U.S. negotiations with Venezuela show Trump administration diplomatic split - NYT
July 9, 2025
The New York Times reports about two conflicting negotiations with Venezuela’s government, one spearheaded by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that would have exchanged Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador from the U.S. for political prisoners and the other by special presidential envoy Richard Grenell that bartered freedom for U.S. detainees in Venezuela in exchange for Chevron operating rights.
“The conflicting diplomatic efforts signaled a monthslong divide over how to approach Venezuela and resembled the chaos that permeated Mr. Trump’s first term, when competing officials vied for influence with the president. But the lack of coordination left Venezuelan officials unclear about who spoke for Mr. Trump and, ultimately, left both American and Venezuelan detainees imprisoned.”
The negotiations also show “that while Mr. Trump’s White House once said that it had no control over the detainees in El Salvador, it was willing to use them as bargaining chips.”
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, first hinted at such a deal in late April. He suggested on social media that a “humanitarian agreement” would exchange all the Venezuelan migrants for Americans in Venezuelan custody and some Venezuelans.
The Venezuelan political prisoners, many of whom were arrested while protesting fraudulent elections held last year, would have been given the choice of staying in Venezuela or going to live in El Salvador, reports the New York Times.
Guatemala
The Guatemala’s ruling party Semilla, which brought President Bernardo Arévalo to power, has split, in part due to the pressure cooker of judicial harassment, reports El Faro. Samuel Pérez launched a new party, Raíces, amid accusations of lack of consultation, leadership failures, and political inaction. In an interview, Anthropologist and Semilla co-founder Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj criticizes both Arévalo and Pérez for failing to uphold the party’s founding values—especially the inclusion of Indigenous peoples—warning that the party’s disintegration reflects a broader national crisis and a persistent disregard for Indigenous political power.
More than 37 of earthquakes were recorded in the span of hours in Guatemala, yesterday, leaving two dead when rocks fell on their vehicle. Landslides left several others buried. (Associated Press)
Venezuela
Venezuelan is again spiraling into an inflationary storm: new data warns that price increases could skyrocket to 530% in 2025, fueled by a collapsing currency, oil export disruptions and mounting political and economic isolation, reports the Miami Herald.
El Salvador
“For the first time in decades since the end of the civil war —like neighboring Guatemala and Nicaragua— a growing number of political exiles are fleeing El Salvador,” reports El Faro.
Colombia
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he mistrusts the transparency of next year’s general elections, a comment made on social media linked to a report on a spiraling controversy over a contract to print passports in Colombia, which has affected several cabinet members, reports La Silla Vacía.
Regional
The post WWII international institutional architecture imposed a new, market-centered model in the final quarter of the 20th century, the ensuing “concentration of capital and the delegitimization of democracy broke the previous consensus” and led to the crisis of representation and outsider politician trends of recent years, argues former Colombian president Ernesto Samper in the Guardian: “In this new scenario, Latin America must present itself as integrated, a single voice before the world. The region does not need concentration camps for migrants to understand that we are heading straight to a fascist abyss and that the only antidote to avoid falling into it is, and will always be, progressivism.”
Mexico
A Mexican court sentenced 10 men to 141-year prison terms each for their involvement in a ranch in the western Mexican state of Jalisco that was used by a feared cartel to recruit members, kill and disappear victims, reports the Associated Press.
Brazil
“Petra Costa’s documentary tells a grim story about modern Brazil and leaves it up to us to decide if it has a happy ending. Apocalypse in the Tropics is about the country’s political leaders’ addiction to rightwing Christian fundamentalism, US-style prayer breakfasts, and a particular enthusiasm for the Book of Revelations, whose apocalyptic rhetoric is used to amplify all manner of conspiracist, xenophobic screeching,” reports the Guardian.
Argentina
The recent arrest of Kirchnerist activists, accused of having carried out a protest action in front of the home of a ruling party representative — some of them were transferred to a federal prison — “sends a message to everyone: protesting is dangerous, it's better not to do it. The context in which this is happening is the deprivation of liberty and proscription of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a situation that should not be normalized as if it were just another fact,” writes CELS executive director Paula Litvachky. “The federal court's decision to accept the investigation of an escrache as a serious crime deepens the spiral of political persecution that began in late 2023. Since then, social organizations have been harassed, criminalized, defunded, and subjected to criminal proceedings. Soup kitchens and community outreach efforts have been subjected to defamation campaigns through the media and social networks. The same has happened to human rights organizations.”
Even as international media continue to write about Javier Milei saving Argentina, the perception of the economy is bad within the country, notes James Bosworth: Only 17% of people say the economy is doing well right now contrasted with 67% who say it is doing poorly. “With those economic numbers, it’s surprising just how well Milei’s approval rating numbers continue to hold up,” he writes in the Latin America Risk Report.
More Regional Relations
Celso Amorim, Lula’s chief foreign policy adviser, said U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat against BRICS economic plans “reinforces the willingness of [BRICS] members and associated partners to chart our path and seek greater independence,” reports the Washington Post. (See yesterday’s post and Monday’s.)
Mark Frank on why the U.S. is targeting Cuba’s medical missions, in The Nation: “Perhaps nothing has angered the Cuban Revolution’s foes more than its free and universal healthcare and education systems and sharing of those assets with other developing countries.”
A contingent of firefighters and first responders from Mexico arrived in Texas over the weekend to aid in search and rescue efforts following the devastating flooding of the Guadalupe River in a show of solidarity, reports the Guardian.
“Students from around the world who hope to study in the United States are winding down much of their online activity, unfollowing celebrities and politicians, asking friends and family to stop sending news links and scouring their own internet presence for posts that carry even the faintest whiff of hot-button politics,” reports the Washington Post.
A week after an immigration judge granted him bond, a Spanish-language journalist who was arrested in the United States while covering a protest last month remains in federal custody, reports the Associated Press.