Political Report #1468: Some reactions to the US military attack on Venezuela
Some reactions to the US military attack on Venezuela, detention of Maduro, plans outlined by Trump and other US officials at the subsequent news conference, and US media coverage.
Version 1.3, updated 10pm, Jan. 3, in St. Louis, MO
Daniel Hellinger is Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Webster University, and author/editor of several books on Venezuela. He is presently researching and writing a book on resource nationalism in Venezuela and Chile, with a focus on oil in the former.
Overall take: The US military operation undertaken in Venezuela was a brazen violation of international law and clearly aimed at regime change. The […]
Political Report #1468: Thanks to Trump
THANKS TO TRUMP
By Cliff Welch
São Paulo, 25 July 2025
Thanks to Trump President Lula’s favorability numbers went up. Thanks to Trump the criminal prosecution of former president Jair Messias Bolsonaro surged on. Thanks to Trump U.S. prices for coffee, sugar, oranges and orange juice, beef, honey and travel are set to increase in August. Thanks to Trump Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, facing a backlash due to his alliance with Trump, abandoned his seat in congress, slightly weakening his father’s support in the Brazilian parliament. Thanks to Trump and his decision to use tariffs to try to […]
Political Report #1467: Performative Victory: How Post-Coup Honduras Used Football to Manufacture a “Silent Mass”
Author: Clover Hu (Yutong Hu)
Clover Hu is a student at New York University studying literature, psychology, economics, and justice in Latin America and post-authoritarian societies.
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Abstract: This article examines how the Honduran government, following the 2009 coup, utilized the country’s qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup as a strategic emotional diversion to suppress political dissent. Through visual analysis of media coverage, theoretical frameworks on deindividuation and emotional governance, and comparative reference to historical models such as “bread and circuses,” the article argues that football was transformed into a state-sponsored spectacle of national unity that effectively muted public outrage. This […]
Political Report 1466: A Debate on the Left over the Nicolas Maduro Government
A Debate on the Left over the Nicolas Maduro Government
NOTE: The website “Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal” hosted a debate over the
Venezuelan Solidarity movement, the denunciations of Nicolas Maduro’s policies, and the importance of contextualization. The interchange was initiated by an article by Gabriel Hetland, associate professor at the University of Albany, followed by a rejoinder by Latin American Perspectives’ associated managing editor Steve Ellner, and then a critical response from political ecologist Emiliano Teran Mantovani. It consisted of six articles altogether. All three analysts frame issues which are useful for grasping the knotty dilemmas facing […]
Trump’s Policy toward Latin America: Even Anti-Communist Zealots in Miami Don’t Like It
First posted by NACLA: Report on the Americas
April 2025
Steve Ellner
During his first term, President Donald Trump exerted a “maximum pressure” campaign against perceived U.S. adversaries in Latin America and elsewhere. Among other hardline policies, he levelled crippling sanctions against Venezuela—leading, ironically, to a mass exodus of Venezuelans to the United States—and reversed former President Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba.
But just how committed is Trump to fighting communism in Latin America at this particular moment—in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua? Today, it’s anyone’s guess.
Trump’s recent threats against Panama, Canada, and Greenland, on top of his clash with Ukrainian President […]
Alcances y limitaciones del sexenio de Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018-2024)
Alcances y limitaciones del sexenio de Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018-2024) y los retos de Claudia Sheinbaum en México por Emelio Betances
Un balance de la gestión de Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo) tiene necesariamente que empezar con el contexto histórico que hizo posible su victoria en 2018. El neoliberalismo había caído en una crisis de legitimidad y no se pudo levantar. Los partidos dominantes (Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) y Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) ya no tenían nuevas propuestas. En ese contexto Amlo, un político carismático con un proyecto de nación que venía proponiendo […]
Political Report #1465 “Those Who Are Poor, Die Poor” | Notes on The Chilean Elections
Premature obituaries of Chilean neoliberalism abound on the heels of the December 19 run-off presidential election. Gabriel Boric of Apruebo Dignidad (Approve Dignity, AD) – a coalition of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front, FA) and the Partido Comunista de Chile (Communist Party of Chile, PCC) – secured a surprisingly robust victory over his far-right opponent, José Antonio Kast (aka, JAK), of Frente Social Cristiano (Christian Social Front, FSC) – a coalition of Kast’s Partido Republicano (Republican Party, PR) and the Partido Conservador Cristiano (Christian Conservative Party, PCC). […]
Political Report 1464 – Nicaragua: Chronicle of an Election Foretold
With seven opposition presidential candidates imprisoned and held incommunicado in the months leading up to the vote and all the remaining contenders but one from miniscule parties closely allied with President Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the results of Nicaragua’s November 7 presidential elections were a foregone conclusion. The government declared after polls closed that Ortega won 75 percent of the vote and that 65 percent of voters cast ballots. The independent voting rights organization Urnas Abiertas, meanwhile, reported an abstention rate of approximately […]