International
Joy and worry for Venezuelans as US shuts land border
AFP | Paula Ramon
Jose was reunited with his wife and four-year-old child in the United States minutes after Washington shut its southern border to Venezuelans. But his happiness was short-lived.
His adult son, currently battling through the treacherous Darien Gap jungle that straddles Colombia and Panama, will likely be turned away from the United States — if he even makes it that far.
“Last night I was happier than a child at Christmas,” he told AFP by telephone on Thursday.
“But when I saw the news I immediately called my son and asked him not to continue his journey.”
AFP has changed the names of migrants interviewed for this story because of their vulnerable status, or the risk of retribution from human traffickers.
Humanitarian program
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced that Venezuelans entering the United States by land will be returned to Mexico, in line with almost all other migrants without visas coming over the border.
Until now they have been granted exceptions because of Washington’s distrust of the hard-left regime in Caracas, which it says punishes political opponents.
Instead, the United States will allow 24,000 Venezuelans to apply for entry under a humanitarian program, similar to a scheme that has welcomed tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of their country.
The program — launched a month ahead of elections — is a bid by President Joe Biden’s administration to chart a path between Democratic demands for helping desperate migrants and Republican calls to stem what they paint as a “tide” of illegal migration.
In the year to September, border authorities encountered more than 155,000 Venezuelans, more than triple the previous year.
Most, like Jose, arrive in Texas.
He set foot on US soil on Sunday after wading across the chest-deep waters of the Rio Grande river near Eagle Pass.
“It was nothing compared to what I had to do to get here,” he said as he stood in the baking Texas sun, his clothes wet and his shoes muddy.
In his backpack were the few clothes he still owned.
“The others I left on the road.”
Crisis
Millions of Venezuelans have left the country in recent years, fleeing a political and economic crisis under authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.
Many have traveled to nearby Latin American countries but an increasing number are heading for the United States — despite the distance and the danger.
Videos on TikTok — a main source of news for Venezuelans — show columns of people with backpacks making their way through dense vegetation.
Stories of rapes, robberies, murders and bribery are common among those who make it.
Jose’s seven-country journey took him a month.
After reuniting with his wife and young child, he thought things were finally coming together, with his 22-year-old son setting off from Caracas to join him.
Then the US government changed the rules.
“I am very sad, and so is he, because we were all going to be together finally,” he says.
“It would give me a lot of pain if he makes such a big effort and they send him back to Mexico, where the people are very good but the immigration agents and the police mistreat us a lot.”
Jose says his time in Mexico was the hardest part of the trip.
“In the jungle they put a bracelet on you to distinguish those who pay from those who don’t. Those who don’t pay are mistreated.
“In Mexico, the coyote tells you it’s $500, but if you tell him ‘I have $200,’ he accepts it.
“But a Mexican cop will tell you it’s $500 and if you don’t give it to him, he’ll beat you or rob you.”
Maria, who also arrived in Eagle Pass on Sunday, was reunited with her boyfriend in Georgia on Wednesday.
“I was lucky, but the Mexican agents took my friends and beat them. They detained them for two weeks, and released them somewhere else. Now they won’t be able to get into the US,” she says.
Maria’s boyfriend is overjoyed that she made it to the United States, where he hopes she will be able to get treatment for a chronic illness.
But he frets over what will happen now to his three sisters, who are somewhere deep in the Darien Gap.
“I do nothing but think, I’m happy because Maria is finally here, but I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.
International
Mexican authorities bust Meth Lab and seize tons of drugs and chemicals in multiple states
Mexican authorities dismantled a clandestine laboratory containing 2.5 tons of methamphetamine in the southeastern state of Chiapas, seized a warehouse with more than four tons of chemical precursors in Guerrero (south), and intercepted a trailer in Tijuana attempting to cross into the United States with 2.7 tons of drugs.
Omar García Harfuch, head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), reported on Saturday via social media that agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), along with representatives from the Defense Secretariat, Navy (Semar), National Guard (GN), and SSPC, disabled the methamphetamine production lab in Chiapas and confiscated 2.5 tons of the drug.
A statement specified that the agents secured 2.5 tons of methamphetamine, barrels containing substances used to manufacture synthetic drugs, a firearm, and four trucks. In another operation in Guerrero, authorities located over four tons of chemical substances.
The discovery took place on a property in the community of Margarita Maza, Juárez, used to store materials for synthetic drug production. Sufficient evidence was collected and presented to a control judge who authorized the intervention of the property.
In Chiapas, authorities also seized more than 300 barrels and containers with chemicals for making synthetic drugs, as well as various metal containers and devices.
International
Maduro gains support from Venezuelan Assembly amid U.S. drug trafficking accusations
The National Assembly of Venezuela expressed its support this Saturday for President Nicolás Maduro, condemning the United States’ increase in the reward offered for his capture as an “act of aggression.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Thursday that Washington had doubled the reward to $50 million for Maduro’s capture, labeling him as one of the “world’s largest drug traffickers.”
“We reject the absurd and desperate actions announced by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, which are clearly illegal and lack any real basis, beyond being a delirious attempt of aggression against the president (…) and against our rebellious and brave people,” said the Assembly leader, Jorge Rodríguez, while reading a letter he said was unanimously approved by the deputies.
“It is precisely President Nicolás Maduro (…) the protector of the strong democracy that shelters us and the leader who firmly upholds the rule of law and justice,” Rodríguez continued. He is also Venezuela’s chief negotiator in talks with Washington.
Bondi accused Maduro of using “terrorist organizations like the Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa cartel, and the Cartel of the Suns to introduce lethal drugs and violence” into the United States.
“In 25 years of revolution, we have resisted and advanced despite constant imperialist aggressions. They have not succeeded, and will not succeed, with crude sanctions, criminal blockades, or senseless threats in diverting the noble path the Venezuelan people charted in the free elections of July 28, 2024, in which Nicolás Maduro was elected President of the Republic,” the statement read.
The Venezuelan opposition alleges fraud in those elections and claims victory, and as a result, has boycotted the 2025 legislative, regional, and municipal elections.
International
U.S. doubles bounty on Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro to $50 million
In February, the United States designated eight Latin American criminal organizations as “global terrorist” groups, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, and the MS-13 gang. In July, it added the Cartel of the Suns to the list — a group Washington claims is led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Last Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, raising it from $25 million to $50 million, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on social media platform X.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that labeling the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization allows for a strategic shift in dealing with the Venezuelan regime, as it is now also considered a direct threat to U.S. national security, according to El Espectador.
In an interview with The World Over on EWTN, Rubio said the designation enables the U.S. to “use intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, or any other element of American power to go after them.” He stressed this is no longer just a law enforcement matter, but a national security operation.
When asked at the White House whether he believes it is worth sending the military to combat Latin American drug cartels, Trump responded:
“Latin America has many cartels, a lot of drug trafficking, so, you know, we want to protect our country. We have to protect it.”
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