Latin American Publications!

On his social media account, the parliamentary leader echoed Cuba’s condemnation, calling on the international community to reject the military aggression by the United States government against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

“Latin America and the Caribbean is a Zone of Peace,” the president of the Cuban parliament emphasized.

Earlier, President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez demanded an urgent response to the bombings early Saturday morning, calling them an act of state terrorism and a flagrant violation of the South American nation’s sovereignty.

Havana demanded an urgent response from the international community to what it described as a “criminal attack” that threatens the stability of the region and violates the principles of the Zone of Peace proclaimed by Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Our Zone of Peace is being brutally assaulted. It is an act of aggression against the brave Venezuelan people and against Our America,” the statement emphasized.

Cuba reiterated its unconditional solidarity with Venezuela and reaffirmed its commitment to defending the self-determination of peoples. “Homeland or Death, We Will Win!” the message declared.

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In the early hours of Saturday, January 3, blackouts, aircraft noise, and heavy explosions were heard throughout Caracas and in several other regions of Venezuela. In a statement released around 3 a.m., the Venezuelan government confirmed that the US government launched military strikes in Caracas, La Guaira, and Aragua state. After several hours of uncertainty and following US announcements, the kidnapping of the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores was confirmed.

The Venezuelan statement, besides confirming the US military aggression, also informed the public that Venezuela is prepared to repel any further attacks. However, no anti-aircraft artillery was seen during the US military strikes over Caracas.

In the communique, the government also announced that President Maduro signed a state of foreign commotion emergency decree. The government had previously stated it would implement this decree immediately should the US government act on its military threats. This measure will allow Venezuela to respond more efficiently to both internal and external aggression.

US imperialism and the struggle for oil
Since last August, US imperialism has been threatening military attacks against Venezuela under the excuse of a new “war on drugs.” However, recent statements show that the main reasons behind these threats—along with an unprecedented US military deployment of more than 18,000 troops off the coast of Venezuela—are regime change and control over Venezuelan oil.

From the headquarters of Orinoco Tribune in south downtown Caracas, no strikes were visible, including around the Miraflores Presidential Palace. However, explosions and unfamiliar aircraft noises were heard for about 45 minutes, ending around 2:50 a.m. The aircraft sounds were not similar to the ordinary helicopter or fighter jet sounds familiar to those in Venezuela.

Social media posts showed videos of explosions at the Fuerte Tiuna military complex in Caracas, in areas reported by mainstream media in recent months as secure presidential locations. This indicates an attempted decapitation strike against President Maduro. Strikes at the La Carlota military base in Caracas were also clearly covered in social media posts. Several areas of Caracas remain without electric power after several hours, though most of the city does not report electricity cuts.

The following is an unofficial translation of the Venezuelan government statement:

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and population in the civilian and military localities of the city of Caracas, capital of the republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira.

This act constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, especially Articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of states, and the prohibition of the use of force. Such aggression threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and puts the lives of millions of people at serious risk.

The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, in an attempt to forcibly break the nation’s political independence. They will not succeed. After more than 200 years of independence, the people and their legitimate government remain steadfast in defending their sovereignty and their inalienable right to decide their own destiny. The attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a “regime change,” in alliance with the fascist oligarchy, will fail like all previous attempts.

Since 1811, Venezuela has confronted and defeated empires. When foreign powers bombarded our coasts in 1902, President Cipriano Castro proclaimed: “The insolent foot of the foreigner has profaned the sacred soil of the Fatherland.” Today, with the spirit of Bolívar, Miranda, and our liberators, the Venezuelan people rise again to defend their independence in the face of imperial aggression.

People to the streets!

The Bolivarian government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack. The people of Venezuela and their Bolivarian National Armed Forces, in perfect popular-military-police fusion, are deployed to guarantee sovereignty and peace. Simultaneously, Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy will file the corresponding complaints with the UN Security Council, the secretary-general of that organization, CELAC, and NAM, demanding the condemnation and accountability of the US government.

President Nicolás Maduro has ordered that all national defense plans be implemented at the appropriate time and under the appropriate circumstances, in strict accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Organic Law on States of Emergency, and the Organic Law on National Security.

In this regard, President Nicolás Maduro has signed and ordered the implementation of the decree declaring a state of external commotion throughout the national territory in order to protect the rights of the population, the full functioning of republican institutions, and to immediately move to armed struggle. The entire country must mobilize to defeat this imperialist aggression.

Similarly, he has ordered the immediate deployment of the Command for the Comprehensive Defense of the Nation and the Comprehensive Defense Management Bodies in all states and municipalities of the country. In accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, Venezuela reserves the right to exercise legitimate defense to protect its people, its territory, and its independence.

As Supreme Commander Hugo Chávez Frías pointed out, “in the face of any new difficulties, whatever their magnitude, the response of all patriots… is unity, struggle, battle and victory.”

— Caracas, January 3, 2026

Kidnapping of President Maduro and the line of succession
Around 5 a.m., the US ruler, Donald Trump, claimed on social media that President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been kidnapped. Initial impressions from analysts suggested this might be a disinformation maneuver intended to materialize the assassination of President Maduro. This appeared to be supported by a press conference held by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, where no reference to a kidnapping was made.

US Launches Criminal Airstrikes on Venezuela—Statement by the Venezuelan Government

However, around 5:30 a.m., Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, the second-highest official in the line of succession, appeared in a broadcast on public television. She demanded “proof of life” from the US regime for President Maduro and his wife, thereby confirming the kidnapping of the constitutional president of Venezuela.

Many analysts have asserted over the last several months of US aggression that a decapitation strike or the absence of President Maduro would represent a significant loss, but would not topple the Bolivarian Revolution or Chavismo. Under the current circumstances, Delcy Rodríguez is serving as the acting president of Venezuela.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/JB

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Early Saturday morning, military zones in the city of Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira were attacked by the United States, according to a statement.

“This act constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, especially Articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of states, and the prohibition of the use of force,” the statement indicated.

The statement noted that such aggression threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and seriously endangers the lives of millions of people.

It denounced that the objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to forcibly break the nation’s political independence. “They will not succeed.”

The Bolivarian Government called on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and condemn this imperialist attack.

It affirmed that the people of Venezuela and their Bolivarian National Armed Forces, in perfect popular-military-police unity, are deployed to guarantee sovereignty and peace.

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The National Association of Friendship between Italy and Cuba (Anaic) issued a statement declaring that “after months of lies and provocations, extrajudicial killings and acts of piracy, tonight Trumpist beasts bombed Venezuela.” “Stop this aggression immediately.

The United Nations and its Security Council must intervene immediately to prevent brutal and petty US imperialism from attacking and robbing a sovereign country and plunging the world into World War III,” the statement reads.

The National Association of Ibero-American States (ANAIC) called for “maximum mobilization to show our full solidarity with the Venezuelan people and their legitimate representative, President Nicolas Maduro Moro,” and concluded its call with the slogan “Hands off Bolivarian Venezuela!”

Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated in a message posted on social media that “I am following the situation of our diplomatic mission in Caracas, with special attention to the Italian community.”

“Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is constantly informed,” Tajani assured, specifying that the Foreign Ministry’s crisis unit is operational, monitoring the course of events in that nation, where some 160,000 Italian citizens are currently located.

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Speaking to the multinational network Telesur, Rodriguez demanded proof of life from Washington for the president and the first lady, Cilia Flores.

The vice president asserted that Maduro had anticipated the possibility of a US attack, knowing what the current administration, headed by Donald Trump, is capable of.

The Venezuelan government denounced the attack on military and civilian sites in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira.

Trump confirmed a large-scale attack and claimed that President Maduro and Flores had been “captured and left the country.”

Condemnations of the US attack have poured in from around the world.

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In a special address, the Minister informed the country and the world about what he described as “the most criminal military aggression” by the United States government.

Padrino Lopez detailed that, during the early hours of this morning, invading US forces violated Venezuelan sovereign airspace.

The attacks, he explained, were concentrated in the town of Fuerte Tiuna, in Caracas, and in strategic points in the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira.

In his speech, Padrino Lopez stated that enemy combat helicopters fired missiles and rockets that struck residential areas with civilian populations, and a preliminary tally of fatalities and injuries is already being compiled.

In response to these events, the Venezuelan military high command lodged the strongest protest with all international multilateral organizations.

The Minister of Defense directly accused the U.S. government (the administration of Donald Trump) of committing a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law, jeopardizing the stability of the entire region.

“A free and independent Venezuela, and I reiterate that the homeland is a supreme value. They have attacked us, but they will not break us,” concluded Padrino Lopez.

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Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife have been captured by the US armed forces, US President Donald Trump claims.

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The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity (REDH) issued a statement on Saturday condemning what it described as a military attack carried out by the government of the United States against the territory and people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the early hours of January 3, 2026.

RELATED:

Venezuela Accuses U.S. of Military Aggression, Declares Emergency

In its communiqué, REDH characterized the alleged strike on Venezuelan territory and civilian population as an act of aggression against a sovereign state, which it said constitutes a violation of the United Nations Charter and represents a threat to international peace. The organization framed the incident not only as an attack on Venezuela, but as an assault on the principle of national self-determination, warning of the precedent it could set for armed intervention against sovereign nations.

According to REDH, the offensive is aimed at undermining Venezuela’s political independence and gaining control over what it described as the country’s strategic resources. The network denounced what it called an attempt to impose a change of government through military means, asserting that such actions seek to subordinate Venezuela to external interests.

#COMUNICADO | La Red de Intelectuales y Artistas en Defensa de la Humanidad condena agresión militar del Gobierno de Estados Unidos contra Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/nlCcFk8bSg

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) January 3, 2026

The statement reaffirmed confidence in the capacity of the Venezuelan people to defend their sovereignty, invoking the country’s historical experience of resistance from the independence struggles of the nineteenth century through later confrontations with foreign pressure.

The organization expressed support for the Venezuelan government’s call for popular mobilization and for the participation of social forces in rejecting the attack. It also backed the involvement of the Bolivarian National Armed Force and endorsed the declaration of a state of External Commotion, which it described as a legitimate measure to protect the population, preserve institutions and organize national defense.

REDH further stated that Venezuela has the right to exercise self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in response to what it considers an armed attack. The network called on peoples, intellectual and artistic communities, social movements and governments in Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions to mobilize in solidarity with Venezuela. It urged international protest, critical debate and political pressure to halt what it described as a broader threat to the sovereignty of nations.

Concluding its statement, REDH cited former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, recalling his words that “ante las dificultades, por grandes que sean, la respuesta debe ser unidad, lucha, batalla y victoria,” presenting this as a guiding principle for its current stance.

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The Venezuelan government on Friday accused the United States of carrying out military attacks against civilian and military locations in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, denouncing the actions as a serious violation of international law and announcing nationwide emergency measures.

RELATED:

Venezuela Reaffirms its Solidarity with Iran in the Face of US Interventionist Actions

In an official communiqué issued in Caracas, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela said it “rejects, repudiates and denounces before the international community the grave military aggression perpetrated by the current Government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and population.” The statement said the attacks violate Articles 1 and 2 of the United Nations Charter, which establish respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of states and the prohibition of the use of force.

According to the government, the strikes targeted both civilian and military sites in the capital and surrounding regions, threatening peace and stability in Latin America and the Caribbean and placing “the lives of millions of people” at risk.

#COMUNICADO | La República Bolivariana de #Venezuela🇻🇪 rechaza, repudia y denuncia ante la comunidad internacional la gravísima agresión militar perpetrada por el Gobierno actual de los Estados Unidos de América contra territorio y población venezolanos en las localidades civiles… pic.twitter.com/x316Fzme5K

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) January 3, 2026

The communiqué asserted that the objective of the operation is to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly oil and minerals, and to undermine the country’s political independence. It described the incident as part of an attempt to impose a foreign-driven “regime change,” which the government said would fail.

The government called on all social and political forces to activate mobilization plans and reject the imperialist attack. It said the Bolivarian National Armed Forces are deployed alongside civilian and police structures to guarantee sovereignty and public order.

At the diplomatic level, Venezuela announced it will submit formal complaints to the United Nations Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), seeking condemnation and accountability from the United States.

#BREAKINGNEWS | Venezuela rejects U.S. attack on national territory pic.twitter.com/Jc2dCxSzD6

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) January 3, 2026

President Nicolás Maduro ordered the activation of national defense plans in accordance with the Constitution, the Organic Law on States of Exception and the Organic Law of National Security. The communiqué said Maduro signed a decree declaring a nationwide state of “External Commotion” to protect the population’s rights, ensure the functioning of state institutions and prepare for armed defense.

Authorities also ordered the immediate deployment of the Comprehensive Defense Command of the Nation and corresponding defense bodies across all states and municipalities. Citing Article 51 of the UN Charter, Venezuela said it reserves the right to exercise legitimate self-defense to protect its people, territory and independence.

The statement concluded with a call for international solidarity and quoted former president Hugo Chávez: “In the face of any circumstance of new difficulties, of whatever size they may be, the response of all patriots is unity, struggle, battle and victory.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Amid reports of explosions in the vicinity of Caracas, the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has released a statement confirming that the US has launched missile strikes against Venezuela.

The strikes appear to be concentrated on military targets. The Fort Tiuna military base in Caracas and the port of La Guaira, outside of Caracas, are among the targets that have been hit. The PSUV statement indicates that the Venezuelan states of Miranda, La Guaira, and Aragua were targeted by the US.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a statement prohibiting US aircraft from operating within Venezuelan airspace as of 1 a.m. on January 3. Shortly thereafter, the military campaign began.

Via a statement shared on government outlets, the PSUV confirms that the strikes were carried out by the US military against sovereign Venezuelan territory. The PSUV notes that the strikes constitute a violation of international law and that the Venezuelan government will not bow to these criminal efforts at “regime”-change.

Below is an unofficial translation of the satement:

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects, repudiates and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current Government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and population in the civilian and military localities of the city of Caracas, capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira. This act constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, especially Articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of States and the prohibition of the use of force. Such aggression threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and puts the lives of millions of people at serious risk.

The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, in an attempt to forcibly break the nation’s political independence. They will not succeed. After more than two hundred years of independence, the people and their legitimate government remain steadfast in defending their sovereignty and their inalienable right to decide their own destiny. The attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a ‘regime change’, in alliance with the fascist oligarchy, will fail like all previous attempts.

Since 1811, Venezuela has confronted and defeated empires. When foreign powers bombarded our coasts in 1902, President Cipriano Castro proclaimed: ‘The insolent foot of the foreigner has profaned the sacred soil of the Fatherland.’ Today, with the spirit of Bolívar, Miranda and our liberators, the Venezuelan people rise again to defend their independence in the face of imperial aggression.

People to the streets!

The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack. The people of Venezuela and their Bolivarian National Armed Forces, in perfect popular-military-police fusion, are deployed to guarantee sovereignty and peace. Simultaneously, Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy will file the corresponding complaints with the UN Security Council, the Secretary-General of that organisation, CELAC, and NAM demanding the condemnation and accountability of the US government.

President Nicolás Maduro has ordered that all national defence plans be implemented at the appropriate time and under the appropriate circumstances, in strict accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Organic Law on States of Emergency, and the Organic Law on National Security.

In this regard, President Nicolás Maduro has signed and ordered the implementation of the Decree declaring a state of external commotion throughout the national territory in order to protect the rights of the population, the full functioning of republican institutions, and to immediately move to armed struggle. The entire country must mobilize to defeat this imperialist aggression.

Similarly, he has ordered the immediate deployment of the Command for the Comprehensive Defence of the Nation and the Comprehensive Defence Management Bodies in all states and municipalities of the country.

In strict accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, Venezuela reserves the right to exercise legitimate defence to protect its people, its territory, and its independence. We call on the peoples and governments of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the world to mobilize in active solidarity against this imperial aggression.

As Supreme Commander Hugo Chávez Frías pointed out, “in the face of any new difficulties, whatever their magnitude, the response of all patriots… is unity, struggle, battle and victory.”

-Caracas, January 3, 2025

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

SL

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At least seven explosions have rocked Venezuela’s Caracas, while low-flying aircraft have been heard in the city’s sky.

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At least two people were killed and 12 others injured after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero on Friday morning, authorities confirmed.

RELATED:

President Claudia Sheinbaum evacuates the National Palace after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Mexico

Mexico’s National Seismological Service (SSN) classified the quake as “severe” and reported its epicenter in the municipality of San Marcos, in Guerrero’s Costa Chica region. The tremor was felt strongly in Mexico City and across several central and southern states. By 5:00 p.m. local time on Friday, January 2, the SSN had registered 816 aftershocks, the strongest reaching magnitude 4.7.

In Mexico City’s Benito Juárez borough, officials confirmed the death of a 60-year-old man. According to an official statement, “during the evacuation due to the earthquake registered this morning, the man left his second-floor apartment, tripped and lost consciousness.” Emergency assistance was requested by building security personnel, and paramedics from the Medical Emergency Regulatory Center (CRUM) responded, “carried out the corresponding examinations and reported that the person no longer showed vital signs.”

✔️ Dos muertos y una docena de fallecidos, por el terremoto que sacudió México este viernes. El sismo tuvo una magnitud de 6.5 en la escala de Richter.

Síguenos, somos el Canal Cubano de Noticias 👌

— Canal Caribe (@CanalCaribeCuba) January 3, 2026

A second fatality occurred in the community of Las Minas, San Marcos, Guerrero. Municipal authorities reported that an adult woman died when “part of the sheet-metal roof of her home fell on her as she tried to leave the building.”

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada said that after the seismic response protocol was activated, authorities recorded 12 injured people, the collapse of five utility poles and several trees, and 18 reports of power outages. Two structures are under evaluation due to collapse risk, while 34 buildings and five houses are undergoing preventive inspections.

In San Marcos, Guerrero, more than 350 homes made of adobe and cement suffered varying degrees of damage, and four people were reported injured. Minor landslides were also reported along the Acapulco–Pinotepa Nacional federal highway near the town of La Caridad.

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico on Friday, killing at least two people.

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first news conference of the year was briefly disrupted, forcing journalists to evacuate the building. She resumed the press conference shortly afterward pic.twitter.com/3EboxE0MYI

— TRT World (@trtworld) January 3, 2026

At the state level, Civil Protection authorities reported the detachment of part of a hillside near Azinyahualco, in Chilpancingo. In Acapulco, emergency services responded to reports of LP gas leaks, minor structural damage and road landslides.

The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) activated its emergency response system and reported that by 10:30 a.m. local time (16:30 GMT), 75.93 percent of electricity service had been restored in Guerrero, Mexico City and the State of Mexico. The utility stated that “no damage has been identified in the infrastructure of generating plants” and deployed 354 electrical workers, 79 cranes and 138 vehicles to complete full service restoration.

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Caracas, January 3, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The United States has launched a military attack against Venezuela in the early hours of Saturday.

Multiple military sites, including Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas, were reported bombed. Social media users reported low flying aircraft and active air defenses.

Unconfirmed videos on social media also showed helicopters flying over the Venezuelan capital, with military analysts claiming that US Special Forces are deployed.

The Trump administration has escalated regime-change threats against Caracas im recent months and vowed to strike land targets.

[Story in development]

The post [BREAKING] US Launches Attack Against Venezuela appeared first on Venezuelanalysis.

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On Friday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro received Qiu Xiaoqi, the special envoy for Latin American and Caribbean affairs for Chinese President Xi Jinping, at Miraflores Palace in Caracas. The high-level meeting took place amid the US escalation of aggression against Venezuela following the recent illegal seizure of oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude oil, some of which were destined for China, as indicated by news reports.

A public television broadcast showed President Maduro welcoming the Chinese delegation alongside Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Foreign Minister Yván Gil. The meeting served to review over 600 existing agreements that consolidate the economic and political alliance between the two nations. Analysts suggest the dialogue also allowed the leaders to strategize against US military aggression and the recently announced naval blockade of Venezuela.

Strategic partnership and brotherly support
During the encounter, President Maduro expressed his gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping “for his brotherly support as an older brother” and acknowledged his “powerful message as a leader to the world.” Qiu reiterated that China and Venezuela are proven strategic partners, emphasizing that Venezuela represents a significant opportunity for China.

China has repeatedly condemned the US air and naval aggression launched near Venezuelan waters in the Caribbean since August. Beijing has accused the US of violating international law by seizing the two tankers.

Diplomatic resistance to imperialist aggression
Foreign Minister Gil recently held a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to conduct a joint assessment of the threats and US imperialist aggression against Venezuela. In a statement, Gil noted that the risks of such actions also loom over other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“In this context, China expressed its solidarity and firm support for Venezuela in defending its sovereignty, independence, and stability, as well as its support for regional unity and respect for international law,” Gil explained.

Furthering this stance, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian declared at a December 22 press conference that China “systematically opposes illegal unilateral sanctions which—according to most legal experts—lack any basis in international law and are not authorized by the United Nations Security Council.”

“Venezuela has the right to develop mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries independently,” Lin added, noting that the international community supports Venezuela’s position in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests.

Strengthening the Caracas-Beijing alliance
The visiting Chinese delegation included several high-ranking officials: Liu Bo, the director of the Latin America and Caribbean department of the Foreign Ministry; Wang Hao, the deputy director of that department; Liu Xen, the attaché for the region; and Lan Hu, the ambassador in Caracas.

US Southern Command Hides Locations of End-of-Year Executions; Southern Spear Victims Reach 115

Qiu Xiaoqi, the envoy leading the group, is a career diplomat born in 1956 who previously served as ambassador to Bolivia, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico. Since 2021, he has worked to strengthen strategic relations as the special envoy for the region, having visited Venezuela multiple times in recent years.

According to Venezuela’s Presidential Press, this meeting reaffirms the “unbreakable nature of the brotherhood” between Caracas and Beijing. In a geopolitical context defined by resistance to unilateral coercive measures, the arrival of this delegation underscores the importance China attaches to Venezuela as a trade partner, an energy provider, and a key political ally in the pursuit of sovereign development for the peoples of the Global South.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SF

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Every day, President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a morning presidential press conference and Mexico Solidarity Media posts English language summaries, translated by Mexico Solidarity’s Pedro Gellert Frank. Previous press conference summaries are available here.

Economic certainty backed by a strong peso and tax collection

President Claudia Sheinbaum debunked claims of a lack of investment certainty. The peso wouldn’t have appreciated without investor confidence, and Mexico registered the second highest currency appreciation via a vis the dollar in Latin America. She cited an El Financiero opinion poll in which 72% of the population views Mexico’s performance in 2026 optimistically.

Strong economy with well-being underway

Mexico has the second lowest unemployment rate worldwide; the peso posted its best gain against the dollar since 1991; the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) and Institutional Stock Exchange (BIVA) had their best year in five years; the number of foreign visitors grew 13.3% through October; and the minimum wage increased 13% at the start of the year, 154% in real terms since 2018.

Tourism that transforms: growth and well-being

In 2025, tourism confirmed the course of the 4T: more visitors, more jobs, and greater economic spending. From January to October, Mexico received 79.3 million foreign visitors (+13.6%) and the number of domestic tourists reached 92.6 million (+3.3%).

Tourism GDP reached 2.71 trillion pesos (US$150 billion), foreign investment grew 40.3%, and tourism employment increased to 5 million jobs. In addition, greater air connectivity with the US and Canada confirms that tourism is an engine of regional development and social well-being.

Mexico, the least affected by tariffs

Thanks to the USMCA and the certainty of the Mexican economy, Mexico is the country least affected by tariffs. An article from the Wall Street Journal was cited supporting this affirmation.

• Fewer tariffs on average worldwide.
• The automotive sector dipped slightly due to lower demand in the US; electronics grew.

Interoceanic Train: truth, justice, and security

Following the train derailment, the President reported on three central actions: comprehensive care and reparations for victims, a thorough and rigorous investigation by the Federal Attorney General’s Office, and ensuring the safety of the railway line. The Ministry of the Navy will recover the affected railcar, and the FGR will report on the results.

Territorialized healthcare: Farmacias del Bienestar

By March, Farmacias del Bienestar will be installed in all 32 states, exclusive to the Casa por Casa Healthcare program. The continued delivery of medical supplies are guaranteed through IMSS, ISSSTE, and IMSS-Bienestar, with support from the Health Routes.

Free public education: memory and future

President Sheinbaum recalled the 1986–1987 UNAM student movement against tuition increases and reiterated that public education must be free. In her government, more high schools and universities are being built, expanding the right to study.

Freedom with rights, not precariousness

Sheinbaum contrasted the right-wing “market freedom”—with insufficient wages—with the progressive vision: democracy, freedoms, and guaranteed rights. She reaffirmed that the State must protect rights and strategically guide the economy, respecting the market and private property, overcoming the neoliberal legacy of poverty and inequality.

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  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 2

  January 2, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, interrupted by an earthquake, with comments on economic update, tourism growth, tariffs, Interoceanic train derailment, Farmacias del Bienestar, and public education.

• 

  Analysis

  Bañogate & Openings for the Right

  December 31, 2025

  A debacle surrounding Chihuahua’s 2026 budget shows if the 4th Transformation of the country is to be complete, it must be implemented in all states and in all aspects of the public sphere.

• 

  Soberanía

  Soberanía’s Top 10 Stories from Mexico in 2025: #5-1

  December 31, 2025December 31, 2025

  US regional threats against Latin America, the judicial election, Gen Z Astro Turf March, poverty reduction efforts, & how Sheinbaum held off Trump’s aggressive policies.

The post People’s Mañanera January 2 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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The Freedom Flotilla Coalition called on Friday, January 2, 2026, for an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and rape suffered by some of its members in October 2025 at the hands of Israeli police and prison officials, after they were arrested while attempting to reach Gaza with humanitarian aid.

“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) condemns these acts in the strongest possible terms and demands an immediate, independent, and credible investigation, as well as accountability for all those responsible,” the organization said in a statement.

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New Freedom Flotilla Moves Toward Gaza

The incidents occurred on October 8 in the Israeli prison where the Freedom Flotilla volunteers were taken after being intercepted by the Israeli army, which boarded their boats in international waters.

Among those reporting sexual assaults is German journalist Anna Liedtke, who was aboard the Conscience and reported on December 21 that “Israeli personnel raped her after she resisted a body search.” Also on board was Italian journalist Vincenzo Fullone, who has reported being “subjected to repeated sexual assaults amounting to rape while illegally detained, as has Australian activist Surya McEwen.”

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition condemned the repeated instances in which the Israeli regime commits such crimes with impunity. “The horrific attack against the Flotilla volunteers must be understood within the broader context of a deeply entrenched system of violence in which Israeli soldiers, police, and prison guards have long operated with impunity,” the Coalition stated.

We condemn grotesque sexual assaults by Israeli forces. We demand accountability amid systemic culture of impunity.https://t.co/tqpcbzHOsA

— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) January 2, 2026

In the statement, the Flotilla reiterated that “sexual crimes constitute egregious violations of human dignity and grave breaches of international human rights law and humanitarian law.”

The group, which did not rule out the possibility of new complainants coming forward “as space becomes available,” affirmed that it will continue to support “the flotilla volunteers who have suffered sexual violence” and maintained that “Palestinians—activists, children, women, men, and the elderly in detention—have suffered far more widespread and systematic sexual violence and torture at the hands of Israel, without credible accountability mechanisms,” in Israeli prisons.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Cuban actress Adela Legrá, renowned for her starring role in the iconic film Lucía (1968) by director Humberto Solás, passed away at the age of 86 in Santiago de Cuba, as reported by the president of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), Alexis Triana.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on his Twitter account: “A heartfelt farewell to Adela Legrá, Cuban actress, whose portrayal of a humble peasant woman seeking emancipation was immortalized by Humberto Solás in his emblematic ‘Lucía,’ illuminated by her face of authentic Cuban spirit. Our condolences to her family, friends, and Cuban cinema.”

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Havana Film Festival: Resistance and Solidarity in the Face of Imperialism

Her passing has generated widespread mourning in the country’s cultural sphere, with condolences expressed by high-ranking state officials, cultural institutions, and figures in Cuban cinema. Adelaida López Legrá, born in 1939 in Guantánamo, was discovered by Solás, who introduced her to the world of cinema and with whom she collaborated on films such as Miel para Oshún (2001) and Barrio Cuba (2005).

Her face, described as “both strong and beautiful,” and her authenticity earned her an irreplaceable place in the history of Cuban and Latin American cinema. Solás highlighted her “extraordinary, raw, and powerful catharsis, full of light and overwhelming sincerity.”

The Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) expressed on social media its “deep respect for a renowned actress, who was much more than just a face on the big screen.” Likewise, the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema and the Gibara International Film Festival, institutions that honored her with the Lucía de Honor Award in 2017, mourned her passing.

Her filmography also includes Rancheador (1976), El Brigadista (1977), Aquella noche larga (1979), Vals de la Habana Vieja (1988), and Nada (2001). Of peasant origin, Legrá brought the essence of rural Cuban women to the screen with a naturalness that resonated with generations.

The tribute was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman, the president of the Hermanos Saíz Association, Yasel Toledo, and cultural projects such as CubaActores and CartelÓN Gráfica Cubana.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo evacuated the National Palace on Friday, along with journalists and federal government employees, after the seismic alert was activated during her morning press conference due to a 6.5 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale with its epicenter in the south of the country.

The alert sounded while the president was holding her conference from the Treasury Room, forcing her to interrupt the event and immediately implement the security protocol.

RELATED:

Derailment on Mexico’s Key Trans-Isthmian Line Leaves 13 Dead

According to preliminary information, the 6.5 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale had its epicenter in the state of Guerrero, in the south of the country, one of the regions with the highest seismic activity in Mexico.

The earthquake occurred at 7:58 a.m. local time, according to the National Seismological Service (SSN). The president led the orderly evacuation of the historic building, accompanied by reporters covering the press conference and federal government personnel.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was evacuated, along with the journalists present during her first morning press conference on January 02, 2026, due to a 6.5-magnitude earthquake that was felt in the country's capital. pic.twitter.com/wZ3GcfZkjy

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) January 2, 2026

The president of Mexico after the earthquake: “There are no deaths.”

At the close of her press conference, the Mexican leader specified that as of 9:00 a.m. local time, small aftershocks had been recorded, the largest measuring 4.2 in magnitude in Mexico City.

“So far, no damage has been reported, nor, fortunately, any deaths,” she clarified.

Mexico and earthquakes

Mexico is located in a highly seismic zone due to the interaction of several tectonic plates, so activating the seismic alert is a common prevention mechanism, especially in the nation’s capital.

Although the earthquake’s epicenter was off the coast of the southern state of Guerrero, in the Pacific, its effects were felt in several cities across the country, including Mexico City.

According to the National Seismological Service (SSN), the earthquake was considered “severe,” and they reported that monitoring continues in the areas where it was felt.

Earthquake Impact in Mexico

Evelyn Salgado, governor of Guerrero, stated that after the earthquake, state Civil Protection personnel were touring and inspecting different locations, in coordination with municipal authorities, to rule out any risk to the population following the earthquake, which had its epicenter in the municipality of San Marcos.

“So far, only minor damage has been reported,” she specified.

Meanwhile, the governor of the southern state of Veracruz, Rocío Nahle, reported via her social media that the earthquake was felt strongly in several areas of the state and that state Civil Protection is assessing the situation.

While the state Civil Protection coordination specified that the earthquake was felt in the regions of Tres Valles, Córdoba, Los Tuxtlas, Xalapa, Orizaba, Huatusco, and Coatzacoalcos.

“At the moment, no damage to strategic infrastructure has been reported, and task forces continue to conduct coordinated verification patrols,” they stated.

Mexico records 420 aftershocks following earthquake

The National Seismological Service (SSN) of Mexico has recorded 420 aftershocks following the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that occurred Friday morning with its epicenter in the southern state of Guerrero, which, according to authorities, has not caused major damage.

According to municipal, state, and National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC) reports, the earthquake was felt in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Morelos, Puebla, Jalisco, Tabasco, Colima, and Hidalgo, although with minor damage.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Washington’s unprovoked aggression against Venezuela, and the likely coming ground attack, are an attempt at reimposing “proud, stable democracy” in the country, in the words of the US front surrogate, Maria Corina Machado.

When you decode the meaning of those words and the pretexts put forth for US aggression, you will find a remarkable culture of terrorism and gangsterism on display. Let us take a look.

The initial pretext was that Venezuela was an exporting “narco-terrorist” state. The knowingly fraudulent story did not merit even laughter by US intelligence agencies and the DEA. In the DEA’s most recent report, Venezuela is mentioned in only a single paragraph. In fact, Venezuela did not merit even a single mention in the one-hundred pages long 2025 UN World Drug Report, just like the EU’s own annual drug assessment report.

Nevertheless, Western media still incessantly report the fabricated charges without comment, while omitting the conclusions from Western intelligence, since it reached the wrong conclusion. The servility could not be more startling.

US propaganda then had to shift its main focus back to its staple: Maduro the dictator must be removed. “Maduro ramps up repression in Venezuela,” noted CNN, which failed to mention that the country is, after all, under a multi-pronged attack by a superpower.

CNN did not mention, either, that no opposition funded and directed by a hostile superpower would ever be tolerated in the West’s best friends, like Egypt, Israel, the Philippines and so on. Countries that routinely murder – not just imprison – their opposition under far less onerous circumstances.

The thought that such “opposition” would parade the capital calling for the overthrow of the government in any of these states is plainly absurd. However, that is exactly what happened in Venezuela, with CIA-sponsored figurehead Juan Guaido in 2019. It is Venezuela alone that must live up to such standards.

The idea that democracy promotion could be the real motivation behind the hostility is too ridiculous to merit even a comment. After all, the West lends its full support and sends hundreds of billions in arms to ICJ- and ICC-indicted Israel, Saudi Arabia (which doesn’t even pretend to have elections), Egypt and so on.

Incidentally, for those interested in actual election fraud in Latin America, there is certainly no shortage of issues to be concerned about. Namely, the election manipulations that are run out of Washington, which is by far the league leader.

Just to pick some examples known to all media offices – though few, if any, care: Trump was effectively “bribing Honduran voters” to “restore [the] narcotrafficking government to power”. Trump demanded that they vote for Tito Asfura, the colleague of the indicted narco-trafficker he just pardoned, Juan Orlando Hernández. Or else the US would withhold aid to the country, effectively “threatening to destroy the Honduran economy unless the country elects the oligarch-run National Party”. “Trump deployed the same strategy in Argentina’s October 2025 midterm elections,” in which he threatened to withhold a $20 billion bailout, “successfully strong-arming voters there into backing the party of the country’s mentally unstable president, Javier Milei.”

With a naval armada outside their shores to display what will happen if countries disobey, Washington thus sends the appropriate message: “you are free to choose as long as it is the right guys; otherwise you will starve.”

Thus, no reason for going to war with Venezuela worthy even of consideration from anyone with two functioning brain cells has been put forth.

The actual reason is explained openly by the aggressors themselves. In Trump’s own words: “When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over. We would have gotten all that oil. It would have been right next door.” More recently, perhaps tired of the “narco-terrorism” script, Trump conceded that he wants “the oil and land rights.”

Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar boasted that “Venezuela, for the American oil companies, will be a field day, because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity.”

This pitch was further explained by Washington’s minion Machado in a speech to the America Business Forum. As soon as she leads a “proud, stable democracy” there will be a “massive privatization program,” offering “a $1.7 trillion opportunity.” “We will open markets … And American companies are in, you know, a super strategic position to invest. … This country, Venezuela, is going to be the brightest opportunity for investment of American companies,” which “are going to make a lot of money.”

The only criticism found in the political and media establishment against an attack, then, is tactical concerns. Will it work? Will Trump get away with aggression?

Thus, coup plotter Elliott Abrams explained that Venezuela “previously was” a democracy, and “has a long democratic history,” with which he must mean as a US-run junta and staged colony, if words have any meaning whatsoever. If aggression is successful, “oil production can start rising again … As it was before the Chávez-Maduro years, Venezuela can be a major supplier of oil to the United States and a partner in Latin America.” Hopefully “Cuba, and Nicaragua” will fall too, but aggression could hurt American “clout on the international stage.” Abrams concludes by complaining that the “economic and diplomatic pressure we put on Maduro in the first term was simply not enough.”

“For 26 years, the U.S. has tried to restore democracy in Venezuela through negotiations, concessions, sanctions and a combination of carrots and sticks. Nothing has worked,” noted former OAS ambassador and Harvard lecturer Arturo McGields.

An illegal economic siege, eradicating perhaps 75% of the country’s GDP, and which has killed tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians, a failed mercenary invasion, and numerous coup attempts are not wrong in principle, only tactically unfortunate, since none of it “has worked.”

The euphoria liberals display at this show of sadism is quite revealing. For example, Rebecca Heinrichs pointed out that Cuba could fall if Venezuela is sufficiently squeezed. ”If you pressure” Venezuela “so much” and eliminate “80 to 85% of the revenue” through the illegal naval blockade imposed on them, then ”you are immediately going to have further crises” for the civilian population, and ”they are going to feel that pressure even more, and they will blame Maduro” – Cuba-style, in other words.

James Story, one of the key architects of the illegal regime change operations against Venezuela in recent years, wrote an op-ed repeating all the standard propaganda charges. Story gloated that the recent oil blockade on Venezuelan exports “is a more effective and acceptable way” of overthrowing the government, since “squeezing this revenue stream would” starve the population sufficiently so as to “recognize that life without him [Maduro] in power is preferable to him remaining”.

You will notice the transparent hypocrisy, since the US a month prior to its “total and complete blockade” on Venezuela denounced “Iran’s use of military forces to conduct an armed boarding and seizure of a commercial vessel in international waters [which] constitutes a blatant violation of international law, undermining freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce”.

It is not that Western journalists do not know about Washington’s propaganda plot when it condemned Iran only to then conduct global piracy itself, since it was publicly reported. Rather, connecting the dots would expose the media as totally servile to state propaganda, and give the game away.

To be sure, there is nothing that causes more outrage than Venezuela supposedly collaborating with the “enemy states.” Even if the charges are true, this illustrates the leading principle that must be accepted if you wish to be part of the debate: no country, however weak, has the right to defend itself against unprovoked Western aggression.

Thus, Elliot Abrams demanded the US attack Venezuela due to its supposed “cooperation with China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia, which gives countries hostile to U.S. interests a base of operations on the South American mainland,” with weapons that can “reach U.S. territory from Venezuela”. Abrams has no issues with the “legality” of such strikes, only “doubts about the chances of success.” “Merely starving” the country “will not be enough: it must be forced out of power with military strikes, which will throw the regime’s support structures, including in the military, into disarray and make them fear for their own futures.”

No doubt the Nazi press “criticized” Operation Barbarossa on the same grounds before invading the Soviet Union. Their ideological heirs have learned that “starving” the population is not enough to win; they must smash their opponents “and make them fear for their own futures.”

In fact, without a hint of irony, we read that it is Venezuela with “Castro’s Cuba” who are “attacking” the US “asymmetrically” in Machado’s words – not the other way around, of course. The goal of US aggression is to open “an extraordinary frontier for US investment in energy, infrastructure, technology and agriculture.”

In short, Washington and its allies cannot tolerate that Venezuela is “associated with” those that the Mafia Don has prohibited, as liberal media darling David Frum put it. So the “goal is to restore the Venezuelan democracy that existed before [Hugo] Chávez and Maduro” – which, again, must refer to the US-directed junta and staged oligarchy.

This is what is called “public debate,” in which the outermost “critics” warn that Western aggression simply may not succeed, while the hawks joyfully celebrate that “military strikes” can “make them fear for their own futures.”

The deep totalitarian streak in Western intellectual culture is beautifully illustrated by these statements, as well as the reactions to them: nil.

Loyal and brainwashed Westerners cannot notice that the same type of arguments could just as well be used by Putin if he wished to invade Sweden, Ayatollah Khamenei to invade Israel or Xi Jinping to invade Taiwan.

This shows that Western intellectuals reflexively view world order and violence the same way they claim Putin does: “we have our sphere of influence, and must boss it as we please.” Such simple observations cannot be uttered in cultivated circles, no matter how obvious they may be.

Through such means, the Western media have effectively become servants of one of the century’s textbook examples of an unprovoked campaign of aggression against a sovereign state.

Andi Olluri is a freelance writer on propaganda and foreign affairs, publishing mostly in European and occasionally in American leftist papers. In his professional life, he does research in epidemiology and evidence-based medicine, studying at Sahlgrenska Academy University Hospital (Gothenburg, Sweden).

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

The post Reimposing ‘Democracy’ in Venezuela: Decoding Western Propaganda appeared first on Venezuelanalysis.

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From Venezuelanalysis via This RSS Feed.

Washington’s unprovoked aggression against Venezuela, and the likely coming ground attack, are an attempt at reimposing “proud, stable democracy” in the country, in the words of the US front surrogate, Maria Corina Machado.

When you decode the meaning of those words and the pretexts put forth for US aggression, you will find a remarkable culture of terrorism and gangsterism on display. Let us take a look.

The initial pretext was that Venezuela was an exporting “narco-terrorist” state. The knowingly fraudulent story did not merit even laughter by US intelligence agencies and the DEA. In the DEA’s most recent report, Venezuela is mentioned in only a single paragraph. In fact, Venezuela did not merit even a single mention in the one-hundred pages long 2025 UN World Drug Report, just like the EU’s own annual drug assessment report.

Nevertheless, Western media still incessantly report the fabricated charges without comment, while omitting the conclusions from Western intelligence, since it reached the wrong conclusion. The servility could not be more startling.

US propaganda then had to shift its main focus back to its staple: Maduro the dictator must be removed. “Maduro ramps up repression in Venezuela,” noted CNN, which failed to mention that the country is, after all, under a multi-pronged attack by a superpower.

CNN did not mention, either, that no opposition funded and directed by a hostile superpower would ever be tolerated in the West’s best friends, like Egypt, Israel, the Philippines and so on. Countries that routinely murder – not just imprison – their opposition under far less onerous circumstances.

The thought that such “opposition” would parade the capital calling for the overthrow of the government in any of these states is plainly absurd. However, that is exactly what happened in Venezuela, with CIA-sponsored figurehead Juan Guaido in 2019. It is Venezuela alone that must live up to such standards.

The idea that democracy promotion could be the real motivation behind the hostility is too ridiculous to merit even a comment. After all, the West lends its full support and sends hundreds of billions in arms to ICJ- and ICC-indicted Israel, Saudi Arabia (which doesn’t even pretend to have elections), Egypt and so on.

Incidentally, for those interested in actual election fraud in Latin America, there is certainly no shortage of issues to be concerned about. Namely, the election manipulations that are run out of Washington, which is by far the league leader.

Just to pick some examples known to all media offices – though few, if any, care: Trump was effectively “bribing Honduran voters” to “restore [the] narcotrafficking government to power”. Trump demanded that they vote for Tito Asfura, the colleague of the indicted narco-trafficker he just pardoned, Juan Orlando Hernández. Or else the US would withhold aid to the country, effectively “threatening to destroy the Honduran economy unless the country elects the oligarch-run National Party”. “Trump deployed the same strategy in Argentina’s October 2025 midterm elections,” in which he threatened to withhold a $20 billion bailout, “successfully strong-arming voters there into backing the party of the country’s mentally unstable president, Javier Milei.”

With a naval armada outside their shores to display what will happen if countries disobey, Washington thus sends the appropriate message: “you are free to choose as long as it is the right guys; otherwise you will starve.”

Thus, no reason for going to war with Venezuela worthy even of consideration from anyone with two functioning brain cells has been put forth.

The actual reason is explained openly by the aggressors themselves. In Trump’s own words: “When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over. We would have gotten all that oil. It would have been right next door.” More recently, perhaps tired of the “narco-terrorism” script, Trump conceded that he wants “the oil and land rights.”

Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar boasted that “Venezuela, for the American oil companies, will be a field day, because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity.”

This pitch was further explained by Washington’s minion Machado in a speech to the America Business Forum. As soon as she leads a “proud, stable democracy” there will be a “massive privatization program,” offering “a $1.7 trillion opportunity.” “We will open markets … And American companies are in, you know, a super strategic position to invest. … This country, Venezuela, is going to be the brightest opportunity for investment of American companies,” which “are going to make a lot of money.”

The only criticism found in the political and media establishment against an attack, then, is tactical concerns. Will it work? Will Trump get away with aggression?

Thus, coup plotter Elliott Abrams explained that Venezuela “previously was” a democracy, and “has a long democratic history,” with which he must mean as a US-run junta and staged colony, if words have any meaning whatsoever. If aggression is successful, “oil production can start rising again … As it was before the Chávez-Maduro years, Venezuela can be a major supplier of oil to the United States and a partner in Latin America.” Hopefully “Cuba, and Nicaragua” will fall too, but aggression could hurt American “clout on the international stage.” Abrams concludes by complaining that the “economic and diplomatic pressure we put on Maduro in the first term was simply not enough.”

“For 26 years, the U.S. has tried to restore democracy in Venezuela through negotiations, concessions, sanctions and a combination of carrots and sticks. Nothing has worked,” noted former OAS ambassador and Harvard lecturer Arturo McGields.

An illegal economic siege, eradicating perhaps 75% of the country’s GDP, and which has killed tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians, a failed mercenary invasion, and numerous coup attempts are not wrong in principle, only tactically unfortunate, since none of it “has worked.”

The euphoria liberals display at this show of sadism is quite revealing. For example, Rebecca Heinrichs pointed out that Cuba could fall if Venezuela is sufficiently squeezed. ”If you pressure” Venezuela “so much” and eliminate “80 to 85% of the revenue” through the illegal naval blockade imposed on them, then ”you are immediately going to have further crises” for the civilian population, and ”they are going to feel that pressure even more, and they will blame Maduro” – Cuba-style, in other words.

James Story, one of the key architects of the illegal regime change operations against Venezuela in recent years, wrote an op-ed repeating all the standard propaganda charges. Story gloated that the recent oil blockade on Venezuelan exports “is a more effective and acceptable way” of overthrowing the government, since “squeezing this revenue stream would” starve the population sufficiently so as to “recognize that life without him [Maduro] in power is preferable to him remaining”.

You will notice the transparent hypocrisy, since the US a month prior to its “total and complete blockade” on Venezuela denounced “Iran’s use of military forces to conduct an armed boarding and seizure of a commercial vessel in international waters [which] constitutes a blatant violation of international law, undermining freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce”.

It is not that Western journalists do not know about Washington’s propaganda plot when it condemned Iran only to then conduct global piracy itself, since it was publicly reported. Rather, connecting the dots would expose the media as totally servile to state propaganda, and give the game away.

To be sure, there is nothing that causes more outrage than Venezuela supposedly collaborating with the “enemy states.” Even if the charges are true, this illustrates the leading principle that must be accepted if you wish to be part of the debate: no country, however weak, has the right to defend itself against unprovoked Western aggression.

Thus, Elliot Abrams demanded the US attack Venezuela due to its supposed “cooperation with China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia, which gives countries hostile to U.S. interests a base of operations on the South American mainland,” with weapons that can “reach U.S. territory from Venezuela”. Abrams has no issues with the “legality” of such strikes, only “doubts about the chances of success.” “Merely starving” the country “will not be enough: it must be forced out of power with military strikes, which will throw the regime’s support structures, including in the military, into disarray and make them fear for their own futures.”

No doubt the Nazi press “criticized” Operation Barbarossa on the same grounds before invading the Soviet Union. Their ideological heirs have learned that “starving” the population is not enough to win; they must smash their opponents “and make them fear for their own futures.”

In fact, without a hint of irony, we read that it is Venezuela with “Castro’s Cuba” who are “attacking” the US “asymmetrically” in Machado’s words – not the other way around, of course. The goal of US aggression is to open “an extraordinary frontier for US investment in energy, infrastructure, technology and agriculture.”

In short, Washington and its allies cannot tolerate that Venezuela is “associated with” those that the Mafia Don has prohibited, as liberal media darling David Frum put it. So the “goal is to restore the Venezuelan democracy that existed before [Hugo] Chávez and Maduro” – which, again, must refer to the US-directed junta and staged oligarchy.

This is what is called “public debate,” in which the outermost “critics” warn that Western aggression simply may not succeed, while the hawks joyfully celebrate that “military strikes” can “make them fear for their own futures.”

The deep totalitarian streak in Western intellectual culture is beautifully illustrated by these statements, as well as the reactions to them: nil.

Loyal and brainwashed Westerners cannot notice that the same type of arguments could just as well be used by Putin if he wished to invade Sweden, Ayatollah Khamenei to invade Israel or Xi Jinping to invade Taiwan.

This shows that Western intellectuals reflexively view world order and violence the same way they claim Putin does: “we have our sphere of influence, and must boss it as we please.” Such simple observations cannot be uttered in cultivated circles, no matter how obvious they may be.

Through such means, the Western media have effectively become servants of one of the century’s textbook examples of an unprovoked campaign of aggression against a sovereign state.

Andi Olluri is a freelance writer on propaganda and foreign affairs, publishing mostly in European and occasionally in American leftist papers. In his professional life, he does research in epidemiology and evidence-based medicine, studying at Sahlgrenska Academy University Hospital (Gothenburg, Sweden).

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

The post Reimposing ‘Democracy’ in Venezuela: Decoding Western Propaganda appeared first on Venezuelanalysis.

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From Venezuelanalysis via This RSS Feed.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reiterated its support for the Islamic Republic of Iran amidst escalating tensions sparked by confrontational statements from the United States government.

“Venezuela expresses its firm solidarity with the Iranian people and government, calling for an end to interventionist positions that jeopardize regional stability,” stated an official communiqué released by the Bolivarian nation.

RELATED:

Venezuela and Iran Reaffirm Strategic Cooperation Amid U.S. Threats

The statement, issued by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, expressed “deep concern regarding the recent confrontational rhetoric issued by the United States government against the sister Islamic Republic of Iran.” It also denounced the use of “the language of force, which deviates from the fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations” and represents a risk to international peace.

Venezuela warns against the use of digital platforms to destabilize Iran, describing these practices as a “technique typical of Fifth Generation Warfare.” Furthermore, it condemned the “Unilateral Coercive Measures” imposed by Washington, which it considers a strategy of external pressure that “violates the sovereignty and social peace of the sister nation of Iran.”

The Bolivarian Government, true to its commitment to peace, reaffirmed that “the only path to lasting stability is sovereign dialogue and diplomacy, without foreign interference.” It also urged the international community to promote spaces for understanding that respect “Iran’s inalienable right to resolve its internal affairs within the framework of its own legality and autonomy.”

This statement reinforces Venezuela’s position in defense of the self-determination of peoples and its rejection of any form of external interference, especially in contexts of geopolitical tension in the Middle East.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

By Julia Kassem – Dec 31, 2025

As America plans to drop its entanglements in West Asia and renew a focus on China, America’s proxy powers are scrambling for influence.

Netanyahu’s recent summit with Cyprus and Greece underscored an Israeli inclination to undercut Turkish regional influence and consolidate regional energy control through the IMEC/East Med project, rivaling the Qatari-funded Turkey-Syria pipeline. Playing into Cyprot and Greek historically-charged anxieties about a neo-Ottoman revival, Netanyahu sent this clear message to Ankara at the summit in saying, ‘those who fantasize… they can reestablish their empires and their dominion over our lands…forget it’.

While “Israel” and Turkey – along with the Gulf states – historically operated as US proxy projects in the region, they are now reaching a point of contention for the prime role as the region’s middle-manager as American policy itches to shift eastward. Despite his close friendship and alliance with Trump, Tom Barrack, the business mogul assigned to manage Middle East policy, resembles the Obama-era pivot to Asia policy in action: leverage neo-Ottomanism as a regional overseer playing a role in asserting passive US dominance as the US moves to Indochina. This comes as the Trump administration spells out a recently-unveiled National Security Strategy more focused on China and less on securing energy in the Middle East.

Riparian resources also come into play as a key resource objective in the Middle East. Turkey’s extended hand in Syria culminates a decades-long quest to control Northern Syrian dams and water resources, while “Israel” draws its boundary in Lebanon from a 1920s lobbying attempt from Zionists to the British ahead of the San Remo conference that birthed Sykes-Picot: the Litani River as a “natural boundary” better used by the colonizing Zionists than the “backward” indigenous Lebanese. “Israel’s” eye on the Litani continues the age-old objective of securing a “security boundary” and key riparian resources, now to fuel its AI-driven espionage economy, which is rather water-intensive.

This came as Turkey and “Israel” came earlier this year at the point of conflict in Syria – a battlescape between Zionist and neo-Ottoman visions of regional dominance, operating under a US tutelage now scrambling to mend them together. The US needs to reinforce a joint Turkish-Israeli effort to encircle Lebanon’s Resistance, but both Tel Aviv and Ankara’s growing rivalry may hamper such efforts. As the Qur’an states in Surat al-Hashr: “Their malice for each other is intense: you think they are united, yet their hearts are divided.”

“Israel” is also contending with another rising competitor and growing threat from Saudi Arabia, which, before recently, was regarded as a cohabiting ally that could be affixed into a regional normalization vision. Normalization, a stamp of legitimacy for “Israel” in the Arab and Muslim world, is a tool for the US to faciliate closer and direct cooperation between regional Arab states and the Zionist entity in the process of facilitating a controlled exit of direct US presence in the region, which previously played as a direct curator to disparate regional proxies that posed as foes for their constituencies.

These shifting dynamics are actualized in the disparate positions in the US right, with pundits of Trump’s circle and fanbase quarreling over the future management of US exceptionalism and dominance in the world. Just as Tom Barrack and Bolton spar over weighing a commitment to the Turkish-Qatari axis vs. an Israeli one, with Trump’s current Syria/West Asia envoy advocating the former and Bolton arguing for a traditional neo-con commitment to Zionist primacy, Tucker Carlson represents a pro-Qatari approach, arguing that the US relationship with Qatar – who gifted the US a $400 million Air Force One fleet back in July – is “so much more important” than the US’ relationship with “Israel”, reflecting the growing Republican disillusionment with the Zionist entity. Meanwhile, figures like Laura Loomer and Ben Shapiro are pushed to retain support for “Israel” amongst a rapidly critical right-wing base skeptical of continued “Israel”-first approaches to “America-first”: the Republican and right-wing youth, who are breaking from the party’s traditional support for “Israel”. Less than 25% of Republicans under 45 support unconditional funding for “Israel”, and the vast majority (65%) advocate a candidate that would reduce funding to the Zionist entity.

Yes, to many segments of the US right-wing establishment, America’s “greatest ally” is proving itself to be its greatest liability. Picture Trump’s cordial and lavish welcome to Saudi Crown Prince King Salman, eager to welcome $1 billion in Saudi investment – and contrast it with the 5+ unceremonious visits Israeli PM Netanyahu made to Washington to beg for support of green lights amid towering red flags for US sustainability in the region.

“Israel”, like Ukraine, is draining the US pockets – a dynamic that defined new Republican resentment against Ukraine in Washington’s latest failed proxy war against Russia. “Israel’s” promise to pave a Trump Riviera over the graves of Gaza residents is less attractive – and realistic – for Trump than working with the Qataris or Saudis, whose lavish gifts and billions in investments in the US are an attractive invitation toward securing reciprocal real estate investments across the Middle East.

Still, the US is desperate to quickly fissure the growing competition and rivalry into continued coordination that can stay on track with Washington’s regional objectives via the “Abraham Accords”. Saudi Arabia insists that it will not recognize “Israel” until a Palestinian State is first established – an objective viciously fought, even in paltry, PA-run terms under the international status-quo limited vision for a “Palestinian State” – with “Israel” lobbying the current US administration to completely “annex” the occupied West Bank, remove recognition of Palestine and the Palestinian issue from all international domains, be it UNRWA or their institutional presence by closing the Palestinian consulate in Washington.

Syria’s Collapse: How Assad’s Fall Reshaped West Asia’s Strategic Balance

Despite the Adelson cash pushing to forcibly extinguish the Palestinian cause and a uniquely Zionist vision of preferred US power play in the region, Saudi Arabia is in a better position to leverage itself against the US, in fact, bending Washington to concessions. Riyadh consistently builds up its own power, shedding off the shackles of US security guarantees and the security-for-oil exchange that defined the old status quo between itself and Washington, shattered in the failed US-backed Saudi-led siege on Yemen. In drawing a new security agreement with Pakistan, challenging “Israel’s” qualitative military edge, and eying nuclear energy, Riyadh is shedding its reputation as a mere US proxy and as a relatively more independent contender for regional power. Since China’s brokering of a detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March 2023, a Middle East more reflective of emerging multipolar dynamics emerges and shifts the scene away from a region whose states were pigeonholed into a partisan binary of bipolar power dynamics.

Meanwhile, “Israel” shifts its objectives from regional dominance to mere survival, working to consolidate any chance of future strategic success. While “Israel” has attempted for over two years to pass off tactical successes – such as assassinating leaders in Lebanon, genocide in Gaza, and occupation in Syria – as strategic successes, both Washington and “Israel’s” own public are less convinced. Israeli public opinion has remained consistently confused and disillusioned with the so-called “success” that Netanyahu attempts to pass off in pursuit of quick-victories, which have sunk the Likud party in the mud under a regional war of attrition. The US attempts to bring about the material cooperation in practice that could support the “Abraham Accords” on paper by encouraging the UAE’s cooperation with “Israel”, as seen in Sudan (with the UAE’s backing of the RSF) and its support for the STC in Yemen. For “Israel”, it is an objective existential to its regional survival to ensure that these arenas of cooperation aren’t just symbolic and organizational but strategic, directed in its attempts to prepare a position of advantage for itself in a post-ceasefire renewed battle against the Axis of Resistance. Yet curating the UAE’s construction of a strategic airbase on the Red Sea’s Zuqar Island or commissioning intelligence infrastructure on Mayun and Socotra Islands has done little to compensate for the US failures to secure control of international waterways challenged by Ansar Allah’s resistance.

Against Saudi Arabia, they even represent an added layer of a flexed projection of power in clearing Riyadh’s grip on Yemen, given Riyadh’s recent overtures toward a more coexisting relationship with Iran instead of a previously combative one. “Israel” is running out of chances to prove the existence of its command over strategic depths lost to mishaps that started out as “quick victories” and the loss of its ability to retain the upper hand in conflicts against the Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi, or Yemeni resistance. Despite trying to scrape by any kernels of victory in violations of ceasefires or in treacherously leveraging its disproportionate control over global technology and supply chains (like, for example, exploding pagers or infecting phones with spyware), the Zionist entity has led the US in a pattern of successive losses in the region: the loss of key waterway control over the Red Sea, the loss of regional dollar denominated trade, and the loss of ensuring regional security.

This latest stage of declining US imperialism in West Asia, the growing contradictions between different sets of US allies – namely Turkey, the GCC, and “Israel” – and the centrality of Palestine in actualizing regional and global events and dynamics reaffirm the success of Al-Aqsa Flood. Perhaps the Palestinian Resistance envisioned a break to occur as a result of the demonstration of the Resistance’s power in shattering the Israeli illusion of security or the brutality of “Israel’s” crushing attacks on the Palestinians in response. But, as Yahya Sinwar always envisioned, the impact of Al-Aqsa Flood in advancing the growing contradictions between the US regime and “Israel” and the US allies in the region represents a material vision that dwarfs Zionism’s ideological vision, fading into historical oblivion with its dated and fading attempts at reviving a dying colonialism; coincidentally the title of Franz Fanon’s historical recount of the Algerian revolution. Likewise, Western settler-colonialism’s first monumental loss in the Arab and Muslim world in Algeria precedes and has spelled the fate of Zionism, its last.

(Al Mayadeen – English)

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

Zohran Mamdani, 34, was sworn in as mayor of New York City on Thursday, becoming the first Muslim mayor in the metropolis’s history. During a ceremony held on the steps of Manhattan City Hall, Mamdani promised a “future for Palestinians here, because New York must be a city of hope and justice for all.”

Mandari, a member of the Democratic Party and identified as a democratic socialist, placed his hand on the Holy Quran as he took the oath of office, in a historic event attended by figures such as actress Susan Sarandon, former presidential candidate Cynthia Nixon, and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure in the Columbia University protests against the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

RELATED:

Zohran Mamdani Vows a New Era for New York City

The new mayor signed his first executive order revoking a series of decrees issued by his predecessor, Eric Adams, including the ban on boycotting Israel that had been in place since February 2024. He also reversed the city’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James officiated part of the ceremony, while Senator Bernie Sanders administered the oath of office at the public event, which was attended by a large crowd of supporters. Palestinian flags waved alongside signs bearing slogans such as “Free Palestine,” reflecting the new mayor’s commitment to the Palestinian cause.

🚨 BREAKING: Mayor Mamdani says that he will keep open the recently-created Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.

“That is an issue that we take very seriously, and as part of the commitment that we've made to Jewish New Yorkers, to not only protect them, but to celebrate…” pic.twitter.com/jjub9FKU4z

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 1, 2026

Mamdani has described the Israeli offensive in Gaza as “genocide” and has stated his support for complying with any arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “If Netanyahu enters New York and I don’t do everything I can to stop him, I won’t consider myself mayor of New York,” he told local ABC News last November.

In his inaugural address, Mamdani also emphasized the urgency of addressing the city’s high cost-of-living crisis and promised to govern with bold and sweeping public policies. “We will begin today to govern expansively and boldly, unafraid to face the challenges,” he told the attendees.

#UnitedStates | The new Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, in his speech after declaring victory in the 2025 elections, stated that he had overthrown a political system and that working hands are not the hands that usually choose power, but against all odds, he won. pic.twitter.com/DG6mmWhqKl

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) November 5, 2025

His election in November 2025 marked a record voter turnout, solidifying a progressive momentum in one of the world’s most diverse cities. With this swearing-in, Mamdani not only represents a milestone in the religious and cultural diversity of American politics, but also emerges as a key figure in the debate on civil rights, social justice, and foreign policy in the United States.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Of the total number of deaths, 19 were caused by motorcycle accidents.

On Friday, the Dominican Republic Emergency Operations Center (COE) reported that 29 traffic fatalities occurred during the Christmas and New Year holidays, 31% less than the previous year.

RELATED:

Dominican Republic Warns of Increased Femicides

COE’s Awareness for Life 2025–2026 operation recorded 245 traffic accidents with 307 people injured, in addition to 769 cases of alcohol poisoning and 163 cases of food poisoning, including 52 minors between the ages of 11 and 17.

The National Health Service (SNS) submitted the list of minors treated for alcohol poisoning to the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of Public Health so that legal and preventative measures can be taken.

Provinces with the most accidents were Santo Domingo (12.24%), the National District (9.4%), San Pedro de MacorIs (8.8%), San CristObal (7.7%), La Altagracia (7.7%), and Puerto Plata (6.9%). Of the total number of deaths, 19 were motorcycle fatalities, two were pedestrian accidents, and eight were in light vehicles.

The National Institute of Transit and Land Transportation (INTRANT) also reported 25,108 roadside assistance calls, while the General Directorate of Transit and Land Transportation (DIGESETT) issued 21,996 fines for traffic violations.

Director general PN supervisa operativos preventivos en distintos puntos del Gran Santo Domingo por festividades de recibimiento del Año Nuevo 2026

📰 Amplíe: https://t.co/oyOMKSLtZt pic.twitter.com/5zLxBW27Xw

— Policía Nacional República Dominicana (@PoliciaRD) January 1, 2026

The text reads, “The Director General of the National Police oversees preventative operations at various points in Santo Domingo for the New Year 2026 festivities.”

Among the fines issued, 6,773 were to motorcyclists without helmets, 2,416 to drivers without licenses, 1,732 for driving without insurance, 1,689 for running red lights, and 957 for not wearing seatbelts.

The Public Works’ Military and Police Commission assisted 3,138 roadside calls, while Civil Defense responded to 297 domestic emergencies, including minor accidents and blood pressure checks.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Out-of-Hospital Emergency Care (DAEH) attended to 1,231 people, and the SNS reported that public hospitals received 3,068 patients throughout the holidays.

The COE’s operations involved more than 48,000 first responders, 1,301 assistance posts, 250 ambulances, 44 rescue units, 14 vehicle extrication teams, 21 mobile workshops, and three helicopters from the Ministry of Defense.

#FromTheSouth News Bits | Dominican Republic: Immigration authorities detained 573 Haitian migrants, of whom 458 were deported through different border control checkpoints. pic.twitter.com/JdpzRiHVHZ

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) August 22, 2025

teleSUR: JP

Source: EFE – El Nacional

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

La Paz city is once again the stage for a battle over Bolivia’s economic soul. As President Rodrigo Paz pushes forward with an aggressive economic overhaul, the streets have filled with resistance. Workers, miners, and teachers are sending a clear and defiant message: “Bolivia is not for sale.”

RELATED:
Bolivian President Paz Convenes Mayors to Discuss Emergency Decree 5503 Amid National Strike

At the center of this storm is Supreme Decree 5503, a sweeping 121-article measure that critics say represents the final burial of Bolivia’s nationalization project and the return of a painful neoliberal “shock doctrine.”

Neoliberal shock therapy has begun in Bolivia. Fuel subsidies have just been cut by the new pro-US govt, massive inflation begins:

Gas prices ⬆️ 83%
Diesel ⬆️ 163%
Bus fares ⬆️ 100%
Food ⬆️ 100+%

Unions have given the govt 24hrs to reverse the decision or mass protests begin. pic.twitter.com/6kcZPSAe64

— Ollie Vargas (@Ollie_Vargas_) December 19, 2025

Anatomy of a “Shock”: What Is Decree 5503?

Supreme Decree 5503 was introduced by the Paz administration as a response to what it calls a structural and terminal economic crisis.

With a declared $30 billion fiscal deficit and dangerously low international reserves, the government has framed this decree as an emergency fix to avoid total collapse.

But behind the technical language lies a radical economic experiment. The decree aims to move Bolivia away from a state-led rentier model toward what the government calls “capitalism for all.”

In practice, that means opening the economy to market forces and foreign capital, at a staggering social cost.

Among its most controversial measures:

• The “Sharp Increase in Fuel Prices” (Gasolinazo): Fuel subsidies have been eliminated overnight, triggering price hikes of 84% for gasoline and 162% for diesel.
• Dismantling State Oversight: Import and export controls have been scrapped, effectively removing the state’s regulatory role in trade.
• Extra Powers for the Central Bank: The Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) has been granted authority to engage in international currency operations and financial swaps to manage the country’s dollar shortage.

The government has promised a 20% minimum wage hike and a new PEPE cash transfer program to cushion the blow. But for most Bolivian families, these gestures cannot keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living.

Bolivia's workers unions announce an indefinite general strike against the neoliberal austerity measures announced this week.

No dialogue or negotiation, all the measures must be repealed first. No honeymoon period for the right-wing govt. https://t.co/t3Ku9ycQN4 pic.twitter.com/A74D708N4N

— Ollie Vargas (@Ollie_Vargas_) December 19, 2025

Structural Changes: The “Fast-Track” to Neocolonialism

Beyond fuel prices, Decree 5503 introduces a new legal and institutional framework that critics say places Bolivia’s natural wealth at the mercy of transnational corporations.

Through the creation of an Extraordinary Investment Promotion and Protection Regime, the administration has effectively rewritten the rules of state sovereignty.

Key aspects include:

• “Positive Administrative Silence”: Investment projects now receive automatic approval if the state fails to respond within 30 days, turning bureaucratic silence into corporate green lights.
• 15-Year Legal Stability: New investors in energy, mining, and agribusiness get 15 years of guaranteed rules, shielding them from future tax or regulatory changes.
• Bypassing Parliament: Strategic projects can now be approved directly by presidential decree, without any legislative debate or oversight.
• International Arbitration: Disputes with foreign firms will now go to international tribunals, stripping Bolivia of jurisdiction over its own resources.

To make this new model work, the decree also creates a Single Window for Strategic Investments (VUIE), a fast-track mechanism to bypass what neoliberal economists call the “obstacle state.” For many Bolivians, this is not efficiency; it is the legal infrastructure of neocolonial exploitation.

US companies want to build huge data centers in Bolivian areas with large Indigenous populations. They also no doubt want access to Bolivia's massive lithium reserves. The rightwing Paz government will not hesitate to be vendepatrias.
Only Indigenous & unions can stop this. pic.twitter.com/v9LzoLRZ34

— UAINE (@mahtowin1) December 30, 2025

Beyond Gasoline: The Plunder of Strategic Natural Resources

Though the “gasolinazo” has stolen public attention, Decree 5503 goes much deeper than fuel prices. It lays out the groundwork for a wholesale privatization of strategic natural resources, from lithium and mining to agriculture and pipelines.

• Lithium and the Salt Flats: The decree’s vague language about “circuits for resource development” is widely understood as an opening for foreign control over lithium extraction in the world-famous Salar de Uyuni. Critics warn this could accelerate the privatization of one of Bolivia’s most valuable assets.
• Mining and Metals: Projects in gold, tin, silver, and zinc now qualify for the new 30-day “Fast-Track” approval. Environmental and community safeguards risk being pushed aside for the sake of investor timelines.
• Hydrocarbons and LPG: While fuel prices skyrocket, the decree quietly authorizes private companies to use state-owned pipelines and storage for their own imports, an unprecedented move toward privatization of infrastructure.
• Agro-industrial Wealth. The end of domestic “fair price” requirements for basic food exports like soy, sugar, and meat will allow agribusiness elites to chase global profits while undermining Bolivia’s food security.

The pattern is clear: under the pretext of attracting investment, sovereignty over Bolivia’s strategic industries is being handed back to those who see the nation’s natural wealth as mere commodities for extraction.

BREAKING: The new President of Bolivia is now working to terminate lithium mining contracts with China & Russia, in favor of a deal with the United States.

President Rodrigo Paz's Foreign Minister said, "We are looking for a long-term relationship with U.S., relations based on… pic.twitter.com/5yOI36eFLD

— George (@BehizyTweets) December 13, 2025

The Workers’ Offensive: “Bolivia Is Not For Sale”

The social and political backlash has been immediate. The Bolivian Workers’ Center (COB), the country’s most powerful labor federation, has mobilized in massive protests, joined by miners, factory workers, and educators.

For nine consecutive days, La Paz has been the epicenter of marches, hunger strikes, and street confrontations. Protesters accuse the Paz administration of governing for the rich while imposing IMF-style austerity on the poor.

The “Bolivia Is Not For Sale” March, stretching from Calamarca to the capital, has become a symbol of national resistance. Union leaders like Mario Segundo Quispe describe the struggle as one of dignity and survival: “This is a government of millionaires, not of the humble.”

COB leader Claudio Choque has dismissed government accusations of political manipulation, insisting the mobilizations are legitimate social and labor demands aimed at defending Bolivia’s resources.

For many, the memory of Bolivia’s neoliberal “shock therapy” in the 1980s, when thousands lost their jobs amid privatization, feels painfully alive again. And this time, workers say, they will not allow history to repeat itself.

#Bolivia | The Workers’ Central Union (COB) declared a national strike and widespread mobilization to reject the Supreme Decree 5503, known as the “gasolinazo,” which eliminates fuel subsidies and facilitates the transfer of resources to private entities.https://t.co/n0Uvmghwj0

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 22, 2025

Financial Sovereignty and the Central Bank’s New Role

Decree 5503 not only reshapes the economy it also redefines the country’s financial sovereignty. The Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB), once a bastion of public accountability, now gains extraordinary powers under the guise of technical necessity.

These powers include:

• International Financial Operations. The BCB can now perform currency swaps and gold-backed transactions to stabilize the economy amid a severe dollar shortage.
• Capital Repatriation Program. Wealth held abroad can return tax-free under the new “Regularization and Repatriation of Capital” program, as long as it stays in the country for two years or is “invested productively.”
• Tax Amnesty for the Elite. Progressive economists argue this measure effectively launders elite capital, allowing powerful families to repatriate offshore wealth without penalty, a stark contrast to the heavy burden falling on workers and the poor.

Although the government sells these policies as emergency “technical corrections,” critics see a surrender to financial orthodoxy that abandons the principles of economic sovereignty forged during the nationalization era.

Most lithium reserves:

🇦🇷 Argentina: 23 million tons
🇧🇴 Bolivia: 23 million tons
🇨🇱 Chile: 11 million tons
🇦🇺 Australia: 8.9 million tons
🇨🇳 China: 6.8 million tons
🇨🇦 Canada: 5.7 million tons
🇩🇪 Germany: 4 million tons
🇨🇩 Congo (Kinshasa): 3 million tons
🇲🇽 Mexico: 1.7 million…

— World of Statistics (@stats_feed) November 13, 2025

The Social Cost and the Road to Abrogation

With Decree 5503, President Paz has charted a sharp turn toward what his team calls “capitalism for all”, but what grassroots movements describe as neoliberalism reborn.

By declaring a sweeping National Economic, Financial, Energy, and Social Emergency, the administration has effectively created a fast lane for privatization, deregulation, and external control.

The decree’s supposed social protections, a 20% wage increase, and the PEPE program for vulnerable families, barely scratch the surface of an inflationary shock that threatens to erode living standards overnight.

At the institutional level, ministries have been ordered to restructure budgets within ten days to accommodate the new economic model.

Combined with the 15-year guarantees for foreign investors, the policy risks cementing a long-term dependency on external capital and corporate governance.

In the streets, however, resistance is still alive and growing. The banners of “Bolivia Is Not For Sale” and the chants of miners and teachers echo a century-long struggle for sovereignty and dignity.

To them, this fight is not just about wages or fuel prices; it is about defending the right of the Bolivian people to decide the fate of their own resources.

#FromTheSouth News Bits | Bolivia: Sectors affiliated with the Workers' Union continued protesting against a decree that eliminates subsidies for hydrocarbons and threatens the natural resources. pic.twitter.com/s820l3z8Un

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 29, 2025

Sources: teleSUR – The Left Chapter – El País – 5503 Decree – La Izquierda Diario

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