Free Republic

Latin America since USAID defunding: 🇨🇱 Kast ("far right") wins in Chile 🇧🇴 Paz ("far right") wins in Bolivia 🇵🇪 Fujimori ("far right") wins in Peru 🇪🇨 Noboa ("far right") wins in Ecuador 🇭🇳 Asfura ("far right") wins in Honduras 🇨🇷 Fernandez ("far right") wins in Costa Rica Extremely telling development

HOUSTON/GEORGETOWN, May 30 (Reuters) - Guyana was already the world’s fastest growing economy before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran drove up oil prices. Now, the tiny Caribbean nation of nearly 1 million people will reap an even bigger bonanza as the conflict reshapes global energy markets. The war that caused one of the largest energy disruptions in history highlights the growing importance of countries including Guyana that offer political stability and geographically unrestricted access to their estimated ​11 billion barrels of oil reserves. This growing windfall from crude brings pressure from business owners and locals on the government to use...

More than a dozen Latin American leaders joined the U.S. president to launch a new security initiative, called ‘The Shield of the Americas’ in Miami.DORAL, Fla.—U.S. President Donald Trump on March 7 welcomed his Latin American allies to Florida for a summit focused on addressing regional issues and announced a new military coalition to combat drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere. “On this historic day, we come together to announce a brand new military coalition to eradicate the criminal cartels plaguing our region,” Trump said as he began his remarks at the summit. He said that the new partnership, called...

The U.S. administration has decided to focus its foreign policy on the Western Hemisphere by creating new strategic alliances. In this context, President Donald Trump will host the "Shield of the Americas" summit on March 7 in Miami, Florida. This event will bring together Latin American leaders who share an ideological affinity, marking a remarkable political shift in the region. Washington's approach seeks to consolidate a bloc that defends common interests and traditional values in the face of external pressures. The National Security Strategy 2026 outlines a plan for identifying and working closely with "ideologically trusted partners." This tactic is...

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned airlines on Friday to exercise caution when flying over Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, citing the risks of potential military activities and GPS interference. The FAA said it had issued Notices to Airmen covering Mexico and Central American countries, as well as Ecuador, Colombia and portions of airspace within the eastern Pacific Ocean. The warnings began on Friday and will last 60 days, it said. Tensions between the U.S. and regional leaders have ramped up since the Trump administration mounted a large-scale military buildup in the southern Caribbean, attacked Venezuela and...

Trump confirmed later on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep, and he said it was an honour to meet her.Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump at the White House and discussed her country’s future with the US leader, even as he has questioned her credibility to lead her country. Machado's extraordinary gesture to Trump, which the Nobel Institute has said can not be done, followed a rapidly evolving series of developments in Venezuela after an audacious US military raid...

The UK's Ministry of Defence confirmed that it had provided "enabling support" to the US during its operation to seize the tanker. US forces have boarded a Venezuela-linked sanctioned oil tanker in North Atlantic after pursuing it for weeks, the US military announced on Wednesday. "The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a US federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro," US European Command said in a post on X. Russia sent a submarine to escort the empty oil tanker the US military had been pursuing and attempting to seize for weeks,...

The United States said it will carry out military flights in Guyana on Thursday in a joint operation as the South American country faces soaring tensions with neighboring Venezuela over a contested oil-rich region. "In collaboration with the Guyana Defence Force, the U.S. Southern Command will conduct flight operations within Guyana on December 7," the American embassy in Guyana said in a statement, noting the flights are part of "routine engagement" to enhance a security partnership between the two countries.

Below is a geopolitical map of the Western Hemisphere as I see it today. The principal geopolitical foes of the US in the Western Hemisphere—Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua—are firmly in the China and Russia camp.Other countries can shift depending on the outcome of recent elections.Here’s an overview of some of the most geopolitically important countries in the Western Hemisphere to help frame the broader picture.VenezuelaA military confrontation over Venezuela appears increasingly likely.Since Hugo Chávez’s rise to power in 1999, Caracas has aligned itself with Russia and China. Venezuela’s vast oil and gold reserves make it a geopolitical prize. The country...

Police, who held a line at the very gate of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday were pelted with potatoes by angry farmers worried a new free trade deal will see their livelihoods and industry destroyed. A government-authorized protest for 50 tractors in Brussels turned into a demonstration with “around 1,000” tractors present and over 7,000 farmers on Thursday. While the protest largely passed off without incident, there were clashes at the European Parliament building, where farmers threw potatoes and eggs and received tear gas and water cannon in return. […] The farmers are protesting the forthcoming EU-Mercosur...

TEL AVIV –The Democrat strategist identified as an architect of the social protests currently rocking Israel previously ran the campaign of Bolivia's former president, who was ushered into office amid escalating social protests in that country.After Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada took power in Bolivia in 1985, he quickly implemented an economic "shock therapy" crafted by Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University professor who sits on the board of an organization literally seeking to reorganize the entire global economic system. That group is the Institute for New Economic Thinking, or INET.Philanthropist George Soros is INET's founding sponsor, with the billionaire having provided...

Nick Sortor @nicksortor 🚨 BREAKING: ICE just ARRESTED the Superintendent of Des Moines Iowa schools, who is an illegal immigrant from AFRICA, per @BillMelugin_ He was armed, and attempted to FLEE WTF? He led the LARGEST school district in Iowa. Our kids are NOT SAFE with Democrats in charge. INSANE Ian Andre Roberts will now be sent back to Guayana.

It’s a pass on getting my guts ripped open by Joaquinraptor casali. Some photographs really make you want to become a palaeontologist. Image credit: Matt Lamanna ======================================================================= A new species of predatory dinosaur has been described from fossils found in South America, and to say they are intimidating is an understatement. With a thumb claw that makes the human hand look puny, it’s safe to say that Joaquinraptor casali would’ve been much feared in its ecosystem, back when it was munching crocodiles around 70 million years ago. How do we know it was munching crocodiles? Well, this individual’s jawbone was...

CV NEWS FEED // After a special investigatory commission, Chile’s Chamber of Deputies called for an immediate end to all government programs that promote subjecting children to “gender transitions,” marking the first time a Latin American country has legally confronted gender ideology. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) reported May 15 that the investigatory commission found that the state failed children experiencing gender dysphoria or distress on medical, legal, and ethical levels. “It is clear that the current programs, under the guise of accompaniment, have operated as a gateway to irreversible medical and hormonal transition for children, without the necessary scientific,...

LIMA (Reuters) - Lori Berenson, a New Yorker once jailed in Peru for helping Marxist insurgents, is returning to the United States with her six-year-old son after finishing a 20-year sentence, her lawyer said Tuesday. Berenson, 46, was making preparations to leave Peru "in coming hours," said Anibal Apari, her attorney and the father of her son. He declined to be more specific. Apari and Berenson met in prison in 1997. He was also an inmate at the time. Berenson was on parole for the past 5 years after spending 15 years in prison. In 1996, Berenson was found guilty...

Is Latin America rejecting socialism? A positive trend appears to be developing. On Sunday, the ruling left-wing government of Bolivia saw its candidate win just 3% (not a typo) of the vote, as citizens revolted against the economic crisis it created. Inflation there is running at 16% a month and there are shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel in a country that once produced half of its own energy. Doesn’t that always seem to happen with leftist governments? Other countries may soon shift to the right. In Chile, analysts give Jose Antonio Kast, who comes from a family that helped...

A massive, magnitude 8.0 earthquake jolted South America on Friday morning, following which a tsunami risk was being evaluated. Unconfirmed reports suggested the earthquake jolted Drake Passage, a body of water located between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. Multiple reports also suggested the magnitude of the earthquake was later downgraded to 7.5. While there were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries, reports suggested the earthquake hit the southern part of America at 2.16 am UTC, 7.46 am as per the Indian Standard Time.

Is this the last gasp of Latin America's disastrous "pink tide"?Two decades ago, democratic socialism was rising in Latin America. The so-called "pink tide" swept leftist leaders into power in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Their useful idiots in the U.S. were delighted. Linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky saw "seeds of a better world" in Venezuela. Filmmaker Michael Moore praised Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez as a champion of the poor. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz claimed he was witnessing an "economic miracle" in Argentina. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) said Bolivia's socialist government had improved the lives of...

Archaeologists have conducted a study of lithic material from the Pilauco and Los Notros sites in north-western Patagonia, revealing evidence of human occupation in the region prior to the Younger Dryas period.The Younger Dryas, which occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years BP), was a cooling event which marked a return to glacial conditions, temporarily reversing the climatic warming of the preceding Late Glacial Interstadial.The period in which humans arrived in South America, in particular, north-western Patagonia, has been the subject of an ongoing debate by academics for many years.Previous archaeological evidence and palaeogenetic studies have suggested human presence between 16...

Former deep-cover Russian spy Anna Chapman plays a starring role in a new promotional video for President Vladimir Putin's military and it sounds a whole lot like Cold War propaganda. Chapman, you may recall, was the femme fatale rolled up by the FBI in the early summer of 2010 with nine other "illegals" – all working undercover for the SVR, Moscow's foreign intelligence service. Their job was to gather U.S. political and economic secrets for the motherland. But unfortunately for them, they had reportedly been betrayed by one of their own. The FBI had secretly snooped on them for years...