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(CNN) An alleged multistate human trafficking ring forcing immigrant women into prostitution. The mysterious killing of a former police officer in South Florida. Attacks against police officers in New York. The arrest of a drug dealer in Chicago. Local and federal officials say these apparently unrelated crimes have a common denominator: Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang that originated in a Venezuela prison and has slowly made its way south and north in recent years. They say it’s now operating in the United States. The scale of its operations is unknown, but crimes attributed to alleged members of the...

China is planning to restrict exports of a key mineral needed to make weapons while a U.S. company that could be reducing America’s reliance on foreign suppliers is languishing in red tape, energy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese government announced on August 15 that it will restrict exports of antimony, a critical mineral that dominates the production of weapons globally and is essential for producing equipment like munitions, night vision goggles and bullets that are essential to national security, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Perpetua Resources, an American mining company, has...

A nuclear policy expert appointed to the Department of Energy under the Biden administration in February 2024 previously co-authored an article entitled "queering nuclear weapons" which argued "queer theory" should be used to inform American nuclear policy. Sneha Nair works as a special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining the safety and security of America's extensive arsenal of nuclear weapons. On Wednesday Beijing said it was "seriously concerned" after President Biden updated America's Nuclear Employment Guidance to focus on the threat from China, according to The New York Times. Nair co-authored a piece titled...

Bolivian forces arrested the army commander who led a coup attempt against President Luis Arce on Wednesday, shortly after rebel soldiers besieged the government headquarters for hours and tried to break down one of its doors. At the end of a frantic day, General Juan José Zúñiga was arrested outside a military barracks in La Paz and taken to a police vehicle on charges of terrorism and armed uprising, according to the prosecutor’s office. “You’re under arrest, General!” said Deputy Minister of Government (Interior) Jhonny Aguilera, according to state television footage. Surrounded by about eight armored vehicles, Zúñiga led the...

What is Bolivia worried about? Perhaps the 25,000% hyperinflationary evaporation of the peso in the '80s has left a deep scarring on the South American countries lawmakers. In 2018, The Bolivian Central Bank (BCB) took the administrative measure to suspend the sale of dollars in order to maintain its peg to the dollar. And in doing so, the BCB has been forced to puke away its reserves (now at their lowest level) since 2007. Source: Bloomberg All of which is why, as Bloomberg reports, Bolivian lawmakers are debating a bill that would require all gold produced in the country to...

Bolivia Files Charges for Crimes Against Humanity Against Evo Morales at The Hague The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague received a petition Tuesday to open a case against socialist former president of Bolivia Evo Morales and several of his senior cabinet members for “crimes against humanity” committed in the aftermath of his resignation in November. The government of Bolivia filed the charges citing evidence of a “campaign of terrorism” against the Bolivian people intended to ensure Morales returned to power. Morales resigned on November 10 willingly in the aftermath of the publication of an Organization of American States...

The conservative government of Bolivia published an audio file on Wednesday, allegedly of a conversation between a socialist activist and former President Evo Morales in which the latter ordered him to ensure that socialist rioters prevented food and basic goods from getting to the nation’s cities. Morales resigned from the presidency two weeks ago, after 13 years in power, following the revelation of widespread fraud in the October elections he claimed had earned him another five-year term. He then fled to Mexico and claimed to be the victim of a “coup,” although he voluntarily resigned, and is now demanding that...

The Military Coup in the Bolivian Capital of La Paz, is reportedly being led by Bolivian Army General Juan José Zúñiga

Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora reviewed with his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin the joint lithium and nuclear projects with which the South American country consolidates its position from a geopolitical and strategic viewpoint given the presence of Iranian facilities and equipment. Arce told reporters in La Paz Tuesday that all these matters were discussed during his recent meeting with the Russian leader in St. Petersburg on the occasion of the International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in the former imperial capital. According to Arce, the project involving Russia's Uranium One company regarding direct lithium extraction in Bolivian salt flats “must start operating...

The world’s despots have rushed to congratulate Vladimir Putin for his all-but-assured Russian election win. -snip- North Korean media says Kim Jong-un sent his congratulations via his embassy in Russia this morning – unsurprising as North Korea has provided Putin with supplies and munitions for his war in Ukraine. Putin has also received well-wishes and congratulations from the authoritarian ruler of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla. ‌The presidents of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and Bolivia, Luis Arce, joined the small repressive group hailing Putin’s overwhelming victory

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is among the first to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his “decisive” win in Russia’s presidential election, state media reports. “The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a message sincerely congratulated Vladimir Putin on his decisive victory and re-election as the President of the Russian Federation,” state news agency IRNA reports. Chinese President Xi Jinping also sends a congratulatory message to Putin, saying his re-election “fully reflects the support of the Russian people,” Beijing’s state media reports.

A former US ambassador to Bolivia charged with spying for Cuba for four decades told a judge on Thursday sensationally admitted to the charges and said he'd been gathering information for the rogue state since 1981. Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in December for what US officials called 'one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.' Rocha pleaded not guilty two weeks ago to charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government but he told Judge Beth Bloom at a pre-trial conference on Thursday that he wanted...

Perched in a helicopter some 650 feet up, scientists used light-based remote sensing technology (lidar) to digitally deforest the canopy and identify the ancient ruins of a vast urban settlement around Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon that was abandoned some 600 years ago. The new images reveal, in detail, a stronghold of the socially complex Casarabe Culture (500-1400 C.E.) with urban centers boasting monumental platform and pyramid architecture. Raised causeways connected a constellation of suburban-like settlements, which stretched for miles across a landscape that was shaped by a massive water control and distribution system with reservoirs and canals....

Silver has been used for thousands of years as ornaments and utensils, for trade, and as the basis for many monetary systems. Of all the metals, pure silver has the whitest color, the highest optical reflectivity, and the highest thermal and electrical conductivity. Backstory. Whenever you read some precious metals expert discussing the industrial uses of silver, here is the typical spiel that goes: "Silver is essential in jewelry, electronics, medical, solar, electric vehicles, and Green Energy storage systems (i.e., batteries)." Very good, Captain Obvious, but it's my fervent belief that military and aerospace usages of silver gobbles as much...

A former American diplomat who served as a U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested and accused of secretly serving as an agent of Cuba’s government, according to The Associated Press. Officials say Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on a criminal complaint. According to sources, more details about the case are expected to be made public at a court appearance Monday. One of the two people who came forward with the complaint said the Justice Department case accuses Rocha of working to promote the Cuban government’s interests.

Turkey on Saturday became the latest country to pull its ambassador from Israel since the beginning of Israel’s war with Gaza-based militant group Hamas, citing Israel’s refusal to heed calls for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. Turkey recalled ambassador Sakir Ozkan Torunlar, according to a statement from Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday morning, calling out Israel for an “unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza” after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “no longer someone we can talk to,” though Erdogan acknowledged: “complete disconnection is not possible, especially in international diplomacy.”

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez switched from coffee to another stimulant during a speech on Saturday -- he popped a coca leaf into his mouth and chewed it while defending the use of the plant. Bolivian President Evo Morales, an advocate of the Andean nation's indigenous coca growers, brought Chavez coca leaves while in Caracas for a summit of Latin American leaders allied with Chavez. "I knew you wouldn't let me down, my friend, I was running out," Chavez said as he received the leaves from Morales during the televised summit. He broke one in half and chewed...

When Bergoglio visited Bolivia in 1979, "it was the time of greatest abuse," says the former Jesuit Lima The former Jesuit Pedro Lima, who has become one of the most visible faces that denounces paedophilic priests, points out that in a meeting in 1979, in which the current Pope Francis participated, they knew about "the issue of John XXIII College."

Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce signed contracts with both China and Russia on Thursday to hand over control of the country’s two largest lithium deposits. Bolivia is home to some of the world’s largest known lithium resources. The contracts, which amount to $1.4 billion, will see state-owned Citic Guoan (of China’s CITIC Group) and Uranium One Group (of Russia’s Rosatom) work alongside the state-owned Bolivian Lithium Deposits (YLB) company to build two lithium carbonate processing plants.

The State Department is steering over $37,000 to a Bolivian nonprofit group to launch a "campaign against disinformation" training program for journalists in the South American country, funding documents show. Thwarting alleged "disinformation" has remained a top priority of the Biden administration, which has come under fire from Republicans for bankrolling left-leaning entities taking aim at conservative websites over their advertising revenue. President Joe Biden's State Department is now in the process of granting taxpayer dollars until April 2024 to Fundacion para el Periodismo, which translates to Foundation for Journalism, so the Bolivian entity can create a "network of 150...