Greg Davis

"The first person I ever heard use the term 'narco-terrorist' was Alvaro Uribe. I have wondered if it’s a case of a Spanish term being imported into the U.S. political lexicon." x.com/BrazilBrian/...

Pentagon shifts to Pacific strikes seeking stronger link between targets and US drug trafficking | CNN Politics The Pentagon has deliberately shifted its strategy in recent weeks to striking suspected narcotraffickers in the eastern Pacific Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea because administration officials be...

“They don’t know whether there’s any data or metrics that would show (the strikes are) impeding the flow of drugs, whether there has been an increase in the price due to higher demand or lower supply, like there’s just no information” www.cnn.com/2025/10/31/p...

The Bogus ‘High Seas’ Rationale for the President’s Missile Attacks | National Review The issue is not where the alleged drug boats are located but whether we’re in a state of armed conflict.

"The location is irrelevant to the question of whether the laws of war permit lethal force. The question is whether there is a state of armed conflict. If there is not, then lethal force may not be used." www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-b...

Trump’s Domestic Pressures for a Potential War in Venezuela "Trump is not a democracy builder. In the case of Venezuela, he is more of a coalition repairman."

Solid breakdown of the US domestic groups pushing for action in Venezuela: "At home, it may please multiple MAGA factions—oil interests, nationalists, MAHA-supporters, ICE-enthusiasts, and Florida Cubans and Venezuelans." @javiercorrales.bsky.social

The U.S. Is Preparing for War in Venezuela More U.S. military firepower is headed to the Caribbean as Trump escalates his anti-Maduro rhetoric.

"The U.S. hasn’t sent this many ships to the Caribbean since the Cuban missile crisis. There are already roughly 6,500 Marines and sailors in the region, operating from eight Navy vessels, as well as 3,500 troops nearby." www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Behind the Curtain: How Trump’s Spat With Colombia Could Impact Anti-Drug Ops US anti-drug assistance to Colombia is fundamental and it will benefit no one to cut resources used to fight the cocaine trade.

"I think when the world's biggest consumer of cocaine and the world's biggest producer of cocaine stop working together, there is no way this is going to have a happy ending" (20:04)
insightcrime.org/news/behind-...

The US is a Latin American country Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown ignores the United States’ Hispanic roots

"Ironically, were the United States to launch an attack on Venezuela, it would do so from within Latin America. Puerto Rico hosts a US naval training base in the island of Vieques, and in the last months the US sent guided missile cruisers, fighter jets and warships, along with 4,500 sailors.."

The Colombia Briefing | 13th October 🗞️ Reported by Sophie Foggin

☕☕☕ "Colombia has just enjoyed its best coffee harvest for decades, the country’s National Coffee Federation reported, thanks to good weather conditions and crop renewal which has boosted production." open.substack.com/pub/harte/p/...

Trump Has a Different Plan to Oust Maduro This Time Around Venezuela’s leader has survived the US president’s wrath before.

"I’m not sure if there’s some special term for this approach. Regime change on the side? Whatever you call it, it may prove harder to pull off than the steps Trump has taken so far."
www.politico.com/news/magazin...

The three most recent Americas stories on the NYT right now. Qatar as an attempted US-Venezuela mediator is not something I saw coming.

"Leaders often turn to the military because it projects authority and control. However, the record from Latin America shows that soldiers in city streets produce both short-term benefits and long-term damage."

"🫓 Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan TPS holders being told they have to leave the U.S. and return to a country run by a drug cartel because it has gotten significantly better?"
x.com/CaracasChron...

Why Argentina’s Economy is Floundering Javier Milei is failing in the least predictable way possible.

"In the end, the Argentinian president who’d vowed never to seek a bailout ended up getting bailed out by the American president who’d vowed to stop bailing out his deadbeat allies."

"Unlike Panama, where U.S. forces already had a vast footprint and Noriega’s army was relatively small and poorly equipped, Venezuela poses a far more formidable challenge. Its sheer size, vast oil reserves and dense urban centers make rapid occupation nearly impossible."

Fentanyl Doesn’t Come Through the Caribbean The White House is using the opioid epidemic to justify lethal strikes and other policies.

"Some analysts say the Caribbean strikes could be a prelude to a broader campaign aimed at toppling the Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro. But the strikes may have another purpose: They may be a test run for unilateral U.S. strikes on suspected cartel targets in Mexico."

US policy in LatAm - 22 September 2025 The DEA wanted to bomb Mexico. Instead, Trump is ordering more drug boats sunk in the Caribbean.

"Regarding Venezuela, one signal to continue monitoring is whether an aircraft carrier enters the Caribbean. The Truman and the Bush are both up in Norfolk and could be down in the Caribbean relatively quickly, but so far they have not been called in." boz.substack.com/p/us-policy-...

Where Is Congress on Trump’s Lethal Military Strikes on Venezuelan Boats? | National Review Even assuming he is correct that these are narco-terrorists, Trump has offered no justification under the Constitution and the laws of war.

"assume [...] the Maduro regime are in fact shipping narcotics to the United States. Congress has never made that a basis to conduct lethal missile attacks. To the contrary, Congress made the importation of illegal drugs into the United States a felony offense to be prosecuted in court"

The Top 10 Trump Administration Foreign-Policy Mistakes So far.

"7. Pointless displays of military force [...] The problem is that these semi-random acts of war do not achieve any concrete strategic purpose—the Houthis remain defiant, Iran’s nuclear program was not destroyed, and the flow of illegal drugs from Latin America will continue unabated..."

Gabbard Retracted Intelligence Report on Venezuela

"The original report was circulated throughout the intelligence community. But more recently, the White House has ordered spy agencies to limit the number of people receiving intelligence on Venezuela."

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/u...

Simón Bolívar, dead nearly 200 years, rallies Venezuelans against U.S. As tensions with the United States grow, Nicolás Maduro is reviving Venezuela’s heroes with AI to encourage citizens to join militias.

"The AI avatars of military and political leaders, artists and activists are part of 'Yo Me Alisto,' the government’s campaign to prepare the country to fight. The Spanish phrase can mean 'I am ready,' 'I prepare myself' or 'I enlist.'"
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

The False Pretenses Behind the Naval Operation Off the Coast of Venezuela The nation is not a major source of drugs to the U.S., for starters.

“The entire naval operation raises a number of questions. First, Venezuela is not a leading source of the drugs reaching U.S. streets. The last estimates made by U.S. agencies suggest that between 10 and 13 percent of global cocaine supplies passes through Venezuela…” thedispatch.com/article/vene...

Saw my first beanie of the fall. Summer really is dead 😢

“Returning to U.S. policy in 2025, the points of similarity with Argentina go well beyond mere meddling with price statistics. They include costly trade barriers, widening fiscal deficits, harassment of the central bank and a reactive, chaotic style of economic...” thehill.com/opinion/fina...

What Happens When Politicians Meddle With Economic Data: Argentina’s Example Echoes of the Argentine experience have reverberated in the U.S. since Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, accusing the agency of rigging jobs figures.

"Government statistician Graciela Bevacqua arrived at the office on a Monday to bad news from her boss: There was no easy way to say this, but the president wanted her head.

It was January 2007, and Bevacqua oversaw the consumer-price index at Argentina’s national statistics agency, Indec..."

This is outrageous. Cubans and Venezuelans who came to the U.S. *legally*—fleeing socialism & communism—are being fast-tracked for deportation by the Trump administration without so much as a hearing.

I wrote about some of them. Anyone who claims to hate those oppressive regimes can't defend this:

"This is a very unpredictable administration. They seem on the surface anyway more interested in the political showmanship than the actual results or even the reality on the ground [...] So it's hard to know where that political showmanship needs to go."

Trump administration eyes military action against drug cartels, US officials say President Donald Trump's administration can use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations and has directed the Pentagon to prepare options, U.S. officials said.

Wrote a Substack post about this topic back in February. Read here: open.substack.com/pub/americaa... www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Boz (@boz) I used ChatGPT this morning to build an interactive map of all the presidents' ages in the Western Hemisphere. Because I either learn to work with the tech or lose my unofficial side gig of "viral car...

substack.com/@boz/note/c-...

Venezuela’s Authoritarian Government Has a New Target: Economists

Published July 21: "Roughly two dozen economists and others involved in publishing financial data have been detained in the past two months, according to a human rights group and the Venezuelan government."

AMORES PERROS shakes up Mexico City (w/ Gael García Bernal) Podcast Episode · MUBI Podcast · 07/17/2025 · 39m

Really great episode from the Mubi podcast about Mexican film in general and Amores Perros in particular podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...