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The Teatro Nacional de Cuba’s Avellaneda Hall in this capital will host performances on December 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30, and on January 1, 2026.

The money collected from the December 19-20 shows will be donated by the company, declared a Cultural Heritage of the Nation, to the victims of Hurricane Melissa in the country’s eastern region, BNC’s General Director, Viengsay Valdes, told Prensa Latina.

Two renowned principal dancers, Anette Delgado and Dani Hernandez, will open the season this Friday and will delight ballet-goers again on December 21.

The remaining performances will feature Laura Kamila and Yankiel Vazquez on December 20 and 29, Nadila Estrada and Alejandro Alderete on December 26, and Gabriela Druyet and Anyelo Montero on December 27 and January 1.

Kamila, Estrada, and Alderete will have the opportunity to debut in the leading roles of Don Quixote, a so attractive and complex classic that no major competition exists where at least a fragment of it is not performed: be it a variation or the pas de deux.

Meanwhile, two exceptional dancers, Argentinian Marianela Nunez and Cuban Patricio Reve, will perform with the BNC on December 28 and 30. Nunez is a principal dancer of the Royal Ballet of London, while Reve is a current guest artist of the British company and a principal dancer at the Queensland Ballet in Australia.

jdt/iff/otf/msm

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The details were revealed in a report published by the international body, which details the actions of the so-called Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the Zamzam camp in the Darfur region.

The sources stated that the RSF attacked the camp as part of their siege of the city of El Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur state.

Zamzam is considered the largest camp for internally displaced people in Sudan, having sheltered some 500,000 people before the April attacks.

Since mid-April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in an internal war, following a power struggle between Army Chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

jdt/iff/otf/fvt

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“In the context of the Istanbul agreements, the bodies of 1,000 dead personnel were handed over to Ukraine. Russia received the bodies of 26 Russian soldiers killed in action,” Medinsky wrote on his Telegram channel this Friday.

Russia and Ukraine previously agreed to continue medical exchanges of seriously wounded or sick soldiers.

Moscow reported that it is ready to send 3,000 other bodies of deceased soldiers to Kiev.

Additionally, Russian authorities proposed a prisoner swap with Kyiv on a 1,200-for-1,200 formula.

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine resumed in May direct talks in Istanbul, Turkiye, for the first time in more than three years.

Two more rounds of negotiations have taken place since then, the most tangible results of which have so far been the acceleration of prisoner swaps between the belligerent parties and the repatriation of thousands of bodies of deceased combatants.

jdt/iff/mem/gfa

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As Washington intensifies its political, economic, and military attacks against Venezuela, opposition to imperialism is also growing inside the United States—particularly among working-class and immigrant communities who experience the costs of imperialism directly. From cuts to social programs and housing insecurity to mass deportations and ICE raids, many are drawing connections between repression at home and US intervention abroad.

Elizabeth Blaney is a key figure in the Los Angeles tenant movement, a co-founder and co-director of Unión de Vecinos and part of the broader Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU). With decades of experience organizing in Boyle Heights against displacement and gentrification, Blaney has also been deeply involved in international solidarity with Venezuela.

This conversation took place in the context of her participation in the recent People’s Assembly for Peace and Sovereignty held in Caracas. In it, she reflects on grassroots opposition to war and how the Bolivarian Revolution has helped radicalize housing struggles in the Los Angeles tenant movement.

How are organized working-class communities reacting to the latest imperialist military escalation against Venezuela?

Among the working-class base we organize with, there is absolutely no support for the war against Venezuela. In East Los Angeles, where I’m from—and in Los Angeles more broadly—the population is majority Latino, African American, and Asian. Most people in our communities are immigrants. Many come from countries that have experienced violence as a direct result of US intervention. Because of that, they understand the situation and recognize the real motivations behind what the US government is doing here in Venezuela. There is strong opposition to war and a clear demand for the United States to get out of the Caribbean.

People also understand that war funding comes directly at their expense. We’ve lost school programs, social services, and benefits. Starting in January, many people will lose Medicaid support. There is a widespread understanding that public resources are being redirected to fund wars. So, beyond solidarity or morality, there is also a concrete economic reason that people oppose war…. They know that they are already paying the price.

This has translated into organization. People want to learn more and get involved in the growing anti-war movement, and our leadership has participated in solidarity protests across Los Angeles. The ongoing ICE raids have also deepened understanding of what is happening to Venezuela: witnessing family members, friends, and neighbors abducted by ICE has generated fear, but also a growing disposition to resist.

Many people now understand that retreating into fear only strengthens the state. They also recognize that the same violence the US government deploys against them is being used against the people of Venezuela and Palestine. This has led to a broad rejection of imperialist aggression—people overwhelmingly oppose the imperialist military buildup in the Caribbean and the Israeli genocide, which is funded and enabled by the United States.

You participated in the recent “People’s Assembly for Peace and Sovereignty” [December 9-11] in Caracas. Getting to it was not easy, since most airlines stopped flying to Venezuela after Trump closed the airspace. Despite these obstacles, the Assembly took place and was a huge success. What can you tell us about it?

Hundreds of people were stranded in airports or had their flights canceled at the last minute because of Trump’s illegal attempt to control Venezuelan airspace. As a result, many delegates who were scheduled to attend didn’t make it.

Despite this, the conference went forward, with between 600 and 800 delegates from around the world present. In that sense, it was a success. Some people traveled through five or six countries just to get here. That level of commitment shows how deeply people oppose US aggression and support the call for peace!

Politically, what stood out most was how clearly delegates connected US aggression against Venezuela to its global impact. People discussed how sanctions and seizures—such as the illegal confiscation of oil tankers bound for Cuba and other countries—directly affect energy access and economic stability elsewhere. This makes it clear that what’s happening in Venezuela is an international issue.

There were also discussions about how war funding drains resources from working people in the United States and promotes speculation in financial and housing markets globally. One session focused specifically on housing, examining how imperialist war drives up rents and housing prices, worsening conditions for tenants worldwide.

Beyond peace, the Assembly’s debates emphasized people’s sovereignty and who has the right to control resources. The conclusion was clear—those resources belong to the Venezuelan people. If they are stolen from Venezuela, nothing prevents similar theft elsewhere.

The Peace Assembly helped develop a shared understanding of how to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty while preparing for what comes next globally. Now the analysis has to go back to our communities.

Members of the Unión del Barrio in an LA concentration against the US military deployment in the caribbean. (Unión del Barrio)

You’ve said on other occasions that the Bolivarian Process, despite being demonized by the media establishment, has helped radicalize housing struggles in Los Angeles. How has that experience shaped your organization?

I’m part of the Unión de Vecinos, the East Side chapter of the Los Angeles Tenants Union. We’ve been engaged in internationalist solidarity work for many years. We first came to Venezuela in 2019 and have returned several times since, not only to oppose sanctions but to strengthen the tenant movement in Los Angeles and to be fellow travelers in the march toward socialism.

In July 2023, we organized a brigade of about 25 tenant organizers from across California. For many participants, it was a transformative experience. What people in the United States often don’t grasp is that in Venezuela, there is a real socialist project. Of course, it is not perfect and has contradictions, but it is a true emancipatory project with tangible advances. Housing rights, free university education, and free healthcare already exist here in ways they do not in the US.

Seeing this reality firsthand shifted how our organizers think. It made it clear that socialism is not just an abstract demand but something that can be built in practice. Over the past two years and across our 15 chapters, this experience has fueled profound debates about what it means to build a socialist project in Los Angeles.

We don’t see ourselves as just a housing movement. It is about tenants’ ability to survive, remain in their neighborhoods, and collectively shape their communities. This broader vision was strongly influenced by what we learned in Venezuela. Following a process of internal debates, the LA Tenants Union collectively declared itself a socialist organization in August. That decision would not have been possible without the internationalist exchange with Venezuela.

Another crucial lesson has been learning about participatory democracy. In the United States, democracy is reduced to voting every few years or speaking at meetings with no real power. In Venezuela, democracy is practiced as an ongoing process through communal assemblies and popular consultations. For our organizers, seeing Venezuela’s communal assemblies, which are the communes’ highest decision-making body—with “voceros” [spokespeople] accountable to them—has been especially influential. We are strengthening that model across our chapters.

This work goes beyond visits. We’ve built ongoing relationships with Venezuelan movements like the Movimiento de Pobladores, the Movimiento de Inquilinos, and the Simón Bolívar Institute through regular exchanges and political education initiatives. Reciprocal solidarity is central to our political formation and our ability to challenge dominant narratives in the United States.

At a recent event in El Panal Commune, the Simón Bolívar Institute launched the “Solidarity Committee with the Peoples of the US.” What does this initiative represent for grassroots movements in your context?

Solidarity requires sustained commitment and concrete action. This initiative creates a space where analysis and action converge in a spirit of reciprocal solidarity. At the launch, around ten or eleven organizations from the United States were present, all rooted in working-class communities, in addition to El Panal communards and spokespeople from the Instituto Simón Bolívar. That matters, because this isn’t just about organizations—it’s about the people they represent and organize.

The initiative strengthens our responsibility as organizers and working-class people in the US to fight fascism at home, while opposing imperialism abroad. It also demonstrates that we are not fighting alone. Through this work, we will also be deepening ties with movements in Mexico, Honduras, and Argentina, where people are facing similar crises, particularly around housing. Bringing these struggles together strengthens all of us.

Finally, how have the current ICE raids reshaped the political landscape inside the United States, and how do people connect this repression to US imperialist aggression abroad?

The raids and kidnappings being carried out by the US government against immigrants are a turning point. In practice, the Supreme Court has legalized racism, allowing federal agents to detain people based on skin color, language, or where they gather for work, without due process.

This has sparked resistance well beyond traditional activist circles. While working-class communities have always resisted, many people who were never politically active before are now organizing. Neighborhoods are forming patrols, blocking streets, warning residents, and physically slowing ICE operations.

This has opened space for deeper political conversations. People are increasingly connecting what is happening in their neighborhoods to US aggression abroad. They are asking: if the government can do this here—deporting people, including Venezuelans, or sending migrants to third countries—what stops it from escalating further against countries like Venezuela?

As a result, international solidarity no longer feels distant or abstract. More people are recognizing the shared enemy and taking action in solidarity with Venezuela. That political awakening is one of the most significant developments of the present moment.

The post Solidarity with Venezuela in the Belly of the Beast: A Conversation with Elizabeth Blaney appeared first on Venezuelanalysis.

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They cite at least 95 deaths in Caribbean and Pacific operations authorized by the Trump administration.

On Dec. 17, Sen. Dick Durbin and nine other Democratic senators asked the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on 25 military strikes on boats authorized by the administration of President Donald Trump in the waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific.

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Initially justified under the pretext of combating international drug trafficking, those actions have left at least 95 confirmed deaths in what could constitute extrajudicial killings, murder, and war crimes.

The letter was also signed by U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Cory Booker, Alex Padilla, Peter Welch and Adam Schiff.

🚨BREAKING: Under Pete Hegseth’s orders, the U.S Military just bombed and sank a boat – this time in the Eastern Pacific,
– killing its four occupants.

They claim the boat contained narcotics and have offered zero proof.

pic.twitter.com/aOc0yvYyoY

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) December 5, 2025

The following is the letter addressed to Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee:

“Since September, the Trump Administration has summarily executed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes on alleged drug smugglers in vessels at sea. This is not a time to mince words. These strikes are extrajudicial killings and shocking violations of fundamental principles of due process and the right to life under U.S. and international law.

The Administration’s claims that the people it is killing are guilty of crimes, affiliated with a criminal or terrorist organization, or ‘combatants’ in a nonexistent armed conflict, do not render these extrajudicial killings any less unlawful.

This Committee must address the serious concerns that these strikes may violate U.S. criminal laws, and that Department of Justice attorneys who gave President Trump and Secretary Hegseth legal cover to summarily execute suspected criminals have violated their ethical obligations.

We respectfully request that you immediately convene a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to ensure that those who authorized these extrajudicial killings are held to account. There is not, nor can there be, any justification for state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings.

Summary executions have no place in a constitutional democracy operating under the rule of law, no matter how heinous the accusations a government makes against someone. Nor can governments fabricate an armed conflict or falsely label people ‘combatants’ to kill them.

This is why U.S. officials and Members of Congress from both parties have long condemned extrajudicial killings, including of alleged drug traffickers, when committed by other nations.

For instance, Secretary of State and then-Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bipartisan resolution in the Senate in 2020 condemning the state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals as part of the Duterte government’s ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines. Just last year, then-Senator Rubio introduced a resolution condemning the Maduro regime in Venezuela for the use of extrajudicial killings.

Former President Duterte is now facing crimes against humanity charges for his spree of extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers. For decades, under both Republican and Democratic Presidents, the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights have condemned extrajudicial killings by foreign governments as significant abuses of internationally recognized human rights.

Drug trafficking is a terrible crime. And it must be addressed with robust, effective, and lawful measures, including interdicting vessels transporting such drugs, prosecuting violators to the full extent of the law, and supporting the needs of impacted families and communities. Instead of intensifying such efforts, President Trump has weakened them.

Just recently, President Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former President of Honduras who was convicted of helping to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States as part of what U.S. authorities have characterized as ‘one of the largest and most violent-drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.’ This follows the President’s pardon of another drug kingpin, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who created the largest online black market for illegal drugs in our nation’s history.

At the same time, this Administration has diverted thousands of Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law-enforcement agents from their critical drug enforcement missions to carry out the President’s radical anti-immigrant agenda.

This Administration has also shuttered the critical Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, unilaterally terminated hundreds of grants that provide critical funding to state and local law enforcement, and is slashing the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program by more than a third, from about US$298 million to US$196 million.

Not surprisingly, federal drug prosecutions under this Administration have dropped to the lowest level in decades. The American people want real solutions to crime and the drug epidemic—not extrajudicial killings committed in their name. In accordance with the Committee’s oversight responsibilities, we urge you to schedule an immediate hearing on this outrage.”

What norms is the United States violating in the Caribbean? pic.twitter.com/3Zk9LQ3KsY

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 18, 2025

teleSUR/ JF

Source: Durbin Senate

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The Foreign Minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Yván Gil, posted on his Telegram account a press conference in which the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, presented a summary of his tenure. Rubio, who served 14 years as a legislator and has been in his current position for a year, failed to highlight a single concrete achievement in foreign policy.

Instead, he reiterated unsubstantiated accusations against the Venezuelan government, which he described as “an illegitimate regime” and “a grave threat to regional security” and to the security of the United States.

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Rubio stated that “the Maduro regime actively cooperates with FARC and ELN dissidents to traffic cocaine into U.S. territory,” and added that “there are drug trafficking organizations that operate openly in Venezuela with the cooperation of the Maduro regime.” He also labeled these organizations “criminal terrorist groups” and stated that they constitute “the most significant threat in the region,” linking them to Iran and Hezbollah.

Analysts point out that Rubio’s discourse lacks factual basis and aligns with a foreign policy marked by interventions, the promotion of regime change, and support for the Latin American far right. His stance has been rejected by broad sectors of the American people, who oppose new military or sanctions-based adventures in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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From Venezuela, official and social voices have responded to these statements, emphasizing that the accusations seek to justify the appropriation of natural resources, especially oil, minerals, and land. Messages that make clear their intentions to seize natural resources legitimately belonging to the Venezuelan people.

Latin America and the Caribbean reaffirm their commitment to peace and sovereignty and reject any attempt at interference or war for resources. The region insists that the solution to global challenges lies not in confrontation, but in dialogue and mutual respect.

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This article by Ivan Evair Saldaña originally appeared in the December 19, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) must resolve at least 69 tax disputes involving billions of pesos in the first quarter of next year, as it is legally required to issue rulings no later than March 1st.

In total, the country’s highest court will close 2025 with 108 pending tax matters, ranging from injunctions to appeals, requests for the power of attraction and requests for reassumption of competence, among others, which must be resolved within six months according to article 17 of the constitution, derived from the judicial reform of 2024.

According to data from the SCJN, these 69 cases were inherited by the new plenary from its previous members; therefore, the deadline to resolve them began to run on September 1st, when the current nine ministers took office.

Among the most significant issues are lawsuits filed by companies against tax credits related to the Manufacturing, Maquiladora and Export Services Industry Program (IMMEX), designed to avoid double taxation on the temporary import of inputs destined for export.

The Tax Administration Service (SAT) reported that between 2019 and 2023, operations were carried out through this program that reached a taxable base of approximately 279 billion pesos, for which the tax authorities failed to collect around 44 billion pesos in value-added tax (VAT).

The Court must clearly define whether there was tax evasion or whether the operations were legal, in order to avoid uncertainty for both companies and the tax authority.

The discussion of this matter has been postponed at least twice during the year: the first time, on February 27, by the previous plenary session, and the second time, on October 1, by the new members, based on a project prepared by Minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa regarding the contradiction of criteria 8/2025.

Another pending matter is the direct appeal for review 2526/2025, filed by Totalplay, a company owned by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, related to a tax credit of 621.9 million pesos. This is the last tax case involving Grupo Salinas awaiting resolution before the Supreme Court, as last October the full court resolved eight tax disputes totaling over 48 billion pesos, with rulings in favor of the Tax Administration Service (SAT).

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera December 19

  December 19, 2025December 19, 2025

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on poverty reduction, USMCA, Asia trade dialogue, social rights, Grupo Salinas tax debt, and Acapulco revival.

• 

  Culture | Labor | News Briefs

  Clara Brugada: Zarco Not Dismissed at Railway Workers Museum

  December 19, 2025December 19, 2025

  Mexico City’s head of government announced the locomotive mechanic, trade unionist, communist and founder the Railroad Workers Museum will receive a tribute in May.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico’s Elected Supreme Court Must Resolve 69 Tax Disputes Within Two Months

  December 19, 2025December 19, 2025

  One pending matter is the last tax case involving ultra-right winger Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s Grupo Salinas, involving 621.9 million pesos.

The post Mexico’s Elected Supreme Court Must Resolve 69 Tax Disputes Within Two Months appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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The United States has turned Paraguay into a “military base” through the signing of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) on Monday, December 15, 2025, according to political analyst Ana Prestes.

The pact, signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Lezcano, is part of the new US National Security Strategy, which, according to Prestes, revives elements of the Monroe Doctrine by considering Latin America as its “backyard.”

President Maduro: Venezuela will never be the backyard of any supremacist empire

The analyst pointed out that this agreement is part of a broader Washington strategy to militarize South America and consolidate its influence in the region, especially in a context where it faces resistance in countries like Colombia. Rubio, who has maintained close ties with Paraguayan President Santiago Peña since his time as a senator, has already visited Asunción several times in 2024 and hosted Peña at the White House in August to sign an agreement on asylum and immigration.

#Opinion Por: Gabriel Vera Lopes | Paraguay y EE. UU. firman un inédito acuerdo militar que permite el despliegue de tropas estadounidenses → https://t.co/Cdjty2kEbN pic.twitter.com/4SgHkb0qUS

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) December 19, 2025

Prestes also recalled that Rubio proposed handing over the administration of the Itaipu binational hydroelectric dam (Brazil-Paraguay) to US artificial intelligence companies, which, in her words, would mean “using our water and energy from South America.”

Furthermore, she highlighted that the recent police operation in Rio de Janeiro, which left 121 dead on October 28, was followed by a declaration from Paraguay of “zero tolerance for narco-terrorists on its borders,” a stance she described as aligned with US interests.

According to the analyst, the US is intensifying its presence in Argentina, Panama, Guyana, Ecuador, and El Salvador to reactivate military bases and joint exercises, in a dynamic that seeks to “encircle the region through the new national security and militarization strategy.”

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The Bolivian Workers’ Central Union (COB) declared a national strike and widespread mobilization in rejection of Supreme Decree 5503, popularly known as the “gasolinazo,” which eliminates fuel subsidies and facilitates the transfer of strategic resources to private entities without legislative oversight.

The measure, promoted by the government of Rodrigo Paz, has sparked massive protests in several cities across the country. The COB instructed its more than 65 unions not to negotiate with the Executive Branch until the neoliberal decree is repealed.

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“The intention to dialogue is over. If the government wanted to see us in the streets and on the highways, that’s where they’ll find us,” stated Mario Argollo, a miner from Huanuni and the COB’s executive secretary, speaking from Oruro.

Argollo announced the indefinite strike and warned that there would be no dialogue with the government until Supreme Decree 5503 was repealed. After specifying that the strike would be a mobilized and phased action, he affirmed that the people were already in the streets and “we cannot remain indifferent.”

This Friday, drivers in La Paz and El Alto began a 24-hour strike with blockades at strategic points, significantly impacting urban mobility. With land transportation paralyzed, the cable car became the main alternative, generating long lines at its stations. Similar protests were reported in Potosí, in the southwest of the Andean country.

ABROGACIÓN: Central Obrera instruyó paro nacional y movilización de sus más de 65 sindicatos para exigir la abrogación del decreto de nuevo política económica neoliberal. Marchas y un paro del transporte en varias ciudades: Mario Argollo. Strio. Ejecut. COB: @teleSURtv pic.twitter.com/b5XUStsGMD

— Freddy Morales (@FreddyteleSUR) December 19, 2025

Supreme Decree 5503 represents an 86% increase in gasoline prices and a 162% increase in diesel prices compared to subsidized prices, a policy that had been in effect for more than two decades. Transport workers reported that, as a result of the unpopular measure, fares have risen to between 4.50 and 5.50 bolivianos, generating widespread rejection from both authorities and the public.

Santos Escalante, a transport union leader in La Paz, confirmed that the strike will last 24 hours and indicated that they may call for road blockades starting next week. Meanwhile, Lucio Gómez, a national leader in the sector, announced that a national meeting will be held this Saturday in Cochabamba to assess the possibility of general mobilizations with road closures.

Central Obrera Boliviana declara huelga nacional y prohíbe a sus sindicatos negociar con el gobierno en tanto no se abrogue el decreto de nueva política económica que anula subsidios y abre la entrega de recursos estratégicos a privados. @teleSURtv

— Freddy Morales (@FreddyteleSUR) December 19, 2025

The Vice Minister of Transportation, Hugo Criales, said that drivers will be invited to a dialogue with representatives from federated, independent, cooperative, and transport associations. He asserted that the elimination of subsidies was “inevitable” and that the population is facing the changes “with resignation.” However, Economy Minister José Gabriel Espinoza maintained that there is no justification for increasing public transportation fares, despite the removal of subsidies.

In addition to the impact on fuel prices, with the resulting increases in transportation fares, the decree establishes the expedited transfer of strategic natural resources without legislative oversight, a provision that has been rejected by social and labor organizations that consider it a surrender of national sovereignty.

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This Friday, in Vinicio Adames Park, located in Hoyo de la Puerta, Miranda State, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, led a commemoration ceremony for the Bicentennial of the Chuquisaca Decree, signed on December 19, 1825, by the Liberator Simón Bolívar during his time in Bolivian territory.

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Considered the first regional environmental legislation, the decree underscores the need to protect nature and promote the rational use of natural resources.

The Head of State reiterated the Decree’s relevance as a historical and political benchmark for the promotion of Ecosocialism in Venezuela, in line with the fifth objective of the Plan de la Patria (Homeland Plan), a legacy of Commander Hugo Chávez. “This decree is foundational for our ecosocialist vision and for the defense of Pachamama, Mother Earth, which fundamentally began with the Southern Campaign,” he stated.

During the event, the Minister of Popular Power for Ecosocialism, Ricardo Molina, presented the progress report of the Great Mission Mother Earth Venezuela, launched on July 10 of this year. 1,262 Ecosocialism Councils have been established nationwide, and another 1,200 are in the process of being formed before the end of 2025.

“We have promoted the strengthening of communal government bodies and the creation of Ecosocialist Councils in each commune,” Molina reported.

271 forest and fruit tree nurseries have also been recovered and activated throughout the country. This year, the goal was to produce 5 million plants, a figure that has almost been reached with trees already distributed across the country. In this regard, President Maduro pledged to participate in a special tree-planting event: “In 12 days we can go to the fields and mountains. I’ve been invited to plant those 200,000 trees and reach 5 million trees planted for life.”

By 2026, the Bolivarian Government projects having 2,000 community nurseries and doubling annual tree production, with a goal of 10 million trees. This strategy is part of public policies focused on environmental education, ecosystem conservation, and promoting popular participation through Mission Tree and the Councils of Ecosocialism.

During his visit to Vinicio Adames Park, the President expressed his satisfaction at seeing “these green spaces for the healthy enjoyment of the Venezuelan people.”

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In a message posted on his Facebook account, the CBS head pointed out that the measure not only provides relief from the sanctions regime but also opens the door to cooperation with international credit rating agencies.

He explained that Syria could initially request a “shadow” sovereign rating, which is advisory and not public, as a first step before moving toward an official assessment when conditions allow.

Al-Hasriya clarified that a credit rating does not imply immediate access to loans, but rather constitutes a tool to offer an objective evaluation of the economic and financial situation, strengthen public policy discipline, prioritize reforms, improve institutional transparency, and facilitate cooperation with investors and international organizations.

The governor emphasized that the Central Bank will play a vital role by strengthening monetary transparency, providing reliable economic data, and promoting financial stability—all fundamental elements for achieving a credible sovereign rating.

The road is long, but the important thing is to begin. Syria will likely start with a low rating, which is common in countries emerging from conflict.

The true value lies in the standard that sets the rating and the roadmap it offers for improvement, not in the rating itself, he stated.

arm/mem/fm

The post Syria seeks reintegration into the international financial system first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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Decolonizing the Venezuelan Subsoil from Transnational Monopoly Interests.

For over a hundred years, Venezuela’s history has been written in “black gold.” From the first sparks of domestic innovation to the suffocating enclaves of foreign monopolies, the story of Venezuelan oil is a saga of a nation struggling to break the chains of energy colonialism.

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In this installment, we explore the origins of the industry: the national pioneers forgotten by Western history, the arrival of the transnational “predators,” and the first great awakening of the Venezuelan working class.

1878: The “Eureka” Moment of National Sovereignty

The mainstream narrative often claims that Venezuela’s oil industry began when foreign companies arrived to “civilize” the landscape. This is a historical fallacy. The true birth of the industry was 100% Venezuelan.

On October 12, 1878, long before the American corporations dotted the horizon, a group of local entrepreneurs led by Manuel Antonio Pulido founded the Compañía Nacional Minera Petrolia del Táchira at the Hacienda La Alquitrana.

Using primitive but effective technology, they drilled the “Eureka” well. This milestone proved that Venezuelans possessed the ingenuity to manage their own subsoil resources.

🇻🇪 Venezuela es el país con más reservas probadas de petróleo. Su geopolítica se fundamenta en su posición geográfica y sus enormes recursos naturales.

La actividad económica se desarrolla principalmente en la zona norte del país, donde también se concentra el 65% de la… pic.twitter.com/J0VK5kIC1R

— El Orden Mundial (@elOrdenMundial) December 18, 2025

The text reads: “Venezuela is the country with the largest proven oil reserves. Its geopolitics are based on its geographic position and enormous natural resources. Economic activity is concentrated mainly in the northern part of the country, where 65% of the population also lives. Do you think Trump will directly attack Venezuela? Let us know in the comments.”

The Transnational Incursion: Building a “State Within a State”

As the massive potential of Venezuelan basins became clear, the gates were forced open. Under the long, shadow-filled dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez, “The Greats”—the world’s most powerful oil companies—descended upon the country.

Companies like Standard Oil (now Exxon), Shell, and Gulf Oil had established a dominant presence. They built enclaves. These were gated communities known as “oil camps,” where foreign managers lived in luxury while Venezuelan workers were subjected to segregated housing and racialized labor hierarchies.

These corporations operated as a “state within a state.” They dictated laws, manipulated land concessions, and extracted billions in wealth while paying the Venezuelan state a pittance in royalties. This era of “energy feudalism” saw the country’s natural wealth being drained to fuel the industrialization of the Global North, leaving Venezuela with environmental scars and systemic poverty.

1936: The Great Strike

Following the death of the dictator Gómez in 1935, the Venezuelan people finally had the space to breathe—and to organize. In 1936, the oil industry became the primary theater of the class struggle.

The Great Oil Strike of 1936 was a watershed moment. For 43 days, thousands of workers across the Zulia and Falcón states laid down their tools. They were demanding dignity in the face of foreign arrogance.

While the government eventually forced the workers back to their posts, the strike was a strategic victory. It sent a clear message to the boardrooms in New York and London: the oil may be under the ground, but the power belongs to the hands that extract it.

1943: The Medina Angarita Reform and the “50/50” Principle

By the 1940s, the Venezuelan State recognized that the old concessionary model was a form of “energy feudalism” that favored only foreign boardrooms. In 1943, under the government of General Isaías Medina Angarita, a landmark Hydrocarbons Law was enacted to fundamentally redefine the relationship between the Nation and “The Greats”.

The crown jewel of this reform was the “50/50” Principle. For the first time, it was stipulated that the total amount of taxes and royalties paid by companies must represent at least half of their net income.

Key achievements of the 1943 Law included:

• Mandatory Refining: Companies were forced to build refineries on national soil, ending the colonial practice of exporting only raw crude.
• Tax Unification: A 30% income tax was introduced alongside a minimum royalty of 16.6%.
• Technical Oversight: The State gained the power to supervise oil operations directly.

This reform became a global gold standard; later inspiring nationalist demands in countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

1960: OPEC—A Venezuelan Shield Against Global Cartels

For the Global South, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was a revolutionary act of decolonization. The intellectual architect behind this was the Venezuelan Minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo.

Founded in Baghdad in September 1960 by Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s mission was simple: to stop “The Greats” from unilaterally manipulating oil prices to the detriment of producing nations.

Pérez Alfonzo argued that oil is a non-renewable resource and its price should reflect its true value to ensure the progressive development of the people who own it.

OPEC transformed oil from a corporate commodity into an instrument of state sovereignty. For Venezuela, this leadership positioned the country as a pioneer in international cooperation.

1976: The “Chimerical” Nationalization

On January 1, 1976, President Carlos Andrés Pérez raised the national flag at the Zumaque I well, marking what was officially called “Oil Independence Day”. This act created Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) as the parent company to oversee the industry.

However, historians often refer to this as an “incomplete” nationalization. While the State legally owned the oil, the 1975 Reservation Law contained the controversial Article 5, which allowed the State to enter into operational agreements with private companies for “technical assistance”.

The “Old” PDVSA that emerged was:

• Technocratic and Elitist: It fostered a “meritocracy” that operated with high technical standards but remained ideologically aligned with Western corporate interests.
• A “Backdoor” for Transnationals: Through marketing and technical contracts, foreign companies maintained significant influence and profited from equipment and assets that were already paid for.
• Disconnected from the People: The industry functioned as a “state within a state,” reinvesting its wealth into its own corporate growth rather than social development.

This era set the stage for the neoliberal “Opening” of the 1990s, where the elites would attempt to hand the industry back to foreign powers entirely.

Así ha saqueado y robado Estados Unidos del ultraderechista Donald Trump un petrolero en las costas de Venezuela. Ataque imperialista con total impunidad. No es ninguna lucha contra el narcotráfico, es una lucha por el control del petróleo. pic.twitter.com/fvhFSSE6IT

— Fonsi Loaiza (@FonsiLoaiza) December 10, 2025

The text reads: “This is how the United States, under the far-right Donald Trump, looted and stole an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. An imperialist attack with total impunity. This is not a fight against drug trafficking; it is a fight for control of oil.”

The Oil Opening of the 1990s

Following the nationalization of 1976, the 1990s marked a period known as the Oil Opening. This was a strategic shift aimed at making the state monopoly more flexible by inviting massive private capital—primarily from foreign transnationals—back into the country.

Driven by a financial crisis and the “old” PDVSA’s inability to fund the technology needed for extra-heavy crude, the government initiated three phases of partnership:

• Operational Agreements (1992-1993): Reactivating marginal or inactive fields.
• Strategic Partnerships (1993-1995): Developing the massive reserves of the Orinoco Oil Belt.
• Shared Profits (1996): Exploring new high-risk areas.

While this period attracted giants like ExxonMobil, BP, and Chevron, it sparked intense controversy.

2001–2007: The Renationalization and the Organic Law

The rise of the Bolivarian Revolution, with President Hugo Chavez brought a radical reorganization of the industry to reverse the “Oil Opening”. The Organic Hydrocarbons Law of 2001 (and its 2006 reform) served as the legal shield to regain state control.

The key pillars of this Renationalization included:

• The 51% Rule: All primary activities must be carried out by “Mixed Enterprises” where the State maintains at least 51% shareholding and real operational control.
• Royalty Increase: The extraction tax was raised from as low as 1% during the Opening to a standard 30%, ensuring the Nation receives income from the very first barrel extracted.
• Ending PDVSA Autonomy: The state-owned company was subordinated to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum to align oil revenue with social investment and national development.
• Jurisdictional Sovereignty: All legal disputes must now be settled in Venezuelan courts rather than international tribunals that favored transnationals.

"En Venezuela nos quitaron nuestra tierra, los derechos petroleros, todo lo que teníamos allí, nos quitaron nuestro petróleo, teníamos mucho petróleo allí, expulsaron a nuestras empresas petroleras y las queremos de vuelta allí".

El genocida Trump, con una retórica colonial… pic.twitter.com/SFWwNYkkYB

— Daniel Mayakovski (@DaniMayakovski) December 18, 2025

The text reads: “In Venezuela, they took our land, our oil rights, everything we had there. They took our oil; we had a lot of oil there. They expelled our oil companies, and we want them back.” The genocidal Trump, with his repugnant colonial rhetoric, claimed Venezuela’s oil and energy infrastructure as his own, demanding to plunder its resources in a surreal manner. The desperation of the empire forces it to remove its mask and openly admit that they are just pirates who plunder countries to fill their pockets.

The Modern Siege: Sanctions and the “Naval Blockade”

Since 2017, the Venezuelan oil industry has faced what experts describe as a “structural enclosure” through unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S.. This strategy shifted from targeting individuals to a total sectoral blockade aimed at the financial and operational collapse of PDVSA.

The impact has been multifaceted:

• Financial Suffocation: Executive orders in 2017 and 2019 prohibited debt renegotiation and led to the confiscation of CITGO, Venezuela’s strategic refining arm in the U.S..
• The “Naval Blockade”: Washington has designated tankers, shipowners, and even individual captains on “blacklists” to prevent Venezuelan crude from reaching global markets.
• Operational Deterioration: Prohibition on importing spare parts and diluents caused production to plummet from 1.9 million barrels per day in 2017 to historic lows near 350,000 in 2020.
• Forced Discounts: To bypass the blockade, Venezuela must sell its oil on the “gray market” with discounts of 20% to 30%, while facing exorbitant freight and insurance costs.

By 2025, the pressure intensified with the revocation of licenses (such as Chevron’s General License 41) and the final liquidation phase of CITGO assets, representing a modern attempt at “recolonization” through energy collapse.

A Century of Resistance

The history of Venezuelan oil is not merely a timeline of extraction, but a profound narrative of a nation’s quest for true independence.

From the domestic ingenuity of Petrolia del Táchira in 1878 to the visionary founding of OPEC in 1960, Venezuela has consistently challenged the logic of energy colonialism.

However, as the events of the 21st century show, sovereignty is a territory that must be defended daily. The transition from the neoliberal “Opening” of the 1990s back to a state-controlled model demonstrated the high stakes of oil revenue.

The subsequent “structural enclosure” through sanctions and naval blockades serves as a stark reminder that imperial interests will use every tool—from financial sabotage to the seizure of oil ships—to regain control over the world’s largest oil reserves.

Sources: teleSUR – Venezuelanalysis – Misión Verdad – New York Times – Alí Rodríguez Araque – PDVSA TV – Organic Hydrocarbons Law 2001

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The Department of Roads and Highways of the southern state of Parana inspected the works and opened the 14.7-kilometer section of the perimeter road for use.

However, the National Department of Transport Infrastructure and the Federal Highway Police found that the roadworks had not been completed properly and that the circulation of cars and trucks on the avenue would pose risks to the safety of users.

The works were financed with resources from Itaipu Binacional (a gigantic hydroelectric plant that harnesses the power of water to generate clean and renewable electricity), with a small contribution from the Government of Paraná, on land ceded by the municipality.

The bridge will be opened to traffic gradually. In this first phase, empty trucks will be allowed to cross in both directions.

Designed primarily to alleviate congestion on the Friendship Bridge, this viaduct will see a constant flow of loaded trucks and will only be able to fully fulfill its purpose starting in 2027, when the equivalent perimeter road to Foz do Iguaçu is completed in the city of Porto Franco, Paraguay.

The new overpass also aims to boost tourism and trade, and improve regional integration.

It spans approximately 1,300 meters and boasts the longest free span (horizontal distance without intermediate supports) in Latin America (470 meters).

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In a massive rally outside the headquarters of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in La Campiña, Caracas, Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez demanded over $35 billion in reparations from the United States government for what she described as the theft and plundering of CITGO and the illegal withholding of its dividends since 2019.

RELATED:

Venezuela Reclaims Its Sovereign Control Over Energy Resources

“Washington owes the Bolivarian people,” stated Rodríguez, who also serves as Minister of Hydrocarbons. She denounced the dispossession of national assets abroad as a form of “economic piracy” that has had serious consequences for the stability of Venezuelan citizens.

During her speech, the Vice President categorically rejected any negotiations regarding Venezuelan hydrocarbons conducted under pressure or threats. “The nation’s hydrocarbons are not subject to negotiation under threats or foreign extortion schemes,” she said, specifying that any acquisition of oil or gas by international actors must be carried out under legal protocols and with the corresponding payment.

Rodríguez urged the U.S. government to conduct a “realistic assessment” of the impact of the economic blockade and unilateral sanctions imposed on Venezuela. She also demanded a public apology and “reparation for damages” for the effects of these coercive measures, which, she stated, seek to strangle the national economy.

📌Desde #Caracas, la vicepresidenta de #Venezuela🇻🇪, Delcy Rodríguez, denunció frente a PDVSA La Campiña las agresiones de #EEUU🇺🇸, afirmando que Washington "le debe al pueblo bolivariano" y no a la inversa.

🔴 Rodríguez detalló un "saqueo" de más de 35.000 millones de dólares,… pic.twitter.com/q65XBE4EIp

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) December 19, 2025

The vice president emphasized that the defense of Venezuelan oil is part of a broader struggle for self-determination, sovereignty, and regional peace. She highlighted the role of workers in the hydrocarbon sector, whom she described as “aware and mobilized,” and reiterated her support for President Nicolás Maduro.

“National unity is the main shield against attempts to seize our energy resources,” Rodríguez stated, while describing Washington’s strategy of encirclement as an “absolute historical error.” She concluded his remarks by assuring that Venezuela will continue its economic recovery without yielding to “imperialist blackmail” and will deliver a nation free from tutelage, with full respect for its energy sovereignty.

DV_ Encuesta Diciembre 17D (1)Download

According to a recent poll cited at the event, 97% of Venezuelans oppose foreign appropriation of the country’s resources, which reinforces popular support for the government’s stance against external pressures.

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The perpetrators were members of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, who brought activities in the Arcahaie commune to a standstill.

The Haitian National Police intervened and neutralized six gang members in the ensuing exchange of gunfire, the online newspaper Haiti Libre reported.

Local media outlets noted that since 2014, gang members have attacked the port, schools, universities, police stations, prisons, ministries, bank branches, community warehouses, and the National Printing Office, which published its first work in 1804.

They also set fire to a 96,000-square-meter warehouse in the free trade zone. They also attacked private cars, a religious seminary, Haiti’s first Baptist church, which had been established for over 180 years, and more than a dozen pharmacies.

In April 2024, demonstrating their seriousness, they burned down the house of Frantz Elbé, then commander-in-chief of the Haitian National Police.

Their record became more notorious when they opened fire on a Spirit Airlines plane during its landing maneuver, forcing it to crash in the Dominican Republic with a flight attendant injured.

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In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered the decision an important step forward that helps alleviate the burden on the Syrian people and paves the way for a new stage of recovery and stability.

The statement expressed Damascus’s gratitude and appreciation to the United States, as well as to brotherly Arab countries and other friends who, through their positions and diplomatic efforts, supported the efforts to end these sanctions, for the sake of regional stability and respect for the sovereignty and unity of the Syrian Arab Republic.

The statement also highlighted appreciation for the Syrian people, both within and outside the country, who continued to defend their homeland’s right to a dignified life and helped to bring the suffering of its citizens and their legitimate demands to light in various international forums.

According to the statement, Syria considers this measure a starting point for the reconstruction and development phase and urged all Syrians, both within the country and abroad, to join the recovery efforts.

It also reiterated its call to investors from brotherly and friendly countries, as well as Syrian businesspeople, to explore the available opportunities and participate in the reconstruction process.

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The official delivered a new fleet of motorcycles and pickup trucks, along with other supplies such as uniforms and boots made by the armed forces themselves, to guarantee the safety and tranquility of the people and the operational readiness of the officers.

Approximately 300 pickup trucks equipped with cameras, and motorcycles were received by the Bolivarian National Police, the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, the Extortion and Kidnapping Command, Special Operations, the Presidential Honor Guard Special Forces, and the Anti-Drug Command.

In addition to the Commando Action Groups, Tactical Operations Unit, Caracas Police, Directorate of Special Actions, Fire Department, Civil Protection, among others, the Minister of the Interior, Justice, and Peace emphasized the national government’s significant effort to ensure all agencies are adequately equipped, an effort, he stressed, undertaken by the Bolivarian Revolution under the direct instructions of President Nicolás Maduro.

Cabello highlighted the systematic fight against armed gangs, a “dedicated and joint” effort by all security forces, and underscored the popular, military, and police unity deployed throughout the country.

Among the most notable aspects of the year, the Vice President mentioned the reduction of 340 homicides compared to 2014, which he attributed to “joint efforts,” and asserted that Venezuela has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

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Nasralla is locked in a tight race against the also right-wing National Party (PN), whose candidate, Nasry Asfura, leads the preliminary count by the National Electoral Council (CNE) by a margin of just 33,000 votes.

The Liberal candidate and well-known television presenter said that his party has agreed to review the 2,792 ballot boxes with inconsistencies selected by the CNE for the special recount, which began the previous day and represents approximately 500,000 votes.

However, he demanded that, after this step and without delays or acts of corruption, the electoral authority proceed to inspect the 8,845 polling stations challenged by the Liberal Party (PL), which represent approximately 1.8 million ballots affected by biometric failures and other technical errors, he explained.

“Open the ballot boxes, and if more votes are cast for the National Party (PN) because of changes made within the electoral warehouse or for any other reason, I will accept it, but until the votes from those 8,845 polling stations that we have challenged in a timely manner are counted, we will not accept any result,” he warned.

According to his calculations, after reviewing and counting these inconsistencies, the Liberals would obtain 149,155 more votes than the Nationalists.

In the opinion of the Liberal presidential candidate, the law empowers the National Electoral Council (CNE) to order special reviews in these cases, and he reiterated that the objective is to guarantee transparency and that the final result faithfully reflects the popular will.

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By Zophia Edwards, Corey Gilkes & Tamanisha John – Dic 12. 2025

Amidst US bombs and drug myths about Venezuela as a pretext for regime change, the subordinated position of Caribbean states’ economies within the global economy precludes an unequivocal anti-imperialist position.

It is no exaggeration to say that for over half a millennium the Caribbean has been a stage for imperial incursions. In the past two months, the US has increased its military presence in the Caribbean Sea, including carrying out an airstrike campaign, while claiming that these operations are necessary to protect US citizens from illicit drug trafficking allegedly occurring off the coast of Venezuela. As of November 15th, the US military has launched eleven deadly air strikes on small boats in Caribbean waters and eleven on South America’s Pacific Coast, killing over eighty people. In these operations, the US Navy also raided a tuna fishing boat, detaining the fisherfolk on board for several hours before releasing them.[1] To date, the US government has not provided any proof of its claims that the people it publicly executed are trafficking drugs. These extrajudicial killings have struck fear into the hearts of millions of ordinary people across the region, especially the fisherfolk who depend upon traversing the sea for their livelihoods. 

Meanwhile, Caribbean countries have either blatantly come out in support of the imperial violence at their doorsteps or been hesitant to respond. When these attacks began, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) as well as Guyana expressed enthusiastic support for US militaristic incursions and extrajudicial murders.[2] As tensions escalated, the Guyanese government attempted to backpedal from its original position. However, the T&T Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar, has maintained a pro-US stance. PM Persad Bissessar is on record saying, “I have no sympathy for traffickers, the US military should kill them all violently.”[3] This position by the T&T government was reiterated even after the US murdered two of its citizens, Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, in these airstrike campaigns. T&T allowed the US warship, USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer, to dock in the country’s capital between October 26-30 and for US military agents to “address shared threats like transnational crime and build resilience through training, humanitarian missions, and security efforts” on T&T soil.[4] The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) – the intergovernmental regional organization – has dragged its feet to take a position, waiting a whole month on October 18, to release a presser wherein it reaffirmed the region as a “zone of peace,” with Trinidad and Tobago excepting itself from this stance. 

The foot dragging is sinister when it is known for a fact that the US propaganda of conducting “anti-narcotics” operations is/are a ruse. These hostile US military aggressions in the Caribbean Sea and on South America’s Pacific Coast are part of a broader US imperial geopolitical strategy aimed at toppling the government of Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro. The aim, as Trump has publicly intimated,[5] is to get the Venezuelan government to grant the US more beneficial access to Venezuela’s resources. One might ask: Why are governments, like Trinidad and Tobago, enabling US imperial terror in the region? And why have CARICOM governments not taken an unequivocal anti-imperialist position? The answer lies in the subordinated position of these states’ economies within the global economy. Caribbean states are historically structured to be neoliberal, pro-imperial, and anti-democratic – while political elites are beholden to enacting external interests. Moreover, internal political dynamics – in terms of racial and class struggles – are also a factor, influencing the timing and intensity of these Caribbean governments’ responses to present US imperial terror. 

Debunking the Myth of the Venezuela Narco State
The first order of business is dispelling the myth that Venezuela is a ‘narco-state.’ US officials have framed the current operations—boat strikes, deployments of destroyers and aircraft—as counter-narcotics efforts designed to stem the flow of illicit drugs from Venezuela to the US. However, the Caribbean route is not among the primary conduits for major volumes of cocaine and methamphetamines into the US. Most trafficking flows of narcotics to the US are overland, through Central America and via Pacific routes.[6] It is no surprise therefore that the US government has not provided any proof of its claims that the people it has extrajudicially murdered in the Caribbean Sea or on South America’s coast are engaged in drug trafficking. Additionally, the scale and nature of force being used are far beyond what traditional interdiction operations require – with the Trump administration claiming that interdiction has not worked, hence deadly air strikes are necessary. 

In addition to the lack of evidence of a Venezuelan route being key to drug trafficking into the US, there is also no credible proof linking the Maduro government to organized drug trafficking, despite the Trump regime’s claims, which are parroted uncritically by many Caribbean media and politicians. Within the US’s own intelligence establishment, one report explicitly states: “the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA [Tren de Agua] and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.”[7] The report goes on to say: “Venezuelan intelligence, military, and police services view TDA as a security threat and operate against it in ways that make it highly unlikely the two sides would cooperate in a strategic or consistent way.” These facts stand out, especially given the evidentiary long and sordid history of the US’s leading role in drug trafficking in the Americas, and the US as the #1 supplier of weapons to those involved in the global drug trade in the region. 

The US government’s real motive is to destabilize and topple the Maduro government in Venezuela, in favor of a regime that undermines Venezuela’s sovereignty. Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney and many others remind us that capitalist imperialism depends upon neocolonial puppet governments occupied by a predatory elite who facilitate accumulation by extractivism, dispossession, and exploitation. Positioned to usurp Maduro in Venezuela by imposition and not elections, is 2025 Nobel “Peace” Prize winner, María Corina Machado. Machado is a key US ally, Trump admirer, supporter of Israel and its bombing of Gaza, and an overall admirer of repressive regimes in Latin America – including El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro. Machado has been begging for foreign military intervention in Venezuela to remove the Maduro government while professing that her administration, if granted power through non-electoral means, intends to open up Venezuela’s doors to foreign exploiters. If the current iteration of US imperial antagonism in the region leads to regime change in Venezuela, the US is poised to have control over the resources in the southern Caribbean – namely Guyana and T&T – as well as on the South American Coast: again, namely Guyana and then Venezuela. This will give the US direct control over shipping routes in the region, as it prepares for a wider economic confrontation with China. Hence, these alleged “anti-narcotics” operations which have taken the lives of over eighty Caribbean and South American people, are just a smokescreen for deeper US geopolitical interests. 

Dependency and the Character of the State
Caribbean states are disregarding the lives of the Venezuelan, Latin American, and their own Caribbean populations using external security narratives, largely because there is a true dictatorship of foreign capital in the region. As US Vice-President JD Vance let slip, places like the Caribbean countries were always intended to remain extractive workstations, not autonomous, functioning nations.…at all.[8] T&T, for example, has long been dependent on oil and gas extraction for the bulk of its national income. However, the country has been experiencing a decline in natural gas and crude oil production over the past decade and the country’s liquefaction complex and petrochemical plants producing ammonia, methanol, and other key exports – which depend upon gas input – have been suffering.[9] Combined with the collapse in energy prices in 2014, this situation has produced a decline in foreign exchange inflows and government revenues.[10] With the demand for US dollars far outstripping the supply, T&T is facing one of the most severe foreign exchange crises in the Caribbean, causing uproar across the working, middle, and upper classes of society alike.[11] As such, the T&T government is desperate for the resuscitation of its flailing oil and gas sector. 

The T&T government spent decades developing a “Dragon” gas deal, where Shell would lead operations that funnel gas located in Venezuelan waters to T&T, where it can be exported as LNG. This deal, considered by the T&T state to be the lifeline that would save the local economy from collapse, has become a weapon in Washington, DC’s arsenal against Venezuela. In the midst of the extra-judicial killings in the region, the US has revoked licenses approving the deal and re-approved them under new terms meant to ensure the involvement and profits of US companies. The continued structural dependency of T&T on foreign capital and imperial markets renders its misleaders susceptible to these coercive measures to ensure that Caribbean states align with US capitalist imperialist policies.

Economic coercion is an important part of the context for Kamla Persad Bissessar’s support for imperialism, but her position cannot be traced to this alone. Persad Bissessar and the educated elite and comprador class she represents come out of some of the “best” primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions locally and internationally. Are these elites supposed to provide independent, critical thinkers who would decolonize “post” colonial societies? Are they only unwitting agents of imperialism or are they willing participants? From the time of many states’ flag independence, foreign interventions have secured for the local Caribbean elites’ (or comprador classes) party longevity and/or political dominance, and/or visas and dual citizenships, and/or the ability to accumulate wealth for themselves by exploiting the people and land within their countries. As Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earthand Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa detailed,these elites lack the sort of creativity and vitality to independently develop into an industrial bourgeoisie. They therefore turn to propping up foreign entities and dependent economic relations. Consequently, Caribbean state-making and the establishment of territorial statuses in the context of US and European imperialist capitalism has reproduced institutions that are unresponsive to Caribbean people. 

Whether through hopes of securing or acquiring foreign investment, or due to rank economic blackmail that threatens foreign investments elites through sanctions and other restrictions – many Caribbean states choose to serve US and Western imperialism as an almost ‘practical’ strategy of economic ‘stability.’ However, such imperial service only guarantees continued underdevelopment and economic beggary. Herein, T&T’s misleadership is positioning the country as a beggar to the US and reinforcing US sanctions on Venezuela, which makes it hard for Venezuela to sell its own oil and gas to states that need it, including T&T. Worse still, the US does not want China to remedy this situation between Venezuela and Trinidad. So not only are some Caribbean leaders and party supporters encouraging naked US imperialism cloaked in the deceptive language and rhetoric of “anti-drug trafficking” and “protecting the region,” they are also upholding a condition of dependency of the region on the US, advancing US attempts to subvert Chinese influence in the region, and in the process supporting direct attacks on states in the region’s right to self-determination and sovereignty. 

Moreover, local internal racial and class dynamics are also shaping the timing and intensity of Caribbean governments responses to US aggression in the region. In the post-WWII construction of party politics in T&T, middle-class parties carried forward the colonial divisions between the predominantly African and Indian segments of the population that multiracial worker movements had fought so hard to overcome. Kamla Persad Bissessar, as leader of the party popularly known as the one representing “Indian interests,” is advancing and exploiting this racial wedge to garner support for her pro-imperial policies. This party has actively engaged in criminalizing poor African communities as well as Venezuelan migrants, while downplaying the fact that the many poor and marginalized Indians are similarly caught in the net of US imperialism. Persad Bissessar and her party affiliates’ own ideas of “purity” mixed with class notions of entitlement merge with the supremacist foundations of US local and foreign politics.

It’s bad enough that a Prime Minister — a lawyer — supports extra-judicial murders in violation of International Law, but how does one align with a political ideology that produced people like Senator James Reed, who, circa 1919, openly dismissed dealing with “a removed from Liberia, a removed from Honduras, a removed from India…each (having) votes equal to that of the great United States.” Before one argues that this was long ago, consider what right-wing political commentator Ann Coulter told Vivek Ramaswamy why she’d never vote for him regardless of how his views match hers. We acknowledge that political leaders, seeking re-election, opt for the path of least resistance which in this case means not offending the mighty United States. But this cannot just be naïveté.

It is in this context that Kamla Persad Bissessar has broken with even the basic understanding of what CARICOM is, and is astonishingly peddling the idea that each island seeking its own interest is somehow more progressive than banding together as one bloc! In other words, she and those who support her stance have embraced regional colonial divide-and-conquer tactics. The US has always stood in opposition to a unified body in the region. As then US diplomat Charles Whittaker put it: “A strongly federated West Indies might be detrimental to American interests.” As such, they undermined the West Indian Federation in the 1950s and sabotaged the New International Economic Order throughout the 1970s. The Caribbean misleaders proclaiming disunity as strength subscribe to political ideologies that interlock with a particular brand of politics in the West that has been openly Euro-nationalist and imperialist. Hence, at a time when many resource-rich countries are forming partnerships and alternative trading and security blocs, the political misleaders in the Caribbean calling for further fragmentation should warrant deeper investigation.

Venezuela Condemns US Piracy Before UN as Killings Resume; US Debate Heats Up, and Trinidad Lends Airports to US Military Operations

Media, Political Misleadership, and How the State Weaponizes “Security”
It is important to clarify that crime does exist in the Caribbean region, just as it exists elsewhere throughout the world. The size of Caribbean countries are also important to note, because though it is true that the amount of drugs flowing through the Caribbean are low relative to the global drug trade, the little that does pass through is indeed wreaking havoc, given the geographical and population sizes of these countries. The increase in guns and violent crime associated with the global drug trade in places like T&T has become a critical factor affecting everyday life for ordinary people there. This context has enabled the T&T government to justify and legitimate US military aggression in the name of “fighting” the drug trade in the region. Thus, most people cheering on the US military are simply desperate for a sense of safety. However, it is precisely this need for safety that is being weaponized — to increase unsafe conditions as new US-produced military weaponry and technologies become even more commonplace in the region. 

There is a direct and indirect connection between (geo)political and economic decisions made by successive generations of ruling elites in the Caribbean, and North American narratives of crime, which have –going back to the 19th century in some countries – allowed (and made space for) imperial aggression in the region. Over a number of decades, the United States has taken advantage of crises caused by rising violent crime to pursue its own security interests – even though rises in violent crime in the region is directly linked to US imported and manufactured weapons, and US consumer demands for items that the US state deems “illegal.” To establish and maintain US dominance — and the accompanying cheap labor[12] from the surplus populations which exist in a region notorious for high levels of unemployment and underemployment — the US has deployed constant applications of violence, packaged as maintaining “law and order” in the drive to “progress” and “catch up” with the West. It’s no coincidence that modern policing began in the Caribbean as militarized slave patrols in St Lucia.[13] Then, like now, the purpose is the same: protect wealth from the workers who created it. However, the real effectiveness lay in conditioning the exploited to adopt the values of the elites. To date, Western elite definitions of progress and development for the wider working people in the Caribbean region dominate, even as the dependent status of Caribbean economies make this impossible for the majority of the people in the region. Thus, US reliance on expanding its military apparatus for economic growth is justified through the construction of permanent threats that the US supposedly has to “defend” itself against.

Another such narrative, like the need to “promote democracy” in Venezuela, is also within this vein of western imperialist propaganda. The US and western imperialists maintain that Venezuela is not a democracy, despite thepresence of robust, active citizen’s assemblies and communes, as well as elections that occur under the presence of election observers – including from the US. Nonetheless, the western imperialist narrative maintains that Venezuela is not democratic and thus their people can be bombed for some purported “greater good.” Meanwhile, these same imperialist narratives call genocidal Israel a democracy deserving of “protection” and “defense,” as it exterminates Palestinians and decimates Palestinian land. This propaganda – not analysis based on any facts – readily frames western imperialism as “defensive,” “pro-security,” and “pro-safety” and those not in line with it as “aggressive” and “undemocratic.”[14] In lockstep with imperialists, local political figures too have long used or encouraged the use of dehumanizing language when discussing criminalized people and communities. When the T&T Prime Minister, Police Commissioner, and other influential authority figures refer to human beings as “carcasses,”[15] “pests,” “fleas” or “cockroaches,” the message sent is that these are not citizens or members of society and therefore, not worthy of certain basic courtesies and legal obligations, including the right to life. When this sort of thinking is widespread, issues of social justice fall by the wayside. Instead, heavy often murderous attacks on real or alleged drug runners who come from poor, precarious, vulnerable communities become justified while the power brokers, bankers and their institutions[16] that launder money do not get so much as a paper weight dropped on them.

Likewise, the local and international media is playing a significant role in the unfolding crisis. Save for a few columnists, the local media has been disgraceful, little more than sycophantic stenographers for egregious narratives coming from Washington. Initially, the local media conducted little to no critical research into the many available sources discrediting[17] false allegations connecting the Maduro administration to drug cartels. They parroted language that criminalized the victims of the attacks without presenting any evidence proving that they were guilty of violating any laws. They were silent on the voluminous literature connecting the CIA and the US military to colonial land and resource grabs that violate international and local laws.[18] They also proliferated the myth that Nicolas Maduro “lost” or “rigged” elections in Venezuela, contrary to information provided by election observers. The lack of critical and independent journalism is a clear dereliction of duty, supporting imperialist narratives and providing cover for extrajudicial murder.

Conclusion
The neoliberal era shortly after many states’ independence extended the life of bourgeois colonial thought in the Caribbean, interpreting the human “firstly, [as] a figure that is homo economics, and, secondly, a figure that can only operate within the field of white supremacy and capitalism.”[19] In this environment, Caribbean resistance weakened, having to establish itself alongside the intensification of neoliberal processes – foremost amongst them being state repression and militarist aggression supported by the US hegemon – so that Caribbean peoples could be definitively integrated into a Western capitalist system as “bottom labor-exporting economies,” whose labor commodification was masked by discourses on ‘growth’ and ‘development.’[20] It is in analyzing the characteristics of Caribbean states and governance within them – including how they interpret ‘development’ – that helps us to answer why so many states elect to do imperial service: Caribbean neocolonial (puppet) states are fundamentally anti-democratic with no real regard for Caribbean life within them. 

The T&T government’s deliberate facilitation of US imperial aggression in the region mirrors the position of several African states. The post-genocide Tutsi-dominated regime of Paul Kagame in Rwanda, leveraging its image as a victim of colonialism and genocide, justifies domestic repression of Hutus and expansionist military ventures in neighboring states, notably the Democratic Republic of Congo in close alliance with the United States, France, and Israel. In exchange for U.S. and western military, financial, and political backing, Rwanda facilitates imperial access to Congo’s mineral wealth—coltan, gold, and tin—channeling profits both to Western capital and Rwandan elites. Thus, Rwanda functions as a pro-U.S. imperial proxy, advancing the global system of resource extraction and accumulation on behalf of Western powers. In addition, Rwanda along with a growing list of African states, including Ghana, Eswatini, and South Sudan have accepted the terms of bilateral agreements with the US government to receive people who have been criminalized and deported under the Trump regime’s attack on communities racialized as non-white in the US.[21] By enlisting themselves to be locations for the outsourcing of US racist incarceration policies, they are enabling the geographical expansion of the US military industrial prison complex to more and more corners of the world. These Caribbean and African misleaders will go down in history as active enablers and facilitators of the very imperial greed, oppression, and exploitation that the masses have been resisting since the days of direct colonial domination.

Only invigorated mass resistance that takes power away from Caribbean neocolonial (puppet) elites engaged in imperial service can rectify these conditions. Global Africans in the Caribbean and around the world must claim power and reclaim movement histories that fought back against capitalist imperialism. 

Endnotes

[1]https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/venezuela-says-u-s-warship-raided-a-%E2%80%A6

[2]https://www.caribbeanlife.com/trinidad-guyana-us-moves-venezuela/

[3]https://newsday.co.tt/2025/09/03/kamla-says-kill-all-traffickers-as-tru%E2%80%A6

[4]https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/26/world/us-warship-docks-trinidad-venezeul%E2%80%A6

[5]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/17/trump-maduro-venezuela

[6]https://www.unodc.org/unodc/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2025.ht%E2%80%A6

[7]https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/32f71f10c36cc482/d9%E2%80%A6

[8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1bd-D1PIZg&pp=ygUZIGogZCB2YW5jZSBnbG9i%E2%80%A6

[9]https://www.finance.gov.tt/2020/03/16/effect-of-the-oil-price-collapse-%E2%80%A6

[10]https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2014/cr14271.pdf; https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2024/06/04/Trinidad-and-T%E2%80%A6.

[11]Chamber of Industry and Commerce 2025; University of the West Indies Campus News 2024.

[12]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAJgGFtF44A

[13]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kavkiH9YHag&pp=ygUaanVsaWFuIGdvIHBvbGlj%E2%80%A6

[14] See, for example, the Trilateral Commission’s “The Crisis of Democracy” in which influential thinkers who shaped US policy complained that decolonising countries were exercising too much democracy, which needed to be contained, leading to the proliferation of NGOs all over the peripheralized world.

[15]https://trinidadexpress/.com/news/local/kamla-state-resources-won-t-be-wasted/article_5d0c61fd-d633-4dd3-8e3e-6995a454c774.html

[16]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpZPGOksp0

[17]https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2025NationalDrugThreatA%E2%80%A6; https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/32f71f10c36cc482/d9%E2%80%A6

[18]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/455652.Dark_Alliance; https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/1628-whiteout?srsltid=AfmBOor%E2%80%A6; https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/the-politics-of-heroin-%E2%80%A6; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxbW0CCuT7E

[19] Bogues, Anthony. 2023. “Sylvia Wynter: Constructing Radical Caribbean Thought.” BIM: Arts for the 21st Century11(1): 33–41, p.37.

[20] Henry, Paget. 2000. “Caribbean Marxism: After the Neoliberal and Linguistic Turns.” In Caliban’s Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy, Africana Thought, New York: Routledge, 221-46, p.228.

[21]https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/more-african-nations-are-receiving-t%E2%80%A6

Zophia Edwards is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Fueling Development: How Black Radical Trade Unionism Transformed Trinidad and Tobago (Duke University Press). She is also a member of the Global Pan-African Movement North America.

Corey Gilkes is an independent researcher who writes from an anticolonial perspective, applying factual revisionist historical analyses to interpret current events. Gilkes has published pieces in trinicenter.com, wired868com, globalcommment.com, and his own blog page at coreygilkes.wordpress.com. He is also currently working on four book projects.

Tamanisha John is an Assistant Professor at York University. She is a member of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), Caribbean Solidarity Network (CSN), and the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC). @tamanishajohn (Twitter and Instagram)

(Pambazuka News)

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From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

Less than 2% of the population residing in Gaza professes Christianity.

On Friday, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, arrived in Gaza to visit the Church of the Holy Family, the only Catholic parish in the Palestinian enclave, which was attacked in July by the Israeli occupation army.

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Pizzaballa traveled with Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali and a delegation to oversee the humanitarian response and the rehabilitation work at the Gaza parish. The cardinal, considered a papal candidate before the election of Leo XIV, will also preside over Christmas Mass on Sunday.

His visit reaffirms the parish’s connection with the diocese and the Latin Patriarchate’s commitment to accompanying its faithful in hope and prayer during the difficult times for the Christian community.

Pope Leo XIV has spoken on several occasions with the parish priest of Gaza, the Argentinian Gabriel Romanelli, who leads the local Catholic community amidst the humanitarian crisis.

Video showing the funeral of the victims of a tragic Israeli strike on Gaza’s Holy Family Catholic Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza. Three individuals lost their lives.
July 17 2025 #palestine #gaza #Eastern_christians #Christianity pic.twitter.com/gB30s3wW3N

— Eastern christians (@Easternchristns) July 17, 2025

During his last visit in July, Pizzaballa was accompanied by Theophilos III, his Greek Orthodox counterpart, after an Israeli attack that killed three people in the church. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Donald Trump that the attack on the church was “a mistake.”

According to the latest available data, less than 2% of the population residing in Gaza professes Christianity. Around 400 Christian faithful from Gaza will spend their third Christmas as refugees in the Holy Family parish, surrounded by ruins and nightly gunfire.

Romanelli explained that there will be no outdoor celebrations because the war continues. He noted that the electrical system is down, the water pipes are destroyed, and half of the essential medicines are lacking.

#FromTheSouth News Bits | Middle East: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) continues to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/2D81Pgo6rH

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) November 5, 2025

teleSUR: JP

Source: EFE

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

If re-elected in 2026, Farley Augustine will propose a referendum to achieve autonomy for the island.

On Friday, CNC3TV reported that Tobago Chief Secretary Farley Augustine questioned decisions by Trinidad and Tobago’s central government regarding U.S. military access to his country’s territory.

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“Augustine says if he had the authority, he would have rejected the military radar and U.S. military access to Tobago’s airport. He says the decision should have reflected the will of the people. He’s once again calling for a referendum to discuss what Tobagonians want as part of its autonomy,” the local outlet said.

If re-elected on Jan. 12, Augustine would raise with citizens the possibility of achieving autonomy for the island through a referendum that would be held in mid-2026.

“Speaking in Buccoo on Thursday evening at a Tobago People’s Party political meeting, Augustine said his party has a ‘blueprint’ for Tobago’s development, with a referendum on autonomy as a central element,” the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian reported.

THA NOMINATION DAY

THA Chief Secretary and Tobago People's Party leader, Farley Augustine, successfully filed his nomination papers for the THA election.
Augustine also reflected on his 4 years in charge of the island's affairs and the challenges his party faced.
Video by NEIL… pic.twitter.com/HBcbE7EzgW

— T&T Guardian (@GuardianTT) December 19, 2025

The Tobagonian politician warned that he would call for public mobilization if the Trinidad and Tobago’s government does not accept the possibility of a referendum.

“And if the central government is reluctant to make legal provisions for an assembly, we will hold a nonbinding referendum and we will take the data or the results from that referendum and we are going to march forward to Port of Spain and say to Port of Spain this is what the people of Tobago want and we want nothing less than that,” he said, as reported by the local outlet.

Among the reasons cited for seeking autonomy for the island is the fact that Tobago lacks the legal authority to make decisions over natural resources located in its maritime space.

“When we talk about our autonomy, we are not accepting any autonomy bills where we can’t pass laws for our ocean. That is ours. That doesn’t belong to anybody else but us. That’s our own, that’s not theirs,” Augustine said.

"Another Caribbean chess move: Trinidad's airport access for US military as tensions simmer. Critics say this blurs the line between cooperation and becoming a geopolitical staging ground. Watch this space."https://t.co/0943D9FStO

— DestineeButler (@DestineeButler8) December 18, 2025

Previously, on Dec. 15, the government of Trinidad and Tobago, led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, announced it would allow U.S. military aircraft to transit through its local airports in the coming weeks.

Central government authorities, who have backed the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean, also confirmed the installation of a radar system and the arrival of two U.S. military aircraft.

While the Persad-Bissessar administration vows that Trinidad and Tobago is not involved in any war proposal, its authorizations come amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Caribbean, fueled by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has explicitly stated his interest in appropriating Venezuelan natural resources.

#FromTheSouth News Bits | The United States reinforced its threats against the Caribbean region, after installing a military radar in Trinidad and Tobago, near the Venezuelan coast. pic.twitter.com/4oG5MKr17L

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 2, 2025

teleSUR/ JF

Source: CNC3TV – Trinidad and Tobajo Guardian

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How the December 2025 summit indefinitely locked US$300 billion in Russian wealth to serve as a permanent hostage for Western “reparations loans.”

On the morning of December 19, 2025, a group of European leaders emerged from the European Council Summit with a decision that many are calling a “historic compromise,” but which critics label a desperate act of financial engineering.

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The European Union has finalized a €90 billion loan (US$105 billion) for Ukraine; a move aimed at staving off the country’s looming bankruptcy by the second quarter of 2026.

The decision marks a critical turning point in the years-long saga of the Russian central bank assets, which were frozen in February 2022. While the EU stopped short of the outright confiscation demanded by hawks in Washington and Warsaw, they have effectively placed these billions under an “indefinite freeze”.

🇷🇺🇪🇺 Europe is so poor, it now needs to steal Russian assets to keep Ukraine going.

With an estimated GDP of $29T to Russia's $7T, they still can't outproduce us.

Honestly, I believe stealing the frozen assets plays into Russia's interest, foreign investors pull out in fear.… pic.twitter.com/28nZGjylgR

— Spetsnaℤ 007 🇷🇺 (@Alex_Oloyede2) December 12, 2025

Anatomy of the Freeze: $300 Billion in Limbo

Following the start of Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in 2022, the West acted with unprecedented speed to weaponize the global clearing system. Approximately US$300 billion (€285 billion) in Russian sovereign reserves were immobilized.

The distribution of these funds is a roadmap of Western financial dominance. While the United States holds a mere US$5 billion, the overwhelming bulk—roughly €210 billion—resides within the European Union.

At the heart of this storm is Euroclear, a Belgian-based clearinghouse that alone holds €193 billion of the Russian total. These are complex securities that have matured into cash balances, generating billions in “extraordinary” interest profits that have become the primary target for Western policymakers.

EU leaders decided to borrow cash to fund Ukraine's defense against Russia for the next two years rather than use frozen Russian assets, sidestepping divisions over an unprecedented plan to finance Kyiv with Russian sovereign cash https://t.co/VW3AoPlgWh pic.twitter.com/obt5rDQVAZ

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 19, 2025

The Legal “Sleight of Hand”: Redefining Ownership

For nearly four years, the West has navigated a legal minefield. Outright seizure of the “principal”—the original US$300 billion—was long resisted by the European Central Bank and the Belgian government.

The most significant shift occurred on December 12, 2025, when the European Commission utilized Article 122(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Traditionally reserved for emergency economic measures like natural disasters or energy crises, this article was invoked to label the war in Ukraine a “serious economic difficulty” for the Union itself.

This was a strategic masterstroke for Brussels. By reclassifying the asset freeze as an “emergency economic measure” rather than a purely foreign policy decision, the Commission was able to:

• Neutralize the Veto: It replaced the requirement for a unanimous vote (which countries like Hungary frequently blocked) with a Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) system.
• Indefinite Immobilization: It transformed the previous six-month renewal cycle into an “indefinite freeze.” The assets are now locked until Russia pays reparations—a condition that effectively ensures the money is permanently trapped.

To avoid the label of “thieves,” EU lawyers crafted the Reparations Loan (Regulation 2025/2600). The mechanism is designed as a “limited recourse loan”: the EU borrows €90 billion on capital markets and hands it to Kyiv.

“No matter what pseudo-legal tricks Brussels tries to justify this with, it amounts to outright ordinary robbery… They are like ‘thimbleriggers’ [street con artists] palming off confiscation as a loan,” Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

They feared that such a move would shatter the credibility of the Euro as a reserve currency, leading nations like China, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil to flee Western markets. Now, the funds are blocked until Russia pays for war damages, a condition that effectively ensures the money will never be returned under the current geopolitical climate.

As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen triumphantly stated on Friday: “Every six months, there was a threat that just one member state… not agreeing to the sanctions anymore, the immobilized Russian assets would have been gone. Now they are secured for good and can only be mobilized again with a qualified majority. That’s the big win.”

The EU must make Russia pay for its war of aggression against Ukraine with its frozen assets.

Watch⤵️ #EUCO pic.twitter.com/48aldi5jbv

— EPP Group (@EPPGroup) December 19, 2025

Financing or Extortion? The Debt Trap for Ukraine

The €90 billion loan, intended for 2026 and 2027, is structured as a “limited recourse loan.” This means Ukraine is only obligated to repay the EU if and when it receives reparations from Russia. If no reparations are paid, the EU “reserves the right” to use the frozen Russian assets to pay back the creditors.

This structure is fraught with irony. It ties Ukraine’s financial survival to the permanent dispossession of another sovereign nation’s wealth, all while bypassing the United Nations—the only body with the legal authority to adjudicate such reparations.

“Now we have a simple choice: either money today or blood tomorrow. And I am not talking about Ukraine only; I am talking about Europe. This is our decision to make, and only ours.”, as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the urgency of the funding.

While EU outlets frame this as “justice,” it is another perspective, one of profound alarm. Why were the assets of nations involved in the illegal invasion of Iraq never frozen? Why has there been no similar move against assets related to the ongoing crisis in Gaza?

The message to the world is clear: your wealth is only safe in Western banks if your foreign policy aligns with Western interests. This “financial imperialism” has accelerated a tectonic shift in the global economy. The BRICS+ nations are no longer just discussing “de-dollarization”; they are actively building alternative clearing systems to avoid the “Euroclear trap.”

It should be emphasized that Russia is not the first victim of this doctrine. The “freezing” of Russian wealth follows the template set by the seizure of Venezuelan gold in the Bank of England and the “blocking” of US$7 billion of Afghan central bank reserves by the U.S. In both cases, the West used its control over financial infrastructure to pursue regime change or political leverage, often at the expense of the civilian populations who suffered as their national wealth was locked away.

Zelensky in Brussels on frozen Russian assets:
“Both morally and legally, this is the right thing to do. Some may fear lawsuits from Russia, but that is far less dangerous than Russia at your border. While Ukraine defends Europe, Europe must support Ukraine.” pic.twitter.com/FNLdvfXF9q

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) December 18, 2025

A New Financial Iron Curtain

As we close out 2025, the “rules-based order” has chosen a path from which there may be no return. By indefinitely immobilizing Russian assets to back a €90 billion loan, the European Union has prioritized short-term military funding over the long-term stability of the international legal system.

The “neutrality” of global finance is officially dead. In its place, a new Financial Iron Curtain is falling, dividing the world between those who remain within the Western clearinghouses and those who are seeking refuge in a new, multipolar architecture. The victory celebrated in Brussels today may well be the catalyst for the ultimate decline of the Euro’s global standing tomorrow.

Sources: teleSUR – Al Jazeera – RT – TASS – EuroNews – Al Mayadeen – European Parliament – Brookings

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Viral reports on social media and international forums warn of a possible cyberattack on the National Electoral Council’s (CNE) rapid vote counting system (TREP), amid growing suspicions of an attempted “electoral coup.”

The accusations are based on the dissemination of IP addresses and network ranges allegedly linked to the electoral body’s technological infrastructure.

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According to material circulating on digital platforms and cybercrime forums such as BreachForums, lists of internal IP addresses associated with Honduran electoral system networks have been shared, including private segments not publicly accessible, suggesting a possible network mapping or leak.

One of the images, titled “Hack the Elections,” and another corresponding to an online chat where users coordinate cyber actions—including threats of DDoS attacks—have generated concern among cybersecurity experts.

IT specialists consulted on social media emphasize that, although there is no conclusive evidence of a completed hack, the revealed elements do show a reconnaissance and preparation phase for a possible cyberattack, which represents a real risk to the integrity of the electoral process.

These warnings are compounded by inconsistencies in the official data: the registered voter registry is estimated at approximately 6.5 million voters, but the number of votes cast has already exceeded 7 million, even though the TREP system reports only 91% of the vote count completed. This discrepancy has raised alarms among political and social sectors, who denounce the possibility of manipulation or alteration of the results.

Honduras Elections breach is on #BreachForums thanks to @Sc0rp10nn1 this is awesome if someone wants to really hack some elections shit,https://t.co/6aOFxZJRsH
IP: 27.126.241.124https://t.co/thRYFPK44Xhttps://t.co/9ADdGlthlK
IP: 100.28.91.7 pic.twitter.com/mDW8ErlcDs

— DR54HACKS (@hackysackysack) December 19, 2025

The allegations point to a suspected fraud in the making, in which sectors of the traditional two-party system are allegedly involved, which, if confirmed, would constitute one of the most contested electoral processes in the country’s recent history.

Various actors are demanding absolute transparency, independent technical audits, and public appearances by the National Electoral Council (CNE) to guarantee that the results reflect the popular will.

To date, the electoral authorities have not issued a technical statement addressing these specific allegations, while the case continues to gain prominence both nationally and internationally.

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An Iranian Foreign Ministry official denounces Canada’s fresh sanctions on the country’s officials.

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The US military's "lethal" strikes target two more vessels as US President Donald Trump reiterates possibility of war with Venezuela.

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