(FOX NEWS) — U.S. foes in Latin America have expressed apprehension regarding the forthcoming Trump administration, primarily due to anticipated shifts in U.S. foreign policy that may adversely affect their national interests.

Just last week, Trump’s tariff policies seemingly unsettled Mexico’s socialist president, who seemed to offer an olive branch to the incoming administration over tariffs and migration.

“The authoritarian axis or autocrats of the region: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia who have an anti-American stance and whose foreign policies are closer to Russia, China and Iran will certainly think twice before they become more aggressive in the region,” Joseph Humire, Executive Director of the Center for a Secure Free Society, told Fox News Digital.

(PRENSA LATINA) – Marcel Jean, president of the APM, emphasized the fact that a number of courts all over the country have been forced to close, under pressure from violence by armed gangs.

“This situation has paralyzed the judicial sector for more than three years,” Jean said, quoted by the Le National newspaper.

Many courts, including the peace courts in Delmas, Croix-des-Bouquets, and in the South and North regions, have been taken over by criminals, he said.

The reelection of Donald Trump has sent ripples across terror-supporting and anti-Israel regimes. In the Middle East, Qatar claimed it would rescind its longtime asylum for Hamas leadership, and Iran is reportedly recalibrating its retaliation for Israel’s recent airstrikes. But the new Trump Administration should also be focusing on Latin America, where complicit nations have enabled Hezbollah to thrive. The U.S. must curtail Hezbollah’s active regional fundraising which not only supports attacks against Israel but transnational criminal activity, including bringing drugs and potential terrorists across America’s southern border.

Both Luis Arce, socialist president of Bolivia, and Nicolas Maduro, the authoritarian president of Venezuela, have not only made horrifically antisemitic comments, but completely severed diplomatic ties with Israel. Maduro mourned the death of terrorist and Hezbollah founding member, Hassan Nasrallah, expressing support for the terror group while condemning Israel.

In the early 90’s, Hezbollah bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and two years later the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish cultural center. In November of 2023, police in Brazil foiled plans for a major terrorist attack on multiple Jewish targets in the country—home of Latin America’s second largest Jewish population second only to Argentina.

Hezbollah’s patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, facilitates Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America by building advantageous relationships with authoritarian-leaning countries in the region.

In July of 2023, the BBC reported that Iran and Bolivia signed a bilateral agreement to expand “cooperation in the fields of security and defense.” The Iranian defense minister, Mohamed Reza Ashtiani, acknowledged that the deal involved “the sale of equipment and the training of personnel,” including the purchase of Iranian drones by Bolivia. Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation agreement in 2022 to increase ties in the oil, petrochemical, economic, and military sectors.

Bolivia and Venezuela are rich in uranium and other resources. In 2009, Iran helped Venezuelan engineers with “geophysical aerial probes and geochemical analyses (to find) uranium deposits” as reported by EcoAmericas. By contrast, while the presence of uranium deposits is known in Bolivia, the government has labeled information on the topic as ”reserved”, meaning the location, size, and potential for mining are not publicly disclosed. Around the same time Venezuela and Bolivia had discovered uranium deposits in their regions, a secret Israeli government report obtained by AP news found that: “Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program.” In fact, in late October 2024, Bolivia produced its first nuclear fuel for a research reactor .

Furthermore, both countries are linked with narcotrafficking markets, in which Hezbollah and other terrorist groups are involved. Historically, Bolivia is one of the largest producers of the coca leaf. Due to its abundance, Bolivia naturally played a large role in the Latin America drug trade and supplied an estimated 15% of the cocaine market in the United States during the 1980’s. According to a 2022 White House press release, Bolivia’s steadily growing cocaine production poses a public health threat to the U.S. due to increasing cocaine related overdoses. As of 2009, Bolivia’s president at the time Evo Morales, expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from the country after nearly three decades of maintaining a presence.

Venezuela is also involved in the cocaine market. Through collaboration with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a known Hezbollah ally, Venezuela serves as a main export hub for cocaine into the United States and Europe. Early in the Biden Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice announced several narcoterrorism indictments against the Maduro regime, including Nicolás Maduro himself, for conspiring with FARC to facilitate and profit from the cocaine trade.

In March of 2020, former Venezuelan-Syrian politician, Adel El Zabayar, was indicted by the Justice Department for conspiring with Nicolas Maduro and other regime leaders in a narcoterrorism plot involving Colombian FARC dissidents, Mexican drug cartels, and operatives from Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah to carry out planned attacks on the United States. Last month, Mijal Gur Aryeh, Israel’s Ambassador to Costa Rica, condemned Venezuela and Bolivia for hosting Hezbollah and Iranian terrorists. Earlier this year, Patricia Bullrich, the Security Minister of Argentina, also made the claim that “Bolivia hosts hundreds of members of the Quds Force,” a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

People on terrorist watchlists have been apprehended at the southern border of the United States, and at least one Hezbollah operative attempting to enter the country illegally. Since the October 7^th attack on Israel, Hezbollah has launched over 8,000 rockets at the Jewish state, causing “over 70,000” Israeli’s to evacuate their homes.

Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America should alarm Western defense officials. While the terrorist organization continues to volley missiles at Israel daily, it is also increasing its involvement in transnational criminal activity, as its financiers the Islamic Republic of Iran increases its influence in the region. The incoming Trump Administration, with newly appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio—an unyielding opponent of repressive regimes—should work closely with its Latin American allies and Israel to destroy Hezbollah’s fundraising in the region  which not only enables terrorist activity in the Middle East, but also threatens the southern border with illicit drugs and potential terrorism.

Matias Ahrensdorf – Data Analyst for Policy and Research in New York City.

Santiago Vidal Calvo– Tech and Public Policy Scholar and master’s student at Georgetown University.

Border Patrol agents are “ecstatic” that immigration-enforcement veteran Tom Homan will serve as border czar in the second Trump administration, a union spokesman told The Daily Signal.

“We have somebody now that’s [come up] within the ranks,” Manny Bayon, president of the National Border Patrol Council for the San Diego area, said of Homan. “He was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement director before, and he wants to fix it.”

On Nov. 10, Trump named Homan border czar for his incoming administration.

The National Border Patrol Council, the union for Border Patrol agents, officially endorsed Trump for president in October.

Homan will work closely with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, to carry out the president-elect’s agenda at the southern border.

Border Patrol agents are “happy there’s somebody besides Mayorkas” who will lead DHS, Bayon said, referring to current Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, appointed by President Joe Biden.

“Our former border czar didn’t do anything,” Bayon said, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. “She had the ability to do something, being vice president, and she did not.”

In March 2021, Biden tasked Harris with “leading the administration’s diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,” according to a White House fact sheet.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly referred to Harris as Biden’s “border czar.”

Trump’s choice of Homan as his border czar isn’t surprising, given Homan’s years of experience working on border and immigration issues and his stint running ICE in the first Trump administration.

In 2017, Trump appointed Homan as acting director of ICE, a position he held until his retirement a year and a half later. Homan began his career in border security in the 1980s when he joined the Border Patrol; he began working for ICE in the early 2000s.

Because Homan worked his way up from the job of Border Patrol agent, he has “the confidence of the rank-and-file agents in the field,” a Customs and Border Protection official who asked not to be named told The Daily Signal.

Agents are “very positive” about Homan, the CBP official said, noting that “Homan has made it very clear that we are going to enforce U.S. immigration law.”

More than 10 million illegal aliens have entered the U.S. since Mayorkas became Biden’s homeland security secretary on Feb. 2, 2021.

The CBP official The Daily Signal spoke with indicated that Border Patrol agents aren’t as familiar with Noem as Homan, but said the agents consider the Republican governor to be “competent.”

Noem has been a vocal supporter of Trump in general and of securing the southern border specifically.

In February, Noem announced she would send South Dakota National Guard troops to Texas to aid in that state’s efforts to secure its border with Mexico.

“Kristi has been very strong on Border Security,” Trump wrote Nov. 12 in announcing Noem’s appointment as homeland security secretary. “She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times.”

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

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(PRENSA LATINA) – The actions against drug trafficking are not only executed in the Pacific Ocean where more than 45 tons of drugs were captured since 2019, the fight today is carried out inside the country and in prisons, said Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro.

For more than three weeks, the authorities have been registering more than 20 people arrested with drugs in our streets and cities, which we will not tolerate either, he said.

Without neglecting any part of the Salvadoran territory, we continue destroying the criminal economy. We need future generations to grow up with the right incentives, he said, mentioning that two methamphetamine distributors were arrested, which is a fashionable drug in foreign markets.

China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Peru Thursday, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Summit in Lima, where he will meet with U.S President Joe Biden amid a brewing trade war between the world’s two largest economies,

The two presidents are scheduled to meet Saturday, according to AFP, with one U.S. administration official stating this will likely be the last meeting between Biden and Xi before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told AFP the 21-member nations of APEC will be announcing the creation of a secretariat to ensure the alliance “will be an enduring feature of American policy in the Indo-Pacific going forward.”

China has been building up its presence in developing countries under its Belt and Road Initiative, which provides infrastructure projects. One such project is the Chinese-funded building of a massive megaport north of Lima, in Chancay.

Xi virtually inaugurated the megaport from the presidential palace alongside Peru’s President Dina Boluarte shortly after Xi’s arrival which came with an enthusiastic amount of pageantry and fanfare.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was warmly welcomed by people in Lima, the capital of Peru, as his motorcade moved from the airport to his hotel on Thursday.#APEC2024 https://t.co/Gj8EAJFdD3 pic.twitter.com/8YKo7XpohY

— CCTV+ (@CCTV_Plus) November 14, 2024

Chinese President #XiJinping attended a welcome ceremony hosted by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte in Lima, the capital of #Peru on Thursday.
Xi flew in earlier in the day to pay a state visit to Peru and attend the 31st #APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. pic.twitter.com/jPYLlLJUOS

— People’s Daily app (@PeoplesDailyapp) November 15, 2024

#URGENTE#ESTENDENCIA | Chancay
Porque se está inaugurando el Megapuerto ubicado en esta zona del norte del departamento de Lima. La pdta. Dina Baluarte inaugura la obra con el pdte. de China, Xi Jinping, desde Palacio de Gobierno.pic.twitter.com/q9mhGonmk4

— La Tendencia (@latendenciape) November 15, 2024

Brian Nichols, a top U.S. diplomat to Latin America, warned Latin American nations should be vigilant on investment with China going forward. China owning one of the largest ports in South America gives it unfettered access to the East Pacific Ocean and its fishing grounds.

According to the Associated Press, the megaport project cost Chinese shipping company Cosco a reported $1.3 billion, and will become an important part of the global economy.

However, some locals in Chancay have voiced concerns about the Chinese-owned port, and are saying there is little opportunity for them to prosper. One-third of the town’s population does not have running water or appropriate sanitation, and Peruvian fishermen told the AP the dredging of the port has killed off fish breeding grounds.

“Our fishing spots no longer exist here. They destroyed them… I don’t blame the Chinese for trying to mine this place for all it’s worth. I blame our government for not protecting us,” an elderly fisherman reportedly told the AP.

(YAHOO) – Forget snakes, it’s scorpions Brazilians most need to worry about. The arachnids – feared for the toxic stinger poised atop their tails – are proliferating thanks to urbanization and warming temperatures.

The result is that scorpions have become the most lethal poisonous animal in Brazil, posing a growing danger for people across the whole country – and spurring demand for antivenom.

The most widely found species in the country, the Brazilian yellow scorpion, is the most dangerous scorpion in South America. Unusually for scorpions, this all-female species also reproduces asexually, reducing population-control options.

(REUTERS) — A caravan of approximately 3,000 migrants set off on Tuesday from southern Mexico, headed toward the United States on the day when U.S. voters were deciding between U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Immigration has been a key issue in the U.S. election campaign.

Two migrant caravans left Chiapas for Mexico City, heading to the US border, as millions of Americans prepare to vote for a president who will shape the future of migrants seeking a new life in the US https://t.co/PeZbQhXmVk pic.twitter.com/cyAGiW5U2a

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) November 6, 2024

Before heading northward, the migrants gathered in Tapachula, the capital of the southern Chiapas state, carrying banners with messages such as “NO MORE MIGRANT BLOOD” and images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an important religious and cultural symbol in Mexico, according to Reuters witnesses.

(PRENSA LATINA) – Maduro welcomed the convening of the 11th Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas-People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), and considered that it evidences the character of the deep unity, solidarity and mutual support among the countries of the group.

The Venezuelan head of State referred to the organization as “the vital core of the great homeland, of independence, honor, sovereignty” amid campaigns, such as the one faced by the Bolivarian Republic and the pretensions by international actors interested in seizing political power in nations with the main reserves of natural resources on the planet.

Maduro affirmed that although the Venezuelan people receive attacks from all sides, they were able to counteract “a cyber, fascist and criminal coup d’état” and do not fear an escalation of the offensive unleashed against them.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States has become a “garbage can for the world,” former President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally Thursday in Tempe, Arizona.

“When [Vice President Kamala Harris] came in, she deliberately dismantled our border and threw open the gates … to an invasion of criminal migrants from prisons and jails, from insane asylums and mental institutions, from all over the world,” Trump said.

“We’re a dumping ground, were like a garbage can for the world,” he said, adding that was the first time he had ever used that phrasing.

In September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that more than 662,000 criminal illegal aliens have been released into the interior of the U.S. Among those, 435,719 had already been convicted of a crime, with 226,847 more facing pending criminal charges.

“Kamala’s migrant invasion, given to us through gross incompetence, disqualifies her from even thinking about being president,” Trump said.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, at least 99 illegal aliens on America’s terrorist watchlist have been released into the United States, according to a congressional report. It has been estimated that more than 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. under the current administration, and remain in the country.

Presuming victory on Nov. 5, Trump pledged to a cheering crowd that his presidency would end the “migrant invasion” and bring about “the restoration of our country.”

“We will stop all illegal immigration,” he said.

While speaking in Arizona, Trump was critical of the corporate media, calling them the “enemy of the people.” He explained that the outlets that stream his rallies don’t move their cameras to show the “great clips” he plays on a large screen for the crowd.

Trump went on to discuss the economy, pledging to end taxes on tip, and promised to reinvigorate American energy production through fracking and drilling. He also said he would keep men out of women’s sports, defend the freedom of speech, and protect the Second Amendment.

Arizona is one of seven swing states in the 2024 presidential election, and polls show Trump and Harris neck and neck in the state. A Marist Poll published Thursday reports Trump leading with 50% of the vote to Harris’ 49%.

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is expected to largely determine which candidate wins the border state’s 11 electoral votes.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

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(PRENSA LATINA) – “There are various ongoing activities this week to promote control of the disease and prevent its transmission”, said Deputy Minister of Promotion and Epidemiological Surveillance, Max Enríquez.

He told a press conference that this year the campaign will focus on eliminating mosquitoes so that all levels of government in regions subject to mid to high disease risk foster a gamut of actions, from clinical management of patients to the delivery of essential inputs to keep insects at bay.

This way, health authorities seek to eliminate breeding grounds, while protecting individuals.

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A migrant caravan is heading northward toward the United States a few weeks before Election Day, the results of which will almost undoubtedly spell changes for border enforcement policies, according to the Associated Press.

A roughly 2,000-person strong migrant caravan left southern Mexico on Sunday in hopes of reaching the U.S. in the coming days, according to the AP. The latest caravan is so far the largest since newly-elected Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum entered office in October.

Among those in the caravan are individuals who expressed concern that a new administration in Washington, D.C., would lead to the end of a popular app that has allowed hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals to schedule appointments with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials in hopes of entering the country.

“That is what makes us fearful,” Joel Zambrano, a Venezuelan national, said to the Associated Press. “They say this could change because they could both close the CBP One appointment and all the services that are helping migrants.”

BREAKING- Massive 2500 Migrant caravan leaving the south border of Mexico, and their intention to make it to the borders of the United States of America. This will be the third caravan that has been created under the new administration of the new president of Mexico. An… pic.twitter.com/UjtFyHefVq

— Oscar El Blue (@Oscarelblue) October 20, 2024

The CBP One app was first created in October 2020, with the Biden-Harris administration dramatically expanding its use in January 2023. The popular app enables migrants to schedule appointments in order to obtain exemptions at ports of entry, and permits them to submit biometric data to federal immigration authorities in order to apply for travel authorization and obtain parole.

More than 800,000 non-citizens scheduled appointments through the CBP One app from January 2023 through the end of August 2024, according to CBP. The Biden-Harris administration has additionally flown in more than half a million foreign nationals into the country via an initiative known as CHNV — a program that grants two-year parole to Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals.

Roughly 7.4 million migrants have illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, according to the latest data from CBP.

While the CBP One app and an election-year crackdown on illegal immigration by the Mexican government has helped keep migrants in southern Mexico, many are reportedly leaving the region due to a delay in asylum appointments and a lack of job opportunities.

“The situation in my country is very bad, the president doesn’t do anything for us. We spent a week by the border, but getting documents takes time,” Honduran Roberto Domínguez said to the Associated Press. “The documents we get are only for us to be in Tapachula and we cannot leave the city.”

Despite an attempt to brand herself as more of a border hawk since launching her presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris has consistently polled poorly with voters on border enforcement issues following her administration’s oversight of a historical border crisis. Former President Donald Trump, for his part, has pledged to hire 10,000 Border Patrol agents, give them a 10% pay bump and wage a large-scale deportation effort.

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(PRENSA LATINA) – Guido Manini, presidential candidate of the Cabildo Abierto party, opposed the regulated sale of a new marijuana variety that is now available in Uruguayan pharmacies.

“It is criminal that the State to sell drugs,” Manini wrote on X after the launch of “Epsilon,” a marijuana variety with a THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content of around 15 percent.

The political leader considered irresponsible the commercialization of drugs “of which there are no studies on the effects they will have on users.”

(NEW YORK TIMES) — Estefanía León, a young Venezuelan comedian, once wondered how she could keep making jokes amid so much tragedy.

It was 2017, and she was living in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, at the worst point in her country’s economic crisis. Protests convulsed the nation, while food shortages left millions hungry and hyperinflation erased savings overnight.

Her father, at the time very ill, would rise at three in the morning to line up to buy food before supplies ran out. Ms. Léon was working seven days a week but could not afford his medication.

(REUTERS) — Hundreds of bare-chested men circle flames on a dark night to the beat of drums in central Venezuela’s mountains. They dash across the blaze with bare feet over hot coals.

Even more daring souls beat themselves with the burning wood, while others pour alcohol over their backs.

In a nearby river, families cleanse themselves to welcome the spirits of the dead and smoke tobacco.

(REUTERS) — An Argentine claim that European contact brought civilization to the Americas has provoked rebukes from across Latin America, where heated debates often flare up over the era’s contested historical legacy.

Commemorating Christopher Columbus’ landing in the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492, the office of Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei posted on social media on Saturday that the Italian explorer’s arrival introduced enlightenment to the region.

Hoy, 12 de octubre, celebramos el Día de la Raza en conmemoración de la llegada de Cristóbal Colón a América, un hito que marcó el inicio de la civilización en el continente americano. pic.twitter.com/ZPYvP0UcFN

— Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) October 12, 2024

“It marked the beginning of civilization in the American continent,” the post boasted, accompanied by a slick video set to triumphant music.

(ZENIT) — A decade after his election as Pope Francis, once a highly popular figure across Latin America, is now seeing a decline in his favorability among the public in the region, according to a recent 2024 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. The poll, which gathered data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, highlights both waning support and growing criticism of the Argentine-born pontiff.

In two of the region’s largest Catholic countries, Brazil and Mexico, Pope Francis remains relatively popular, with 68% of adults expressing a favorable opinion of him. However, these figures represent a decrease when compared to the initial waves of enthusiasm that accompanied his early years as pope. This trend of declining support is consistent across the region, where positive opinions have diminished notably over the past decade.

Chile stands out for its ambivalence toward Francis. Only half of the Chilean respondents view the Pope favorably, with 48% expressing positive opinions and 36% holding negative views. Although favorable opinions still outweigh unfavorable ones, Chile’s lukewarm reception of the Pope is notable compared to other Latin American nations.