Bolivians Protest US-Backed President Rodrigo Paz and the Threats to Kidnap Former President Evo Morales
Indigenous groups, like the Aymara Red Ponchos, campesinos, teachers, miners, students, unions, and working-class Bolivians are blocking roads, marching to the city of La Paz and striking to call for the resignation of US-backed President Rodrigo Paz amid. The country faces economic collapse amid transnational privatization of natural resources (such as lithium), removal of social subsidies, fuel shortages, and high inflation. President Paz and the US are reportedly prepared to abduct and kill former President Evo Morales, according to a leaked directive. In response, Bolivian protestors protected the surrounding of Morales’ residence and occupied the airport near nearby to prevent the landing of US military aircraft and Argentinian military aid from landing.
After Paz took office in November 2025, he restored the countries relationship with the US, particularly the DEA, after two decades without diplomatic relationships. In contrast, the Morales’ administration had favored relations with China, Russia, Cuba and Iran under his Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) Party. Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Oviedo confirmed that the US DEA is already in Bolivia and that they are also cooperating with European intelligence and police bodies.
Sources:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/what-is-behind-bolivias-widening-protests-2026-05-18/
https://hrnews1.substack.com/p/the-us-orders-the-bolivian-government
https://x.com/vocalpolitics1/status/2056378631836913792
Former Private Prison Executive to Lead ICE
David Venturella, the former senior vice president of private prison giant GEO Group, is expected to become acting director of ICE. GEO Group has received hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts tied to immigrant detention, ICE jails, deportation flights, and GPS ankle monitor surveillance programs.
The appointment comes as more than 60,000 immigrants are being held in ICE detention facilities across the United States. A recent Public Citizen report found that roughly half of immigrants detained for more than a few days are funneled into ICE’s so-called “Voluntary Work Program,” where detainees are paid as little as $1 per day.
At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general is investigating a $38 billion warehouse purchasing program promoted by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to expand ICE jail infrastructure.
Sources:
Cuba Runs out of fuel and the US Seeks to Indict Raul Castro
The Cuban’s Energy Minister has announced that the the island nation has run out of fuel. “We have absolutely no fuel, and absolutely no diesel… We have no reserves,” according to Minister Vicente de La O Levy.
At the same time, the Cuban electric grid is in a critical state, with up to 22 hour blackouts in some areas of the island.
Like many crises the Cuban people face, the complete depletion of the nation’s oil reserves goes back to the embargo the US has enforced for over half a century, since the Cold War. “Cuba is open to anyone that wants to sell us fuel,” says Minister of Energy. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canal added that the cause is “the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country, threatening irrational tariffs against any nation that supplies us with fuel.”
Access to oil has gotten worse since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the illegal kidnapping of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela was a key ally to Cuba in providing oil, but the Trump administration has strengthened the blockade since then, and President Maduro remains imprisoned in the US.
As Trump and his cronies continue to carry out their Monroe Doctrine 2.0 across Latin America, they aren’t trying to hide their goal of regime change. According to inside sources, speaking to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, the US Justice Department is preparing to seek an indictment against former President of Cuba Raul Castro. Sources told AP that “the potential indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro was Defense Minister at the time.”
Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/raul-castro-cuba-doj-indictment-trump-40939c6644185652649bc90d4e445394
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5878261-energy-blockade-cuba-crisis/
https://x.com/DiazCanelB/status/2054622454618710170
US Allows Israel to Build Secret Bases in Iraq Without the Knowledge of the Iraqi People
Israel has been operating not one, but two secret military bases in the western desert of Iraq since at least June of 2025. This was done without the knowledge or consent of the Iraqi government. The United States, however, has been aware of the presence of Israeli bases on Iraqi soil for at least a year. The bases were established to facilitate the 12-day war on Iran, which was fought in June of 2025. The bases function as forward operating bases for Israeli search and rescue teams and special forces teams, but Israel has also used the bases to launch airstrikes from within Iraq’s sovereign borders, again, without the knowledge or consent of the Iraqi government, and certainly against the wishes of the Iraqi people, who are generally, hostile to Israel.
It was nearly discovered in March by a local shepherd, Awad al-Shammari, who had seen suspicious military vehicles operating in his vicinity. Upon being detected by Israeli forces, his truck was fired upon by a helicopter, and al-Shammari was killed. He was 29. Prior to his murder, he had reported his discovery to the Iraqi government, and the Iraqi military then deployed troops to investigate the possibility of a secret base in the desert. They were met by whithering bombardment upon reaching the proximity of the base; one Iraqi soldier was killed and two were wounded. The Iraqi troops did find evidence of military activity in the area but did not find either of the bases before withdrawing – the western desert of Iraq covers a massive area, and it’s hard to find anything in a desert. How exactly the base was discovered is not clear; the Wall Street Journal broke the story, but they simply cite “US officials” as their source.
Iraq has been subject to the political whims and security oversight of the United States since it was invaded by the US empire in 2003. Formally, US troops were withdrawn in 2011, but there around 2,500 US troops still in the country. The US considers Iraq to be an important strategic asset, and it invests heavily into diplomacy and lobbying within the country, and the Iraqi military is largely equipped and trained by the US military. Despite the status of Iraq as a US vassal, apparently Iraq is not owed US constancy; the US is perfectly content to walk all over Iraq, and to allow Israel to do the same, when it suits them. Iraq, like every country in the world, is just a tool for the US empire to exploit, plunder, manipulate.
https://2021-2025.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ICS_NEA_Iraq_Public.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/world/europe/israel-iraq-iran-bases.html
https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/122076.pdf
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/12/a-secret-israeli-base-in-iraq-what-we-know
Behind Enemy Lines 