Category: South America

When we order troops to carry out morally questionable strikes, we don’t just risk the target, we plant moral injury that spreads through the force, wrecks morale and trust in leadership, and creates long-term damage to the institution unless we face it honestly and care for our people.

If the bombing of that vessel is ultimately judged to have targeted civilians or used grossly disproportionate force, then everyone in the chain of command, from the trigger-puller up to President Trump and his Pentagon leadership, must answer for it as a potential war crime rather than dismiss it as routine business of war.

Armed militias filling the streets of Caracas are more than a show of force; they’re the clearest signal yet that Venezuela is bracing for a storm it can feel long before it sees.

Congress is tightening bipartisan oversight on the Trump administration’s Caribbean counter-narco strikes even as the White House keeps pressure on cartel networks and Maduro’s inner circle. At the same time, Maduro is trying to project calm from behind blacked-out glass in Caracas, while New York’s anti-ICE protest at Federal Plaza crossed from lawful dissent into street-level disorder and drew a firm NYPD response.

Parked off Venezuela like a steel cathedral, the Ford isn’t here to chase panga boats — it’s a billion-dollar warning flare meant to make someone, somewhere, think very hard about what happens next.

In Rio, where rainforest meets surf and glass balconies overlook stacked mosaics of tin and prayer, I learned that the state, the narcos, and the civilians breathe the same air while fighting different wars that end at dawn and begin again by night.

We became the heirs of liberty who preached equality while conquering, cleansing, and corralling a people we called “savages,” and the question still hangs in the air: will we learn from that betrayal—or repeat it?

In the heat of battle, as bullets whizzed by and bombs turned the night into day, Chief Coker’s voice over the radio was the calm in the storm, reminding every soul under his watch that they were not alone in this fight, forging ahead with the might of righteousness and the unwavering belief that if God is for us, then who can be against us?

The people behind the counter looked like we they were about to empty their bladders. Even donuts can be dangerous!

In a stark reminder of the ongoing tensions between Venezuela and the West, the recent arrest of a fourth U.S. citizen, allegedly linked to an assassination plot against President Maduro, further fuels suspicions of foreign interference in the troubled nation.

Venezuela’s recent aggressive maneuvers towards Guyana over the long-disputed Essequibo region, fueled by Maduro’s lust for its newly discovered oil wealth, threaten to ignite a conflict in the dense, unforgiving jungles that lie beyond the border.

Orestes Lorenzo Perez’s daring Cuba-to-US defection and family rescue epitomize courage in the pursuit of freedom against oppression.