The Big Stories to watch this week in LATAM
US threatens to bomb Colombia. Milei wins in Argentina. Naboa cries in Ecuador, and Peru's new president thinks people want to topple him: he's right
LATAM Daily Wires brings you the stories to watch this week in Latin America and the big headline developments over the weekend. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you should.
Caribbean madness: Lindsey Graham suggests strikes on Colombia
In an interview on Sunday morning with Face the Nation, US Senator Lindsey Graham said that White House officials are considering strikes within both Venezuela and Colombia, which he described as “narco-terrorists.”
It is the first time a senior official has suggested attacks within Colombia, which, up until January, was the closest US ally in South America. Senator Graham laughed on the air at the idea that bombing civilians in international waters is a war crime. The US has killed at least 41 people in ten bombings of small boats in the Caribbean that they claim were drug smugglers.
In recent days, the US Navy moved a carrier group to Trinidad and Tobago, in the waters near Venezuela, and US President Donald Trump has spoken openly about imminent attacks within Venezuela.
As we have reported extensively in recent weeks, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has clashed publicly with Trump. The tension has risen in recent weeks, particularly after Colombian media reported that one of the victims of US bombings was a Colombian fisherman.
In a post on social media platform X replying to Graham’s statements, Petro wrote, “Don’t try it, that’s the only advice I give,” said the president, “because I know the history of my people and I am… the legitimate son of my people.”
“The Colombian people, every time they are attacked anywhere, en masse head to the mountains and arm themselves” to become “invisible like the jaguar with passionate stealth.”
We will be paying close attention to developments this week and hoping that Senator Graham is just a fringe voice in the White House. US attacks on Colombian soil would be a disaster for more reasons than we can list here in this limited space.
Colombians staged protests over US actions in Bogota on Friday following the US-imposed sanctions on President Petro.
Melei racks up a victory in midterms in Argentina and gets another $20 billion from the US
Argentina went to the polls Sunday for legislative elections widely seen as a referendum on Milei’s performance in office. In a surprisingly strong showing, his party, La Libertad Avanza, won more than 40 percent of the vote in Sunday’s elections, compared with 31 percent for the left-leaning Peronist opposition.
The victory means Milei’s party has tripled its seat count, with 101 seats in the lower house, up from 37, and 20 seats in the Senate, up from six.
In recent weeks, the US bailed out Argentina’s flailing economy with a $20 billion purchase of Argentinian pesos, providing badly needed dollars to the country, which is facing a shortage due to investors fleeing Argentinian securities. Trump promised another $20 billion loan in the coming weeks, suggesting that the move was conditioned on Milei performing well in midterms.
Milei has delivered. Some critics described the move as an attempt to manipulate Argentina’s elections, which, of course it was.
Naboa goes hysterical, keeps claiming people are trying to kill him
Ecuadorian President Daniel Naboa is proving to be a bit of a drama queen amidst an ongoing national strike in the country. When angry protesters threw rocks at his armored motorcade a few weeks ago, he claimed it was an “assassination attempt.” The claim, somewhat laughable, prompted sympathetic statements from right-wing allies in the US and Argentina.
This week, he claimed that he was given poisoned chocolates and jelly in another murder attempt. He claimed his security team discovered high levels of toxins in a gift package delivered to his office. He offered no proof for his claims.
According to Naboa, this is the third attempt on his life since protests began in Ecuador, the first being a “rocket attack” that involved “Molotov cocktails” on the presidential convoy shortly after protests began.
But again, people were just throwing rocks at his armored vehicle. This third round of hysterics went largely ignored by the same allies that expressed solidarity the first time he made the claims.
Ongoing protests in Ecuador have been overshadowed by developments in the Caribbean, and even in Peru, where protesters successfully pressured the ouster of then-president Dina Boluarte. We assure you, however, dear readers, they are still going strong.
Peru’s new president seems nervous. Unlike Naboa, he has a good reason
Ongoing youth-led protests toppled the predecessor of Peru’s sparkling new interim president, José Jerí, who herself was an interim president after the arrest of her predecessor, Pedro Castillo.
But protesters aren’t satisfied with Jeri either, who was quietly installed in an emergency and late-night legislative session. They have decried widespread corruption among lawmakers in ongoing street battles with security forces. They marched again on Lima this weekend.
Jerí called on his country’s armed forces on Sunday to “restore peace” to the South American nation during a ceremony marking Veterans Day and National Peace Day.
At a ceremony in Lima’s Plaza de la Bandera, Jerí stressed that “today is the time to repeat history, to restore peace to our country, in the face of the new circumstances we are facing,” referring to the fight against organized crime that “has taken away the peace of our citizens.”
The president also made “an appeal in these dark times we are living in” for the armed forces and the National Police to contribute their commitment and experience to the fight against insecurity.
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