Guyana denounces attacks on soldiers in Essequibo
May 16, 2025
Guyanese soldiers patrolling a river in the Essequibo region, claimed by Venezuela, have been attacked three times by armed men in civilian clothing this week, according to Guyana’s military, which said that no soldiers were injured and characterized its responses as “measured” and “calculated.”
Venezuela’s defense minister alleged the Essequibo is being targeted as a “spoil of war” for U.S. interests. Venezuela’s Maduro government has fanned tensions over the region, and plans to include the Essequibo in gubernatorial elections planned for 25 May, despite the UN’s top court ordering it not organize a vote there.
(AFP, Miami Herald)
More Venezuela
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has called for a boycott of May 25 gubernatorial and legislative elections, promised that polling stations would be "empty.” (AFP)
U.S. oil producer Chevron Corp and several European companies are in talks with the Trump administration to obtain authorizations to keep their stakes in joint ventures with Venezuela's state-run PDVSA, reports Reuters.
LatAm jostles to influence Trump
“US government records reveal Latin American leaders have spent millions hiring Washington’s top lobbyists to push for a laundry list of requests – from free-trade deals, security assistance and energy investments – to be heard by the Trump administration, according to an analysis by the Guardian and The Quincy Institute.”
“Under Trump, we’ve seen a more directly transactional approach to influencing government,” said Jake Johnston, director of international policy at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The very personal relationships that have developed with the far right in Latin America have given direct access to the White House. I wouldn’t say this influence peddling is unprecedented, but the magnitude is.” (Guardian)
Regional Relations
The United States announced yesterday that it “strongly opposes” funding by international financial institutions for Chinese-controlled companies operating in Colombia and other Belt and Road Initiative countries in the region, reports EFE.
Colombia’s turn towards China this week — the traditionally stalwart U.S. ally signed onto the Belt and Road Initiative — follows dramatic cuts in U.S. foreign assistance that had dramatic effect on the Petro administration’s ability to carry out certain operations, like support for migrants and refugees. Separately, the International Monetary Fund suspended a credit line to Colombia late last month, explains Catherine Osborn in the Latin America Brief.
“Trump’s aid freeze has gutted the humanitarian and integration programs that support Venezuelans in Colombia. The drop in funding has led to massive staff cuts at nongovernmental organizations across the country, suspending services at clinics along the border. It has even temporarily halted the government’s rollout of migrant permits for recent arrivals,” reports Foreign Policy.
“In what could be a significant escalation of U.S. pressure on Mexico, the Trump administration has begun to impose travel restrictions and other sanctions on prominent Mexican politicians whom it believes are linked to drug corruption,” reports ProPublica.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney — they discussed the importance of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement in boosting the competitiveness of the three North American countries, reports Reuters.
“Trump’s counterterrorism strategy has consisted more of rhetoric than of action. Even as the administration has expanded the definition of terrorism to include transnational violent gangs, few resources have been expended to actually challenge those groups and treat them as a national security threat. Instead, the designations have been used as domestic political fodder to justify Trump’s mass deportation campaign, even as the U.S. has cut foreign aid and its overseas presence,” argues James Bosworth in World Politics Review.
Deportations
Lawyers for 252 Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration and imprisoned in El Salvador for two months have failed to obtain a response to the habeas corpus petitions filed before El Salvador’s Supreme Court, reports AFP.
The U.S. Senate rejected a resolution written by Democrats that would have required that the Trump administration tell Congress what steps it has taken to comply with court orders involving U.S. deportees imprisoned in El Salvador and to report on the country’s human rights record, reports the New York Times.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired two top intelligence officials who oversaw a recent intelligence assessment which contradicted Trump’s assertions that the gang Tren de Aragua is operating under the direction of the Venezuelan regime, reports NBC. (See also Washington Post.)
El Salvador
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s use of military police to suppress civil protests earlier this week “is unprecedented in El Salvador. Since the signing of the peace accords, the only state force used to break up demonstrations has been the National Civil Police, using Public Security agents or, failing that, officers from the Law Enforcement Unit. During his six years in office, Bukele has boasted that he has not used “a single smoke bomb” to break up protests in response to accusations of authoritarianism against him,” reports El País. (See Wednesday’s post.)
Colombia
Colombia formalized Indigenous local governments across swaths of the Amazon, raising hopes that other countries in the region will follow its lead, reports the Associated Press.
Regional
A new report published by the international environmental and human rights organization Global Witness shows that the Spanish bank Santander has been indirectly funding deforestation activities in the Gran Chaco, an ecosystem sprawling across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. (Guardian)
Abortion groups in Mexico and Colombia have been blocked on Meta owned platforms, particularly Whatsapp, a significant complication for women communicating with support providers. The organizations believe this is due to a combination of changes to Meta policies and attacks by anti-abortion groups that denounce their content, reports the Associated Press.
A U.S.-Mexico petroleum theft ring that involves cartels, corrupt Mexican officials and criminal U.S. brokers oversees a scheme in which vast amounts of oil are stolen from Mexican installations and pipelines and smuggled into Texas, where they are laundered into the industry. “The crime robs valuable resources from Mexican state coffers and finances paramilitary organized crime groups, now classified by Washington as terrorists,” reports CrashOut.
Mexico
Mexican police arrested Lambertina Galeana Marín, a retired judge accused of tampering with evidence related to the disappearance of 43 students from Iguala more than a decade ago, reports the BBC.
Migration
Sheinbaum has denounced a provision in a tax bill being considered in the United States that would impose duties on remittances. “It would result in double taxation, since Mexicans living in the United States already pay taxes,” she said. (Al Jazeera)
A U.S. federal judge in New Mexico dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of immigrants caught in a new military zone on the US-Mexico border. The move is a setback for Trump administration efforts to raise penalties for unlawful crossings into the US, reports Reuters.
Argentina
Argentina’s government announced the closure of 13 programmes launched by the former Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry, including the the MenstruAR scheme distributing menstrual hygiene products, a support initiative for families of victims of extreme gender-based violence and a program to improve access to human rights policies for transsexual and transgender people, reports the Buenos Aires Times.
Panama
Anti-government protests have swelled in Panama for the past two weeks — growing from a teachers’ strike to include construction workers, students, nurses, banana pickers and Indigenous groups. While controversial deals with the U.S. have supercharged demonstrations, the government seems capable of avoiding a repeat of massive protests in 2023, according to Americas Quarterly.
Critter Corner
“For 1,500 years, Mexico’s Mixtec people have extracted ink from the rare purpura snail to dye yarn. But they fear the species – and their rich tradition – may soon be lost for ever,” reports the Guardian.