to prevent Lula from retaining support. He has stated his open support for previous president Jair Bolsonaro, now under indictment for inciting a coup against Brazil's democratic institutions. He has named and inveighed against Brazil's judges, notably Alexandre de Moraes. Military threats, disguised as anti-drug aid, may soon follow. Brazil now faces 50 per cent tariffs if they do not bend the knee.

By escalating deportations, ending humanitarian protections, and cutting remittances, Trump’s immigration policy threatens to destabilize Latin American economies and exacerbate humanitarian crises. Ironically, this might trigger a new wave of migration.

Florida-based influencer Pablo Figueiredo, a close ally of the Bolsonaros, is helping the push for the US to sanction Alexandre de Moraes and other justices of the Brazilian Supreme Court.

Translated from Spanish by Mike Gatehouse. The article was originally published on RadioTemblor. You can read the original here. What lies behind the stoppage paralysing...

In the run-up to Ecuador’s presidential elections on 13 April 2025, the two leading candidates, Daniel Noboa of the Acción Democrática Nacional (AND), and...

Social media platform Rumble was ordered to suspend accounts of a Brazilian far-right influencer. It did not comply. So Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered it to shut down. Now Rumble and Trump (via 'Truth' Social) are using the US courts to attack the Brazilian judiciary, accusing it of attacking free speech.

Powerful politicians in Guatemala overlooked the tiny centre-left Semilla Party who, with its offer of ‘a new Guatemalan Spring’, won a landslide victory against the UNE party of Sandra Torres on August 20.