Ten months after the night-time assault that removed Nicolás Maduro, the State Department negotiates with Delcy Rodríguez a status of forces agreement that would give United States troops a legal basis to remain. The scope is deliberately narrow, and the contract is what would make the occupation survive the government that began it.
The opposition promised a constitutional accusation against Justice Minister Fernando Rabat over 56 commutations of sentence for sexual crimes against minors, and did not file it in the week its own calendar had set. The votes are the reason: 78 are needed, 62 are counted, and 14 deputies of the Partido de la Gente hold the difference.
Drones hit a guerrilla camp in southern Apure on October 30 and the army that operates them has published no toll: 19 dead by one count, around 20 by another, nine bodies in a morgue in San Fernando. Five years after an operation that ended with the force withdrawn and 12 soldiers hostage, the target changed, the method changed, and the only record is the one a human rights group wrote.
The White House had a congratulatory statement ready at the State Department and held it after Flávio Bolsonaro called for the annulment of the election, proclaimed by the Superior Electoral Court at 8:08 p.m. (Washington time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)-4) on October 25, 2026. Right-wing presidents in South America congratulated Lula, and Washington’s bet on the tenth aligned Latin American president was left unresolved.
Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round with 47.03% of valid votes, against 45.16% for Lula, a difference of 2.2 million votes. The Liberal Party took the largest Senate caucus since 1988 and the largest single-party caucus in the Chamber of Deputies. Abstention, at 21.08%, is the highest since 1998. The decision is on 25 October.
31 Democratic lawmakers accuse Donald Trump of using tariffs, sanctions and visa restrictions to tilt Brazil’s Oct. 4, 2026, election toward Flávio Bolsonaro and demand that Marco Rubio sign a formal commitment to respect the vote by Oct. 1. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign says the game has already started on the platforms too.
Eight months after Maduro was seized by United States forces, the interim leader thanked Trump at the General Assembly and declared alignment with Washington, promising an election with no date.
Washington put the doctrine of 1823 in writing, invaded Venezuela, sanctions Cuba, expands bases in Greenland and keeps a stalled war against Iran. Lula answered from the UN rostrum by naming the mechanisms of that offensive, and the vote of 4 October 2026 decides who administers the answer, with the Bolsonaro family on the other side.
A case-by-case review of shootings by federal immigration officers since January 2025 shows where the pattern repeats: traffic stops account for 19 of the 22 people shot and four of the six deaths. In Austin, the man wounded on Sunday is already in federal custody pending deportation, and the investigation into the shooting sits with the agency that fired.
35 agreements, 410 million dollars promised and a federal court saying on Friday, 18 September 2026, that the policy is illegal. The American government built a removal architecture that pays governments and United Nations (UN) agencies, and the result so far is cost without policy.
The president of Cuba's National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, Antonio Rodríguez, said that interruptions in water networks affect 2,681,770 residents, 66% of them for electrical reasons and 25% because of broken pumping equipment, according to the EFE agency, in a text republished by the Paraguayan outlet ABC Color. President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the water supply problem “grave and complex” and said that large-scale investments to solve it require time, while immediate difficulties are being addressed. The worst-affected provinces are Havana, with about 536,000 residents facing supply problems, and Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Matanzas, Artemisa and Pinar, with about 200,000 each. Díaz-Canel attributed the problem to objective causes — the US blockade, the energy crisis, aging networks — and also to the “negligence, indolence and lack of coordination” of the authorities.
The Central Bank of Paraguay ordered the intervention of Ueno Bank after finding a solvency ratio below 50% of the required minimum, following adjustments to its balance sheets during the regularization process. President Santiago Peña asked for the resignation of Central Bank president Carlos Carvallo and agreed with the heads of both chambers of Congress on a bill authorizing the use of the Guarantee Fund to start immediate payment to savers, including public funds and the IPS. Peña was a business partner of the bank until March 2025 and gave up his shares after criticism over a conflict of interest; the institution, linked to former business partners of the president, held hundreds of millions of dollars in public resources, including investments from Paraguay's social security system. On Wednesday, lawmakers began collecting signatures to file an impeachment request against Peña and Vice President Pedro Alliana. On Tuesday night, account holders and retirees protested outside the National Congress and the presidential residence, demanding the return of the blocked money and that authorities be held accountable.
A strike against alleged members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela’s Apure state, near the Colombian border, had US intelligence and drone support, according to four US officials quoted by the New York Times. The operation took place last Friday, and a senior Venezuelan military officer confirmed the attack. Fundaredes, the first organization to raise the alarm, counted 23 dead and an undetermined number of wounded in the bombing of an ELN base used as a cocaine distribution center, based on testimony from survivors and local residents that the Times collected. Local reporters with Alianza Rebelde Investiga identified eight of the dead — including two Colombians and four Mexicans — using information from the morgue, the hospital and the San Fernando de Apure cemetery. Venezuelan authorities counted 19 dead in the operation so far, a lower toll than Fundaredes’. The attack came after the United States forcibly removed Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela’s government came under the control of an administration aligned with Donald Trump, according to Infobae, in a New York Times text.
Paraguay’s central bank board voted unanimously on Monday to put Ueno Bank into resolution, after its solvency ratio fell below half the legal minimum; the bank says it has about 3 million customers and manages $800 million to $850 million in public money, including about $380 million from the state pension and health fund; prosecutors sought the arrest of eight people, including President Juan Manuel Gustale and chief executive Federico Miguel Vázquez Villasanti; and President Santiago Peña canceled a trip to a summit in Spain, asked central bank chief Carlos Carvallo to resign, and promised to fast-track depositor repayment legislation. Peña’s party vice president Rodolfo Friedmann called for the president’s expulsion, while Senate President Basilio Núñez defended him and blamed the central bank.
Peru’s government declared a 60-day state of emergency in 1,380 districts out of more than 1,800, over imminent danger from heavy rainfall linked to the El Niño phenomenon. The measure was formalized by Supreme Decree 149-2026-PCM and covers 25 departments and the Constitutional Province of Callao. The National Emergency Operations Center recorded 324 affected people and 110 uninhabitable homes after weekend rains in Tumbes. The technical commission ENFEN said the event will be of extraordinary magnitude through February and weaken through June.
The administration of Donald Trump is negotiating an agreement with Venezuela that would allow a long-term US military presence in the country, according to The New York Times, in a TASS report. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading efforts to conclude the military pact, a status of forces agreement (SOFA), and details on the long-term presence and the locations where troops will be stationed will be left to subsequent agreements. The newspaper does not say whether the United States intends to build and maintain its own bases in the country or to station troops at existing Venezuelan bases. An unnamed State Department official said Washington hopes to expand security cooperation with Venezuela and that no discussions regarding bases are currently taking place.
A Criteria poll found 25% approval and 65% disapproval for José Antonio Kast's government, his worst figures since taking office. The previous measurement, on October 25, showed 27% approval and 64% disapproval, until then his lowest levels, and the gap between approval and disapproval reached 40 points.
About 32,300 companies, equivalent to 6% of all firms in the country, closed in Argentina between December 2023 and July 2026, according to a survey by the Fundar research center. Industrial output fell 3.2% in August from the same month in 2025, according to the national statistics institute (Indec). Economists say the country probably entered a technical recession in the third quarter of 2026, after two consecutive quarters of contracting activity.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Venezuelan Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco in Washington on Monday to discuss the country’s political future, nearly a year after US forces seized former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. The State Department reaffirmed Donald Trump’s three-phase plan for Venezuela — stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and democratic transition.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio received Venezuela's foreign minister, Oliver Blanco, in Washington on Monday in the first meeting between the two countries' top diplomats since the US military attack on the South American country on January 3. The meeting took place two weeks after Venezuelan authorities and the opposition agreed on a blueprint to reform the country's electoral process that would allow free and fair elections at some point in 2027, and the Trump administration has stepped up pressure on the interim government and opposition groups to move quickly on election preparations.
An attack on a military base in southern Colombia killed four civilians, including a two-month-old baby, President Abelardo de la Espriella said on Monday. The preliminary toll from the attack in Planadas counted four dead, including the child.
Detained in the United States since January 3, 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro sent a message to the Venezuelan people on Sunday, November 1, asking for prayers. “Pray for us and know that Cilia and I are with you every step of the way,” the text says, closing with embraces and blessings for families in Venezuela and elsewhere.
According to G1, Argentina’s migration system recorded three entries by Flávio Bolsonaro in the same van — at 10:37 p.m. with an Italian passport, at 10:40 p.m. with a driver’s license and at 11:11 p.m. with a Brazilian passport. The senator had left Brazil after the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered him to surrender his passports to the Federal Police (PF); in the other van were the driver, lawyer Roberto Jorge Alexandre and Israeli national Menachem Booky Halevy, described as a former Israeli intelligence officer.
The Venezuelan armed forces bombed a National Liberation Army (ELN) encampment in the border state of Apure, leaving at least 19 dead, according to TRT World, citing the NGO FundaRedes and sources close to the operation. FundaRedes coordinator Juan Francisco Garcia told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that nine bodies arrived in San Fernando and another ten were transferred later.
According to Opera Mundi, the Haitian civil society group Association of the United Nations-Haiti (UNA-Haiti) reported to the United Nations bombardments and attacks with heavy weapons on civilian neighborhoods by Salvadoran troops sent to Haiti by President Nayib Bukele, and asked for an investigation into possible civilian deaths, including children, in operations in Croix-des-Bouquets, Canaan and Plaine du Cul-de-Sac. Bukele denied the accusations: in a post on X on Saturday, October 31, 2026, he said his country's troops have no bombs and that the attack helicopters reached Haiti only on Thursday, October 29, after the period cited in the complaint.
A digital popularity index by Quaest Consultoria showed Lula rising from 70.7 to 83.3 points in four days, while Flávio Bolsonaro varied less and reached 80.4 points, according to Brasil 247. The digital turnaround came after federal deputy André Janones took over the coordination of the online mobilization, according to the report.
Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz declared a national state of emergency on Saturday due to the worsening climate conditions in the country, according to Brasil 247. The measure will allow the government to expand the availability of financial resources and mobilize rescue teams to assist populations in the most affected areas.
President Donald Trump said Brazilian politician Flávio Bolsonaro can remain in the United States for as long as he wishes, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Times of India. “He can stay here as long as he wants,” Trump said, according to the agency. “In my opinion, the election was a disgrace.” Bolsonaro entered the US under humanitarian parole, Reuters previously reported, a status generally granted for a limited period, typically one year.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump’s administration did not help Brazil’s defeated presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro flee to the United States after he lost a run-off to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “We didn’t facilitate anything,” Rubio told reporters on Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia, where diplomats from the Group of 20 largest world economies were gathered. Trump said Bolsonaro “got treated very shabbily, very shabbily” and “can stay here as long as he wants”, speaking to reporters at his Florida residence on Saturday.
Venezuela’s army attacked a camp of the National Liberation Army (ELN) inside Venezuelan territory on Friday, the first time the country has struck ELN forces camped on its own soil, according to TRT World. A staff member of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Fundaredes counted at least nine bodies at the destroyed camp, Tarazona said, according to the report, which released video of the site. TRT World noted that Venezuela was ruled by socialists for decades until Nicolás Maduro was ousted by US forces in January.
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz signed a decree on Saturday declaring a national state of emergency to address the effects of El Niño, calling for further deployments of rescue teams in areas of the country hard hit by flooding and drought, according to Al Jazeera. The drought affects 78,000 families in six of Bolivia’s nine departments and has led to the loss of more than 75,000 cattle, according to a government report released this week.
A military bombardment against the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla killed several people on Venezuela's border with Colombia, in Apure, the NGO Fundaredes and a human rights activist told Agence France-Presse, according to G1. Fundaredes director Javier Tarazona said a coordinator for the NGO saw the first nine dead in the operation; for him, it is “the first bombardment by Venezuela against the ELN”.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday at Mar-a-Lago that Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro can stay in the United States “as long as he wants.” Trump told reporters he has no plans to meet Bolsonaro, who fled to the US after his election loss, according to the Times of Israel.
An investigation by a Brazilian security agency, revealed by CNN Brasil on Friday, found that a former Mossad agent who became a naturalized US citizen helped Flavio Bolsonaro leave the country in violation of a judicial order, according to the Jerusalem Post, which cites the report. According to the newspaper, the former agent arrived in Brazil on October 19 and accompanied the senator from Brasilia to the border, crossing the Tancredo Neves Bridge between Foz do Iguaçu and Puerto Iguazú in a van; the family then boarded a Gulfstream G400 jet operated by the Argentine airline Baires Fly, which refueled in Guayaquil and landed on Wednesday morning at Opa-locka Executive Airport near Miami. The State Department had said Flavio and his family would be granted US visas before his arrival in Miami. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered the senator’s passports seized and barred him from leaving the country, and the Federal Police said it found no official record of his departure at border checkpoints. Brazil’s Foreign Ministry summoned Argentina’s representative to demand clarifications about possible involvement by Javier Milei’s government, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Ambassador Celso Amorim, international adviser to the president of Brazil, told UOL that Brazil and Argentina are experiencing the worst moment in the history of their relations and that Javier Milei’s government “broke the minimum protocol for diplomatic relations”. In the interview with UOL, Amorim said there would be no “shouting match” with Milei and that the downgrading of Brazil’s diplomatic representation in Buenos Aires, and vice versa, should not be reversed in the short term. “Look, it is all unprecedented and terrible. It is the worst moment in the Argentina-Brazil relationship, but not because of us. We did not commit any aggression against Argentina,” he said.
Chile’s vice-minister of justice resigned after the disclosure of sentence reductions granted to people convicted of abuse against minors, according to Opera Mundi. Between March 11 and September 13 this year, the justice ministry authorized 56 sentence reductions for people convicted of sexual crimes against minors: 29 for rape and 27 for sexual abuse, according to BioBioChile.
Brazil's foreign ministry asked Argentina for explanations on Thursday afternoon after the defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro passed through the country on his way to Miami, according to a diplomatic source who requested anonymity as they were not allowed to discuss the matter publicly. João Marcelo, the ministry's director of the South America department, received Argentina's chargé d'affaires, María Emilia Cortés, in a brief meeting.
Argentina's foreign minister denied that Brazil had formally requested explanations over the escape of Flávio Bolsonaro, according to Carta Capital. Brazil's foreign ministry, for its part, summoned the chargé d'affaires of the Argentine embassy in Brasília, Maria Emília Cortés, to explain her government's role in the escape, two Brazilian government sources confirmed to Reuters, in a report republished by UOL.
The government of Nayib Bukele announced it is sending more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti, in a statement issued after a phone call with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, CNN en Español reported. The reinforcement follows the disappearance of four Salvadoran soldiers serving in the UN gang-repression force, according to DW. Bukele said the four may be held hostage by criminal groups and announced a military operation to locate them, according to RT Brasil.
Democratic lawmakers in the US pressed Trump to recognize the result of Brazil’s election and criticized his remarks about the vote, in a statement from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) signed by Greg Casar, Ilhan Omar and Jesús García, according to G1. “The partnership between Trump and Bolsonaro to contest the election result must end immediately,” the text says, demanding that the US join the rest of the world in recognizing the result.
Brazil’s foreign ministry summoned on Thursday (October 29) Argentina’s chargé d’affaires in Brasília, minister-counselor Emilia Cortés, to demand explanations about the possible involvement of Javier Milei’s government in Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s flight to the United States (US), with a stopover on Argentine territory. The diplomat was received on the afternoon of the same Thursday by the head of the ministry’s Mercosur Department, João Marcelo Galvão de Queiroz, in Brasília, according to G1. The route began on the night of Tuesday (27), when Flávio and his family entered Argentina after crossing the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, which links Foz do Iguaçu, in Paraná state, to Puerto Iguazú, in Argentina’s Misiones province.
Brazil’s foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday (30), according to G1. It will be the first high-level meeting between Brazil and the United States since Sunday’s elections and since Senator Flávio Bolsonaro fled to the US, and Washington has not yet recognized the result of the Brazilian election, the outlet reported.
The Baires Fly airline says the flight that took Flávio Bolsonaro to the United States was paid for with $150,000 transferred from a company’s account at a US bank to an Argentine bank, according to The Hindu, in an AFP text. The intermediary holds US and Argentine passports, and the company’s head, Luis Grande, declined to reveal his identity. Grande, speaking by phone from Florida, said he was hired by a broker he has known for 10 years who lives in the US: “I was hired by a broker that I’ve known for 10 years, who lives in the United States.” The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that the plane was chartered by Jason Miller, an adviser to Donald Trump, the report added.
A group of Democratic lawmakers in the United States (US) Congress questioned, in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the role the Trump administration played in the flight of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) from Brazil, including the issuance of a visa for him and his family, according to G1. At least 25 Democratic Party lawmakers signed the letter, according to CartaCapital.
Cuba's ambassador to Brazil, Victor Manuel Cairo Palomo, said the Cuban government considers the risk of a US invasion of the island to be real, according to Opera Mundi. The diplomat said the Cuban people are preparing today for a real US invasion and that the Cuban government and the Cuban people cannot ignore US intentions to invade Cuba.
Bukele called US President Trump on Tuesday to make sure Trump had no problem with a major military escalation in Haiti, to which the Haitian government has agreed, and was told, “Do what you have to do,” according to sources briefed on the call. El Salvador announced Wednesday it was deploying as many as 2,000 troops to Haiti, a number that could double or triple, according to the same sources.
María Corina Machado thanked Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for opening a “floodgate to freedom” with the January 3 action, at a news conference in Caracas, according to Al Jazeera. She said Rubio set out a sequence of events pointing to presidential elections in 2027, according to the BBC. Shortly before her remarks on Thursday, Delcy Rodríguez said elections would be held “with the world as witness,” without setting a date, according to Al Jazeera.
Former El Salvador president Elias Antonio Saca has been released after serving a 10-year sentence for corruption, according to Al Jazeera. Saca, 61, governed from 2004 to 2009 and was sentenced in 2018 for embezzlement and money laundering over the diversion of state funds, according to AP.
Peru’s president, Keiko Fujimori, arrived on Wednesday night in El Salvador for a four-day official visit, with a meeting with President Nayib Bukele and a tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot). Fujimori, who took office on July 28 and had said during the campaign that she wanted to build a Salvadoran-style prison, is visiting the Cecot just over a week after the Costa Rican president’s tour of the megaprison.
Defeated presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro left Brazil for the US, where he declared himself to be the true president of his country, according to AFP. Rogerio Marinho, who coordinated Flavio Bolsonaro’s campaign, said there was no evidence of electoral fraud, as claimed by the defeated candidate, also according to AFP.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Thursday that the United States suggested holding presidential elections in Venezuela in 2027, according to G1.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said she had ordered an assessment of non-essential state assets that could be offered to the private sector or returned to their former owners, in a recorded address on Thursday, according to CNN en Español. She said the initiative is already “advanced” and that “private property is a protected right guaranteed by our Constitution.” In the same address, she reiterated that “there will be elections, everything our Constitution requires” and said the election “should not be a problem or make us go back to times of confrontation that nobody wants anymore”.
The UN General Assembly called for the 34th consecutive year for an end to the US economic, commercial and financial embargo on Cuba in a vote on Wednesday, with the weakest backing for the resolution in two decades. The text passed by 130 votes in favor to 17 against, with 25 abstentions; last year it was adopted by 165 votes to seven, with 12 abstentions. India voted in favor of the resolution, according to The Hindu.
Ecuador's main unions, alongside social and Indigenous organizations, called for a demonstration this Thursday against the policies of President Daniel Noboa, according to Página/12.
A bombing by the Colombian Armed Forces against a Clan del Golfo structure in the department of Chocó left at least six dead and one captured, according to a preliminary toll confirmed by President Abelardo de la Espriella, who said the toll so far is six killed and one captured, “but there are more”.
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted by 130 votes to 17, with 25 abstentions, on Wednesday, a resolution calling for an end to the US economic, commercial and financial embargo on Cuba, according to the Hindustan Times. India voted in favor and said it hopes the embargo will be lifted at the earliest so that Cubans can participate more fully in international cooperation, according to the same outlet.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, asked the Foreign Ministry and the Attorney General’s office to take steps to recover the Venezuelan gold held at the Bank of England and said “ya basta de excusas,” citing an agreement to recover the assets, with reserves worth about $2 billion still frozen, according to EFE.
The third version of the note released by Flávio Bolsonaro on Wednesday (28) corrected the term and started using “leader of Brazil” instead of “elected president”, at 17:41. Earlier, the former presidential candidate had shared with allies a letter in which he proclaimed himself the “true elected president of Brazil”.
Costa Rica’s government withdrew its bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and dismissed its foreign trade minister, Indiana Trejos, President Laura Fernandez said on Wednesday, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Straits Times. The decision to scrap the application came after protests from producer groups, especially in the agriculture sector, according to Reuters.
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro published on Wednesday (28) a letter declaring himself the “true elected president of Brazil”, sent from the United States, where he went after leaving the country, according to Opera Mundi. Asked whether he agreed with the statement, US President Donald Trump answered that he would not get involved: “I’m not going to comment on that. We gave him authorization to enter the country. But I’m not going to get involved,” he said, according to G1. G1 reports that the document was released earlier as images, thanking international leaders including Trump, and that the senator later published a new version.
The United Nations General Assembly approved on Wednesday a resolution calling for an end to the US economic embargo against Cuba, with 130 votes in favor, 17 against and 25 abstentions, according to Opera Mundi. In 2025, the text got 165 votes in favor, seven against and 12 abstentions; the largest backing had been in 2017, when 191 countries supported it. Cuba’s ambassador to Brazil, Victor Cairo, said the rise in opposing votes and abstentions should not be read as a loss of support for the country, according to Brasil de Fato.
The Brasil 247 blog says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio named the logistical movement Operation Alba, which took Flávio Bolsonaro out of Brazil, via Argentina, to Miami, where he arrived with his wife and two daughters. According to the Argentine newspaper La Nación, cited by the blog, Milei's strategist Santiago Caputo was in the province of Misiones when the private aircraft departed.
Deputy Myriam Bregman of the Left Front told Opera Mundi that the opposition is filing a public information request in Congress on Wednesday over Flávio Bolsonaro's passage through Argentina. “It is clear that Milei collaborated,” she said. Argentina's National Directorate of Migration said in the early hours of Wednesday that Flávio, his wife and their two daughters crossed the Tancredo Neves International Bridge between Foz do Iguaçu and Puerto Iguazú at 22:50 on Tuesday.
The UN General Assembly votes on Wednesday (28) on the resolution calling for an end to the US economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba, the 34th time the text has been taken up since 1992, according to Brasil de Fato. Last year the resolution passed with 165 votes in favor, 7 against and 12 abstentions. Cuba's president wrote on social media that majority international support for Cuba “became evident in the condemnation of the blockade”, according to Opera Mundi.
The plane carrying Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami after leaving Guayaquil, Ecuador, according to Brasil 247. The Guardian, tracking the trip, reported that the jet had left Guayaquil for Florida, with arrival expected mid-morning on Wednesday. Before the landing, Donald Trump said the family were “fine people” and that “the election was very strange,” adding that he thought it was “terrible,” as he returned from a campaign event in Texas.
El Salvador sent about 1,000 troops to Haiti after four Salvadorean members of a UN-backed security mission went missing in a gang ambush on the outskirts of the capital on October 18, according to the South China Morning Post.
Police in Brazil canceled the passports of Flávio Bolsonaro after he failed to comply with an order to hand over the documents, as part of an investigation into money laundering that he denies, according to the BBC. On Monday, the Supreme Court had ordered him to hand the passports to police within 24 hours. A senior State Department official said the Trump administration will issue visas to the senator and his family and allow them to enter the country, after news outlets reported that he fled Brazil after losing the presidential election, according to Al Jazeera.
King Charles III began a nine-day Caribbean tour in the Bahamas, including Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and a Commonwealth summit, according to France 24, met by protesters with placards demanding reparations, and confirmed he will discuss the legacy of slavery with Commonwealth leaders, according to The Guardian.
Donald Trump showed off at a rally in Corpus Christi a tanker he claimed carried one million barrels of Venezuelan oil, calling the deal the greatest oil victory in history, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, and suggested Venezuela could one day become the 51st US state, the paper also reports. According to Reuters, Trump said he will visit the ship in Texas with the first oil under the deal made after deposing the country's former leader.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Argentina reached an agreement on Tuesday (27) that could release about US$900 million to the country, according to G1. The disbursement still depends on approval by the institution's executive board. The money is part of the US$20 billion financing program signed between Argentina and the IMF in 2025 and is tied to the program's third review, in which the fund checks compliance with the targets agreed with the country. The IMF said net international reserves exceeded the end-June target by about US$4 billion and that the Central Bank had bought almost US$16 billion so far this year.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reelected, called the departure of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated candidate, “shameful” and said the Bolsonaro supporter will “lick the boots of the United States”, according to Brasil de Fato. Flávio, his wife and their two daughters left Brazil and headed to the United States after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes demanded the surrender of their passports and barred him from leaving the country, the outlet reported on Tuesday (27).
The State Department will grant visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them into the country, a senior State Department official told the Associated Press (AP), after the senator’s weekend loss to incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Earlier, Reuters and The New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources, that he had left Brazil for the United States — a case under investigation by the Federal Police (PF) —, and the Trump administration has not said whether the senator is already on American soil.
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) reportedly left Brazil on the night of October 26 for Argentina on a private flight, to continue on to the United States, according to the Argentine website Infobae, which reported the case early this morning. The general coordinator of Flávio's presidential campaign, Senator Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), denied the information. On October 26, the Federal Police summoned Flávio to hand over his ordinary and diplomatic passports within 24 hours, following a determination by Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the Trump administration told Venezuela's interim authorities “weeks and weeks ago” that opposition leader María Corina Machado should be allowed to return as the country moves ahead with preparing for elections next year, according to AP, in a text published by the Orlando Sentinel. Rubio told reporters on a call that the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez replied to the US that Machado was free to enter the country. Machado returned to Venezuela over the weekend.
Heavy rains triggered massive flooding in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. The Pilco, Tenguel and Balao rivers overflowed on October 25 and 26, flooding homes and streets in Tenguel parish, Guayaquil and Balao canton in Guayas province and causing road closures, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The National Risk Management Secretariat (SNGR) reported 24 adverse events across six provinces in a 24-hour period and 11 overflowing water bodies in Guayas and El Oro, PAHO reported.
Defeated candidate Flavio Bolsonaro abandoned plans to seek the annulment of Sunday’s presidential runoff, but will pursue separate legal action, according to Xinhua — Lula won with 51.79 percent of valid votes against 48.21 percent for Bolsonaro, according to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE); Liberal Party (PL) president Valdemar Costa Neto published an official note on Monday (26) recognizing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory, according to Brasil de Fato.
Javier Milei is the only South American president who did not recognize Lula’s victory over Flávio Bolsonaro, according to G1. Presidents of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela spoke about the result of last Sunday’s election. Right-wing governments in South America recognized Lula’s reelection despite political differences, according to UOL.
Donald Trump said on Monday that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's win over Flávio Bolsonaro “looked like another rigged election”, according to the Korea Herald. The Liberal Party (PL) later the same day said it acknowledged the runoff result in a statement signed by Valdemar Costa Neto, and fewer than 35,000 votes, about 0.03% of the total, were cast in the extra two hours of voting ordered by the Supreme Court, according to an analysis by Insper professor Pedro Burgos.
Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said María Corina Machado “could have spared herself this show” and that “the airports are there”, referring to the opposition leader's return; Machado had been in exile and came back to the country on Sunday (25). Rodríguez also said other beneficiaries of the amnesty law had been able to enter through airport facilities, according to Le Monde. Machado's spokesperson, Claudia Macero, said the opposition leader is willing to sit at the table with Rodríguez and with anyone else she must talk to, publicly, transparently and with a precise program.
Brazil's Federal Police (PF) arrested on Monday in Santana do Livramento the Uruguayan Pedro Antonio Mato Narbondo, convicted by the Italian courts of kidnapping, torture and the deaths of four Italian citizens during Uruguay's military dictatorship, G1 reported. The life sentence handed down by the Milan Court of Appeal was converted to 30 years, since Brazil does not provide for that penalty. According to deputy prosecutor-general Artur Gueiros, it is the first time an agent of a dictatorial regime will serve prison time in Brazil for human rights violations.
The head of Mexico's National Electoral Institute (INE), Guadalupe Taddei, is set to present her resignation on Monday amid corruption allegations, a decision President Claudia Sheinbaum said she supports, according to Reuters, in text republished by Yahoo. Taddei is accused of favouring an INE contractor with whom she has a personal relationship, in contracts worth millions of dollars.
María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday, a surprise homecoming after nearly a year in exile that drew jubilant crowds in a direct challenge to the US-backed interim government, AFP reported. It was her first appearance in the country since December, a return that comes amid doubts about the country’s democratic future, the Associated Press reported, in a text republished by PBS NewsHour.
Brazilians vote on Sunday in the runoff between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is attempting an unprecedented comeback, and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who won the first round 47% to 45% on October 4, according to France 24. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) reported that 900 electronic voting machines were replaced between 8am and noon, 0.16% of the 499,248 in use, and the Federal Police (PF) recorded 22 people detained on suspicion of electoral crimes in at least 17 states, according to Brasil de Fato. São Paulo led the replacements with 163 machines, followed by Paraná (103), Rio de Janeiro (95) and Minas Gerais (75). In the first round on October 4, there were 1,904 replacements in the same period, and no polling station had to resort to manual voting.
Opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado returned home to a fraught political landscape after more than 10 months in exile, according to the BBC. It was her first public appearance in Venezuela since December, about a month before the US military deposed then-president Nicolás Maduro, according to NPR.
A 31-year-old gold trader spent almost 36 hours in a bunker in Trujillo, northern Peru, built in the basement of a house in a residential neighborhood, with no natural light or ventilation and oxygen tanks keeping the captive alive, according to El País. Jenss Lara's statement to the Attorney General's Office, obtained by the newspaper, describes men posing as police officers who handcuffed him and took him to a cell with a steel door and a digital lock. Gangs such as Los Pulpos, which emerged in the city, have turned extorting “protection money” from merchants into a criminal enterprise, and the kidnappings target million-dollar ransoms. Trujillo has been under a state of emergency since 2024, and the fight against crime was a central theme of the campaign that helped Keiko Fujimori win the presidency in June.
Brazilians head to the polls this Sunday, October 25, facing a stark choice between another four years under veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or a return to the right under Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, according to The Hindu. Final polls showed the two candidates neck-and-neck. Flavio has pitched himself as more moderate than his firebrand father, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for an attempted coup bid after his 2022 election loss.
A Colectta Institute poll published this Saturday, 24, on the eve of the runoff, shows Lula with 50.3% of valid votes against 49.7% for Flávio Bolsonaro, a statistical tie, according to Carta Capital. The survey is based on 3,000 in-person interviews conducted on Friday, 23, in 101 municipalities across the 27 federal units, with a margin of error of two percentage points and a 95% confidence level. Among total votes, Lula has 46.5% against 46% for Flávio; 4.4% said blank or null and 3.1% did not know or did not answer.
US President Donald Trump said the country would “take care of Cuba” on its way back from Iran, with a small stopover: one US ship could stop “about 50 yards off the coast” before Secretary of State Marco Rubio is sent in to “finish up the deal”, Sputnik reported. At a rally, Trump said the ships returning from the Middle East would pass Cuba and that he would send Rubio “to finish up the job”, the Times of India reported.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged those who want positive change in Cuba to seek a discreet partnership with the CIA, according to Le Monde. “For those who want to bring positive change to Cuba: it is now or never,” he wrote. “Faced with the disappointment caused by unfulfilled promises, corruption and the privileged lifestyle of a handful of people, seize this opportunity to create the change you want through a discreet partnership with the CIA.” The Trump administration has imposed a de facto oil blockade on the island, issued new sanctions against Cuban companies and officials, and indicted former president Raul Castro.
US President Donald Trump said the country will take care of Cuba after dealing with Iran and that he would send Secretary of State Marco Rubio to finalize the agreement. At a rally in Florida, according to G1, Trump said: “We will take care of Cuba after Iran... then we will send Marco Rubio to finalize the agreement.”
Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets this Thursday in the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years, calling for elections and political change, with a notably thin presence of security forces. The march was organised by María Corina Machado's Vente Venezuela movement in Caracas and other cities, including Valencia, Maracay, San Cristóbal and Maracaibo. The interim government of Delcy Rodríguez and US President Donald Trump say there will be elections, but no date has been set.
Donald Trump’s administration revoked the visas of 61 people linked to Bolivia and Colombia, including officials and former members of both countries’ governments, according to G1. In Bolivia, the restrictions targeted 15 politicians and their close relatives, including lawmakers, judges, prosecutors and former members of security and investigation agencies.
Hours after the preventive detention of opposition leader and former presidential candidate Luisa González, her party, Citizen Revolution, called a nationwide mobilisation in Ecuador for her release on Thursday, October 22.
Argentina declared five criminal groups and guerrilla organizations from Latin America as terrorist organizations, including Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, according to the Associated Press (AP). The resolution also covers the Nueva Familia Michoacana, also of Mexico, and Ecuador's Los Tiguerones. AP notes that the move follows the security policy of the United States, Argentina's main ally in the region.
Police in Ecuador arrested former presidential candidate Luisa González on Thursday (22), the main political rival of President Daniel Noboa, and the country’s Attorney General’s Office ordered her held in pretrial detention over an alleged money-laundering crime, according to G1 and Opera Mundi. González belongs to the Citizen Revolution party. According to Opera Mundi, the investigations would be based on testimony from Estefanía Molina Freire, who reportedly worked in the financial management of the 2023 presidential campaign and alleges the receipt of illicit funds from “sources in Venezuela”, between US$ 300,000 and US$ 500,000.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele initiated a military operation to rescue four Salvadoran soldiers abducted by gangs in Haiti, without elaborating, according to Al Jazeera. The four, aviation technicians with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), have been missing since they fled a burning vehicle in the Santo area of Croix-des-Bouquets.
The United States announced a partnership between an American company and a Paraguayan developer to build a high-performance computing facility powered by the Itaipu hydroelectric plant, on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, according to G1. According to the US State Department, the project should serve cloud computing customers in the United States and Latin America.
Haiti’s government said the release of the Salvadorans kidnapped by gangs is “an absolute priority” and that all necessary resources are being mobilized, in a statement that calls the hostages “abducted soldiers”, according to AP News. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said on Wednesday he had launched a military operation to rescue the four Salvadoran aviation technicians kidnapped in Haiti, according to the same report.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on Wednesday that he had launched a military operation to rescue four Salvadoran aviation technicians kidnapped by gangs in Haiti, according to the Associated Press (AP). The four disappeared after an ambush by armed gangs on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, according to security officials. AP reported that after fleeing a burning vehicle in the Santo area of Croix-des-Bouquets the four were left unaccounted for; Bukele demanded the hostages be returned alive and unharmed and said the Salvadoran mission involves only pilots and technicians for medical evacuations.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the United States of threatening countries with tariffs, visa restrictions and other retaliatory measures to change their votes on the annual resolution against the embargo on the island, Al Jazeera reported. Rodríguez said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, were personally leading a campaign he said had been going on for months, and that the US had asked countries to abstain or skip the vote. The nonbinding resolution is expected to be put to a vote on October 27 or 28, according to Al Jazeera.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s team filed its own petition accusing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of “abuse of power” in the mass dissemination of government postings on WhatsApp during the campaign, according to the Hindustan Times, which cites AFP. On the same day, Lula’s campaign said it would request the disqualification of its rival on Wednesday over alleged election interference by Meta. Flávio took 47 percent of the vote in the first round against the incumbent’s 45 percent, and polls show a technical tie ahead of Sunday’s runoff.
Florida's public ministry in the US obtained an arrest warrant against former president Raúl Castro for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder over the 1996 downing of two planes belonging to an exile organization, according to Rádiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) — Cuba condemned the move as a “reprehensible maneuver” by the US, according to Opera Mundi.
Cuban law enforcement officials accused the US of allowing terrorists to operate with impunity on American soil, citing details of the investigation into the February incursion, according to The Jerusalem Post. On February 25, 10 Cuban exiles attempted to infiltrate the island by boat from the Florida Keys, armed with nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 11 rifles, 15 handguns, Molotov cocktails, a VHF radio and Starlink satellite communication equipment.
The collapse of an illegal gold mine in southwestern Colombia killed 14 people and wounded seven others, according to local authorities cited by Al Jazeera on Monday. Nariño’s Peace and Security Secretary Alex Gonzalez confirmed the toll to the Caracol network and said efforts to find further survivors had concluded, according to TRT World, which cited the governor’s office on the rugged terrain and the presence of illegal armed groups hampering access and recalled the August collapse in Policarpa, also in Nariño, with 13 dead.
The United States has sent hundreds of soldiers to Panama for training, an activity it will repeat later in Honduras and Colombia, according to The New York Times, cited by El País. The military detachment is preparing to take part in special operations against drug trafficking cartels, according to sources at the newspaper cited by El País.
An alliance of Venezuelan opposition parties on Sunday confirmed exiled Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado as its leader, The Hindu reported, increasing pressure on interim authorities to allow her return. The announcement comes as one opposition faction engages in political transition talks with the interim government, after the US ouster of longtime leader Nicolás Maduro.
Red-clad supporters of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rallied in Brasília while supporters of Flávio Bolsonaro — wearing yellow and green — filled streets in São Paulo on Sunday, according to Reuters, ahead of next week’s runoff election.
The first runoff debate between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, running for re-election, and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) began on Sunday night (18) on TV Bandeirantes in São Paulo. AFP noted the two would go head-to-head on Sunday, a week before the runoff. In the first round, according to Brasil de Fato, Flávio Bolsonaro took 47.03% of valid votes against 45.16% for Lula; the runoff is set for October 25.
The Pentagon will send hundreds of troops to Latin America, according to The New York Times, in a report published Wednesday (14) and cited by G1. The first members of a battalion of about 600 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division have begun moving to a jungle training center in Panama. The expansion also includes transferring MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador and creating a new command structure for Western Hemisphere operations based in Miami.
For the first time in 20 years, Cuba was not mentioned in a Venezuelan representative’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, according to G1. Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, told Bloomberg that Venezuela is “a friendly country” and that “ally is a very strong word”, according to G1.
Meta denied favoring presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro after a court ordered the company to treat him and incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva equally ahead of their October 25 runoff, according to TRT World. The dispute follows allegations that Instagram restrictions hampered Lula’s campaign, and the president’s camp accuses Meta of electoral “ingérence” in favor of his far-right opponent Flavio Bolsonaro, according to Le Monde.
At least 600 US troops will take part in training and exercises with local forces in Panama, Colombia and Honduras, the New York Times reported, as cited by G1. US drones were redirected from Africa to Ecuador and Colombia and are to be used in operations against drug trafficking, according to G1.
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest fell to its lowest level since records began in 1988, according to official figures reported by Al Jazeera days before a presidential run-off. In the Cerrado, deforestation fell by about 24 percent, to 5,517 sq km, the lowest since 2001, according to the same report. Satellite data show that in the year up to July 2026, the rate fell by 41.8% in the Amazon, the biggest drop since records began, according to the BBC.
The US government announced on Thursday (15) new unilateral coercive measures against Cuba that target the Banco Internacional de Comércio de Cuba (Bicsa), a state-owned bank, applied by the Treasury Department, according to Brasil de Fato.
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty on Thursday (October 15), during a hearing in a Manhattan court in New York, according to Opera Mundi. The two were captured in Caracas during a US operation in January 2026 and taken to New York.
María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader, criticized in an interview businessman Alejandro Betancourt, Washington’s new oil partner in Venezuela, and held him responsible for “obscene corruption,” according to The New York Times. Betancourt struck a deal with the Trump administration to control roughly a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Costa Rica inaugurated a mega-prison for 5,100 inmates on Wednesday that emulates the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), a symbol of Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele’s security strategy, according to the South China Morning Post. President Laura Fernandez promises the nation will become a “global benchmark” for prison security as the facility opens to confront the cartels.
Thousands of Colombians protested peacefully across the country on Wednesday against right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella, in the opposition’s first major demonstrations since he took office in August, in a Bogota rally led by former President Gustavo Petro with trade unionists, Indigenous groups, students and feminist activists, according to France24.
The third round of talks between Venezuela’s government and opposition has begun, according to TASS; the United States (US) State Department said the delegations held two rounds of talks in Caracas in August and September, with another scheduled to begin on October 14 and focused on finalizing the Supreme Court selection process.
The administration of US President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Jorge Rodríguez, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly and the brother of the nation’s president, according to a notice posted on the US Treasury Department’s website on Wednesday and reported by Reuters. Caracas and Washington have cut a deal that gives the US access to 17 oilfields, and international energy firms have separately committed to expanding projects, Reuters reported.
Colombia opened its embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, becoming the 10th country to do so, as new President Abelardo de la Espriella reversed his predecessor’s break with Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post. On Tuesday, the free trade agreement that was terminated by Petro was reinstated. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his Colombian counterpart, Omar Bula Escobar, attended the inauguration, according to Middle East Eye. Former president Gustavo Petro had broken diplomatic relations with Israel in May 2024 over its actions in Gaza and had heavily criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sixteen Ecuadorian fishermen were bombed on March 17, about 170 nautical miles from the Galápagos Islands, in an operation for which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been pointed to, according to BBC News Mundo. Their boat, the Negra Francisca Duarte II, was heading back to the port of Manta when two drones approached, and the explosions wounded crew members and set the vessel on fire; Le Monde describes the fishermen as collateral victims of American bombs, and one of them mourns the loss of his family’s boat: “This boat was my father’s inheritance, our livelihood. What am I going to do now?”
More than 100 British soldiers and local reservists trained for six days in the Falkland Islands in early October, in an exercise that included an approximately 32-kilometer night march and an amphibious assault operation, with troops landing from the sea, according to the British newspaper The Times, in a text published by G1. Argentine President Javier Milei again said the territory is under “illegal foreign occupation” and threatened to take measures to advance the dispute.
Britain has appealed to Interpol to reject Argentina’s requests for the arrest of individuals involved in the Sea Lion oil project off the Falkland Islands, according to The Guardian. Javier Milei’s government has initiated criminal proceedings against the Israeli company Navitas and its British partner Rockhopper Exploration, the core companies in the project.
Argentina’s government said it had filed a request for provisional measures with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) seeking to halt British-authorized hydrocarbon activity near the Falkland Islands, according to The Jerusalem Post. The government said in a statement that the request aims to prevent the United Kingdom from exploiting hydrocarbon resources on the continental shelf of the Northern Falklands Basin.
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s government has handed Álvaro Pulido over to the United States, according to El País. Pulido, Álex Saab’s Colombian-born associate, had been held in Caracas since 2023. He is due to appear Tuesday before a federal court in Miami, where he faces two criminal cases dating from 2019 and 2021. In one of them, prosecutors accuse him and Saab of laundering about $350 million through fictitious imports linked to a social housing contract.
Brazilian journalist Rogério Tomaz Jr., known for his criticism of the government of Argentine President Javier Milei, was barred from entering Argentina on Monday upon landing at Aeroparque airport in Buenos Aires, according to Agência Brasil. Migration authorities cancelled his permanent residence and imposed a five-year re-entry ban.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy said the oil blockade by the United States forced the country to seek its own alternative solutions, using its sun, wind, tides, fuel and Cuban crude oil, and that 144 solar farms with a combined capacity of about 1,418 megawatts have been installed on the island in recent years, with China as the largest supplier of panels, according to Al Jazeera.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led a massive rally on Sunday on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, calling for more days off for workers ahead of a runoff against Flavio Bolsonaro, according to AFP, in a text republished by The Hindu. Polls show Flavio, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, is favoured to win the October 25 runoff.
China imposed sanctions from Monday on Paraguay's communications minister and Belize's foreign minister over the two countries' ties with Taiwan, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Internazionale. The measures include barring entry visas to Hong Kong and Macau and prohibiting Chinese organizations and individuals from engaging in transactions, cooperation or other activities, the ministry said in two notices.
Lula's special advisor for international affairs, Celso Amorim, said that the “Shield of the Americas” launched by President Donald Trump seeks to impose a “siege” and “absolute domination” on Brazil under the “false” argument of fighting organized crime, according to G1. The coalition brings together presidents of Latin American countries most aligned with Trump, such as Javier Milei, of Argentina, Abelardo de la Espriella, of Colombia, and Nayib Bukele, of El Salvador, according to G1. Aides close to Lula say the measure was “very serious” and represents a “gateway” to military actions in the region, as happened in Venezuela and Colombia, according to G1.
Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro stepped up their campaigns on Wednesday, with Lula urging supporters to take to the streets, according to Anadolu. In the first round, Flávio finished ahead of Lula, with 47.03 percent to 45.16 percent, according to Foreign Policy.
Brazil’s public prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit against the Brazilian subsidiary of oil company Shell, blaming it for the torrential rains that hit southern Brazil in 2024, according to Le Monde. The accusation attributes to Shell 2% of historical global greenhouse gas emissions linked to the exploration, production and marketing of fossil fuels, according to Le Monde. The prosecutor’s office is seeking 270 million reais for environmental and climate moral damages, plus the same amount for material damages, according to Le Monde.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the country is investigating a viral video said to show mercenaries chanting drug cartel slogans in Ukraine, according to Al Jazeera.
A second earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck Panama on Friday (9), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The quake had a depth of 10 kilometers and occurred on land in the Río Grande region, in the west of the country. According to a bulletin from Panama's National Civil Protection System, there are no confirmed deaths, but injured people have been taken to hospitals. The most affected provinces are Coclé, Veraguas and Los Santos, according to the agency.
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which downgraded an earlier estimate of magnitude 8.0. About 4.6 million people felt moderate to severe shaking, with the epicenter about 10 km from Pitaloza Arriba and shallow aftershocks, according to the BBC. The United States National Weather Service (NWS) issued tsunami warnings for Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, and Chile also issued a naval warning, according to Al Jazeera.
A riot at a prison in Sinaloa, Mexico, left 10 dead and 16 injured during family visiting hours, with the Public Security Secretariat counting nine inmates and one family member killed and 16 inmates taken for treatment, according to the Hindustan Times. Al Jazeera notes the prison clash in Sinaloa with 10 dead.
The party of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado demanded on Thursday, October 8, the immediate lifting of her ineligibility, according to Le Monde. A former magistrate, Barbara Cesar Siero, said two of her brothers and her sister-in-law, all military personnel, were arrested in December 2023 to force her to sign the document that declared Machado ineligible.
Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered on Thursday (08/10) the issuance of an arrest warrant against former federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is in the United States (US), according to Opera Mundi. The measure was ordered after the justice enforced Eduardo’s sentence of four years and two months in prison for coercion in the course of the proceedings. The sentence is to be served in a semi-open regime, according to Revista Oeste.
Federal prosecutors in the US are expected to bring new charges against Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for allegedly torturing Americans, according to CBS News. The charges involve the torture of more than a dozen Americans wrongfully detained under Maduro's government, and additional people may be charged, according to the BBC, in a text citing CBS. Lawyers for Flores, 69, argued that she has medical issues that cannot be treated effectively in jail and that she could instead live under 24-hour guard, according to the Associated Press, in a text published by WPXI.
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), a candidate for Brazil’s presidency, said he intends to join the Shield of the Americas in a future government. The initiative, articulated by Donald Trump’s government, brings together Latin American countries in a security cooperation front. In a letter sent on Tuesday, 12 US Democratic lawmakers accused Donald Trump’s government of trying to influence Brazil’s election. In the document, the lawmakers cite the revocation of the Brazilian ambassador’s visa and plans to send 2 authorities to question the Brazilian system.
Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores are expected to face new criminal charges in the US over the alleged torture of Americans held in the South American country, a US official said on Wednesday, according to Reuters, in a text published by The Jerusalem Post. The announcement could come as soon as Thursday. The possibility of new charges was first reported by CNN on Wednesday.
Flávio Bolsonaro won 47% of the vote in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election and heads to an October 25 runoff ahead of incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who got 44.2%, according to The Guardian. Lula’s administration reduced deforestation in the Amazon by almost 50%, but the success secured little electoral traction for pro-forest candidates in the same vote.
Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council extended until October 31 the deadline for candidate registration and postponed indefinitely the start of political campaigns, according to Opera Mundi. In practice, the calendar of the presidential and legislative elections is stalled: the first round had been expected on December 13.
Haiti indefinitely postponed the elections scheduled for December and February, according to the electoral council cited by France 24, citing technical and operational requirements as gang violence continues to disrupt preparations. The first round of the presidential and legislative elections was set for December 13, with the second round set for February 21, 2027. A council member confirmed to AFP that the December 13 date “no longer stands” and that a new timetable is being prepared, according to France 24, with information from AFP.
The United States sent MQ-9 Reaper drones to South America, The New York Times revealed on Tuesday, in a text by G1, for anti-narcotics operations in the region. According to officials heard by the newspaper, the drones were redirected from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador, with no details on how many were sent to each country.
Flávio Bolsonaro took about 47 percent of the vote in the first round to Lula’s 45 percent, a reversal that surprised analysts, according to Al Jazeera. With over 98 percent counted, he led with over 47 percent while Lula had 44 percent, according to NPR. Lula vowed a fight in the runoff but with few cards to play, according to AFP.
Venezuela’s Cardón refinery halted after a fire, according to sources cited by Reuters. Authorities managed to fully extinguish and control the fire, which started at 3:25 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6, according to Noticia al Día.
Ecuador received two MQ-9A Reaper drones in the last week of September, which arrived in Guayaquil aboard a C-5M Super Galaxy, according to Infodefensa. The two aircraft are already deployed at Taura Air Base, in Guayas province, for persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions against drug trafficking and organized crime. Colombia agreed with the United States to receive three MQ-9A Reaper drones on loan, according to Colombia One, for surveillance and intelligence against drug trafficking and armed groups.
Argentina's Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said that preventing the Falkland Islands from exploiting their offshore oil is part of a strategy to recover sovereignty peacefully, in a speech to an audience that included the British ambassador. Quirno accused the UK of refusing to negotiate and of advancing the Sea Lion project in the North Falkland Basin. On 28 September, Milei gave the UK a two-week deadline to stop the oil project or face arbitration and a binding decision under annex VII of the UN convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS).
Venezuela did not take any formal steps to demand the release of Maduro and Flores or to request their immunity so they would not be tried in the United States, according to El País. A hearing was scheduled for November 17 to address only the couple's immunity.
No one who finished second in the first round of a presidential election has gone on to win the runoff since Brazil restored democracy in 1985, El País notes. Lula, who on Sunday secured 45% of the vote compared to Flávio Bolsonaro's 47%, is devising a strategy to attract centrist voters and mobilize the masses of abstainers.
The US ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, said US Coast Guardsmen came under fire in a border area. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico asked the United States for all the evidence because it has none. Some 500 US troops, along with helicopters, drones and anti-drone equipment, have been sent to the border since the alleged shooting. The Washington Post reported that the two countries deployed hundreds of troops to a border area where US officials said members of the US Coast Guard came under fire.
US President Donald Trump said the runoff in Brazil’s elections should be very tight, speaking at the White House before a trip to Nebraska, according to G1. Trump praised the count on the same day, citing that 125 million people voted and that results came out shortly after polls closed, and used the case to attack vote counting in the United States.
Flávio Bolsonaro won 47.1% of valid votes against 45% for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first round, with 98% of ballots counted, according to El País in English. The pair will clash again in an October 25 runoff, according to France24 in English. Michelle Bolsonaro secured more votes than any other candidate in the Senate race in the Federal District, according to France24 in English.
The US Southern Command killed four people in a strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean on Sunday, according to the Times of India. The command said confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking and called the dead narco-terrorists. According to US media cited by TASS, more than 230 people have been killed in US strikes on boats allegedly used by drug traffickers since such attacks began last fall.
The vote count in Brazil's presidential election pushed the race to a runoff, with Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of Lula. With nearly 91% of the ballots processed, Flávio Bolsonaro had 48% of the vote and Lula just over 44%, according to the electoral court. According to TASS, Flávio Bolsonaro led with 49.58% of the vote in the first round and no longer had an absolute majority. Projections pointed to a runoff as Bolsonaro's lead narrowed, according to The Hindu.
Nicaragua announced it is withdrawing from the Central American Parliament, furthering its international isolation, according to Reuters. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had denounced the 1987 treaty that established the six-country parliament in the full exercise of its sovereignty. According to Al Jazeera, the six-country body was established to help promote human rights and democracy in Central America.
Polls closed in Brazil on Sunday, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seeking a fourth non-consecutive term and Flávio Bolsonaro running for the Bolsonarist camp, according to Deutsche Welle. With 10% of the ballots processed, Flávio Bolsonaro had 51% of the vote and Lula 40.8%, according to the electoral court, as reported by Deutsche Welle. A victory for Bolsonaro would extend a wave of wins across Latin America by right-wing candidates aligned with US President Donald Trump, while Lula’s re-election would create problems for Washington, according to the BBC.
Almost 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in this Sunday's presidential election, according to the Associated Press, in a text republished by KXL. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva voted after 9 a.m. in a school in Sao Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo. Candidate Flávio Bolsonaro voted in Rio de Janeiro, his home state.
Brazil holds on Sunday the first round of its presidential election, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, seeking a fourth term, facing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, as polls point to a likely runoff, according to DW. The first round of the general elections decides the president, governors, the Chamber of Deputies, one third of the Senate and regional assemblies, according to the Mehr News Agency. If no candidate for executive office wins an absolute majority, the runoff will be held on October 25, according to the same agency.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his rival Flávio Bolsonaro wrapped up their campaigns on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s election, marred by scandals and mudslinging. Opinion polls show neither is likely to win the first round and the two are in a statistical tie for an October 25 runoff, according to France 24, with AFP.
The United States Coast Guard announced on Friday the seizure of two ships bound for Cuba that were illegally carrying thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. The seizures came amid the fuel blockade imposed on Cuba by the Donald Trump administration, according to ABC News. The Coast Guard said it intercepted two vessels carrying illegal fuel as it enforces the blockade, according to The New York Times.
Former Republican congressman David Rivera has been sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison for money laundering and for working as an undeclared foreign agent, according to the BBC. NBC News reports the case involves a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on Venezuela’s behalf during the first Trump administration. There’s no dispute this money came from the Maduro regime, according to the BBC.
Australia’s ambassador to Brazil, Sophie Davies, said the Australian embassy would also close on Friday, citing the US alert, and advised Australians to avoid US diplomatic facilities. The US embassy said in a statement on Thursday that it would suspend consular services starting on Friday and advised American citizens seeking assistance not to visit its embassy, consulates or other diplomatic facilities. Police said the operation followed cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies and that investigators had found no evidence corroborating the initially reported threat, nor identified any suspects linked to criminal organizations.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he is the one standing in the way of the return of fascists to power: “If it weren’t for me standing up to these fascists they’d easily win another election. I’m the one standing in their way.” Polls on the eve of Sunday’s election put Lula at about 45% of the vote and Flávio Bolsonaro at 40%, according to Datafolha.
For the first time, Latin America considers China's influence in the region more positive than that of the United States, according to the Latinobarómetro 2026 survey released this Friday (2), in a report by G1. Positive assessment of Chinese influence rose from 48% in 2020 to 65% this year, while positive assessment of US influence fell from 60% to 57% over the same period.
The Argentine government launched a citizenship-by-investment program, presented by Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Cabinet chief Diego Santilli during the Argentina Week business event in Paris, with applications starting in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to DW. In a statement, the Economy Ministry said the announcement is part of Argentina's drive toward international openness and reforms aimed at attracting capital.
The United States suspended in-person services at its embassy and consulates in Brazil on Friday (2) for security reasons, according to G1. In a statement, the embassy advised US citizens who need emergency assistance not to come to its diplomatic facilities.
Brazil’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, called on law enforcement to investigate alleged efforts by the United States to fund far-right causes in Brazil, according to Al Jazeera. The request came one day after the British newspaper The Guardian published a story suggesting that Donald Trump’s administration planned to award $1m to right-wing civil groups opposing Brazil’s Supreme Court. Messias said foreign meddling “cannot be tolerated” and that the report was “an important alert for Brazilian sovereignty”.
Police in Bolivia arrested Attorney General Roger Mariaca and 13 other people accused of protecting drug traffickers days after the United States imposed visa restrictions on Mariaca over corruption allegations, according to The Washington Post. The US State Department said Mariaca received “bribes to facilitate drug trafficking and help violent criminals evade justice”, according to CBS News/AFP.
The Trump administration has stripped tens of millions of dollars in US military assistance from European and Middle Eastern countries and will give those funds instead to conservative-leaning governments in Latin America, three US officials told The Washington Post. The diverted funds include tens of millions of dollars Congress approved for countries impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Brazil and the United States agreed to form a working group to discuss US tariffs on Brazilian goods and other bilateral trade issues, Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services said. The agreement followed talks between Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and Development, Industry, Trade and Services Minister Marcio Elias Rosa with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Milwaukee, on the sidelines of a meeting of trade ministers from the Group of 20. Washington announced a 25% Section 301 tariff on certain Brazilian goods on July 15, followed by a measure on July 23 that imposed an additional 12.5% tariff on certain Brazilian imports.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign aired a spot accusing Donald Trump of seeking to colonise Brazil and capture its natural resources by backing Flávio Bolsonaro, according to The Guardian. The US Department of State denied interference in the Brazilian election. The first round is set for October 4, with Lula and Bolsonaro neck and neck in the polls.
The Organization of American States (OAS) announced a foreign delegation made up of representatives from at least three countries that will observe the vote on Sunday (4) in Brazil, when voters go to the polls for president, governor, senator and deputies. According to the OAS, the delegation includes, among others, José Miguel Insulza, former foreign minister of Chile, and Eladio Loizaga, former foreign minister of Paraguay, according to G1.
Argentina's president, Milei, has threatened to launch a legal challenge against the British government unless oil exploration off the coast of the Falkland Islands is halted, the BBC reported. Milei said he had instructed the Foreign Ministry and legal teams to initiate arbitration proceedings against the United Kingdom for what he called the illegal sacking of resources through the Sea Lion Project in the North Falklands Basin, France 24 reported. The project's companies, Israel's Navitas and Britain's Rockhopper, shrugged off Argentina's threats, insisting they have valid exploration licenses issued by the United Kingdom.
China declared it will firmly support Cuba in defending its sovereignty and resisting outside interference, according to the South China Morning Post. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun made the announcement on Monday, as Beijing and Havana marked 66 years of diplomatic relations. The announcement came after US President Donald Trump said Havana “will fall”, according to RT.
The government of Donald Trump revoked the visas of 27 current and former Latin American officials and their family members from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, according to G1. According to the American State Department, the measures involve officials from those countries and are part of an offensive against corruption and drug trafficking. The Associated Press reported that the US revoked the visas of Bolivia's chief prosecutor and other Latin American officials, in a text republished by Gate News.
Lula widened his first-round lead, with 42% of the votes against 37% for the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, according to a BTG/Nexus poll cited by Reuters. In a potential runoff, Lula would receive 46% against 44% for Bolsonaro — a tie within the margin of error. The previous survey by the same institute had Lula at 40% and Bolsonaro at 37% in the first round.
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said at the Zócalo that Mexicans do not want interference, interventionism or violation of our territoriality. On the eve of the 2027 midterm elections, she delivered a speech steeped in historical references to Mexico’s struggles for independence and sovereignty, with an allusion to growing pressures from the United States under the guise of fighting “narcoterrorism”. “No foreign power, no economic or political elite has the right to dictate the present and future of our homeland. That belongs only to the people of Mexico,” she told thousands of supporters gathered in the capital’s main square, according to Xinhua, in text republished by Mexico News Net.
Hundreds of supporters of Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado took to the streets to demand her safe return and presidential elections that could lead to a democratic transition. In Caracas, hundreds of activists in sky blue shirts — the colour of Machado’s Vente Venezuela party — rode motorcycles through the capital’s main avenues on Sunday, with similar demonstrations in Valencia, Maracaibo and Merida, according to Al Jazeera. Machado has been living in exile for the past nine months and has had plans to return spoiled multiple times; opposition activists have accused the government of blocking her return, a claim the authorities deny.
Venezuelan authorities released a significant number of political prisoners from several detention centres in the early hours of Saturday, according to Foro Penal. Among those released was Wilder Vasquez, handed a five-year sentence in 2018 over claims he was plotting to kill former President Nicolás Maduro. The releases came days after the country's interim leader met US President Donald Trump in New York, according to the BBC.
Human rights group Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón (JEP) said 39 political dissidents were freed between Friday and Saturday, September 25 and 26, 2026, from various prisons, including eight women accused of “narco-terrorism” in 2021, according to Al Jazeera. The releases followed a second round of negotiations on Friday between the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, and the opposition, held with US approval since Washington’s military removal of Maduro in January 2026. Rights group Foro Penal said 344 people remained classified as political prisoners as of September 18, 2026, down from 391 on August 10, 2026.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned the U.S. oil blockade at the UN General Assembly as an “act of collective punishment”, saying Cuba remains open to dialogue with Washington on the basis of sovereign equality and without preconditions, on the same Saturday that Donald Trump said at the White House that “Cuba and us will make a deal” and that he does not think the military will be needed.
Colombia extradited one of the main leaders of a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to the United States on Friday, September 25, 2026, according to three police sources cited by Reuters, in a report republished by G1. The man extradited is Geovany Andrés Rojas, known by the alias “Araña”, described as the leader of the Comandos de Frontera, a faction of the Coordinadora Nacional del Ejército Bolivariano. It is the first extradition of a high-ranking commander of an armed group under President Abelardo De La Espriella; his case had been suspended under Gustavo Petro’s government, amid its peace negotiations. The transfer began at La Picota prison in Bogotá, in an operation by Colombia’s judicial police and Interpol, and the procedure includes flying him to the United States aboard a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) aircraft, according to reports cited by ColombiaOne.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it will take “the necessary measures” to safeguard its national interests in response to what it called Colombia’s unjustified and hostile approach, according to Sputnik. The reaction follows Bogotá’s severing of diplomatic relations with Tehran, in force since 19 September 2026, according to Sputnik, which cited Colombian national security concerns, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s obstruction of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Colombia severed diplomatic relations with Iran effective 19 September 2026, according to The Rio Times, which cited Colombian radio station Caracol and the country’s Foreign Ministry statement. The government cited human rights violations, alleged Iranian links to terrorist and narcoterrorist groups, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and obstruction of the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and kept consular relations, according to the Venezuelan state outlet teleSUR, which also cited the ministry’s statement.
Poverty in Argentina rose to 32.3% in the first half of 2026, up from 28.2% in the previous half, according to official data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), as incomes failed to keep pace with the cost of basic goods. Extreme poverty rose from 6.3% to 7.5%, with some 9.7 million people in the surveyed urban areas living below the poverty line.
Costa Rican President Laura Fernández dismissed Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar on Thursday, September 24, 2026, after he attended a regional security meeting in New York chaired by Donald Trump without her knowledge or approval. The Costa Rican government said his negligence caused significant strategic damage by keeping Fernández from taking part in the meeting.
Hurricane Polo intensified to Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, on Tuesday night, September 22, 2026, with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (265 kph), and was centred about 210 miles (338 kilometres) south of Zihuatanejo off Mexico’s Pacific coast, according to the Associated Press, citing data from the US National Hurricane Center, which has active advisories for the storm. The centre warned that tropical storm conditions were expected along the coasts of Guerrero, Michoacán and Colima, forecast 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimetres) of rain with a risk of mudslides, and said Polo should track west-northwest without making landfall, according to AP. It is the third Category 5 hurricane of the Pacific season after Genevieve and Lowell, and Colorado State University researcher Philip Klotzbach attributed the rapid intensification to El Niño.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimated that an extreme El Niño event would cause a cumulative loss of at least 2% of regional gross domestic product (GDP) over three years, half of it in the first year, and could add up to 4.8 million people to poverty by the end of the decade compared with a scenario without the phenomenon. ECLAC’s third Special Report, released on 21 September 2026, points to critical vulnerability in energy, fishing, agriculture and infrastructure and recommends ten public policy measures, according to the agency’s press release. Projections by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cited in the report indicate a more than 90% probability that the phenomenon will reach very high intensity in the northern hemisphere’s fall and winter of 2026-2027 and a 69% probability of historic magnitude, a “Super El Niño”; for the October-December 2026 quarter, the probability of a rainfall deficit is 60%, and 31.1% of the region’s territory is on high alert, according to Xinhua.
The countries of the Americas Shield signed on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, a joint declaration designating 24 organisations as “transnational narcoterrorist organisations” and “shared threats”, according to CNN Brasil, G1 and Veja. The text announces asset freezes and immigration and visa restrictions on members, associates and supporters of the groups, as well as criminal liability for those who knowingly provide material support, including logistics. The list includes Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV), Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Tren de Aragua, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel, according to CNN Brasil. The declaration was signed by Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the United States, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. The signatories declared their intention to ask the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) for a consultation meeting to create a consultative body under Articles 6 and 13 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (the Rio Treaty), according to CNN Brasil. The push came from US President Donald Trump, and Brazil’s government disputes the designation of the factions as terrorists, according to G1. The Americas Shield was founded in March 2026 on Trump’s initiative and, until this Tuesday, gathered governments aligned with Washington in Latin America, according to Veja.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado tried three times in 24 hours to return to Venezuela and was unable to enter the country, according to The Straits Times, which carries a Bloomberg report, and Deutsche Welle. She set out from Panama, where she is in exile, and the attempts included a boat and flights to the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao, from where she would continue by sea, according to Bloomberg. The Vente Venezuela party confirmed the attempt was thwarted and did not identify who blocked it, according to Deutsche Welle. Pedro Urruchurtu, an adviser to Machado, said on social media that the latest sea and air attempts are among seven failed efforts to return since she left the country clandestinely nine months ago, according to Reuters. The main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), demanded respect for Machado’s right to return and expressed “firm solidarity” with her, according to Deutsche Welle. The Venezuelan government considers Machado a fugitive and accuses her of calling for military intervention in the country, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The attempts came on the same day acting president Delcy Rodríguez met US President Donald Trump in New York.
US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, at the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly that drug cartels are “the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere” and argued they should be “killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release”, according to Reuters. He spoke ahead of a meeting with leaders and foreign ministers from the Shield of the Americas, an anti-cartel coalition launched by his administration in March and made up of Latin American governments aligned with Washington; Brazil and Mexico are not part of it. Trump cited the operation that captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and the oil deal with the interim government as proof that Washington “will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere” and that it will use its “unmatched military might” if necessary, and said Mexico “must reclaim control of its soil from the enemies of humanity”. G1 reported that he asked members of the coalition to formally designate drug factions as “common threats to stability” and to impose sanctions. Since late 2025, the United States has carried out dozens of strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific that, according to human rights groups, have killed more than 220 people and amount to extrajudicial killings.
Delegations from Iran and Cuba walked out of the hall of the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York during Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, according to The Independent and The Hill. The Iranian delegation began to leave as the US president described the past six months of on-and-off military strikes against Iran, with only one person remaining seated; Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi are in New York but did not enter the hall for the speech. Cuba’s delegation walked out after Trump called the country an “absolutely failed state”, said it “is failing like never before, and it will fall” and that “freedom will be coming to Cuba”. The president also accused the Cuban government of fomenting opposition in the United States; Washington has maintained an effective oil blockade since January 2026, cutting the island off from Venezuelan oil, and talks between the two countries have stalled.
The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, that the government of co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is responsible for the deaths in state custody of eight people detained on political grounds since 2018, among them Miskito Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera and Humberto Ortega, the president’s brother, according to the report released on Tuesday and reported by The Hindu. The report details contradictions in the government’s account of Rivera’s death: he spent 32 months in prison with almost no contact with his family before dying in May 2026, and the official statement attributed it to complications from an earlier COVID-19 infection, an explanation an independent assessment by Physicians for Human Rights called “not medically coherent.” The experts documented the enforced disappearance of at least 161 people since 2018 and called for information on 29 whose whereabouts remain unknown. Co-president Rosario Murillo said Rivera received medical care and family support; asked for comment, Nicaragua’s government declined to respond.
Mexico will restrict mobile phone use in elementary and middle schools from 3 November 2026, according to El País. The measure covers classrooms and playgrounds, and president Claudia Sheinbaum said the goal is to fight screen addiction in order to “protect their development and creativity”. The government cites support from 81% of the more than 565,000 teachers surveyed and from more than 70% of heads of household. Brazil removed phones from schools in January 2025; Chile has restricted them by law since February 2026, and Bogotá adopted a ban on 7 September 2026.
A report by the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, Ben Saul, says the United States campaign of strikes on vessels suspected of drug trafficking cost US$4.7 billion by mid-2026 and did not reduce the flow of cocaine into the country: border seizures have remained steady and most of the drug arrives in shipping containers, which are rarely inspected, according to Al Jazeera. The document, published on Monday, September 21, says the 68 strikes recorded between September 2025 and August 2026 killed at least 223 people and that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe they constitute crimes against humanity of murder, according to BBC News. The report also argues that drug trafficking does not meet the legal threshold of an “armed attack” that would justify self-defence, and that less lethal alternatives such as maritime interception were available, according to ABC News. Washington maintains the operation is part of an armed conflict with designated “terrorist” organisations and is meant to keep drugs out of the country.
Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in New York on Monday, September 21, for the United Nations General Assembly and is due to meet Donald Trump on Tuesday, September 22, on the sidelines of a reception hosted by the US president, according to Reuters. It is her first trip to the United States since she took office in January 2026 under Washington’s oversight, after a US military operation captured Nicolás Maduro, who is awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges in New York. Her delegation began discussing energy, debt and mining with counterparties in the United States, talks expected to lead to agreements under Trump’s plan to rebuild Venezuela’s key industries, Reuters reported, citing officials and sources. She met Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Ilan Goldfajn and, in separate meetings, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President Ajay Banga. The IDB is drawing up a two-year engagement plan for Venezuela focused partly on electricity and social protection, Goldfajn told Reuters. In August 2026, the two governments announced an oil agreement giving the United States 55% of the output of a new company with rights over 17 fields, according to the Associated Press (AP).
A video released on Monday shows Susy Aponte Polo, a candidate for governor of Peru’s Áncash region, speaking with a press crew seconds before she was shot at a campaign event in a market in Caraz on Saturday (19), according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). A journalist known for her programme ‘China Polo Dominical’, she was running for the Socios por Áncash party in the 4 October regional elections and died at the scene; five supporters accompanying her were wounded. According to AFP, Peru’s interior ministry said two Venezuelan men were arrested as suspects. Peru’s public prosecutor’s office, which opened a femicide investigation, reclassified the case as a possible contract killing and confirmed arrests in flagrante, according to Forbes Perú; the country’s electoral authority condemned the killing and called for a swift investigation, and days before the attack Aponte had reported threats, according to Peruvian press reports cited by La Nación.
A Venezuelan delegation led by interim president Delcy Rodríguez began talks with US counterparts on energy, debt and mining on Monday, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, according to Reuters, which cited officials and sources. Rodríguez first met Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) president Ilan Goldfajn and later, in separate meetings, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank president Ajay Banga, according to Venezuelan state television. One source said the visit would have ‘a big focus on debt restructuring, funds and payments’, and the talks are expected to lead to signed agreements; Venezuela’s sovereign debt and that of state oil company PDVSA are estimated by most analysts at between $150bn and $200bn. Rodríguez is scheduled to meet Donald Trump on Tuesday, according to US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said on Monday in an interview with CNN that Donald Trump “acts like an emperor” in the negotiations over tariffs imposed on Brazil, and said his government is studying which American products would go on a reciprocity list. “It is a way of governing I do not agree with. He has a way of governing based on ‘I am the strongest, I am the most powerful, I am the richest, I can do anything, and everyone else has to obey’”, he said, according to CNN Brasil. Lula said he prefers dialogue and does not want a tariff war, but that if there is no deal, “we will have to take measures, because we have a law approved unanimously in our Congress”. Brazil notified Washington in August that it was opening proceedings under the Economic Reciprocity Law, and the two sides resumed talks on the tariffs on August 31 under Section 301 of US law. According to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC), the 25% and 12.5% surcharges announced in July together hit 23.1% of Brazilian exports to the United States. Lula is in New York and speaks at the opening of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Tuesday.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is drawing up a two-year engagement plan for Venezuela focused partly on electricity and social protection, its president, Ilan Goldfajn, said on Monday in an interview with Reuters. “We are, of course, reengaging,” he said, adding that the bank has missions to Venezuela to assess the macroeconomic framework and the data and to draft an engagement note setting out what it plans to do over the next two years. The IDB, the largest development lender in Latin America and the Caribbean, with 48 member countries, stopped making new loans to Venezuela in May 2018 after the country fell behind on payments, and still has about $2 billion in outstanding Venezuelan loans. Goldfajn did not say how the arrears would be addressed or when financing could resume, and said the bank is concentrating on the country’s macroeconomic framework and requirements across individual sectors rather than preparing its own debt-sustainability analysis.
The 18 suspects extradited from Haiti on Sunday appeared in a Miami federal court on Monday, where prosecutors unsealed an indictment describing the plot to kill President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 as financed with fraudulent loans from the US pandemic aid programme. Thirty people have been indicted in the case so far, according to federal prosecutor Jason Reding Quinones, and among those extradited is Joseph Félix Badio, a former anti-corruption official at Haiti’s Justice Ministry described as a central suspect. Moïse was shot dead at his residence on 7 July 2021 by a group of about 20 Colombian mercenaries, and in May four men were convicted in Miami of conspiracy in the case, all linked to Florida-based security firm CTU. The details come from AP, Fox News and AFP.
Halliburton signed memorandums of understanding with Brazil’s Eneva and WESCA to assess and pursue oil and gas opportunities in Venezuela, the US oilfield services company said on Monday. The agreements are non-binding: they cover cooperation to identify opportunities and support field evaluation and development planning, with no obligation to invest, no set timeline and no disclosed revenue. The move follows the US capture of Nicolás Maduro in January and the easing of sanctions: in February the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorised the supply of goods, technology, software and services for oil and gas exploration and production in the country and gave BP, Chevron, Eni, Repsol and Shell broad scope to operate, according to Reuters.
The United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on human rights while countering terrorism, Ben Saul, concluded that US airstrikes on vessels accused of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific breach international law and may amount to crimes against humanity, according to the BBC. The briefing note released on Monday by the UN Human Rights Council says that since 2 September last year there have been at least 68 US strikes outside US territorial waters, killing more than 220 people, and concludes that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks that killed 223 people constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law”. Saul argues that the targets, even when identified as members of groups the United States has designated as terrorist, had not staged an armed attack on the country that would trigger a right to self-defence, and that drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter. US Southern Command (Southcom) said two days earlier that it had killed four people in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean and claimed the operation killed four “narco-terrorists”; the US government has not offered definitive evidence that the vessels hit were carrying drugs. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says the operation, named Southern Spear, is meant to remove “narco-terrorists” from the hemisphere. On 1 September, UN experts had already called for an end to the strikes and said they may amount to crimes against maritime safety, which would give other countries jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute those responsible.
An ICE agent shot and wounded Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who was delivering food for DoorDash, on Sunday afternoon in north Austin, Texas, according to NBC News and The Associated Press. Austin police took part in neither the operation nor the shooting, Chief Lisa Davis said, reporting a wound to the torso and a serious but stable condition; city council member Mike Siegel says the agent rammed his vehicle into the victim’s car before firing at least five times.
The Department of Homeland Security says Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez is under a final order of removal, entered the country under the Biden administration and is in federal custody pending deportation, with the shooting investigated by HSI and the FBI, according to NBC News. Democratic members of Congress demanded an independent investigation and the release of body-camera footage, and at night the Texas Department of Public Safety used tear gas against protesters at the scene, NBC News reports.
The United States has deported around 25,000 people to third countries under secretive deals, according to AFP, The Guardian, France24 and the Washington Post, which published a joint investigation. The Guardian describes people sent to countries they have no link to.
Eighteen suspects in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse have been extradited from Haiti to the United States, according to Le Monde, AFP, Al Jazeera and The Guardian — five years after the killing.