​The US and Venezuela conducted a joint military operation in Venezuelan territory that killed Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, better known as “Niño Guerrero”, the leader of Tren de Aragua.

US President Donald Trump announced the killing on Friday afternoon on his social media website Truth Social, accompanied with xenophobic and bigoted statements about migrants, and a video he claimed showed the assasination.

At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth. Before I returned to office, Joe Biden opened our Southern Border to millions of Illegal Criminals, and allowed this foreign army to rape, maim, and murder American Citizens with total impunity. During my Campaign, I pledged to expel these monsters from our Country, and bring Justice to the families of those they slaughtered

-US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump has often exaggerated the power of the Tren de Aragua as a rationalization for migration crackdowns, and as a justification for the US attack on Caracas that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.

Venezuela confirmed the operation shortly afterwards in a statement by the Ministry of Popular Power, saying the mission was “a joint operation between Venezuelan and U.S. security agencies in the southeastern part of Bolívar State.”

“We commend the work of all the officials, security agencies, and institutions that participated in this successful operation,” continued the public statement.

The operation represents a dramatic shift in relations between the Venezuelan and US governments. Since current interim President Delcy Rodriguez was installed by the US, she has taken a submissive attitude to US demands, unlike her predecessor.

Venezuelan security forces also undertook a special operation targeting illegal mining in the Orinoco region of Bolivar State this week ahead of a visit by potential US investors who want to exploit mineral reserves in the region.

​Most of the region is currently controlled by non-state armed actors, including Colombian rebel groups. The Venezuelan operation did not target rebel groups, however, rather a Venezuelan prison gang that exerted effective control over the Las Claritas Mine in the south of the country.

​Rodriguez seems eager to please Washington DC. But there is a large difference between prison gangs like the Tren de Aragua, and ELN and FARC dissident rebels, who have decades of experience waging asymmetrical warfare against capable military forces and relatively good relations with the Venezuelan government.

​Nonetheless, the killing is a symbolic victory for the Trump administration as well as a powerful example of the attitude the new Venezuelan client state is taking towards US policy.

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Peruvian elections go to a recount

The final round of Peruvian elections is almost certain to go to a recount that could last days or even weeks. After the initial “fast-count” showed leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez with a narrow lead over his right-wing opponent, Keiko Fujimori.

​The official “slow-count,” as of 5:42 a.m. Peruvian time, showed Fujimori with a less than 1-point lead, with 90% of the vote counted (50.3% for Fujimori, 49.8% for Sánchez).

​Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of controversial strongman President Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for crimes against humanity. She has run on a platform of security crackdowns on organized crime and extortion, as well as

​Early voting data showed Fujimori dominating the capital, Lima, carrying the urban vote and the coast, while Sánchez swept the rural vote and the mountainous Andes.

Following the completion of the fast-count, Sánchez told supporters Sunday afternoon that he maintained an “important lead that reaffirms the will of the people, who want democracy and justice.”

Fujimori described the initial results as a “technical tie.” She did not claim victory, instead telling supporters, “Every single tally sheet must be counted.”

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Bolivia passes law allowing use of military against protesters

Bolivia’s legislature has passed a law granting President Rodrigo Paz the authority to use the military to clear roadblocks set up by antigovernment protesters.

Protests, which have now stretched into their second month, have erected 100’s of roadblocks, which authorities claim is causing food and fuel shortages in the interior of the country.

The law also grants broad powers to military forces, and “presumed legality” for their actions, including utilizing violence against protesters.

The US has expressed strong support for Bolivian protesters, falsely accusing them of links to narco-traffickers in the country.

Election board rules out any possibility of fraud in first round of Colombian elections

Colombia’s top electoral authority, the National Electoral Council (CNE), confirmed the outcome of the presidential election’s first round after finding no evidence of the fraud alleged by outgoing President Gustavo Petro.

In a ruling that followed the scrutiny of votes, the CNE confirmed that far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda were elected to the second round of the election.

The scrutiny, which corrects wrongly counted tally sheets, found no evidence of mass fraud that could have changed the outcome.

President Petro Gustavo has accused the electoral board of fraud via voiding the registration of thousands of voters. Leftist presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda initially supported the claims, but quickly abandoned them after a cursory examination by his election campaign.

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Colombia’s leftist presidential candidate, Senator Ivan Cepeda, said Sunday that he does not accept the preliminary results of the first round, which saw far-right attorney Abelardo de la Espriella outperform polls to win.

In a speech before supporters, Cepeda called on electoral authorities to scrutinize the alleged last-minute registry of hundreds of thousands of citizens to the National Registry, which organizes the election rolls.

There is a discrepancy that we want to verify regarding the electoral census. And that is not just any discrepancy. we are talking about 885,000 people or ID cards. We want — because we are serious people — is that to be clarified.

Senator Ivan Cepeda

The leftist candidate, who was considered the frontrunner in the polls, said that his political party was verifying the results in response to “atypical voting” reported by an “indeterminate number of polling stations.”

“Only when the scrutiny commissions leave this matter completely clarified, clearly and rigorously clarified, will we make a statement on tonight’s results,” said Cepeda.

The leftist leader additionally claimed that hundreds of thousands of people were denied the right to vote because polling stations were moved to different locations. He also condemned “undue intervention by foreign governments,” mentioning Ecuador by name.

According to the preliminary count, Cepeda received 41% of the votes against 44% of De la Espriella, who had been trailing the leftist candidate in virtually all the polls.

President Gustavo Petro also refused to accept the results after months of clashing with the National Registry over the outsourcing of the election logistics to a company that is owned by convicted fraudsters.

Human Rights Watch called the rhetoric an “attack” of Colombia’s Registraduría, the body which oversees the National Registry.

Observers and NGOs who monitored elections stated during the pre-count that elections occurred without incident.

De la Espriella condemned Cepeda and Petro for asking that the vote be scrutinized.

“Petro and Cepeda, you two criminals—don't you dare, don't even think about disregarding the will of the people, because there is a people here who will stand up to you and defeat you,” said De la Espriella in a speech from Barranquilla, after the preliminary results of the first round were announced.

He further referred to Cepeda as a “narco-trafficker,” and Petro as a “drug addict.”

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Colombian Presidential Elections Sunday

The formerly three-way race in Colombia, according to recent polls, has likely come down to a face-off between leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda and ultra-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella.

De la Espriella has surged recently in polls at the expense of his main opponent on the right, right-wing Senator Paloma Valencia.

At PWS we did a profile on the self-proclaimed “Tiger" yesterday, but the developments keeps rolling in. Sunday night de la Espriella was endorsed by right-wing businessman and notorious vote-buyer, Alex Char.

The Char clan holds considerable power on the northern coast, including a sophisticated “get-out-the-vote” machine that has often veered into the gray areas of electoral law. The endorsement is much more than symbolic — it puts right-wing “machinaría,” built over decades, behind the ultra-right wing candidate in the second round.

Meanwhile, Sunday night Colombian journalists exposed payments of over a quarter of a million dollars to Abelardo from Chavista minister Alex Saab, now detained in the US after being extradited from Venezuela over money-laundering charges.

De la Espriella, a defense attorney, represented Saab in Colombian courts over similar charges..

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Cuba: blockade tightens as does rhetoric

Trump’s fuel blockade on the Caribbean country has depleted critical fuel and food supplies. This week, Cuba received the first of three humanitarian shipments from China, expected to total 60,000 tons of rice.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel thanked China in public statements, as well as the European Union, which has condemned the illegal US blockade.

In response the the statement, Colombian President Gustavo President called on his government to “spare what can be spared” in a humanitarian mission to Cuba as well, congratulating China on their efforts.

Rubio called Cuba a “threat” to the entire hemisphere this week, and Trump again dropped cryptic comments about a potential “deal”, or regime change. He isn’t sure.

Aggressive US “Gunboat Diplomacy” in Latin America seems well received by leaders who consider themselves Trump allies, like Milei and Bukele, but it is polarizing much of the rest of the region, who resent what they view as Imperialistic efforts to impose US priorities on the country through violence and threats.

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Bolivia: Protests aren’t ending any time soon

Growing protests in Bolivia have blocked roads across the country and effectively shut down the capital, La Paz. Demonstrators are hoping to put pressure on Bolivia’s right-wing President Rodrigo Paz to resign just six months after taking office over his government’s austerity measures, with his alignment with the US another divisive issue.

The government has increasingly demonized the mostly indigenous led movement in recent weeks as “criminals” and “narco-terrorists,” and portrayed them as led by former Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Though Morales does indeed command influence among some unions and trade groups, particularly in Cochabamba, most of Bolivia’s left abandoned the former leader after MAS splintered.

We have a feature due out this week from a reporter on the ground in La Paz about how much influence Morales really carries. More on that soon. But for now, he makes a convenient scapegoat for a government in danger of being toppled by its own people.

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The Other Big Headlines in LATAM

• In Ecuador, right-wing President Daniel Noboa took advantage of his State of the Union address to promise further extraditions of criminals to the US, and assured voters that his crackdowns on civil society are providing security gains. They are not.

• The US indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro over his role in the shooting down of a plane in Cuban airspace carrying anti-government exiles more than 30 years ago. The BBC has a piece this week explaining the incident in detail: it didn’t happen quite as DC claims.

• US Senator Bernie Moreno is advocating for the nullification of voting rights for large swathes of Colombia in upcoming elections. In a conversation with the Atlantic Council think tank, Moreno said that “I want to encourage the government, the CNE specifically, to consider voter intimidation as a disqualifying event for some of the ballot results in some parts of the country that are not secure.” Our sister-org Colombia reports has more on the topic.

• The US carried out a military training exercise in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas which included the deployment of Osprey helicopters and military personnel. It was widely viewed as a show of power in a country they attacked in January.

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Colombia’s oldest guerrilla organization, the ELN, said Tuesday that it had sentenced two captured prosecution investigators to “revolutionary prison” sentences of up to six years.

In a video, a spokesperson of the ELN’s Eastern War Front said that Jesus Antonio Pacheco and Rodrigo Antonio Lopez were spared capital punishment after being found guilty of spying and fabricating evidence against civilians.

The two officials are forensic investigators who work for Technical Investigations Unit (CTI) were kidnapped by ELN guerrillas in May last year while investigating a homicide in Arauca, one of the ELN’s strongholds in northeast Colombia.

Usually, ELN frees state employees quickly, or tried to trade them for captured guerrilla fighters.

ELN said the two men were convicted for “belonging to a state agency dedicated to committing crimes against humanity, for carrying out espionage operations against the ELN by involving civilians and minors, and for staging judicial fabrications or “false positives” against the civilian population.”

Pacheca and Lopez were sentenced to 60 and 55 months in prison respectively.

These sentenced were reduced by 60% because of the CTI investigators’ cooperation with the guerrillas’ investigations.

The ELN often hold trials in the areas it controls to settle disputes, or punish perceived wrongdoing — in many ways serving as the de facto state in the regions they control.

According to Caracol Radio, the ELN proposed to swap its captives for imprisoned guerrillas.

Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez rejected the ELN’s allegations against the officials, and stressed that the guerrilla organization “is no judicial authority” but a “drug trafficking cartel.”

The ELN’s decision to try captives for alleged crimes instead of securing their release to humanitarian organizations “is a threat against the Colombian people,” added Sanchez.

The minister called on international humanitarian organizations and the Catholic Church to mediate the release of the CTI officials as well as two police officers who have been held by the guerrilla group.

The ELN announcement came after the guerrillas sent out a press release in which they suggested that they would maintain a suspension of peace talks until after President Gustavo Petro leaves office in August.

Petro embarked on peace talks with the guerrilla group, but these negotiations collapsed.

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The organization that has kidnapped tens of thousands of people, killed scores, lied publicly more times than we can count, and terrorized millions across the world, wants you to refer to them as “NICE.”

Trump apparently floated the renaming last week, but in the meantime, official Department of Homeland Security accounts have embraced the rebranding in a flurry of public statements and social media posts.

It’s the latest PR pivot to put a less fascist face on controversial policies that inspired uprisings across the nation after Minneapolis residents stymied a DHS crackdown in the city last year during protests in which DHS agents shot three people to death, including two US citizens.

The popular rebellion was too much even for some Trump allies who support his draconian migration policies, and led to the forced resignation of then-chief Gregory Bovino as acting head of operations for the department.

Secretary Markwayne Mullin. who has since taken over the masked US police force, pledged during his March confirmation hearing to lower the DHS’s public profile, stating that his goal was for the agency to no longer be “in the lead story every day” as it recalibrates its enforcement approach.

But though splashy public round-ups have largely ceased, ICE, which is under DHS control, has largely carried on business as usual — averaging 1,286 removals a day in March. Nearly 70,000 people are currently in DHS custody. The vast majority have no criminal record.

Crackdowns on migrants more broadly have continued, including on DACA recipients. More than 6,000 children have also been detained by DHS since Trump assumed office.

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The agency has also continued stepping up its mass surveillance on US citizens and non-citizens alike.

The administration is reacting to recent polling, in which only 35% of people in the US say they support Trump’s migration policy, compared with more than 60% who “disapprove” or “strongly disapprove.”

The abysmal polling has worried many of Trump’s Republican allies as midterm elections approach. They have called for a softer public tone, worried that all the murder, racism, and kidnappings might affect their re-election chances among Latinos.

The PR charge, however, remains just that. Despite no longer conducting highly-publicized random sweeps in which they invite sympathetic journalists, as DHS did for all of 2025, Border Patrol and ICE operations have quietly continued without the fanfare.

The administration has also quietly continued tightening laws against migrants who entered the country “legally”, stacked migration courts with sympathetic judges, and stepped up other strategies for ICE to detain suspected migrants.

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As the DHS “shutdown” fails to shut down anything, Trump allies move to fund the agency for 10 more years

As we have previously reported, DHS core operations are largely unaffected by a Democratic “shutdown” that has been ongoing for weeks (TSA being the one occasional exception.) Now Republicans are using an archaic funding procedure to push a measure that would fully fund the agency for ten years through both US legislative chambers.

The bill would authorize $70 billion dollars in funding for DHS as part of reconciliation processes in a simple up-down vote that could pass with a simple majority.

The Senate has already approved the bill. It now moves to the House, where Republicans hold a razor-thin majority.

The procedure is the latest in moves in which Republicans have simply side-stepped tepid Democratic efforts to offer token opposition to Trump’s migration policies.

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The Round-Up

• The ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good after calling her a “dyke bitch” — Jonathan Ross —has been quietly relocated to a different state and allowed to resume work with DHS, according to internal documents from the organization.

• DHS is increasingly sending migrants, including asylum seekers who entered the US formally, to third countries with which they have no relationship, including dozens of Colombians and Ecuadorians who have been deported to the Congo with no way to return home.

• DHS is increasingly forcing local police to work with ICE. Louisiana now makes it a crime for police to refuse ICE cooperation. Florida created a board to punish officials who don’t comply with ICE. Texas forced nearly all sheriffs to become immigration enforcers. And the crackdown on resisting ICE is spreading.

• California’s mask law, which lawmakers knew would not affect ICE using masks, has predictably been struck down by courts. The majority of Democratic lawmakers continue to engage in theatrics and symbolic actions rather than active opposition against DHS.

• US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were told verbally by superiors weeks ago to stop entering homes without judicial warrants, marking a shift away from some of the agency’s most aggressive enforcement tactics, according to a report from Bloomberg.

• Florida may ban undocumented students from public colleges, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

• If you want to learn about all the different field agents that DHS employs, from ICE, to CPB, to HSI, the Guardian has a great visual breakdown that also describes DHS command structure.

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Political news website La Silla Vacia has been linked to a far-right propaganda campaign that has been paid for by some of Colombia’s most reactionary corporations.

The campaign, “Project Jupiter,” has been organizing “democracy workshops” for tens of thousands of workers and has been publishing content online to generate “fear / indignation / uncertainty” among voters ahead of the presidential vote.

Among Project Jupiter’s “digital agencies” is La Silla Vacia, according to a flyer that was made public by Raya magazine and the investigative journalism program of public television network RTVC.

In an audio, the director of the propaganda campaign, former Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez, said that “we have digital agencies—namely [libertarian think tank] Libertank and La Silla Vacia—which are enabling us to scale up at an incredible rate.”

Project Jupiter was able to reach 17 million people in all of Colombia’s 32 provinces because of the collaboration of the digital platforms, which also included several public relations firms, Bermudez said.

When asked about the collaboration with La Silla Vacia, the former foreign minister told Raya that Project Jupiter was allowed to publish their content on platforms owned by the political news website.

In a response, La Silla Vacia denied being a part of the propaganda efforts that seek to promote libertarian ideals and dissuade people from voting for the leftist frontrunner in the elections, Ivan Cepeda, and his far-right opponent Abelardo de la Espriella.

According to the website, “these so-called journalistic exposés are part of a smear campaign.”

The scandal broke days after the campaign of far-right candidate Paloma Valencia published images of a meeting between campaign managers and investor of Banco Santander, including La Silla Vacia founder Juanita Leon.

In response to those images, Leon said that she accidentally ended up at the campaign meeting.

La Silla Vacia had already come under fire after Cepeda accused them of being part of an opposition campaign to smear him, a claim also denied by Leon and her influential website.

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Ecuadorian-Colombian border dispute continues to escalate: Petro threatens legal action

As elections approach in Colombia, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa is ratcheting up attacks on his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro. Following Ecuador raising tariffs on Colombian imports into the country to 100%, Naboa has now accused Petro of indirect connections to the accused Ecuadorian narco Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito.”

Naboa claims that Petro knows members of the Ecuadorian opposition, who in turn know Fico. He presented no proof for his admittedly somewhat childish accusation.

Petro has denied the claims and threatened to sue Noboa for libel. Under Ecuadorian law, libel is illegal and punishable by up to a 6-month jail term, though it is unlikely prosecutors would go after a sitting president.

Colombia has imposed retaliatory sanctions on Ecuador.

Meanwhile, the trade war between the two countries is increasing clandestine smuggling of goods across the border as transporters and merchants try to avoid the sanctions.

Residents in the borderlands say the increased traffic of irregular crossings is aiding cocaine smugglers who operate in the region. Noboa and Petro have both accused each other of aiding criminality on their respective frontiers.

The story bears watching as Ecuador conducts aggressive military operations that have at times spilled over into Colombia and violated the human rights of Ecuadorians. They have also not resulted in security gains within Ecuador.

US eases sanctions on Venezuela as IMF and World Bank say they will open up credit lines

The United States has eased sanctions on Venezuela’s central bank that the country imposed in 2019. The moves allow for formal financing between the two countries as well as increased US dollar flows for trade.

Now that Venezuela is effectively a US protectorate, The US treasury department issued a licence authorizing commercial links with the Venezuelan state-run central bank and a number of other major state-run Venezuelan financial institutions.

The sanctions had put considerable pressure on Venezuelan international finance, forcing the country to find ways to import US dollars. They also greatly exacerbated the country’s ongoing financial crisis.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced Thursday that they would also resume business with the country in an announcement that was followed shortly by the World Bank as well.

Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who was installed by the US after former president Nicolas Maduro was captured in an attack on Caracas by US forces, hailed the announcements as “a grand diplomatic victory for Venezuela.”

It would seem that the US has formally decided Venezuela is open for business.

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Peruvian election update: it ain’t over yet

After challenges by candidates, balloting problems in Lima, and the arrest of at least election officials, Peru’s electoral authority has announced that presidential election results will not be finalized until at least mid-May.

With 93 percent of ballots counted, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori leads with 17 percent, according to officials.

The second-place position, however, has been fraught with dramatic turns as well as dramatic accusations. Left-wing candidate, Roberto Sanchez, on 12 percent, and ultra-conservative Rafael Lopez Aliaga close behind on 11.98 percent — they are separated in the latest count by a mere 13,000 votes.

There are currently 15,000 ballots being challenged.

Aliaga, the ultra-right former mayor of the capital Lima, has been the most vocal critic of the delay. He has alleged fraud without presenting evidence and called for the election to be annulled.

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DHS is spying on US Citizens with powerful Israeli cyber weapon

DHS is using powerful spyware cyber weapon Graphite to surveil suspected migrants, journalists, activists, and critics, according to an official DHS response to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform after they requested information on surveillance by ICE.

Graphite is a more modern and powerful version of Pegasus, which is banned in the United States. The app can be deployed remotely, physically, embedded in texts or photos, or installed over networks, and can hide on smartphones and record user activity, including within encrypted apps, and then delete itself.

His letter, dated April 1, was a belated response to an October inquiry from three Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressing concern about the agency’s potential use of the spyware Graphite, which was created by Israeli company Paragon Solutions.

According to NPR, which reviewed the documents, DHS wrote that ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is using various tools as part of its mission to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations, “particularly those involved in the trafficking of fentanyl.”

Justifying the decision to spy on US citizens, the agency stated ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is using various tools as part of its mission to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations, “particularly those involved in the trafficking of fentanyl.”

DHS has used false claims about gang affiliations, terrorism, and fentanyl to justify surveillance of both activists and migrants in the past. Perhaps most worryingly, however, the agency is deploying the tool through the use of administrative warrants, which do not require a judge to sign off, but rather can be approved by low-level officials within the agency.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., one of the authors of the request for information about ICE’s use of spyware, told NPR in a statement, “The response I received from ICE makes one thing clear. They are moving forward with invasive spyware technology inside the United States.

“The people most at risk, including immigrants, Black and brown communities, journalists, organizers, and anyone speaking out against government abuse, deserve more than secrecy and deflection from an agency with a long record of overreach and abuse,” Lee’s statement said.

The news follows confirmation that DHS has been assembling a database of activists and critics, with help from infamous tech company Palantir, as part of a list of “potential terrorists.”

The agency has also been using data harvested from other government agencies to identify critics and migrants, as well as private data brokers.

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ICE shoots another man. They swear this time they’re telling the truth about it

ICE shot another man last week in Stanislaus County, California. Carlos Ivan Mendoza was in critical condition at the hospital after a shooting involving federal agents Tuesday morning in Stanislaus County, the sheriff’s office said.

Federal agents claimed the man tried to “weaponize” his vehicle and run them over. It is a claim DHS has made often over the last two years. Often, they are lying.

DHS agents have shot 14 people since Trump took office, killing at least 4. Agents claimed that all of their victims but one tried to run them over, but dashcam and body camera footage have often disproven their claims.

In related news, new surveillance camera footage released by Minneapolis officials shows that DHS lied about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the city earlier this year.

DHS agents claimed that Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and his cousin ambushed agents, and they were forced to shoot him in self-defense. Newly released footage showed that DHS officers and higher-ups “gave false testimony,” according to Minneapolis officials.

The video directly contradicts claims that DHS agents were “violently beaten” by Sosa-Celis and his cousin.

We at PWS have lost track of how many lies we have caught DHS in. Maybe we should start a weekly infographic documenting that.

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The Round-UP

• The United States has admitted 4,499 refugees into the country since October — all but three were South African. Asylum has been effectively dismantled within the US.

• ICE is attempting to force Reddit to reveal the identity of an anonymous user who has criticized the agency. The Intercept obtained a subpoena issued by federal prosecutors to the management of Reddi. Representatives of the site have been ordered to appear before a grand jury with an April 14 deadline set in an attempt to compel Reddit to volunteer personal data and the identity of a user who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the platform. It is entirely unclear what “illegal” activity this specific user is supposed to have engaged in, other than simply expressing opinion and repeating information that had already been widely published.

• We’ve already reported that DHS is taking a softer approach after their decisive defeat by activists in Minneapolis resulted in national outrage, but the new DHS director confirmed as much in internal comments this week. NPR has more details.

• A group of 36 House Democrats has accused ICE of “disappearing“ people in their custody, as information on their whereabouts is often unavailable to their attorneys or loved ones, much less the public. DHS has responded that they cannot update their localizer software for detainees as long as the “shutdown” is in effect. All of their other activities, miraculously, are unaffected by the symbolic block.

• Migrants of irregular status are dying rather than seeking medical care and risking detention by ICE. The family of Jesús Juárez Cruz told the story of the slow death of the Mexican national, likely by alcohol poisoning, to El País. His family blames US President Donald Trump for his lack of ability to seek care.

• ICE is withdrawing from airports. They didn’t accomplish anything, but they are declaring “mission accomplished” and going home. The “shutdown”, which absolutely did not affect them, continues. More than 800 migrants were detained at airports during their deployment.

• Information continues to emerge about DHS plans to buy and rent warehouses across the country to be used as impromptu detention centers. Human Rights Watch put out a long report this week about the risks these centers pose to the rights of detainees. Meanwhile, some communities are blocking DHS from opening the concentration camps.

Resistance Photo of the Week

A DHS bid to rent a warehouse near Hagerstown, MD was fallen cancelled after tribal opposition to the project. Protests lasted for weeks before the city cancelled building permits.

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Cuba releases political prisoners as oil blockade continues: Russian tankers make deliveries

The Cuban government has begun releasing what it says will be 2,010 prisoners in a move that comes while the Trump administration puts extreme pressure on the island’s government with a suffocating oil blockade that has caused shortages and blackouts.

The Cuban announcement said the pardons were a “humanitarian gesture” in connection with Holy Week and didn’t mention mounting pressures with the U.S.

The US has been pressuring Cuba with an oil blockade that has paralyzed large sections of the country and created a humanitarian emergency.

As the US faces rising oil prices domestically, while it wages war with Iran, however, Trump has ended sanctions on Russian oil vessels in Latin America.

Russia has sent two oil tankers to Cuba in recent days to alleviate the ongoing energy crisis.

The US has been unclear about its intentions in Cuba in recent months. In mid-March, Trump stated he would “have the honor of taking the island.” Trump has threatened to remove the current leadership in Cuba. But he has also suggested he could work with the current government if the island opens itself to US investment and reforms.

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US lifts sanctions on Venezuelan interim President

The US has ended sanctions on Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez.

Rodriguez assumed office after the US captured former President Nicolas Maduro in January.

In comments to the press shortly after the announcement, US President Donald Trump said that Rodriguez is “doing a great job and is working with the United States very well.”

The lifting of sanctions is the latest sign of warming relations between the Trump administration and Rodríguez’s team.

Her government has been largely subservient to US requests and interests since January, and has initiated efforts to open the mining and oil industries to US companies.

The US last month formally resumed diplomatic relations with Venezuela, reopening the US embassy in Caracas.

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Peru heads to elections, and Peruvians hate all the candidates

Peru will vote for a new president on April 12, amid a deep political and institutional crisis.

The Andean country held its last presidential elections in 2021, in which Pedro Castillo won. However, Castillo remained in power for only a year and a half. Since then, Peru has had three presidents, two of them chosen by Congress.

Current leader José María Balcázar is not eligible to run, as presidents need to have completed a full 5-year term to be reelected.

Peru’s crisis of representation is reflected in the highly fragmented field of candidates in the election: an unprecedented number of 35 contenders will compete. A 36th candidate died in a car crash on March 15.

None of the candidates surpass 13% of vote intention. A presidential candidate needs at least 50% of the vote to win, so there will likely be a runoff in June.

Keiko Fujimori, former congresswoman and daughter of the controversial late president Alberto Fujimori, leads the crowded field. This is her fourth presidential run.

As Peru runs through presidents, however, Congress has grown in power and become more corrupt.

The legislature has actively protected illicit economies by enacting a series of dubious reforms between 2023 and 2025. Colloquially known as the “pro-crime laws,” these have severely curtailed the investigative capacity of Peru’s Attorney General’s Office.

Congress holds a 3% approval rating in the country.

Other stories in LATAM

• The US is continuing military operations in Ecuador, despite accusations that Ecuadorian forces bombed a dairy farm and tortured workers there. Last week SOUTHCOM announced a joint land operation, presumably against narcotraffickers on the northern coast. These claims should be taken with skepticism.

• Residents in Central Mexico are blaming state owned oil company PEMEX for a massive oil spill off the coast which has killed sealife in the region. They accuse the government of lying about the origin of oil which has destroyed fishing and contaminated beaches. The spill of off the coast of the southern Veracruz state has spread more than 373 miles and into seven nature reserves.

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National Blackouts in Cuba as aid flotilla arrives

Cuba suffered an island-wide blackout on Sunday for the second time in a week on Saturday night. A US-imposed oil blockade has prevented the Caribbean nation from running generators which help support Cuba’s power grid and created a humanitarian crisis.

A coalition of international socialist groups also arrived in Cuba over the weekend, bringing with them solar panels, food supplies, and basic medicines. A flotilla carrying a larger shipment of humanitarian aid from Mexico is set to arrive in the following days.

The collapse of the electric grid also inspired protests, and some frustrated residents attacked Communist Party headquarters in the town of Morón, eventually setting fire to the building.

US President Donald Trump last week suggested there could be a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, and confirmed reports that the two countries have been holding bilateral talks.

The Cuban government has announced that they are preparing “to defend” the country from any potential US attack.

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More details emerge in DEA investigation into Petro in Colombia

The US Drug Enforcement Agency leaked information about two investigations into Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Documents sent to the Associated Press state that the DEA considers Petro a “priority target” in ongoing drug trafficking investigations.

The DEA has provided no evidence to support the allegations. Petro’s party meanwhile claims the leak is an attempt at campaign interference by the US ahead of Colombian Presidential elections which begin in May.

We broke down the details of the accusations, and the history of drug accusations against Petro by right-wing opposition politicians in Colombia, in this week’s Pirate Wire Radio episode.

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Mexican teen in DHS custody found dead

A 19-year-old Mexican national died while being held in detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency has confirmed.

DHS claimed that Royer Perez-Jimenez was found “unconscious and unresponsive” on Monday at the Glades County Detention Center in Florida.

“He died of a presumed suicide; however, the official cause of his death remains under investigation,” the statement adds. DHS has lied about the circumstances of deaths of people in their custody before.

Perez-Jimenez is the youngest prisoner to die in ICE custody since Donald Trump returned to office.

Perez-Jimenez was found in his cell at 02:34 on 16 March, according to ICE, which added that prison staff “immediately” began life-saving efforts.

The Mexican government denounced the death, and the deaths of other Mexican citizens, and demanded a full investigation.

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This piece is republished from our sister org Colombia Reports

At least two US federal prosecutors have opened preliminary investigations into Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, the New York Times (NYT) reported on Friday.

According to the US newspaper, the criminal investigations were being conducted by the US attorney’s offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and would be supported by agents of Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The investigations have been trying to establish, among other things, if Petro has met with drug traffickers and if his campaign sought mafia campaign donations, three anonymous sources told the NYT.

The investigations would be in their early stages, according to the US newspaper.

It is unclear if the investigations will result in criminal charges, the NYT added.

The criminal investigations followed unsubstantiated claims of US President Donald Trump, who called his Colombian counterpart a “drug trafficking leader” amid tensions over the US involvement in the Gaza genocide and US air strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea.

The Trump administration subsequently put Petro on a blacklist for drug traffickers, claiming that the Colombian president “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”

Petro has arguably been the most active Colombian politician when it comes to fighting the influence of organized crime in politics.

In response to allegations made by the president when he was a senator, more than 80 congressmen and governors were sent to prison because of their ties to paramilitary groups that controlled Colombia’s cocaine exports at the time.

The Truth Commission that was set up as part of a peace process with the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC confirmed that these paramilitary organizations and their drug trafficking associates worked together with US intelligence agencies like the CIA and the DEA.

The Trump administration has tried to undermine the war crimes tribunal that came with the peace process since taking office for the first time in 2017.

Supporters of Petro have framed the investigation as an attempt by the US to meddle in upcoming Colombian presidential elections.

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At a televised cabinet meeting Monday evening, Colombian President Gustavo Petro revealed the discovery of a 250 kilogram (552 pound) bomb in the municipality of Ipiales, Colombia, near the Ecuadorian border.

“We’re being bombed,” he said, explaining that the explosive artifact was Ecuadorian in origin, and linked to recent bombings Ecuador has carried out near the Colombian border in cooperation with the US military.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa denied the accusations repeatedly even as photos of the bomb circulated in the press and social media.

The bomb was discovered by a resident of Ipiales, who told AFP that he discovered the unexploded ordinance “50 or 60 meters” from his home after seeing Ecuadorian aircraft conduct a bombing near the border on March 3.

Since Monday, Petro has insisted that the bomb is from Ecuador, and continued to provide new information to support those claims, even as Noboa doubled down on his denials.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been strained since late last year, when Ecuador imposed tariffs on all Colombian goods as Noboa blamed Colombia for recent increases in crime in Ecuador.

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High-level meeting presents new hypothesis

In an effort to defuse the conflict, Colombia’s Defense Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and Ecuador’s Defense Minister, Gian Carlo Loffredo, held a 90-minute discussion about the incident on Wednesday evening, according to statements from both governments.

Following the meeting, Colombian Minister of Defense Pedro Sanchez said the explosive was the same as explosives used by Ecuador in a military action on March 3 near the Colombian border.

Sanchez wrote that “the leading theory suggests that the bomb did not enter Colombian territory deliberately.”

Sanchez and Ecuadorian officials said their preliminary theory is that the bomb was dropped on the Ecuadorian side of the border, just a few meters from Colombia, and after it failed to detonate “bounced” into Colombian territory.

“When (the bomb) fails to explode, it continues on its trajectory due to the laws of physics.” That could explain why “it strayed several meters into Colombian territory,” said Carlos Fernando Silva, commander of the Colombian Air Force, at a press conference following the meeting.

“We do not believe anyone did this deliberately, but rather that it was due to a physical effect,” he added, explaining that the device weighs 250 kilograms and measures approximately 1.50 meters.

Although Ecuador did not specifically admit that the explosive device originated from their military forces, they did not deny statements made by Colombian officials following the meeting.

Both countries have agreed to a full investigation, with details to be made public in upcoming days.

Noboa has promised more bombings against non-state armed actors and organized crime groups in the borderlands in operations carried out in cooperation with US military forces.

The device was detonated in a controlled manner by explosives experts, Sánchez reported.

“The investigation is ongoing to determine how and why that explosive device ended up on Colombian territory,” he added on X.

In 2008, Ecuador and Colombia experienced a similar diplomatic crisis following a bombing ordered by then-Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Ecuadorian soil, where one of the commanders of the now-defunct FARC guerrilla group was killed.

Amid statements about the bomb, Petro mentioned the existence of “27 charred bodies,” raising questions about whether the two incidents were related.

Minister Sánchez clarified that the president was referring to another incident in January, when three explosions at cocaine laboratories killed at least 14 people in a border area.

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US convicts 9 in “Antifa trial.” It’s a grave violation of the 1st amendment

The first US federal case involving protesters designated as “terrorists” by the administration wrapped up this week. It was a mixed verdict, but overall a victory for the government against a group of left-wing protesters that prosecutors claimed were “an antifa terror cell.”

Nine protesters at a “noise protest” outside of an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas faced 65 charges ranging from providing material support for terrorists to attempted murder. An Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck while responding to the protest. The officer survived.

Benjamin Song, who shot the responding officer, was convicted for attempted murder and the illegal discharge of a firearm. But that isn’t what raises eyebrows about the case.

Prosecutors alleged a conspiracy between the nine defendants, one of whom was not even at the nighttime protests. The administration classification of “antifa” as a “domestic terror organization” is an informal designation that carries no legal weight.

The right of dissent is clearly protected by the 1st amendment in the US. Nonetheless, the government framed defendants as a “dangerous terrorist cell” who “planned an ambush” of DHS personnel and police.

Defendants say the demonstration was meant to be peaceful, and that 8 of the protesters were completely uninvolved in the shooting.

Eight defendants were convicted of rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and use and carry of an explosive — the explosive being fireworks deployed during the protest.

The defendant who was not at the protest, Daniel Sanchez Estrada was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record. Estrada was moving “zines”, pamphlets about social organizing and leftist ideas — documents whose publication and possession are clearly protected by the 1st amendment as well, at least in theory.

He and his wife, Rueda, were also convicted of conspiracy to conceal documents, and providing material aid to a terrorist organization.

The government has called it the first domestic terrorism case targeting antifa since President Trump declared the ideology a domestic terrorist threat last year. Experts say the outcome could determine the playbook for how the Trump administration targets left-wing movements.

“Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization that has been allowed to flourish in Democrat-led cities — not under President Trump,” read a statement from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Today’s verdict on terrorism charges will not be the last as the Trump administration systematically dismantles Antifa and finally halts their violence on America’s streets.”

Antifa is neither an organization nor “terrorists”. It is simply an orientation: being willing to resist fascism. That is clearly considered threatening to the United States.

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ICE has been racially profiling: a trend that has led to the detainment of US citizens, finds Oregon judge

ICE agents testifying in court in Oregon as part of a class-action lawsuit against the agency for detaining people without warrants admitted to the court that the agency imposes arrest quotas on its agents.

The lawsuit was filed by immigration non-profit Innovation Law Lab. The group claims that warrantless arrests form part of a pattern of racial profiling and unconstitutional arrests. The judge sided with plaintiffs, ordering ICE to end the practice.

Testimony in a December hearing in the case provided a remarkable acknowledgment by an ICE officer of how daily target arrest numbers played out at the local level, and appeared to contradict the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials’ repeated claims that officers didn’t have quotas. Trump adviser Stephen Miller has publicly said the administration’s target was 3,000 daily arrests. The hearing also appeared to be the first time that ICE disclosed in court its use of an app called Elite for operations.

According to court testimony of ICE officials obtained by the Guardian, the Elite app is “kind of like Google Maps” and shows how many individuals with an “immigration nexus” are believed to be in a certain area. Another officer testified that a “nexus” could mean any history of contact with immigration officials, which could include a naturalized US citizen.

Elite, JB said, helped officers identify areas with a more “dense population”, meaning a higher likelihood of finding people to detain. Another agent described the Woodburn complex as a “target-rich” area. JB said he did not know how Elite “leads” were generated, saying the app “pulls from all kinds of sources”.

Officials also added that the app is often inaccurate and that mistaken arrests were made often, especially for Spanish speakers.

According to a report by 404 Media, a tech news site, the app was built by Palantir, the data analytics firm that has contracts with the DHS and the Department of Defense. The app is one of many that have reportedly been used by DHS which collects information not merely on potential targets but also on activists and protesters.

Accusations of racial profiling by DHS has become commonplace. A district judge in Minnesota recently ruled that the practice was widespread there as well.

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The Round-Up

• Eleven people have died in DHS custody since January, meaning 2026 is on track to beat 2025 as the deadliest year for detainees in the agency’s custody in its existence. Two died last week: Emmanuel Damasm a 56-year-old asylum seeker from Haiti, and Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, a veteran of the Afghan war. Damasm died in U.S. ICE custody after staff allegedly denied him treatment for a tooth infection.Paktiawal’s death is currently under investigation.

• Before DHS officers killed two US citizens in Minnesota, they killed Ruben Ray Martinez, a San Antonio man that DHS claimed attacked officers with his car. New video of the incident shows that DHs, as in many previous cases, are lying liars. The newly released video shows that DHS are blatantly false, surprising exactly no one.

• The administration of Donald Trump has toned down migration rhetoric in recent weeks, as we have reported before. Last week, they sent a memo to lawmakers in Washington suggesting that Republicans stop speaking of mass deportations and instead focus their rhetoric on ICE detentions of convicted criminals.

• Department of Homeland Security leaders removed top privacy officers who objected to mislabeling government records to block their public release, according to a new report by WIRED.

• New details emerged in how DHS is investing in mass-surveillance software and equipment thanks to documents the government claimed were “hacked.”

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Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” summit advocates for military actions in Latin America

One day after US forces assisted with a land strike on a compound in Ecuador allegedly used as a training facility for non-state armed group Comandos de la Frontera, US President Donald Trump launched his “Shield of the Americas” summit with right-wing leaders in the region. At the event, Trump stressed further military actions against organized crime groups, which he compared to terrorists. He also announced the creation of the “Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition,” a group of 12 signatory nations from Latin America and the Caribbean which signed a pledge to take aggressive measures against narcotrafficking.

“The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our military. So we have to use our military. You have to use your military,” Trump told the audience of Latin American leaders.

Trump promised further use of the US military in the region. “We’ll use missiles. If you want us to use a missile, they’re extremely accurate — pew! — right into the living room, and that’s the end of that cartel person,” Trump said.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has strongly advocated for the use of US military power in Ecuador since he assumed office in 2023.

The summit seems designed to normalize US military attacks in Latin America, such as those being carried out on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific oceans, which have now claimed at least 158 lives.

Combined with the ground strikes in Ecuador, the US is clearly ushering in a new age of violent military attacks in the region.

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US wants Venezuelan gold and rare earth minerals

Both US officials and Venezuelan lawmakers have given a green light to gold extraction in the country by US private companies.

The US also removed sanctions on the Venezuelan state-owned mining company Minervan, which, in theory, will allow Venezuela to sell gold in US markets.

The decision follows high-level visits by US officials to Venezuela. Trump and other US officials have also spoken of mining rare earth minerals in Venezuela.

The US has been desperate to find viable new sources of rare earth minerals that are vital for industries ranging from defence to aerospace and artificial intelligence, including building precision-guided missiles, radars, sensors, and satellite systems.

China currently controls more than 90% of viable rare earth mineral deposits in the world, a situation that the US views as a security threat.

Mining the minerals in Venezuela, however, would be fraught with grave security risks. Many of the regions where mineral deposits lie are controlled by armed groups, including the National Liberation Army (ELN), a Colombian left-wing rebel group that would resist any incursion into their territory vigorously.

The US is unlikely to put “boots on the ground” in southern Venezuela, and Venezuelan security forces are clearly not up to the task of a head-to-head fight with ELN. Will the US greenlight private military contractors in the fight?

What would that look like? This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to the crew at PWS, and for more reasons than we can count. This story bears close watching in the coming weeks and months.

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Congressional elections in Colombia reflect growing polarization in the country

Moderate and centrist parties lost significantly in Congressional elections as left-wing far-right parties made big gains in Colombia’s elections on Sunday.

The change in the legislature occurs just before presidential elections in May, and will likely complicate incoming administration efforts, no matter who wins. An increased number of seats from radical parties makes compromise on any agenda much less likely and reflects growing polarization in the country, as the administration of Gustavo Petro, the first leftist president in Colombia’s history.

Our friends at Colombia Reports have all the details, including how this affects ongoing presidential primaries.

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The other big headlines in LATAM

• In addition to mining agreements, the US and Venezuela formally agreed to renew diplomatic ties this week. Venezuela’s diplomatic embassy in Washington was closed in 2019.

• Ecuadorian troops seized a 35m-long ‘narco-sub’ hidden in a nature reserve near the Colombian border. They also found a camp nearby, which they said was being used by criminals as a logistics hub to prepare vessels for smuggling drugs.

• At least 33 people have been injured in a nightclub bombing in the coastal town of Trujillo in northern Peru, with minors among those hurt in the explosion. Authorities say that the attack took place in the early morning hours on Saturday, with an explosion ripping through the club. The bombing is still being investigated.

• Mexico will deploy 100,000 security personnel for the World Cup. Mexico, which hosts alongside the United States and Canada, will stage World Cup fixtures across three cities — including Guadalajara, the capital city of Jalisco, where the violence began last month, and more than 12,000 people are reported missing.

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The United States, in cooperation with the Ecuadorian military, on Friday bombed what the US Department of War claims was a training camp for a criminal armed group in northeastern Ecuador.

Officials from both countries claimed that the attack, which was carried out with aircraft and drones with naval support, targeted a camp run by Comandos de la Frontera, an armed group based in southern Colombia made up of both former FARC fighters and paramilitary forces who fought on the side of the government during the country’s 53-year civil war.

The alleged camp was situated very near the Colombian border in a region which has seen a dramatic rise in violence in recent years, principally due to narcotrafficking that originates in Colombia — the largest cocaine producer in the world.

Neither the US nor Ecuadorian military forces reported any casualties in the bombing, video of which was released by both countries as part of what security forces have dubbed “Operation Total Extermination.”

It is the second such joint operation in a week. US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has been bombing vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific oceans since last year, attacks which have killed at least 150 people.

But land bombings within Ecuador represent a sharp escalation in US aggressiveness in Latin America. These bombings occur as the administration of US President Donald Trump launches “Operation American Shield,” a security initiative which the White House describes as combating “cartels, narco-terrorism and Chinese influence” in the Americas.

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“At Ecuador’s request, the Department of Defense took specific action to advance our shared goal of dismantling narco-terrorist networks,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a statement on social media.

Ecuador called the US “a key ally in the struggle” to launch domestic strikes on criminal organizations within the country, in a statement immediately following the attack.

Both the United States and Ecuador have talked of cooperation in the short term within Ecuador, but neither government has released details about what that will mean in practice.

As part of those efforts, Trump invited right-wing presidents in the region to a conference in Miami this weekend. Neither Colombia nor Mexico were invited, the two countries with the largest presence of armed non-state actors in Latin America, as well as considerable illegal drug production.

The new initiative will be led by former secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who was fired this week from the position after her disastrous interview before the US Congress.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has made military crackdowns on organized crime a cornerstone of his administration, so far without positive results, as the security situation continues to worsen within the country.

Noboa has pushed for US military bases in Ecuador, currently prohibited by Ecuadorian law. Last year, he initiated a popular referendum meant to reverse that policy. It was overwhelmingly defeated by voters.

Noboa’s government also recently imposed tariffs on Colombia, its largest neighbor, accusing it of not doing enough to combat drug trafficking, complicating security cooperation between the two countries.

Colombia holds elections in just a few months, and the increasing power of armed groups within the country has become a contentious issue domestically as well as a source of contention with the Trump administration, particularly US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Last year Trump threatened to bomb targets within Colombia, but relations between the two countries improved after a visit by Petro to the White House earlier this year.

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DHS is killing people at historic rates, and lying about it

According to the official data, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) killed more people in the last year than in any year since the agency was created, either during operations or while detainees were held in their custody.

The true numbers, however, are much higher. DHS is even deadlier than they let on.

Internal reports state that 56 people have died in ICE detention since US President Donald Trump took office. A total of 55 people died in ICE custody during Trump’s entire first term, making 2025 four times deadlier than any previous year.

Those totals, however, exclude detainees who died while being apprehended or in the care of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Official numbers from both agencies over the last year have also omitted incidents in which a suspect was killed, and included false DHS reports about migrants who died under suspicious circumstances.

For example, Lunas Campo died of asphyxiation while in ICE custody in January. ICE initially ruled the death a result of “medical distress” in a Jan. 9 press release. The death was later ruled a homicide by medical examiners.

And the rate of deaths is increasing. In January and February, six people died in as many weeks at the same Texas detention center. Lawyers representing detainees call it an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis” in the region.

Deaths have also occurred indirectly from DHS actions, such as the death of a blind Rohingya refugee last week in Buffalo, NY.

DHS initially detained Nurul Amin Shah Alam after responding to a call from neighbors who spotted him wandering their neighborhood. After realizing they had no basis to deport him, DHS released him five miles from his home.

Shah Alam, who was legally blind and did not speak English, needed a walking stick and died trying to make his way back to his house in the frigid Buffalo winter.

He wandered the streets of Buffalo for six days before dying Tuesday night on a sidewalk downtown.

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Mutual aid continues helping those affected by DHS surge

Though the Trump administration claims that the surge in Minneapolis has come to an end, DHS operations are still ongoing in the city. The financial fallout of those operations as thousands avoid work or shopping for fear of detention has been devastating.

But there is a silver lining to the cloud: mutual aid networks in the city that were built in previous years, and expanded considerably since Trump assumed office, are helping to support thousands of people.

The city government now estimates 76,000 residents — or about 20% of the city’s population — have urgent needs in terms of lost wages, food insecurity and an inability to make rent, among other things.

Most of the mutual aid networks are informal, and there are too many to list or count. Some of the larger official orgs have raised tens of millions of dollars.

Minneapolis has provided a blueprint not merely for direct resistance of authoritarian tactics employed by DHS, they have also shown the nation how to support those most terrified of those operations.

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Resistance Photo of the Week

The Round-Up

• Despite an ongoing “shutdown” over disputes over DHS funding, all personnel are now being paid in full. The shutdown was already doing next to nothing in regards to DHS operations, but some inessential employees were experiencing delayed payments. With new workarounds, Congressional oversight over DHS is effectively nonexistent.

• One of the reasons the shutdown doesn’t matter, is that DHS is so well funded it doesn’t even know what to do with all the money it has. Eight months after Congress approved roughly $191 billion in spending, DHS has an estimated $150 billion left to spend, according to a new analysis provided first to MS NOW by FWD.us, a group that studies immigration policy and advocates for reforms.

• State prosecutors in Minnesota are investigating DHS officers over more than a dozen alleged criminal acts. State prosecutors say the investigations include alleged criminal actions by former “Commander at Large” Greg Bovino.

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Plane full of money crashes in Bolivian capital, police attack poor people trying to gather it

On Friday a Bolivian Air Force transport plane carrying newly printed currency crashed onto a busy highway near La Paz, the country’s capital.

At least 20 people were killed when the airplane attempted an emergency landing which included crashing into a second nearby busy road.

A number of other vehicles were also damaged in the crash. Shortly afterwards, however, residents in the busy city began to approach the scene to recover the banknotes which had spilled forth from wreckage.

Authorities attacked civilians with tear gas and water cannons in an attempt to push them back from wreckage.

Vice Interior Minister Hernan Paredes claimed that the crows arrived “with a tremendously aggressive attitude wielding sticks and stones” to gather the money.

Authorities then began burning the plane’s 18 tons of banknotes, which they said were being transported to replace older notes. They falsely claimed the bills had no legal value and their possession constituted a crime.

“Look at all the money they burned, there are poor families that need that money,” local resident Marcelino Poma told Reuters. “We need to rise up in El Alto. They took our gasoline subsidy, they hurt our household budgets, now they’re taking all the money out of the country.”

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Argentine Senate approves Milei’s rollback of labor rights

Senators in Argentina approved a bill that would allow for standard 12-hour workdays, restrictions on strikes and union organizing, relax hiring and firing rules, and scale back vacation time for workers.

Milei’s bill, which he has dubbed the “labor modernization law”, has inspired weeks of protests, which have often clashed with police.

The President’s supporters claim the reform will spur foreign investment and stimulate economic growth in the country. Milei’s free market reforms have halted runaway inflation in the country, but have also deepened poverty.

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Cuba shoots down a speed-boat launched from Florida

At least one US citizen was killed when Cuban officials returned gunfire towards a speedboat launched from Florida, according to US and Cuban officials.

Border guards killed four people and wounded 6 others, who they said were engaged in “a terroristic attack.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said Washington was investigating the “highly unusual” incident. Cuban authorities claimed that most of the passengers on the US-registered boat had “prior records involving criminal and violent activity”.

Rubio has denied that the people onboard were part of any US operation.

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Other headlines:

• Brazil is, again, experiencing devastating flooding. At least 25 people were killed last week in yearly occurrences, which have become more common as climate change affects weather plans in the Amazonian basin.

• Mexico is searching for 23 people who were broken out of prison as part of widespread attacks across the country after officials killed “El Mencho.”

• Trump stated he wants a “friendly takeover” in Cuba. In comments to the press, Trump suggested a transition that would be “very positive for the people who were expelled or worse”.“The Cuban government is talking with us, and they’re in a big deal of trouble, as you know. They have no money. They have no anything right now, but they’re talking with us,” Trump told reporters.

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Minneapolis has provided a blueprint for resisting ICE

Although DHS officials last week publicly announced an end to the “surge” in Minneapolis, migration enforcement operations and the activities of those resisting them are both very much ongoing.

And the actions of thousands of residents, based on years of non-ideological community organizing and mutual aid to build organic networks of neighbors helping neighbors.

The Trump administration has clearly suffered a massive public relations setback following the murders of Alex Pretti and Renne Goode by DHS officials. In response to growing public pushback, as well as awful polling, Trump has moved away somewhat from the high-visibility/maximum cruelty approach to migration enforcement.

This change is not reflected only in the removal of “Commander at Large” Greg Bovino, who has been stripped of access to his social media accounts from daily DHS operations, but also in the social media accounts of DHS agencies like ICE and CBP.

The style of “shit-posting” with racist memes and thinly veiled fascist imagery has been largely replaced by more “professional” posts, which, though often no less dishonest, focus instead on the allegedly violent migrants that DHS is detaining and statements by White House officials.

But the intention, and scope, of Trump’s (and Stephen Miller’s) plans have not changed. And even in Minneapolis, those protesting and engaging in ICE observation have reported that the scale of DHS operations has not changed.

New vehicles and personnel continue to arrive at the Whipple Building, which is acting as a command center for DHS in the city. And though future “surges” in other cities, such as Boston and Philadelphia, have been put on hold for the moment, it is almost certain that they will resume after public attention moves on from Minnesota.

But the blueprint created by residents in the city works. It has not only dealt a massive public-relations blow to the Trump administration, but it has also materially impacted DHS operations on the ground.

“We aren’t always successful,” one Minneapolis resident who asked not to be named told PWS, “but we’ve delayed, obstructed, and even prevented thousands of ICE operations. This has cost them enormous resources. And I like to think it has saved hundreds of our neighbors.”

And ultimately, the idea of good neighbors has been the kernel of this strategy. It can be replicated in other cities and other communities. (quote) wrote a piece on this idea last week, which explains the sentiment nicely. It is worth reading in its entirety.

Very Partial DHS shutdown

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ran out of funding over the weekend (technically and temporarily), leading to the third partial government shutdown of President Donald Trump’s second term, as negotiations between Republicans and Democrats remain stalled while Congress is in recess until February 23.

The situation is largely theoretical. Ninety-five percent of DHS employees will continue their duties unaffected. Those who are furloughed are principally from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which conducts airport security. Democrats have stated that they will allow funding with some symbolic reforms. In the meantime.

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ICE plans to spend $38.2 billion on detention centers around the country

Further illustrating the point that the current DHS “shutdown” is largely immaterial, ICE is moving ahead with plans to buy 16 warehouses across the country and renovate them to serve as regional processing centers that can hold 1,000 to 1,500 detainees for average stays of three to seven days, according to the plan.

The agency will also open eight large detention centers capable of holding 7,000 to 10,000 detainees for an average of around 60 days that will serve as the “primary location” for immigrants being deported abroad.

In addition, ICE will acquire an additional 10 “turnkey” facilities where the agency already operates, according to the plan.

The construction of detention centers that can hold thousands more people continues, even as DHS holds record numbers of people in custody currently.

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Photo of the Week

A photo of George Floyd square in Minneapolis, on Chicago Avenue and 38th Street. The protests following the murder of Floyd caused a national uprising, and many of the same networks created as part of that movement have served as building blocks for ongoing resistance to DHS efforts today.

The round-up

• The acting head of ICE says that two of its officers appear to have made “untruthful statements” about shooting a migrant in Minnesota and may face federal charges for their actions.

• Despite Increased Profits, Private Prison Companies Want to Cage Even More People. Investors on CoreCivic and GEO Group’s quarterly earnings calls expressed frustration that ICE’s record immigration detention numbers aren’t high enough. This story is crazy.

• Kansas City media reported that “A woman tried to set a fire at a South Kansas City warehouse that had been rumored as a possible ICE detention center. Earlier today, the company that owns the property confirmed it is no longer moving forward with a sale to the U.S. government.” Video of the incident went viral on social media networks.

• Last week, we reported that activists have been claiming that ICE is creating a database to track their identities and movements. This week, officials confirmed those accusations in comments to Reuters.

• Conservative Colombian Senator Ángela Vergara is denouncing ICE and DHS actions after her son was detained by US authorities. Vergara previously supported Trump’s migration policies.

• Obama made some milquetoast comments defending ICE, but saying that Trump has gone so far.

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Hasta pronto, piratas!

Shady Dealings in Venezuela

The United States is easing sanctions on oil sales in Venezuela. Combined with a new reform bill passed last week by the Venezuelan legislature that opens up opportunities for partnerships for state owned oil company PDVSA and foreign companies, it seems both governments are keen to move towards increased sales — and courting investment to repair badly decayed infrastructure.

The US has controlled oil sales in the country since the US abduction of former President Nicolas Maduro in January.

Both Delcy Rodriguez, current interim leader of the country, and US President Donald, however, have described US-Venezuelan relations in flattering terms.

Highlighting the new relationship, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright released a series of videos of a US delegation touring energy production facilities this week with Rodriguez in which the two chatted amicably in English.

The visit was full of smiles, handshakes, and photos of the two in front of oil production infrastructure.

Wright is the first high-ranking US official to visit Venezuela since the Clinton administration.

Wright spoke of $500 million in investment within the next 18 months as a first step towards boosting Venezuelan production.

“This is the way forward. This is the path of cooperation, and it is the agenda for a long-term productive partnership,” Rodríguez said to journalists invited to the photo-op.

State media within Venezuela, which for decades has been sharply critical of the US, has largely fallen behind Rodríguez’s approach to US business relations.

Many experts last month predicted fractures within the Chavista power structures. Those have so far not materialized publicly.

The atmosphere in Caracas has relaxed in recent weeks, with large demonstrations by both opposition and Maduro loyalists. The Rodriguez government has also released over a hundred political prisoners, though one high-profile opposition leader has since been placed under house arrest.

The US has faced reluctance from oil companies to invest in the country, however, as well as criticism from many experts and lawmakers about a lack of transparency in how the US is handling the money generated from Venezuelan oil sales.

PWS is working on a piece about exactly that set to be published this week, but the short version is that the financing is subject to Trump’s whims and prone to corruption. It also places the US firmly in control of how much money Venezuela receives, fitting with US visions of the country as a new vassal.

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Peru may topple another President

Peru’s Congress debates this week whether to remove right-wing President Jose Jeri from office amidst allegations of corruption. The session will take place Tuesday.

In October, Jeri — the leader of Congress at the time — took over as president following the unanimous impeachment of his predecessor, Dina Boluarte, on the grounds of “permanent moral incapacity”.

He was sworn in with little ceremony in a late night Congressional setting and is set to leave office in only a few months, following April elections.

Boluarte became President after an attempted coup by her predecessor and former running mate Pedro Castillo after he attempted a failed “auto-golpe”.

Peru has had 8 presidents in 10 years.

The corruption accusations arise from a series of late-night and apparently secret meetings with business magnates in Lima.

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US Boat killings continue unabated

The U.S. announced another boat-bombing against a boat allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean on Feb 12, bringing the total number of strikes to 35, resulting in 131 deaths.

The extra-judicial killings were initially framed as a way to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro into leaving power, a point which now seems moot.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has a long-form piece about how Trump is using the strikes as a way to commit evidence-free assassinations. It’s a stunning abuse of power and a dangerous precedent for US power projection.

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Hasta pronto, piratas!