The Andes

Colombia’s new government authorizes joint US strikes

Colombia formally joined the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C), a US-led regional initiative under the rubric of the so-called “Shield of the Americas.” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that new far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella had authorized joint “counter-terrorism” operations, a move that opens the door to US-led strikes on Colombian territory, which Hegseth said has already been discussed. De la Espriella’s granting of permission to US troops to operate within Colombia is likely unconstitutional—the transit and operation of foreign troops on Colombian soil requires Congressional approval. The agreement was formalized in Panama, where Hegseth spent two days meeting with the A3C’s 19 partner members, deepening ties, and rallying opposition to the International Criminal Court, which he accused of launching a “lawless power grab” by potentially investigating US strikes in the region, a step it has not yet taken. (Map: PCL)

The Andes

US pushes ‘Donroe Doctrine’ at Cuzco defense summit

Representatives from over 30 countries gathered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco for the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, where top Pentagon official Elbridge Colby used the occasion to defend the “Donroe Doctrine.” As at other regional security summits, including the “Shield of the Americas” conference held in Florida in March, Trump officials cast drug trafficking and irregular migration as threats to US security, urged regional governments to increase military spending, and called for deeper security collaboration with Washington. An increasing number of the right-wing governments in attendance have embraced closer military ties with the United States through joint strikes and new military bases—even as militarized policies fail to curb organized crime and violence in countries like Ecuador, a key testing ground for the administration’s renewed war on “narcoterrorism.” (Photo: Martin St-Amant via Wikimedia Commons)

The Andes

Peru: ‘Mass of Reparation’ for abuses of Catholic society

A delegation from the Vatican—including cardinals and bishops—joined representatives of the Catholic Church in Peru to kneel before local campesinos and ask their forgiveness at a “Mass of Reparation” held at the parish of San Juan Bautista in Catacaos, Piura region. A Vatican investigation found that the Tallán indigenous communities of the parish for over a decade suffered land expropriation, physical threats and other abuses at the hands of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. The lay society, better known as “Sodalicio,” was among the most active Catholic movements in Latin America from the early 1970s until it was suppressed by order of Pope Francis in April 2025. (Photo: Vatican News)

The Andes

Colombia: growing toll from armed conflict

In its latest annual report, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) found that the armed conflict in Colombia saw the “worst humanitarian consequences” of the past decade in 2025. The number of people killed or injured by explosive devices rose by 34% to 965, overwhelmingly non-combatants. The number of individual disappearances doubled to 308. Violations of international humanitarian law documented by the ICRC reached 845 cases, while figures for displacement and “confinement” doubled. According to the Comprehensive Victim Support & Reparation Unit (UARIV), at least 235,619 people were displaced individually in 2025, while 87,069 were displaced in mass displacement events, and 176,730 remained “confined” in communities under siege by armed actors. (Map: PCL)

The Andes

Peru: US arms deal behind cabinet shake-up

Peru’s government made a $462 million payment to US defense contractor Lockheed Martin for purchase of 12 ‌F-16 fighter jets, the first installment in a controversial multi-billion-dollar deal that triggered the resignation of two top ministers. In stepping down, Defense Minister Carlos Díaz and Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela cited their opposition to interim President José Balcázar’s attempt to delay the deal. The payment came days after a $2 billion contract for the F-16s was signed by an official in Peru’s Air Force—over the head of Balcázar, who was informed of finalization of the deal only after the fact. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Planet Watch

Podcast: Hungary, Peru & the electoral struggle

In Episode 323 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a comparison of the simultaneous elections in Hungary and Peru—in which questions of democratic norms versus authoritarian rule both stood in the balance. The defeat of long-ruling quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán is being hailed as a blow to the emerging authoritarian bloc in Europe. But the incoming center-right prime minister Péter Magyar may not mean a complete de-Orbánification. In Peru, the outcome is still pending, as the perennial candidate of the hard right, Keiko Fujimori, faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez. Keiko is the unapologetic daughter of the late ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori; her victory could mean a re-Fujimorification of the country, and a fatal blow to Peru’s deeply troubled democracy. A Sánchez victory, meanwhile, would heighten the social contradictions in Peru—with both opportunities for a more meaningful democracy, and dangers of a backlash from the conservative establishment. (Photo: Anali Marquez Huanca via Facebook)

Planet Watch

Reversal for hard right in Hungary; Peru in the balance

The defeat of Hungary’s quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán in the recent elections has heartened progressive forces around the world—despite the fact that the victorious Péter Magyar is a creature of the center-right. A more stark contest is emerging in Peru, where the right-wing authoritarian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez, who has broad support from the traditionally excluded campesinos of the country’s Andean interior. (Photo: Wikipedia)

The Amazon

Peru: pipeline failure triggers nationwide gas shortage

Peru has been hit with a shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (GLP) and compressed natural gas (GNV) following a “deflagration” on the Camisea pipeline in Megantoni district of Cuzco department. The explosion and fire caused major property damage in the rainforest settlement of Megantoni, according to Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP), the company responsible for the pipeline connecting the Camisea gasfields to a processing plant at Pisco on the coast. The incident resulted in an immediate rise of GNV and GLP prices, in turn leading to an internal energy crisis, with citizens nationwide standing in endless lines for a gas cylinder or a gallon of fuel. Taxi drivers and urban transport operators have raised fares and threatened a nationwide strike, demanding a government subsidy to continue working. (Photo: Ministerio de Defensa del Perú via Wikipedia)

Planet Watch

Venezuela and Ukraine: forbidden symmetry

A close reading of the facts indicates that Putin and Trump worked out a global carve-up in which Russia gets Ukraine and the US gets Venezuela. This was implicitly acknowledged in the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine enshrined in the National Security Strategy released by the White House weeks before the illegal Venezuela attack was launched. In this light, Russian protests of the US aggression at the UN Security Council seem strictly pro forma. Both dissident left voices in Venezuela and democratic socialists in Ukraine have made the point that to betray one country is to betray the other. In Episode 312 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg demonstrates how the global divide-and-rule racket that is campism has never made less sense. (Image mash-up by Chris Rywalt, with material from Tamara Wyndham and CBC)

Watching the Shadows

‘Donroe Doctrine’ threatens hemisphere

As Nicolás Maduro appeared in federal court in New York, Trump made explicit military threats against Colombia, Mexico, Cuba and Greenland—prompting protests from those countries’ leaders. In defense of his bellicosity, Trump invoked the notion of Latin America as a US influence sphere that was articulated in his recent National Security Strategy, calling it the “Donroe Doctrine.” (Photo: US Navy via Latin America Reports)

Watching the Shadows

Trump Corollary: spheres of influence, white supremacy

Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy instates a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. Like the Roosevelt Corollary of 1904, which was used to justify the “gunboat diplomacy” of that era, this new corollary openly calls for dividing the world into spheres of influence—with the Western Hemisphere assigned to the US. Russia is obviously pleased as punch over this, as it implicitly gives Moscow a free hand in Ukraine—and Putin will likely consider this an acceptable pay-off for his betrayal of Venezuela. However, China is less likely to surrender its massive investments and mega-projects in Latin America in exchange for a free hand to take over Taiwan. The document’s text on Europe is even more sinister, revealing a white supremacist agenda that looks not to Washington’s traditional allies to counter Russia, but to the continent’s Russian-backed far-right movements to counter Washington’s traditional allies. In Episode 308 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg exposes the NSS as a further step toward consolidation of a Fascist World Order. (Image: White House)

The Andes

Bolivia: far-right candidate defeated —at least

Rodrigo Paz, a center-right senator and son of a former president, won Bolivia’s run-off election—defeating former far-right president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, who ran on a platform that pledged an IMF bailout for the troubled economy and widespread privatization of state industries and natural resources. For the first time since 1997, there was no candidate on the ballot from the Movement toward Socialism (MAS), the party of former president Evo Morales. A candidate from MAS, which had ruled all but one year since 2006, was eliminated in the first round in August. However, some of the social policies put in place by the MAS have now been adopted by Paz. (Photo: Dan Lundberg/Flickr)