U.S. weighs a preliminary, unapproved plan to send roughly 3,000 civilian technicians & nearly $3 billion to Venezuela — coordinating earthquake reconstruction while managing a political transition away from Chavismo
Peru declares fresh 60-day state of emergency across five Pisco districts, citing homicides and extortion — the province’s second such declaration this year
Two stories this week capture the uneven state of the U.S.-led fight against Latin American drug trafficking. Nine arrests in a Chiapas massacre and San Diego narcoterrorism indictment, while at sea, the U.S. military’s boat-strike campaign has gone quiet for the first time in nearly a year
It’s been over three weeks since the U.S. military’s last strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat — the longest pause since the campaign began. Has the campaign actually slowed the flow of drugs into the United States, or just adapted the cartels around it?
Trump warns the U.S. will “take care of it” if Iran has stationed drones inside of Cuba as a 4.8-billion-peso lease scandal at Mexico’s state-run PEMEX oil company hands U.S. trade negotiators fresh ammunition days before critical USMCA talks
A 4.8 billion peso Pemex scandal at the Dos Bocas refinery — running at 42% of design capacity after five workers died, two oil spills hit the Gulf Coast, and $20 billion in public funds were consumed — arrives seven days before the third round of USMCA negotiations
Peru’s top court reverses 2022 ruling to strip Congress of spending power 15 days before Fujimori takes office while Washington sanctions 10 Cuban entities, and outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro bars de la Espriella from a military base inauguration & suspends the transition process
Trump administration designates 10 Cuban entities on July 13 — the sixth sanctions round since May 1 and the most direct targeting yet of the regime's domestic repression apparatus
Argentina’s country risk dropped to an eight-year low of 406 basis points after Fitch and S&P both upgraded the sovereign. Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla ignites international incident with racism scandal involving French striker Kylian Mbappé
Argentina’s country risk drops to 406 basis points — an eight-year low — after Economy Minister Caputo presents debt roadmap that convinces markets of Argentina’s economic forecast
Two teenage gunmen assassinate gang leader in Guayaquil’s airport — prompting Ecuador’s Noboa to issue decree granting immunity to foreign security personnel, while in Brooklyn, El Mayo Zambada accepts life sentence as Sinaloa cartel civil war kills nearly 2,000 people
El Mayo Zambada accepts life imprisonment without parole in a Brooklyn sentencing memorandum — his one request: a medical facility other than El Chapo’s supermax
