Trumpism

The Andes

Trump officials push Venezuela regime change

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that he is ready to declare a state of emergency in response to aggression by the United States. Such a declaration would give the army control over public services and the country’s oil industry, which Venezuelan leaders say the US is preparing to grab. US officials, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe, are reported to be pushing plans to overthrow Maduro. The US has increased its naval presence in the Caribbean and launched repeated deadly strikes on civilian vessels in international waters off Venezuela. President Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the vessels were carrying drug traffickers. Rubio recently described Maduro as a “fugitive from American justice” who leads a terrorist and criminal organization bringing narcotics into the US, posing an “imminent, immediate threat.” (Image: Grunge Love via Flickr)

The Andes

Popular protests turn deadly in Ecuador

Widespread protests in Ecuador, sparked by cuts to fuel subsidies, reached a boiling point, as an indigenous land defender was killed by the armed forces, a government aid convoy was reportedly attacked by protesters, and 12 soldiers went missing. Meanwhile, the government continued to advance its plan to rewrite the constitution—an initiative that has further intensified public anger. Undeterred, the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), which initiated the nationwide strike, announced that it would extend the action. (Photo: CONAIE via Peoples Dispatch)

Africa

Sudan: ‘roadmap’ to peace —amid escalation to genocide

After months of US-led negotiations, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (the “Quad“) issued a “roadmap to peace” in Sudan, starting with a push for a three-month “humanitarian truce.” However, despite the agreement with the main regional backers of the two sides in the war, fighting continues between the Sudanese armed forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Since the “roadmap” was announced, the RSF has continued to close its ring around El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur state. UN officials have condemned the assault and warned of catastrophic consequences for civilians under siege, facing severe shortages of food, clean water, and medical services. When the RSF offensive was launched earlier this year, a coalition of aid organizations and human rights groups issued a statement finding: “Genocide and atrocity crimes are being committed now in North Darfur. The RSF is engaged in the mass killing of civilians and will likely continue this if/when they reach El Fasher.” (Map via Radio Tamazuj)

North America

Podcast: Better anti than fa, thank you II

Trump’s call at Quantico for the armed forces to use American cities as “training grounds” and fight the “enemy within” was quickly followed by militarized ICE raids in Chicago and mobilization of the National Guard. His National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), issued four days before the Quantico meeting with Pentagon brass, explicitly identifies “anti-fascism” as a threat that must be targeted with the full power of the state. In Episode 298 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to deconstruct the propaganda and examine the apparatus being employed to impose a fascist order in the United States—and explore the prospects for resistance, and even non-cooperation within the rank-and-file of the federal forces. (Image: APE)

Planet Watch

UN climate pledges miss the mark for Paris goals

The international process to tackle climate change is still alive—but the vital target of restricting warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels under the 2015 Paris Agreement might not be. More than 100 countries submitted their national climate plans to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The “nationally determined contribution” policies (NDCs) are crucial for collective global progress to reduce greenhouse emissions. The fact that officials turned up with documents in hand is itself notable in a year fraught with international tension and growing climate-denialist narratives. (Donald Trump in his speech to the General Assembly dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job ever.”) But the NDCs are nothing close to sufficient to meet the 1.5°C “survival limit,” said Romain Ioualalen, policy chief at Oil Change International. “Not all countries bear equal responsibility for this collective failure,” added Ioualalen. “A handful of wealthy Western countries, led by the United States…have doubled down on oil and gas production for the past decade with no intention of changing course, mocking any notion of justice and equity in the transition.” (Photo: United Nations Photo via Flickr)

The Andes

US ‘decertifies’ Colombia as drug war partner

The United States decertified Colombia as a reliable partner in the War on Drugs, citing a rise in coca cultivation and cocaine production. While the White House waived the crushing sanctions that usually come with decertification, the decision underscores the strained relations between the US and Colombia under Trump. The administration was quick to blame Colombian President Gustavo Petro directly, arguing in its submission to Congress that the “failure of Colombia to meet its drug control obligations over the past year rests solely with its political leadership.” The administration also decertified Venezuela, Bolivia, Afghanistan and Burma. While these latter countries have been frequently decertified over the years, this marks the first time Colombia has been decertified since 1997. (Map: PCL)

North America

Podcast: Better anti than fa, thank you

Trump’s executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” was quickly followed by a mobilization of federal troops to anarchist hotbed Portland and a highly unusual call for a gathering of military brass from around the world in Quantico—to take place the day before the government will be shut down if a Congressional deal is not reached. These evident preparations for mass repression, or even an auto-golpe and establishment of a Trump dictatorship, were conveniently followed by a sniper attack on an ICE facility in Dallas. In Episode 297 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Trump’s attempted criminalization of anti-fascism portends an imminent consolidation of fascist rule in the United States—and asks what we’re going to do about it. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

North America

Trump designates Antifa as ‘domestic terrorist organization’

President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.” The order calls Antifa a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government.” Asserting a pattern of political violence, the order instructs executive agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations” of Antifa and related persons. A fact sheet from the Trump administration describes examples of political violence which it attributes to Antifa, including assaults against Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. (Photo: Antifa confronting far-right rally in Portsmouth, UK. Credit: Tim Sheerman-Chase via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Charlie Kirk = Calvo Sotelo?

Some are drawing an ominous analogy between Charlie Kirk and Horst Wessel, the early martyr of the Nazi cause. In Episode 296 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a more ominous analogy still: to José Calvo Sotelo, the Spanish fascist leader whose assassination in 1936 provided the expedience for Generalissimo Franco’s coup d’etat that initiated the Spanish Civil War—and ultimately brought a decades-long dictatorship to Spain. Trump’s declaration of antifa as a “terrorist organization” since Kirk’s assassination is an open acknowledgement of his fascist intent. Fortunately, anti-fascist protesters are repudiating Kirk, and the wave of racist terror and anti-left reaction now being unleashed coast to coast. (Image mash-up: CounterVortex)

Palestine

UN panel charges Israel committing genocide in Gaza

A UN independent inquiry issued findings that Israel has committed the international crime of genocide amid its military operations in the Gaza Strip. A 72-page legal analysis from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israeli forces have committed genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, including killing or seriously harming members of the group, as well as inflicting conditions of life “calculated to bring about [Gazans’] physical destruction in whole or in part,” and preventing births among the population. To support its conclusions, the commission cited the figure of 60,199 Palestinians killed since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, the fact that life expectancy in Gaza has dropped precipitously from 75.5 to 40.5 years, and that 46% of Palestinians killed were women or children. The panel also noted direct attacks on maternity wards and clinics. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Belarusian political prisoners as pawns in power game

NATO launched a new exercise dubbed Eastern Sentry in response to the ongoing joint Russia-Belarus military exercise dubbed Zapad (West), which involves thousands of troops, naval maneuvers in the Baltic Sea, and simulated nuclear strikes. Yet two US military observers were invited to Belarus to observe the Zapad exercise, standing on a viewing platform to review forces from the same Russian army that is fighting in Ukraine. This appears to be part of a US rapprochement with Belarus, coming days after 52 Belarusian political prisoners were released in a US-brokered deal. However, the dissidents protest that they were expelled to Lithuania and not given the choice of remaining in their own country. One, former Belarusian presidential candidate Mikola Statkevich, has already been returned to a penal colony after refusing to accept exile. (Photo of Russian T-14 Armata tank via National Security Journal)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Charlie Kirk = Horst Wessel

Charlie Kirk was not just a “conservative” but a white supremacist who denigrated the advances of the Civil Rights era and sought to impose patriarchical subjugation of all but white men. Yet he was opposed as insufficiently “pro-white” by the so-called “Groyper Army” of Nick Fuentes. This raises the possibility that the anti-fascist rhetoric of Kirk’s accused shooter, Tyler Robinson, was actually fascist pseudo-anti-fascism. In any case, those who are making the analogy to the early martyr of the Nazi cause Horst Wessel are all too likely to be vindicated: Kirk’s death could similarly be exploited to consolidate fascist rule in the United States. In Episode 295 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down. (Image mash-up: CounterVortex)