Free Republic

Snippet: "Iran and its terrorist proxy groups’ influence in Latin America remains a troubling security threat to the region and world, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday."

Donald Trump announced the killing of Tren De Aragua cartel leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, aka 'Nino,' in a swift and lethal kinetic strike' by US Southern Command. The President has made protecting the border and taking down criminal gangs and cartels a priority in his second term and celebrated the killing of the leader of what he called 'one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth.' 'Early in my Administration, I delivered on my promise to designate Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, deport thousands of evil criminals, and wage war against the Cartels, who...

Was this illegal part of a Venezuelan or Cuban military intelligence operation? Why, again, was he let in? Joe Biden's open borders may be about more than just replacing the electorate. The New York Post found that one of the most malevolent of the border surgers, a Venezuelan illegal named Leonel Moreno, who famously urged other illegals to squat in Americans' homes and waved hundred-dollar bills around to boast of his public benefits on TikTok, is being investigated by the feds for his military intelligence work for the Marxist dictatorship back home. According to the Post: Joe Biden's open borders...

🚨 BREAKING: DNI TULSI GABBARD was just spotted at the Fulton County GA election site raided by the FBI involving likely 2020 election fraud — as ballots were seized and computers were examined WOW, this is getting serious! 🔥Tulsi plays no games. Liberals are terrified at this sight. EXPOSE THE FRAUD! Show the people, Trump was right! pic.twitter.com/c8ZihO2n7m— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 29, 2026

Rosales accuses "Fat Fish" of the Government Opposition candidate Manuel Rosales attributed the events which occurred in La Paragua1 to "the fat fish of the government, who have a big business in [the sale of] gasoline, contraband gold, and diamonds." In a visit to Trujillo, where he carried out a campaign visit, Rosales condemned the acts. "It is one of the most clear manifestations of how an authoritarian government stimulates criminal acts and insecurity in Venezuela. The deed in La Paragua is the action of a few spineless military men, who are not the majority, who felt themselves handsome...

Delcy Rodriguez told lawmakers that Caracas seeks commercially grounded oil and gas ties as Washington asserts oversight and U.S. firms eye investment.Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Jan. 7 that the South American nation is open to establishing new energy relationships based on commercial agreements and mutual benefit, marking a potential shift in policy following the removal of former leader Nicolás Maduro. Rodriguez made the remarks during a meeting with members of Venezuela’s National Assembly of Venezuela in Caracas. “Venezuela is open to energy relations where all parties benefit, where economic cooperation is very clearly defined in commercial contracts....

Armed Venezuelan gang memebers are stealing oil, copper wire, diesel fuel and catalyst elements from Texas oil fields in West Texas, according to a memo issued to employees. According to the memo obtained by LibsofTikTok, a Texas-based oil company issued a memo to employees warning them about security concerns from violent migrant gangs. Venezuelan gang members are using vehicles to run workers and witnesses off the road as they steal oil and diesel fuel. Per the memo: Dr. McCullough on the “Serious Problem” Spike Protein Poses to Our Health Industry peers and law enforcement in West Texas (WTX) are aware...

War: A Spanish court has charged Venezuela with collaborating in a terrorist plot to assassinate President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. That's an attempt on a top U.S. ally, and calls for a hard response. If it's not predator-drone time, it's time to name Venezuela as a state sponsor of terror. What came to light Monday isn't the first time Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been caught aiding terrorists, but it may well be the most egregious. Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco named a Venezuelan government official as a key link between 12 FARC and ETA terrorists who were indicted in a 2003...

There's been an unwelcome development in Venezuela, and it comes in the form of colectivos on motorcycles armed with Russian-made weapons hunting down citizens who cheered the actions of the Trump administration, which led to the fall of dictator Nicolás Maduro. While Maduro awaits justice in a New York jail, his civilian foot soldiers – after having gone underground in the wake of the United States' successful combined military and law enforcement action – have surfaced and are looking to serve up a justice of their own on anyone who welcomed Trump's involvement and cheered Maduro's removal. Several different reports...

For over two decades, Venezuela has served as a critical outpost for Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere, with reports detailing the group's entrenchment on Margarita Island and ties to the former regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. U.S. intelligence assessments and media investigations describe this presence as evolving from fundraising networks among the Lebanese diaspora in the 1980s to sophisticated operations involving training, smuggling, and financial schemes by the 2000s. Margarita Island, once a bustling tourist spot, has been highlighted as a primary hub, surpassing even the Tri-Border Area in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay for Hezbollah's regional activities. Training...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like [Tren de Aragua], Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video posted on X.The Drug Enforcement Administration has thus far seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, Bondi said, and “nearly seven tons linked to Maduro himself, which represents a primary source of income for the deadly cartels based in Venezuela and Mexico.”***The...

The article does push gun control but is eye opening none the less. Large numbers of Barrett .50 Cal rifles are being legally purchased in the US and shipped to Mexico to be used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Additionally, recent allegation against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel indicate that 4 US Special Forces Soldiers, 1 Green Beret/Delta Force Operator, 2 US Navy Seals and a Ranger from 75th Ranger Regiment. The point that is interesting to me is this one particular cartel has professional military people running their operations who have all received special forces training in the...

When Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez gave a speech condemning the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro, she was accompanied by two men who can make or break the regime’s future. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino command Venezuela’s police and military, the forces that kept Maduro in power for more than a decade with deadly crackdowns on dissent. Trump said Rodríguez is the de facto leader of Venezuela. She is someone who despite her anti-U.S. rhetoric has privately assured Washington that she will do its bidding with Maduro facing prison, Trump said on Saturday. But Cabello and...

Pablo Escobar was elected alternate representative to the Congress of the Republic of Colombia in 1982. Upon receiving the news of his victory, he told his wife: “Get ready to be the First Lady . . . the doors of the presidential palace will open for us.” The most notorious drug trafficker in history dreamed of becoming president of his country. To realize that dream, Escobar oversaw a reign of terror that included bombings, assassinations of judges, police, and presidential candidates, and mass kidnappings. The exact number of victims is unknown but estimated to be around 50,000. The Colombian drug...

President Trump told The Post in an exclusive interview that US troops won’t be stationed in Venezuela so long as ousted strongman Nicolás Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, “does what we want” in the aftermath of a daring US raid that captured Maduro. Trump made the clarification moments after a press conference where he said that “we are going to run the country” ahead of a democratic transition, introducing the prospect of a US occupation. Asked by The Post if “US troops [will] be on the ground helping run the country,” Trump said: “No, if Maduro’s vice president — if...

The most senior member of the United States military has offered a grippingly detailed account of how Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured. General John Daniel 'Raizin' Cane, who is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 150 US military aircraft stationed across the western hemisphere had waited for weeks for the perfect moment to strike, before it finally arrived on Friday. Addressing journalists at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday, Cane said preparations to capture Maduro and his wife Cilia began in August 2025 when CIA spies began monitoring the Maduros movements. Cane...

Clinton appointee Judge Alvin Hellerstein has Maduro’s case. Last spring, he barred the Trump admin from removing Venezuelans from the US under the Alien Enemies Act, which he said had been applied unlawfully “These people are being thrown out of the country because of tattoos”

I was briefed this morning on the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as well as their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City. Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law. This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home. My focus is their safety and the safety of every New Yorker, and my administration will continue to monitor the situation and issue...

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- When the Organization of American States asked its press freedom expert, Santiago Canton, to report on the state of the independent press in Venezuela, they must have known it was a sensitive mission. President Hugo Chavez's radical populist government does not take kindly to criticism nor does it appreciate outside scrutiny of its internal affairs. It's doubtful, though, that anyone at the OAS expected Canton to fall victim himself to the kind of tactics the Venezuelan press faces every day. Just moments after beginning the final press conference of his four-day visit to ...

President Trump's high-seas Navy strike on a boat full of illegal drugs and 11 narcos, taking it out and feeding the local sharks, didn't go over well with the Chavista elites in Caracas. But instead of pretending they had no idea drugs were being trafficked from Venezuela to the U.S., or at least pretending that they didn't know the particular criminals aboard, a leading Chavista kingpin went full frontal 'thug' instead: [X post in Spanish at link] Google Translation: #URGENT | Direct threat from Diosdado Cabello against María Corina due to the US offensive: "If they squeeze us, we squeeze...