Free Republic

Colombia’s hardline president, Abelardo De La Espriella, has provoked outrage after posting a video on social media in which he strides through rows of white body bags that he says contained the corpses of 23 “neutralised” guerrillas.De La Espriella took power last month vowing “all-out war” against illegal armed groups and he published the footage on Thursday in an apparent attempt to show he was fulfilling that pledge.“I promised to confront terrorism without hesitation and I’m keeping that promise,” the far-right politician wrote above the video. “I did not come to play nice with murderers, extortionists and child recruiters. I...

The oil agreement is a foundation, not a finish line but it is a hopeful moment of progress

Chevron Corp. (CVX) and other U.S. energy companies are reportedly moving closer to deals that could bring billions of dollars of investment into Venezuela's oil fields. While Chevron is nearing an agreement to expand its operations in the country, Halliburton Co. (HAL) is reportedly in talks to provide equipment to Venezuelan oil producers, as the Trump administration pushes U.S. companies to help build the nation's oil industry. Chevron, Halliburton Eye Venezuela Opportunities Chevron could add two heavy-oil fields to its Venezuelan portfolio under the potential agreement, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The oil major...

Florida Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar did a quick about-face on President Trump’s massive Venezuela oil deal Saturday — deleting a social media post blasting the pact before returning to declare it was “a great deal” for America and the Venezuelan people Salazar, who has been outspoken of communist Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, took to X to declare that the pact would come to an end once President Trump’s term ends. “Any oil “deal” with Venezuela’s interim regime has an expiration date: the day President Trump leaves the White House,” Salazar wrote on the site. She later deleted the English...

President Donald Trump announced an historic energy deal with Venezuela in a Truth Social post Friday night. The president called the deal “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY.” Trump wrote that the United States secured “majority U.S. control” of over 65 million barrels’ worth of Venezuelan oil reserves. Trump credited Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez and “a partnership with private business.” The president stated that the deal more than doubles American reserves and will “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans.” He added that the deal would strengthen the...

I reported on Thursday that there was a massive deal in the offing to acquire an interest in Venezuela's oil fields that could help guarantee our energy security. Now, both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have weighed in, saying they pulled it off and the deal is official. Trump said in a Truth Social post that they'd secured "majority control" over 65 billion barrels; it "more than doubles" our reserves and will "substantially lower gas prices." 🚨 BREAKING NEWS pic.twitter.com/vkRV9oOetV— Department of State (@StateDept) August 28, 2026BREAKING NEWS: The United States of America has just entered...

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. has entered an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American country’s oil reserves. Trump in a social media post announced the agreement he said was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez. “The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” Trump wrote.

We reported earlier on 14 recent wins that are going to help the country, from immigration actions to economic actions. But now there's a new report from two U.S. officials about a deal that's in the offing. "Calling this deal huge would be an understatement," one of the officials said. "It is massive."The Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela's interim government about taking an ownership stake in the South American country's enormous oil resources, two U.S. officials tell Axios.Why it matters: The historic deal would more than double U.S. oil reserves by drawing from a country that has the...

Did his attempt to curry favor with Iran work? One of the ways Hezbollah earns money — about one billion dollars a year — is by drug trafficking. It controls much of the sale of drugs sent from Colombia and Venezuela to customers in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. For eight years, beginning in 2008, a wide-ranging investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency known as Project Cassandra uncovered how Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle Eastern political and military organization into an international crime syndicate, but Project Cassandra was shut down by the Obama administration, that...

Given that he deliberately allowed Iran to flood America with deadly drugs and grow its nuclear program, it’s easy to argue that he is. As Barack Obama slowly fades from the landscape, let’s consider how he has helped to destroy Western civilization, especially the United States of America. He did this via his fealty to Iran, which allowed unchecked, deadly drug trafficking into America while giving Iran the time, space, and funds to develop its nuclear weapons. The Obama Administration killed hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing the Iran-founded and funded terrorist organization Hezbollah to operate in the Western...

Panamanian authorities have a 1994 bombing’s suspected Iranian-backed Hezbollah mastermind in custody, with a trial ensuing soon. For more than three decades, the mystery of who blew Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 out of the Panama sky, killing all 21 aboard, including 12 top Jewish businessmen and three U.S. citizens, remained unsolved and mostly forgotten by the outside world. The small commuter plane to Panama City exploded July 19, 1994, shortly after takeoff from Colon, leaving only one body in the wreckage, not positively identified for years: a Middle Eastern male thought to have carried the bomb aboard. But now...

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- When Venezuela's populist leader welcomed Bolivia's socialist president-elect at a ceremony in Caracas, an unexpected guest had a front-row seat: Ollanta Humala, a left-leaning nationalist who is surging in popularity in Peru's presidential race. Ollanta, a former army lieutenant colonel like his Venezuelan host, President Hugo Chavez, glowed in the praise he got in Caracas. But the gathering reinforced fears of Peruvian elites that he may be part of the tide of elected leftist leaders rising across South America - or, worse, a military dictator in the making. Two days later at a news conference in...

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Hugo Chavez has been accused of using Venezuela's oil riches to meddle in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Now, Peru's president says the Venezuelan leader may be doing it here by funding militants and anti-poverty centers that preach populist revolution. In recent weeks, Peruvian police have arrested nine people the government alleges are militants bankrolled by Venezuela. And the head of a Congressional investigatory committee accused Venezuela of supplying funds to outreach centers he says agitate against the government. President Alan Garcia supports the ongoing investigation into the centers. Venezuela and allies Bolivia and Ecuador "want...

Venezuela's new petroleum minister sees her South American home not as a dilapidated former oil giant, but as an emerging energy economy ripe for U.S. and foreign investments in new oil and gas exploration, both onshore and offshore. Paula Henao, who took over as the hydrocarbons minister in March after the forced U.S. removal of former leader Nicolás Maduro, told an overflowing Houston energy audience on Wednesday that Venezuela is much more than just its famed heavy-grade crude oil. There are more than 916 exploration opportunities awaiting foreign investment, she said, including natural gas and other untapped oil basins. She...

Earlier today, I wrote about Marco Rubio vs. Delcy Rodríguez making public statements about Fidel Castro on X. I joked that it was the best way to end the week — Delcy stirred up a little drama, and our dear Secretary of State reminded her who she's currently working for: This is the best way to end the week. 🤭 pic.twitter.com/2AMrwcKUIa— SarahDownSouth (@SarahDownSouth) August 14, 2026Well, I stand corrected. There's a better way to end the week in Latin American news coverage, and it's the release of several more political prisoners in Venezuela. I was incorrect before. This is the...

When President Donald Trump ordered an early morning raid to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January and brought him to the United States to face trial on narco-terrorism charges, the warnings came fast. House Armed Services Committee ranking Democratic member Adam Smith cautioned that United States military intervention always “ends badly,” citing Iraq and Libya as examples. Representative Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, drew the parallel directly. “This is exactly the euphoria we felt in 2002 when our military took down the Taliban in Afghanistan,” Himes said, “in 2003 when our military took out...

Now, I finally understand about Oil, and why it's extracted in one country, and shipped to another, instead of being refined here in the US. This gvies the Big Picture like never before, for me.

Move comes amid concerns that Trump delegation could help Bolsonaro family cast doubt on electronic voting ahead of October’s presidential election SÃO PAULO—Brazil has denied visas to two senior Trump administration officials who were planning to travel to the country, amid concerns that they sought to undermine confidence in the electronic-voting system before October’s presidential election. The move comes as fears deepen in Brazil that the Bolsonaro family is working with President Trump and his allies to unseat leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and help return the Brazilian right to power. Former president Jair Bolsonaro is serving a...

President Trump was sitting in the Oval Office earlier this year with Secretary of State Marco Rubio when an idea came to him. Maybe he should dispatch Mr. Rubio permanently to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, where U.S. commandos had carried out the proudest foreign policy achievement of Mr. Trump’s second term: the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president. Mr. Rubio could be the next leader of Venezuela, Mr. Trump suggested. And while the president’s aides say he was joking — and that he frequently teases Mr. Rubio about an overseas assignment — the fact is that Mr. Rubio does...

The front page of today’s New York Times features a big article clearly intended to get the readers riled up about the latest environmental horror that must be stopped. The headline is “The Illegal Airstrips Bringing Toxic Mining to Brazil’s Indigenous Land.” Subheadline: “The Times identified hundreds of airstrips that bring criminal mining operations to the most remote corners of the Amazon.” Wow, this is bad. The airstrips are “illegal.” The mining is “toxic,” and not only toxic but also “criminal.” And it’s all happening in the most pristine place left in the whole world, the “remote corners of the...