(May 14, 2026)
Twice this week, U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed interest in turning Venezuela into his country’s 51st state. The latest came via a Truth Social post Tuesday with a map showing the South American country filled with the U.S. flag.
Previous statements doubting Venezuela’s sovereignty over the past 25 years have been met with immediate derision from senior government officials, including the president.
(January 16, 2026)
CIA director John Ratcliffe met with Venezuela‘s interim President Delcy Rodríguez for two hours Thursday in Venezuela‘s capital, Caracas, to „deliver the message that the United States looks forward to an improved working relationship,“ a U.S. official told CBS News Friday.
The official described the trip as historic, noting that Ratcliffe was the first Cabinet-level official to visit Venezuela since the U.S. military operation to remove the country‘s autocratic leader Nicolás Maduro nearly two weeks ago.
A U.S. delegation led by CIA director John Ratcliffe met with his counterpart at Cuba‘s Interior Ministry in Havana on Thursday, the Cuban government said in a statement, as tensions worsen over a U.S. fuel blockade that has starved the island of fuel and power generation.
(January 13, 2026)
Who she is: Venezuela‘s interim president
Portfolio: Maduro‘s former vice president, she‘s running the country under the oversight of the United States.
Why she matters: A seasoned lawyer and longtime party official, she‘s known as the „tsarina“ for the economic power she accrued as vice president, oil minister and finance minister. She‘s technically under sanction for serving in the Maduro government, but she has won the trust of the US government (for now) and is seen by US oil company executives as most able to work with them to rebuild the country‘s degraded energy infrastructure.
The top US military commander for Latin America, General Francis Donovan, and senior Pentagon official Joseph Humire made an unannounced visit to Venezuela on Wednesday for security talks with interim authorities in Caracas. This marks the first US military delegation trip to Venezuela since the capture of the country‘s ousted leader Nicolas Maduro last month.
During the meeting, both countries agreed to work on designing a bilateral cooperation agenda to combat illicit drug trafficking in our region, terrorism, and migration.
CIA director John Ratcliffe met with Venezuela‘s interim President Delcy Rodríguez for two hours Thursday in Venezuela‘s capital, Caracas, to „deliver the message that the United States looks forward to an improved working relationship,“ a U.S. official told CBS News Friday.
The official described the trip as historic, noting that Ratcliffe was the first Cabinet-level official to visit Venezuela since the U.S. military operation to remove the country‘s autocratic leader Nicolás Maduro nearly two weeks ago.
(today)
Colombia will continue to work with the United States to fight drug trafficking using Washington’s intelligence and technology, it said yesterday.
(…)
“The fight against drug trafficking must continue to be waged jointly with technology, with all the advances in cooperation that the US government can give us. We will continue to emphasise the fight against this scourge, particularly on the Colombian-Venezuelan border,” Idarraga said.
(November 13, 2025)
Officials in Colombia say the country will continue to share intelligence with international agencies combatting drug trafficking, just days after President Gustavo Petro said he was suspending such collaboration with the United States over attacks on vessels in international waters.
Colombian Defence Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez said in a social media post on Thursday that Petro had provided “clear instructions” to maintain a “continuous flow of information” with international agencies working on drug trafficking.
(December 2, 2025)
Calls for international protection are not new, Aboudi told The Electronic Intifada.
In April 2025, “we called for international protection and we called for international forces to come, forcefully impose a ceasefire and guarantee the opening of all crossings to Gaza for the flow of humanitarian aid and personnel to save the population of Gaza,” Aboudi said.
Following a PNGO statement in August, specifically calling on the UNGA to adopt the Uniting for Peace resolution, Colombia wanted to push the idea forward.
“We already had a draft proposal by the Colombian government,” Víctor de Currea-Lugo, Middle East advisor to Colombia’s President Petro, told The Electronic Intifada. That proposal was “ready to be presented” in the General Assembly.
“We organized a strategy to visit different countries and to mobilize our embassies, our consulates and our mission before the United Nations [meet] in New York. The problem was, at that moment, Trump presented his plan for the pacification of Gaza,” de Currea-Lugo said.
Adding to the obstacles, according to Aboudi, “the Palestinian Authority weren’t really pushing for it.”
“They still were betting on US intervention and involvement: that it would end the genocide, that it would give them the path for a Palestinian state and for the recognition of Palestinian rights. This gamble did not pay off,” he said.
(December 2, 2025)
According to Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Washington acted out of “unhappiness” over the possibility of Uniting for Peace, adding that heavy pressure was exerted on member states.
He described the arrangement as “perverse,” noting that “the perpetrator of genocide and its principal supporter are rewarded by presiding over a supposed peace process.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is an ally of President Donald Trump and has agreed to accept deportees from the United States.
Bukele is set to meet with Trump in Washington on Monday.
The Trump administration has said that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador on March 15 because of an “administrative error.”