Scientists Discover 3,500-Year-Old Lost City In Peru That Rivaled Ancient Egypt

Scientists discover 3,500-year-old lost city in Peru that rivalled Ancient Egypt By Vishwam Sankaran, 19 hours ago Ancient city of Penico unearthed in Peru Peru Ministry of Culture Archaeologists have unearthed a lost city in Peru that thrived 3,500 years ago, likely as a potential contemporary of early human societies such as the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian civilisations of the Middle East. The ancient city, named Peñico, emerged independently of these other early civilisations, and likely thrived as a trading hub, connecting coastal South America to the mountainous Andes regions through dense forests. "This urban centre was developed following the cultural tradition of Caral,” said archaeologist Ruth Shady, director of the Caral Archaeological Zone. Researchers uncovered a circular structure on a hillside in Peru’s northern Barranca province, including the remains of stone and mud buildings constructed at about 600m (1,970ft) above sea level around 1,800 and 1,500 BC. Ancient city of Penico unearthed in Peru (Peru Ministry of Culture) Scientists suspect the ancient city’s inhabitants were connected to the Caral civilisation, the oldest in the Americas, which developed 5,000 years ago. Drone footage revealed the presence of new human-made structures running parallel to previously uncovered buildings of the Caral–Supe pre-Columbian society. The height at which the structures were found suggests the ancient city’s settlers strategically chose the location likely to enhance the monumentality of their buildings, protect themselves from floods and landslides, or to promote interaction and exchange. "Peñico adds to the archaeological sites that can be visited under our management: the Sacred City of Caral, the fishing town of Áspero and the agricultural fishing city of Vichama. The public will also be able to get to know this city of integration," Dr Shady said. The city’s discovery is key to further understanding South American history, according to archaeologists, who suspect it emerged after the Caral civilisation was devastated by climate change. Peñico also likely acted as a node in the exchange network, linked to the extraction and circulation of Iron mineral hematite used to make a red pigment with a high symbolic importance within Andean cosmology. "They were situated in a strategic location for trade, for exchange with societies from the coast, the highlands and the jungle," Dr Shady told Reuters. So far, 18 constructions have been unearthed in the ancient city site, including larger and minor public buildings, and residential complexes, Peru’s Ministry of Culture said in a statement. Ancient Peru 'City of Social Integration' Peñico (Peru Ministry of Culture) One structure labelled "B2" stands out for its sculptural reliefs, integrated into two other large public Buildings of the urban centre. The building was found to have remarkable designs of conch shell musical horns called pututus, and other instruments represented on the walls of a quadrangular room. Pututus were used in early Andean societies to transmit sound over long distances, such as to make announcements for meetings and important events, and were considered a symbol of social importance. They were considered an important ritual offering to deities, in gratitude for the benefits required and received. Researchers also found other significant artefacts in the building, including sculptures made of uncooked clay representing human-like and animal-like figures as well as ceremonial objects. They also unearthed necklaces with beads of various materials like rhodochrosite, chrysola, animal bone and clay at the building site. The presence of such artefacts indicates the building was likely one of the most important in the urban history of Peñico.

"Get Out Of Mexico!" Protests Against American Tourists Turn Violent

‘Get Out of Mexico’: Protests in Mexico Against American Tourists Turn Violent Mexico A peaceful protest against gentrification and mass tourism in Mexico City turned violent over the weekend after demonstrators smashed storefronts and harassed visitors in neighborhoods popular among tourists, the Associated Press reported. The protests against mass tourism, which have mostly been seen igniting in Europe, saw demonstrators complaining about the influx of American tourists who have poured into Mexico’s capital, Mexico City, in recent years. In 2020, US “digital nomads” began “escaping” to Mexico City to escape Covid-19 lockdowns and enjoy cheaper rents in the country where salaries are far lower than in the US. The average monthly salary in Mexico City is about $370. This phenomenon, say critics, has caused rent and other living costs to spike for locals, forcing them out of their neighborhoods, especially in areas like Condesa and Roma, now filled with restaurants and cafes. The protesters say it’s a new type of colonialism, according to the New York Times. The protesters also called on local lawmakers to regulate tourism levels and enact stricter housing laws. Then, masked protesters assaulted the areas of Condesa and Roma, where they broke into and looted luxury stores. Graffiti on shattered glass, broken by rocks, read sentences like “Get out of Mexico.” Some officials criticized the violent behavior of the protesters and what they described as the protesters’ nativist bent. Mexico City’s government secretary, César Cravioto, accused the protesters of “xenophobic” behavior and said that Mexico City “is a city of migrants,” insisting that the city’s administration doesn’t agree with “this type of demonstration.” While also condemning the violence, the governor of Mexico City, Carla Brugada, wrote on X that officials are aware of the issues facing local residents and said that her administration was working on providing more affordable housing. Similar protests against mass tourism have repeatedly broken out over the past few years in Europe, especially in Spain, France, and Italy.

Inside The Secret Military Dialogue Between Britan and Argentina

The Americas | Game of southern cone Inside the secret military dialogue between Britain and Argentina A deal would counter China and please America. It requires deft diplomacy on the Falklands Save Share Give Illustration of a British lion with a face made of the Argentinian sun, facing away from China and towards a F-16 fighter jet Illustration: Ben Jones Jul 6th 2025 | MONTEVIDEO | 7 min read America’s top brass worries about the South Atlantic. It is a jumping-off point for Antarctica, where Russia and China boast 15 bases between them, scrambling to lock down resources. It is linked to the Pacific by the Strait of Magellan, the only safe maritime route between the two oceans other than the drought-hit Panama Canal. Traffic through the Strait is surging, as is illegal Chinese fishing on either side. China is pushing infrastructure projects across the region. America’s top generals have visited Argentina’s deep south three times in the last two years. At first glance the United States is well positioned to manage any threat. President Javier Milei of Argentina is a hyper-willing ally. Britain has Typhoon fighter jets and the HMS Forth patrol vessel stationed in the Falkland Islands. But Argentina’s armed forces are in bad shape. Britain’s are focused on defending the Falklands (sovereignty over which Britain has and Argentina claims) from Argentina. As a legacy of the Falklands war, Britain has tight restrictions on weapons sales to Argentina. These have hamstrung the latter’s efforts to improve its armed forces and pushed it towards buying Chinese planes and weaponry, alarming the United States. Map: The Economist Now a mix of factors, including Mr Milei’s unusual perspective on the islands and American enthusiasm for Argentina’s military modernisation, have created an opening for a new strategic arrangement in the South Atlantic. Quietly, after a long hiatus, dialogue between the Argentine and British defence ministries has restarted. Argentina wants Britain to loosen its restrictions on arms purchases. Britain wants discreet acceptance of its role in the rest of the South Atlantic even while Argentina maintains its constitutional claim over the Falklands. Britain also wants Argentina to work with it on practical matters to improve life on the Falklands. The warming began in February 2024, a few months after Mr Milei took office. British defence attachés visited the ministry of defence in Argentina for the first time in three years. In September that year the British and Argentine foreign ministers met and arranged a visit by Argentines to the graves of family members on the Falklands. They also agreed to share fisheries data and to restart monthly direct flights to the Falklands from Argentina. Defence dialogue then ramped up. An Argentine delegation visited London in January. Next, a British one is expected to visit Buenos Aires. Mr Milei wants to modernise his country’s armed forces with the best NATO-compatible equipment. He is cutting government spending savagely, but raising the defence budget from 0.5% of GDP to 2% over the next seven years. Last year Argentina applied for NATO-partner status. Britain is interested in a deal, too, but cautious. It shares the American concerns about the South Atlantic. Argentina’s de facto acceptance of Britain’s relevance in the region would facilitate closer co-operation on everything from science to security, not just with Argentina but also with its neighbours, Chile and Uruguay. But while the Argentine families visited in December, Argentina has not yet shared fishing data or restarted flights, stepping stones to progress on arms policy. The islanders are wary. “We feel very secure,” says Leona Roberts of the Falklands’ Executive Council, “but we would probably not be wildly comfortable with the UK supplying military equipment to Argentina.” Britain has long blocked sales of military equipment with British components to Argentina, even by third countries. Given the strength of Britain’s arms industry this has been a serious constraint. In 2020 it blocked the sale of Korean fighter jets with some British parts. The stated policy is to block sales that could “enhance Argentine military capability”. Yet there is wriggle room. Britain may allow sales that “are not detrimental to the UK’s defence and security interests”. A first step could be to interpret that clause more flexibly. The shape of things to come There are several reasons to believe a new arrangement is possible. Few consider Argentina a real threat to the Falklands. “It’s militarily unthinkable…[Britain] would wipe us off the planet,” says Alejandro Corbacho, a military historian at the University of CEMA in Buenos Aires. Britain seems more willing to reconsider its restrictions if Argentina planned to make large purchases, as that would boost Britain’s defence industry. If so, that would suggest the embargo is more about politics than protecting the Falklands. Britain knows its restrictions are anyway losing bite as more countries make military kit. That the United States wants a new arrangement matters too. In public statements it has offered “steadfast” support for the modernisation of Argentina’s armed forces. In private, one American with knowledge of the matter calls Argentina “a huge partner” but says its military is “in very sore need of equipment and training”. But that equipment must be Western, not Chinese. Britain’s embargo makes that harder. Continued intransigence could end up bolstering those in a post-Milei government that believe Argentina’s future, in weaponry and politics, runs through China rather than the West. Argentina’s dalliance with American adversaries is real. Mr Milei likes trading with the Asian giant. In 2023, before he took office, a Chinese firm looked set to build a large port near the Argentine entrance to the Strait. That project collapsed amid intense objections both foreign and domestic, but China, which operates a space station in Patagonia, remains keenly interested in the region. Under the last administration Argentina was “gnat’s-ass close to buying Chinese fighter aircraft”, warns the American. In 2021, weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, the previous government signed a deal with the Russian ministry of defence allowing Argentine officers to travel to Russia for training. During Joe Biden’s presidency the United States pushed Britain to let Argentina buy modern F-16 fighter jets with a British-made ejector seat. Britain was reluctant and an alternative was found. Argentina bought older F-16s from Denmark with $40m of American money. These did not have British parts, so its approval was not required. However, the United States still sought to explain and justify it to Britain, which accepted it. That was progress. “The US government was also interested in whether the broader export controls could be ended,” says a former American official. A spokesperson for the British government says it has “no current plans to review the UK’s export-control policy for Argentina”. But it is easy to imagine Britain’s position shifting. The Trump administration is pushy, ignores orthodoxy and is close to Mr Milei, whose pro-Western stance probably helps Britain to be flexible. His conciliatory tone and taboo-breaking on the Falklands is crucial. He openly admires Margaret Thatcher, who led Britain during the Falklands war. He admits that the islands “are in the hands of the UK” and assures that Argentina will not try to retake them by force. Recently, he even seemed to imply that the islanders have a right to self-determination, Britain’s position. Domestic politics remain a formidable barrier in both countries. Argentina appointed a new foreign minister in October. Despite enthusiasm in other parts of government, better ties with Britain seem less of a priority for the new man. For its part, Britain worries about who comes after Mr Milei. Selling arms to a Milei-led Argentina may be okay, but he will leave office in 2027 or 2031. An attempt in 2016 to reset relations was torn up after the left-wing Peronists returned to power. It would be embarrassing to help Argentina modernise its armed forces only for that to happen again. In both countries the flag-waving opposition could paint an agreement as a concession and use it to whip up anger. In Britain, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party is surging in the polls and could easily pressure the government over any new arrangement, framing it as a betrayal of the war dead, perhaps. In Argentina the Peronists have already attacked Mr Milei for his stance on the Falklands. With mid-term elections in October he and his team may prefer to steer clear of the issue for now. Yet the overriding logic of Mr Milei’s foreign policy is airtight alignment with the United States (notwithstanding trade with China). Britain has a similar, if less absolutist, tradition. The Trump administration is so exercised about Chinese influence in Latin America that it threatens to seize the Panama Canal. It is also clear about the threat in the South Atlantic. If it pushes harder its two allies may draw a similar conclusion—and act accordingly. ■ Sign up to El Boletín, our subscriber-only newsletter on Latin America, to understand the forces shaping a fascinating and complex region. Explore more Britain World Geopolitics The Americas Argentina

How Xi’s wife and a regional chief secretly plotted his escape

The Homecoming: For Those Migrants Returning To Honduras, Little Has Changed

The Homecoming: For Those Migrants Returning To Honduras, Little Has Changed Honduras Emerson Colindres, 19, and his family fled Honduras and applied unsuccessfully for asylum in the United States in 2014. Since then, they had been in the immigration system, waiting to receive a date to leave the US. Then, agents detained Colindres when he showed up for a routine immigration check this month in Ohio. Colindres, who has no criminal record and just graduated from high school, spent two weeks in the Butler County jail near Cincinnati before he was deported back to Honduras, the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote. “It was kind of more traumatizing because I haven’t been to my birth country in years,” Colindres told WCPO, a local television station. If his mother and sister leave Ohio to join him, as they say they will, they will join other Honduran immigrants who are opting to self-deport from the US under a new program called Project Homecoming, according to CNN. The US government initiative pays those in the US illegally $1,000 to leave the country. A group of 38 Hondurans who opted to self-deport recently landed at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport in northeastern Honduras. This direction of traffic is a trickle compared with the number of Hondurans who have migrated to the US in recent years. Between 2000 and 2021, the Honduran migrant community in the US grew from 240,000 to 1.1 million, an increase of 374 percent, the Pew Research Center said. There are many reasons why Colindres’ family took him from the Central American country of around 10 million, namely the poverty, the violence, and the corruption in the narco-state. Things haven’t changed in the 11 years since they left. For example, late last year, a scandal erupted in the country over meetings between senior government officials associated with President Xiomara Castro and drug traffickers who donated to her campaign and paid bribes to Castro’s husband, former President Mel Zelaya, who went into exile following a 2009 coup, and Zelaya’s brother, explained the Wilson Center. Castro’s predecessor, ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, is now serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US for trafficking in guns and drugs. The country lacks the civil society institutions, independent judiciary, and watchdog groups to combat this corruption, analysts say. In the past, American officials might have had more power to help Honduras foster democracy and law, the Christian Science Monitor noted. Now, however, as the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) lamented, the US has taken a more antagonistic stance toward Castro due to her left-wing views, including her ties with China and her support for the authoritarian regimes of Nicaragua and Venezuela. As a result, the US shuns the country: “During his tour of Central America in early February 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not include Honduras on his itinerary, sending a strong message,” WOLA wrote. In November, Hondurans will elect a new president who might change the direction of the country, the Associated Press reported. Candidates from Castro’s leftist LIBRE party and Hernández’s conservative National party will likely dominate the vote, which means little will change, analysts say. As a result, the reasons people like the Colindres family left the country won’t be solved anytime soon. Still, some are hopeful. “While electoral violence is a significant threat, and democratic degradation is indeed a concerning trend in the region, these challenges are by no means insurmountable,” wrote the US Institute of Peace. “Central American neighbor Guatemala rose from its contentious 2023 elections with a citizenry hopeful of a renewed democratic spring capable of strengthening justice while delivering social dividends for its society. Hondurans still have time to make next year’s elections their watershed moment towards building a stronger, more inclusive and responsive democracy.” Share this story

Cuba Is Hanging On ,Barely. As The US Turns The Screws

In the Vice: Cuba Is Hanging On, Barely, As the US Turns the Screws Cuba Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío recently sat down with Democracy Now! to talk about the US government’s toughening stance on the communist-run island 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Re-designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, resuming the American economic embargo on Cuba, banning travel from the island to the US, targeting Cuban immigrants for deportation, and sending immigrants detained in the US to the American military base in Guantánamo Bay were narrow-minded policies that were “not relevant to the interests of most Americans,” said Fernández de Cossío. As Cossío spoke, students at the Caribbean country’s universities were taking to the streets to protest the 800-percent increases in Internet fees, reported United Press International, adding that the hikes had undercut academic work, research, and public health services. The two developments reflect how Cuba faces threats, old and new, even as it reaches breaking point. Young Cubans who have lived with frequent power outages, water shortages, transportation failures, and skyrocketing food prices said that pricey wi-fi was the last straw. Cuba’s state-owned communications company, ETECSA, which enjoys a monopoly as the country’s Internet provider, unilaterally raised the price, saying it was short of foreign currency. However, the new prices, based on average use, are double the monthly base salary of government employees. Still, students said the real outrage was also that Cuba’s communist government is increasing its reliance on the US dollar. In recent months, state supermarkets have opened across Cuba that only accept hard currencies. Gasoline stations are switching away from the peso. Many believe electricity is next. Already, numerous companies offer foreign packages that encourage Cubans to ask their relatives abroad to pay. “(The anger) reflects a growing sense on the island that the government is moving away from its socialist principles, while not liberalizing the economy enough to allow people to earn the money now needed to live,” the Guardian wrote. Regardless, the price spikes for the Internet are one of many examples of the economy’s problems. Outlets that track the island, like CiberCuba, wrote that inflation is up and food scarcity is widespread. Poor seniors, for example, are consuming coffee and banana peels to stave off hunger. Products like milk are uncommon now. When families are lucky enough to find food, they cook over charcoal due to natural gas shortages. The US has arguably contributed to these troubles, analysts say. Restrictions on remissions to islanders from immigrant Cubans and Cuban Americans in the US have dramatically reduced income, for instance, as the state-owned Cuban News Agency described. Also, doing business with a Cuban entity is illegal and subject to sanctions. Citing the Cuban government’s abysmal human rights record and resistance to American power projection in the region, the chief of mission in the US Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, said the US was already planning to impose a new round of sanctions on the country. “This administration is determined to sanction repressors,” Hammer told Reuters and other reporters recently in Miami. “There will be consequences for their actions.” The Cuban economy – and thus the communist government – are on the brink of collapse amid these pressures, argued Gerold Schmidt, an expert at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, a German think tank. “The socialist country is currently facing what is likely the worst economic crisis since the 1959 revolution,” he wrote. “It will be difficult for Cuba’s political leadership to find a way out of the crisis in the foreseeable future. On the one hand, it does not want to give up the gains made by the revolution… But the country lacks the necessary funds for investing in vital sectors and cannot obtain further loans due to US sanctions and its already high levels of foreign debt. In the short term, the focus will have to be on how the country’s economy can survive without overstretching the population’s patience.” Share this story

Chilean Right Buoyed By Rise In Crime and Scandals On The Left

Chilean Right Buoyed by Rise in Crime, Scandals on Left Chile Outgoing Chilean President Gabriel Boric is lobbying hard in the capital of Santiago for progressive legislation that would expand abortion rights and permit euthanasia. The bills are vital to Boric’s legacy because he has failed to fulfill other left-wing pledges he made when he assumed office three years ago, including liberal tax reforms that never passed, pension reforms that did not eliminate private pension fund administrators as promised, and a proposed liberal constitution that voters rejected in a 2022 referendum, according to Reuters. The abortion bill would decriminalize the procedures for as long as 14 weeks after conception. The euthanasia bill would permit euthanasia and assisted suicide for citizens older than 18, the Associated Press reported. Boric’s urgency highlights his tough political position. Unable to run for a consecutive, four-year term under the Chilean constitution, Boric won’t be on the ballot in the upcoming election in November. Now, unless he shows that he can deliver on his campaign promises, Boric’s successors are likely to be conservatives who try to erase any influence he has had on the South American country. Boric’s approval ratings stand at around 22 percent, United Press International wrote, despite enacting some leftist policies like limiting the workweek to 40 hours and increasing the minimum wage. Still, Chileans are far more worried about spiking levels of crime and political scandals involving his administration, analysts said. Frontrunners in the presidential race, meanwhile, are all on the right. Leading the pack is conservative economist Evelyn Matthei, 71, the daughter of a general who served under dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled the country for 17 years, World Politics Review explained. She had campaigned to allow Pinochet to remain in power and to defeat efforts to bring perpetrators of crimes against humanity during his regime to justice. She has pledged to crack down on immigration but also supports gay marriage and abortion. She compares herself to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a noted pragmatist. A close contender is far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, 59, the son of a Nazi émigré to Chile and who lost to Boric in the last election. A long-serving congressman for the south side of Santiago, his late brother served as a minister under Pinochet, whose regime Kast has defended. He is rising in the polls. Another candidate is Axel Kaiser, 43, a libertarian who styles himself after Argentine President Javier Milei, who has slashed government programs and criticized left-wing policies. Kast and Kaiser have pledged to crack down on immigration, too. “I worked as a laborer, as a waiter, as a bond salesman, I’ve done a thousand different things,” Kaiser told America Quarterly. “(Boric) was a student activist, entered Congress, and became president. He’s never worked a day in his life.” All three want to put an end to Boric’s policies, added the American Conservative, and the public is receptive: “Boric, once the shining star of the young Latin American left, is now an exhausted political figure, as the region’s youth turn rightwards in concert with much of the world.”

Bolsinaro Goes On Trial

Down and Out in Brazil: Former Brazilian Leader Goes On Trial For Attempted Coup Brazil Former Brazilian Infrastructure Minister Tarcísio de Freitas recently testified on behalf of his one-time boss, Jair Bolsonaro, the ex-president of Brazil, who is currently on trial for allegedly organizing an attempted coup to remain in office and plotting to murder the current president and a supreme court justice. “During the period I was with the president during the final stretch (of his term)…he never touched on that subject, never mentioned any attempt at constitutional disruption,” said Freitas, who is the current governor of the state of São Paulo. A conservative and populist, Bolsonaro faces 40 years in prison if he’s found guilty of seeking to seize control of the government after he lost his reelection bid to current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, a leftist, in late 2022, reported Agence France-Presse. He would also be banned permanently from holding office. Soon after the election, his supporters stormed the Brazilian Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in the capital of Brasília, the Buenos Aires Herald explained. Bolsonaro claims the prosecution is politically motivated and aims to prevent him from running for office again in 2026, the BBC noted. The case against him, meanwhile, appears strong, analysts add, pointing to a mountain of evidence, including testimony by some of his own supporters. In mid-May, Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, a former army commander under Bolsonaro, took the stand in a pre-trial hearing and told the court that he met with Bolsonaro ahead of the inauguration of Lula in early 2023 to discuss a “state of siege” as a possible way to overturn Bolsonaro’s election defeat, according to Agence France-Presse. Another military official under Bolsonaro, Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, told the court he also took part in meetings in which Bolsonaro discussed “the hypothetical possibility of using legal instruments” to overturn the election results and justify military intervention. Both Gomes and Júnior said they refused to comply. Gomes said that he warned Bolsonaro of the judicial implications of declaring a state of siege and even threatened to have him arrested if he followed through with the plan. More than 80 witnesses, including senior military officers, former government ministers, and officials from the police and intelligence services, are testifying in this preliminary trial phase. Among them is Bolsonaro’s former personal assistant, Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, who has made a plea deal. Still, British-Canadian writer Gwynne Dyer saw holes in the prosecution’s case. Writing in the Bangkok Post, he argued that the civilians who vandalized government buildings were incompetent and half-hearted in their attempt at regime change. Soldiers never left their barracks. And Bolsonaro was “on vacation” in Florida. Meanwhile, it’s not clear a judge would imprison the former president if he is found guilty. Bolsonaro, 70, is recovering from his sixth operation for intestinal damage related to a 2018 assassination attempt. Pain and discomfort have impeded his campaign efforts for his party in next year’s presidential election, the Associated Press wrote. Bolsonaro’s downfall represents an especially remarkable reversal of fortunes in contrast to the comeback of his arch-nemesis, Lula. Lula left office in 2010 after serving two terms as a popular president. His handpicked successor, former President Dilma Rousseff, was impeached and ousted in 2016. Then, a year later, prosecutors convicted Lula in a bribery and corruption scandal, imprisoning him for almost two years. In 2021, the country’s Supreme Court annulled his conviction, letting him run for office again. Holding on to power is a long game in Brazilian politics, analysts say. Bolsonaro is already banned from holding office until 2030 for abuse of power and for making unfounded claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud. Despite the ban, he said he plans to run again in the 2026 presidential election. After all, Lula became president again in spite of his conviction, observers add. “One of the strange paradoxes in politics is that populists gain from anger at the political system no matter how much they contributed to the system’s failures,” wrote World Politics Review. “Brazil’s prosecution (of) Bolsonaro for the attempted coup he plotted is salutary. But that does not guarantee the country won’t fall into this same trap.” Share this story

Brasil Is On Track To Become The #1 Cattle Producer in the World!

he Americas | Cash cows Brazilian supercows are taking over the world What a bovine beauty pageant says about the future of the world’s beef supply A stockman watches over the Nelore cow known as Viatina-19 at a farm in Uberaba, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Dear Dairy, today I had my pedicurePhotograph: AP May 14th 2025|Uberaba Save Share Give Listen to this story The master of ceremonies at ExpoZebu, a cow gala in the state of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil, could see the dilemma. One animal had “elliptical eyes” and an “excellent mammary apparatus”. The other had a delicate neck and a curvaceous rump. The judges faced “a difficult decision”. When he finally announced the winner of the contest (they plumped for the rump), cowhands shed tears of joy and the crowd erupted with a riotous “yeehaw”. ExpoZebu is the world’s largest fair of zebu, an Indian strain of cattle whose distinguishing features are a humped back and sagging dewlaps. Brought to Brazil in the 19th century, it proved more resistant to heat and parasites than European breeds. Today zebus make up 80% of Brazil’s 239m-strong herd of cattle. Their proliferation has helped to transform Brazil from a country where hunger was common to the world’s largest net exporter of food. Brazil’s agricultural revolution began in the 1970s, when a series of military governments poured money into rural credit and created Embrapa, the state-owned agricultural-research firm. Its scientists developed crops well adapted to tropical weather, in particular a tall, drought-resistant grass from Africa called brachiaria. This opened the country’s vast interior up to farming and cattle ranching (at the cost of massive deforestation). Breeding programmes then began beefing the zebus up. The average weight of a slaughtered cow in Brazil has gone up by 16% since 1997. In a country of tropical supercows, crowning bovine beauty queens is a big deal. Buyers flock to ExpoZebu from as far afield as Angola and India to see the finest creatures. They then bid in auctions to buy elite genes from champion cows and bulls. The wealthiest ranchers compete for shares in the cows themselves. This year’s fair attracted 400,000 visitors. Its auctions raised $35m. The ultimate prize is a cow like Viatina-19 (pictured below), a zebu that fetched $4m in 2023 to become the most expensive ruminant ever sold at auction. She weighs 1,100kg (2,400 pounds), more than twice the average of less distinguished counterparts. In an auction in November her crown was stolen by Carina, another Brazilian beauty. Each animal has three owners, each with the right to harvest eggs from their cow for four months of the year, for sale to keen breeders. The cows have been cloned to insure their genes. Famous country singers and powerful politicians roam ExpoZebu, but the cows are the stars (with names like “Genghis Khan” and “Lady Gaga”). Champions seem aware of their celebrity. When photographed, Viatina appears to straighten her legs, lift her head and peer thoughtfully into the distance. Picture taken, she returns to munching her feed. Lorrany Martins, a vet whose family co-owns Viatina, says the cow is given daily baths with a clarifying shampoo to keep her hair gleaming white. Her horns are moisturised with sunflower oil and she receives regular pedicures. She is watched over by surveillance cameras and travels in her own lorry while her brethren cram into pickup trucks. The improvements that Viatina embodies have allowed Brazil to account for almost a quarter of the world’s beef exports. That share is set to expand. The World Organisation for Animal Health, based in Paris, is expected soon to declare Brazil free of foot-and-mouth disease. The move “will totally change Brazil’s image”, says Luiz Josakhian of the Brazilian Association of Zebu Breeders. Protectionist countries may find it harder to refuse cheap Brazilian beef imports on sanitary grounds. Indeed, exports to the United States are soaring despite President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Beside the road out of Uberaba, an advertisement featuring muscular cows boldly declares Brazil’s mission: “Better cows for a better world.” ■ Sign up to El Boletín, our subscriber-only newsletter on Latin America, to understand the forces shaping a fascinating and complex region. Explore more World The Americas Agriculture Brazil

Nazi War Criminals Allegedly Paid $200 Million In Bribes To THe Peron Government in Argentina

Nazi criminals allegedly paid $200M in bribes to Perón government By Macarena Hermosilla, 6 hours ago ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay, May 23 (UPI) -- Recently declassified files suggest that Nazi criminals may have paid $200 million in gold bribes to Argentine authorities to secure refuge in the country after World War II. Then U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks near a portrait of former Argentinean President Juan Domingo Peron and his wife Eva Duarte de Peron, during a visit to the Bicentenary Museum at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2011. File photo by Leo La Valle/EPA-EFE The files indicate German submarines transported the gold to Argentina's southern coast, where it was delivered to Eva Duarte, wife of then-President Juan Domingo Perón. The money was reportedly later handled by German bankers Richard von Frente, Ricardo Stauch and Rodolf Freude. The released material includes 1,850 documents compiled into seven files dating from 1950 to 1980. The records confirm that Third Reich fugitives arrived in Argentina beginning in 1945 with the protection of Perón, and that their arrival was not isolated but part of a larger effort. Nazi ideology had gained notable support in Argentina as early as the 1930s. On April 10, 1938, nearly 10,000 people attended a rally organized by the German embassy at Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires. Perón was reportedly an admirer of fascist aspects of Nazi Germany. "The German government encouraged that sympathy by promising major trade concessions after the war. Argentina was full of Nazi spies. Argentine officers and diplomats held important posts in Axis Europe," said Christopher Minster, a Latin American history and literature expert, in an interview with ThoughtCo. Among the most prominent Nazis who found refuge in Argentina were Josef Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death," Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust and leader of the so-called "Final Solution," and Josef Schwammberger, who commanded the Krakow concentration camp from 1942 to 1944. Mengele evaded capture for years, living under a false identity in Argentina and Paraguay. He drowned off a Brazilian beach in 1979 and was buried under the name Wolfgang Gerhard. Eichmann was captured by Mossad in a covert operation and brought to Israel, where he was tried and executed by hanging on June 1, 1962. He had entered Argentina under the alias Ricardo Klement. Schwammberger was arrested in 1987 and extradited to Germany, where he was sentenced to life in prison.

Argentina: Protests For Higher Pensions Escalate As Pensions Hike Fails

Protests for Higher Pensions Escalate as Pensions Hike Fails Argentina Dozens of people were injured in clashes with police this week in Buenos Aires after protests broke out in front of Argentina’s Congress following a failure by lawmakers to approve higher pensions, the Associated Press reported. Earlier this week, Argentine lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on various bills, including pension increases and other benefits for the retired. The administration of President Javier Milei, which has been focused on rescuing the economy and tackling high inflation while cutting public spending, opposed the proposals. Protests for pension increases have become common in Argentina after Milei implemented austerity measures over the past year. During these demonstrations, retirees are often joined by other groups, such as unions or soccer fans. The government says that austerity measures are necessary to bring down inflation, and promote investment and economic growth. Economists and business folks say the tough medicine of Milei, the self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” who rode to power in 2023 promising to “blow up” the central bank, punish elites, axe a bloated government, and defeat sky-high inflation, is working. And he is being rewarded for these moves, too. Milei’s right-wing party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), in an election upset, took first place with more than 30 percent of the vote in local elections in Buenos Aires on Sunday, traditionally considered the stronghold of the center-right Propuesta Republicana (PRO), which placed third, according to Euronews. The party also beat the left-leaning Peronist party, which governed Argentina for most of the past 20 years and came in second in the elections.

Forged In Blood: The Friendship Between President Pinochet and a Nazi War Criminal

Culture | Forged in blood The friendship of a Chilean dictator and a Nazi war criminal Philippe Sands traces the connections between Augusto Pinochet and Walter Rauff in his new book Augusto Pinochet signing a decree naming new ministers, Santiago, Chile, 1983 Sitting, not in the dockPhotograph: Getty Images May 8th 2025 Save Share Give Listen to this story 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia. By Philippe Sands. Knopf; 480 pages; $35. W&N; £25 THE TWO men had a lot in common. They shared an affinity for German culture and a disdain for communism; they also both committed mass murder, only on different continents, decades apart. One was Augusto Pinochet (pictured), a Chilean dictator from 1973-90 who murdered thousands of people. The other was Walter Rauff, an SS officer who developed the mobile gas chambers that killed some 100,000 people in the second world war. In “38 Londres Street”, a gripping new book, Philippe Sands shows that the long-rumoured connection between the men was real. After fleeing an Italian prison camp at the end of the war, Rauff ended up in South America. In Quito, Ecuador, in the 1950s, he befriended Pinochet, who encouraged Rauff to move to Chile. Rauff settled in Punta Arenas, a city in the country’s south, where he carved out a new life as the manager of a king-crab cannery. Years later, when Mr Sands visits, many residents recall fond memories of Rauff (and of Pinochet’s dictatorship). A woman who worked at the factory says Rauff “seemed like a good person”. A magazine feature from the time includes a glowing endorsement from the mayor: Rauff “creates no problems for anyone”. Was that really true? Mr Sands sets out to verify another rumour: that the former Nazi helped Pinochet’s secret police torture and disappear people. (The book’s title refers to a building in Santiago that became a detention centre.) Mr Sands’s investigative work leads him to survivors and perpetrators, many of whom claim to remember Rauff. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide whether their testimonies are reliable. “38 Londres Street” is the third book in Mr Sands’s loose trilogy about Nazis, justice and impunity. “East West Street” (2016) chronicled the work of two Jewish lawyers from Lviv, in Ukraine, in defining the legal concepts of crimes against humanity and genocide which were used at the Nuremberg trials. “The Ratline” (2020) retraced the steps of a Nazi fugitive as he tried to flee to South America. As in those books, Mr Sands weaves together travelogue, detective story and legal drama. Walter Rauff leaves the Supreme Court after being taken into custody in Punta Arenas at the request of the West German Government, in Santiago, Chile, December 6th 1962 Photograph: Alamy The author finds he has a personal connection to the events and characters. Some of his Jewish relatives probably died in Rauff’s gas vans; during his research he learns that he is related by marriage to one of Pinochet’s victims, a United Nations diplomat tortured and killed in 1976. Yet his response to the material he uncovers is often fascination rather than horror. He is a curious scholar, not a justice warrior. In 1998 Mr Sands, who is a practising barrister, played a minor role in the efforts to extradite Pinochet from London, where he had been arrested while seeking medical treatment, to Spain, where he had been indicted. Pinochet’s arrest was the first time a former head of state was apprehended abroad under the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction” for large-scale human-rights abuses. A legal battle ensued: the prosecution wanted Pinochet extradited and the defence argued that he had immunity as a former head of state. Mr Sands interviews nearly every lawyer, judge and diplomat involved in the 17-month saga. In the end, Rauff and Pinochet shared another experience: they never faced justice. Pinochet was spared from extradition on flimsy medical grounds. He returned to Chile in a wheelchair, then abandoned it on the tarmac once he reached home soil. He faced prosecution in Chile in his final years, but died in 2006 without standing trial. Rauff also survived extradition attempts and died in Santiago in 1984. Mr Sands concedes that “justice has been limited”, but shows that the law works in indirect ways. Pinochet’s case helped persuade Chile’s Supreme Court to exclude human-rights abuses from a sweeping amnesty law that Pinochet himself signed in 1978, allowing hundreds of cases to be brought against officials in the army or secret police. Rauff and Pinochet may have enjoyed impunity, but some of those complicit in their crimes have died, or will die, behind bars. ■ For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter Explore more Culture This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Forged in blood”

Suriname Tries To Put Its Past Aside

New Dawn: Suriname Tries To Put Its Past Aside Suriname Dési Bouterse, the former leader of Suriname, died recently. But analysts say his shadow will haunt the country for years to come. The 79-year-old became president after leading the army’s coup in the former Dutch colony in 1980. Seven years later, he stepped down after coming under international fire for inciting political violence, reported Agence France-Presse. In 1990, he returned to power in a bloodless coup but resigned a year later. In 2010, voters elected him president, a position he held for a decade, transforming himself into a dictator while becoming the subject of national and international arrest warrants for murder and drug-trafficking. As some in the South American country continue to mourn Bouterse, others say Suriname is trying to put its past in the rearview mirror. “Now that Bouterse has passed away, it might be worth investigating whether it makes sense to start a process of truth-finding, as happened in South Africa after the apartheid regime fell,” wrote Suriname’s local newspaper, de Ware Tijd, referring to the political murders of hundreds of people under the Bouterse regime. “Suriname’s development will be able to proceed more quickly if there is a certain degree of unity among the population.”  The country of almost 700,000 people, one of the most diverse in the world, is now hoping to see the fruits of exploiting a treasured resource that lies off its Atlantic shores. As OilPrice.com reported, leaders in Suriname are now hoping to mimic neighboring Guyana, where the gross domestic product per capita increased 41 percent last year to almost $31,000 annually, more than four times greater than Suriname’s $7,600 per capita. The recent approval of the $12.2 billion, 1.4 million-acre GranMorgu project in Suriname is expected to deliver similar windfalls. By 2028, the project is expected to pump as much as 220,000 barrels per day from offshore fields containing 760 million barrels in total, added Offshore Energy. GranMorgu, incidentally, is a word for a massive grouper fish but also has a double meaning – “great morning” or “new dawn” in the local Sranan Tongo language, said French oil company TotalEnergies in a statement. Meanwhile, drillers have already generated more than $300 million a year for Suriname’s treasury for three years in a row – a previously unheard-of haul there, noted Radio Jamaica News. Surinamese hope to have a say in how the country spends the money. As BNamericas wrote, politicians and activists are calling for greater transparency and public oversight of the oil industry. Campaigns for the general election on May 25 already include demands for the government to dole out larger tranches of oil revenues to communities and interest groups. Held under new rules that will foster new political parties to enter parliament, the election is still a battle between President Chan Santokhi’s Progressive Reform Party and the late Bouterse’s National Democratic Party, the Center for Strategic and International Studies explained. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the country in April before the vote was a sign of how powerbrokers in the Western Hemisphere also see the country’s potential. “Energy security in the Caribbean region,” was a major talking point during Rubio’s meeting with Santokhi. Meanwhile, the country is struggling with its economy, left bankrupt by the former president, corruption, and balancing its relations with China with new interest from the US, wrote Global Americans. Regardless, Suriname can expect big changes in the coming years. How they manage these changes is the tricky part, say analysts. Suriname has seen similar promises of economic growth through oil exploration for a decade now,” wrote Semafor. “People are still waiting.”

Brasil's Top Court Starts Bolsonaro's Coup Trial

Brazil’s Top Court Starts Bolsonaro’s Coup Trial Brazil Brazil’s Supreme Court this week began hearing key witnesses in the prosecution of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, accused of plotting a coup to retain power after narrowly losing the election in 2022, France 24 reported. Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, a former army commander under Bolsonaro, took the stand on Monday and said that he met with Bolsonaro between the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his inauguration in early 2023 to discuss a “state of siege” as a possible way to overturn Bolsonaro’s election defeat, according to Agence France-Presse. Another military official under Bolsonaro, Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, told the court he also took part in meetings in which Bolsonaro discussed “the hypothetical possibility of using legal instruments” to overturn the election results and justify military intervention. Both Gomes and Júnior said they refused to comply. Gomes said that he warned Bolsonaro of the judicial implications of declaring a state of siege and even threatened to have him arrested if he followed through with the plan. More than 80 witnesses, including senior military officers, former government ministers, and officials from the police and intelligence services, are expected to testify in this preliminary trial phase, which is expected to continue for at least two weeks. Bolsonaro, who joined the hearing wearing the yellow Brazilian football jersey in a symbol of solidarity with his right-wing voters, faces allegations of plotting to retain power despite his 2022 election loss, a plot that prosecutors say includes plotting to murder the current president and a supreme court justice, the BBC noted. If found guilty, he faces up to 40 years in jail and would also be banned from holding office. Bolsonaro is already facing a ban from holding office until 2030 after alleging that the Brazilian electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud. Despite the ban, he said he plans to run again in the 2026 presidential election.

Is France Building A New Devil's Island In South America?

France to Export Drug Traffickers, Extremists to Guiana France France said it will build a high-security prison in its overseas territory of French Guiana in South America to hold drug traffickers and radical Islamists currently serving sentences in France, the BBC reported. The prison is to be built in the Amazon rainforest, in the northwestern region of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, near the border with Suriname. French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin visited the area over the weekend, according to France 24. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Darmanin said that the project, which is costing over $450 million and should open by 2029, will specifically target organized crime “at all levels” of the drug supply chain. He added that the prison would be run with a “strict” regime to “incapacitate the most dangerous drug traffickers.” French officials say the goal of the prison is to stop individuals early on in the drug trade, as well as serve as a definitive tool for dismantling the leadership of the drug trafficking organizations in mainland France. At least 20 percent of the cocaine in the French mainland comes from Guiana. French officials hope the new prison, with its deep isolation, will make it more difficult for drug lords to connect with their criminal networks because it will allow for more effective signal jamming. The prison will be able to hold up to 500 prisoners and feature an ultra-secure section for 60 dangerous inmates. It will also include an area for Islamists and prisoners considered dangerous to state security. Some in Guiana criticized the project, saying that France is shipping them criminals too dangerous to remain in France, as if French Guiana were “France’s ‘rubbish’ bin.” Local lawmakers, meanwhile, were taken aback by the proposal, saying they were not informed in advance. However, Darmanin countered that the new prison will hold local offenders, too, as there are an “enormous number” of murderers and drug traffickers in French Guiana. The new prison will be France’s third high-security prison – the other two are located in mainland France – and follows a series of recent attacks linked to criminal gangs who attacked prisons and staff across France. Share this story

Argentina Markets Bask In Milei's Local Election Win Glow

Argentina markets bask in Milei's local election win glow By Walter BianchiJuan Carlos Bustamante, 8 hours ago By Walter Bianchi and Juan Carlos Bustamante BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina's markets enjoyed the glow on Monday of a mood-boosting local election win by the party of investor-friendly libertarian President Javier Milei, which analysts said put him in good stead ahead of more important ballots later this year. Milei's party won the most votes in legislative elections in wealthy capital Buenos Aires, beating pollsters' forecasts. The win gives Milei just a few more seats in the city's legislature, but is symbolic of his rising fortunes. "The bulk of the support was all to do with Milei," said Buenos Aires-based political consultant Shila Vilker with Trespuntozero, adding it was a "resounding win" for Milei's brash brand of austerity and deregulation. "It's a confirmation of the course they're on." While Milei is divisive, he has kept voters on his side by bringing down what was triple-digit inflation via tough spending cuts and reducing monetary emissions, moves that have won him plaudits from investors and the International Monetary Fund. The latest vote suggests his political footing remains firm, which markets have cheered - even if the real-life impact of the vote is limited, with his party still holding a minority in the city's legislature after the victory. On Monday, bonds edged up around half a percent, while the S&P Merval stock index was up nearly 2%. "Milei's list wasn't expected to come first, and that has two implications," said Graham Stock, emerging markets strategist at RBC Global Asset Management, adding it gave Milei leverage with his more moderate conservative allies. "It suggests that they're going to do better than expected in the midterms in October, but even before that, it creates more momentum behind a deal (with center-right party PRO)." Argentina will renew half of the seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies and a third of those in the Senate in the midterm vote. Milei, an economist and acid-tongued former pundit, came to office in December 2023 after a shock election win. The country still faces a major challenge to build up depleted foreign currency reserves, which it needs to hit targets under a new $20 billion IMF deal, while the recent lifting of capital controls has made the peso more volatile. And not everyone was convinced that it was a win for Milei, with voters split - and many not turning up at all. "My interpretation is that no political party won," said Buenos Aires lawyer Juan Pablo Mares, citing one of the lowest-ever voter turnouts with many people apathetic and struggling under still-high inflation and cuts to public services. "If the political leaders don't look at that, read it, and learn from it, they will continue to be divorced from the reality we all face." (Reporting by Walter Bianchi and Juan Bustamante; Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Writing by Adam

Chile Weighs Future Of Charming German Village With Dark Past

Chile weighs future of charming German village with dark past By Pedro SCHWARZERODRIGO ARANGUA, 12 hours ago When Chile's German-themed settlement Villa Baviera was known as Colonia Dignidad, it was the home of a brutal cult used for torturing and killing dissidents under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet /AFP With its pristine swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush forest backdrop, Villa Baviera, a German-themed settlement of 122 souls in southern Chile, looks like the perfect holiday getaway. But Colonia Dignidad, as it was previously known, is a byword for horror, as the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Twenty years after the cult leader, former Wehrmacht soldier Paul Schaefer, was jailed for the sexual abuse and torture of children at the colony, the Chilean state wants to turn it into a memorial for the victims of the country's 1973-1990 dictatorship. In June last year, President Gabriel Boric ordered that 116 hectares (287 acres) of the 4,800-hectare site, an area including the residents' homes, a hotel, a restaurant, and several food processing factories, be expropriated to make way for a center of remembrance. But some of the inhabitants, who were separated from their families as children, subjected to forced labor, and in some cases, sexually abused, say they are being victimized all over again. - 'Heavy burden' - Dorothee Munch, born in Colonia Dignidad, plays the piano in the German-themed settlement and onetime dissident detention center that has become a flashpoint in southern Chile /AFP Schaefer founded Colonia Dignidad in 1961 as an idyllic German family village -- but instead abused, drugged and indoctrinated the few hundred residents and kept them as virtual slaves. The boundaries between abuser and abused were blurred, with the children of Schaefer's sidekicks counting themselves among his victims. Anna Schnellenkamp, the 48-year-old manager of the colony's hotel and restaurant, said she "worked completely free of charge until 2005," the year of Schaefer's arrest. "So much work I broke my back." Several years ago Schnellenkamp, whose late father Kurt Schnellenkamp was jailed for five years for being an accomplice to Schaefer's abuse, finally found happiness. German settlers' clothes are exhibited at the Villa Baviera Hotel's restaurant in the settlement once known as Colonia Dignidad /AFP She got married, had a daughter and started to create new, happier memories in the colony, where everyone still communicates in German despite being conversant in Spanish. But she still views the settlement as part of her birthright. "The settlers know every detail, every building, every tree, including where they once suffered and were forced to work," she explained. - Potato shed torture cell - A man stands in the doorway of Villa Baviera's potato shed, which was used as a torture cell where Chilean agents abused dissidents and other people kidnapped during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet /AFP Around 3,200 people were killed and more than 38,000 people tortured during Chile's brutal dictatorship. An estimated 26 people disappeared in Colonia Dignidad, where a potato shed, now a national monument, was used to torture dozens of kidnapped regime opponents. But on the inside too, abuse was rife. Schaefer was captured in 2005 on charges of sexually abusing dozens of minors over nearly half a century. He died in prison five years later while in preventive custody. His arrest, and those of 20 other accomplices, marked a turning point for the colony, which had been rebranded Villa Baviera a decade previously. Suddenly, residents were free to marry, live with their children, send them to school and earn a paycheck. Some of the settlers returned to Germany. Others remained behind and built a thriving agribusiness and resort, where tourists can sample traditional German fare, such as sauerkraut. Some residents feel that Chile, which for decades turned a blind eye to the fate of the enclave's children, now wants to make them pay for the sins of their fathers. Marcus Blanck (L), born in Colonia Dignidad, says the community's residents feel 'a kind of revenge against us,' as Chile's government plans to turn part of the settlement into a memorial for victims of the country's dictatorship /AFP "One feels a kind of revenge against us," said Markus Blanck, one of the colony's business directors, whose father was charged as an accomplice of Schaefer's abuse but died before being sentenced. The government argues that the expropriations are in the public interest. "There is a national interest here in preserving our country's historical heritage," Justice Minister Jaime Gajardo told AFP, assuring that those expropriated would be properly compensated. - European-style memorial - While several sites of torture under the Chilean dictatorship have been turned into memorial sites, Gajardo said the memorial at Villa Baviera would be the biggest yet, similar to those created at former Nazi concentration camps in Europe. Chilean President Gabriel Boric is rushing to preserve parts of Villa Baviera as a memorial to people killed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet before his term expires in March 2026 /AFP It is not yet clear whether it will take the form solely of a museum or whether visitors will also be able to roam the site, including Schaefer's house and the infamous potato shed. The clock is ticking down for Boric to make the memorial a reality before his term runs out in March 2026. His government wants to proceed quickly, for fear that the project be buried by a future right-wing government loathe to dwell on the abuses of the Pinochet era.

JFK Files Detail Close Intelligence Collaboration Between CIA and Mexico

JFK Files Detail Close Intelligence Collaboration Between CIA and Mexico cover image Presidents John F. Kennedy and Adolfo López Mateos in Mexico City during Kennedy's presidential visit in 1962. Credit: Fototeca del Acervo Histórico Diplomático, SRE/Aristegui Noticias Newly Declassified Records Show Mexico Welcomed CIA Ops Joint Espionage Targeted Cuban, Russian Embassies Through 1994 National Security Archive Analysis Published in NACLA Report on the Americas Published: May 19, 2025 Briefing Book # 893 Edited by Claire Dorfman For more information, contact: 202-994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu Subjects Cold War – General Human Rights and Genocide Regions Mexico and Central America Project Mexico President Kennedy stands with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as she delivers remarks in Spanish at a luncheon during the presidential visit to Mexico, June 30, 1962 President Kennedy stands with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as she delivers remarks in Spanish at a luncheon during the presidential visit to Mexico, June 30, 1962. Credit: JFK Presidential Library First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy delivers remarks in Spanish at a luncheon during the presidential visit to Mexico, June 30, 1962. Washington, D.C., May 19, 2025 – Mexico welcomed CIA espionage activities in Mexico during the Cold War and even initiated some of them, according to recently declassified documents published today by the National Security Archive. Found among more than 80,000 pages of newly released JFK assassination files, the records shed light on the remarkably close relationship between the CIA and the Mexican government during the Cold War—including new details on both joint and unilateral CIA operations run out of the Agency’s Mexico City Station—and reveal secrets that have been guarded by the CIA for over half a century. Among the key findings is that one of the most sweeping joint surveillance programs in Agency history, Operation LIENVOY, was initiated by the Mexican president, not the CIA. Another stunning CIA document shows that the Agency’s partnership with the Mexican government in spying on the Cuban and Russian embassies continued through at least 1994. The documents also highlight the CIA’s important role in nurturing and expanding the intelligence capabilities of other countries during the Cold War and the enduring legacy of those, in many cases crucial, relationships. Mexico has continued to engage in widespread use of domestic surveillance; it was the first country in the world to purchase the infamous Israeli Pegasus spyware in the mid-2000s and has deployed it countless times, with targets including journalists, human rights defenders, and environmental activists. Surveillance technology on Mexico’s northern border produces endless streams of data on migrant crossings and arms and narcotics trafficking. These new revelations from the JFK files show how Mexico both invited CIA intervention and worked alongside the U.S. spy agency to become one of the world’s leading surveillance states. The Modern Surveillance State: Mexico and the CIA during the Cold War by Claire Dorfman Renowned painter David Alfaro Siqueiros and former Mexican President Lázaro Cardenas had their phones tapped. So did former Guatemalan President Juan José Arévalo, living in exile in Mexico following the U.S.-backed coup against his successor Jacobo Árbenz. The Cuban, Soviet, Czech, and Yugoslav embassies in Mexico City, too, were the target of surveillance. But contrary to popular myths about the Cold War, the CIA was not working alone: some of the agency’s most extensive surveillance schemes had actually been proposed and operated by the Mexican state itself. Mexico’s active participation in the surveillance programs is one of the most salient revelations that has come to light thanks to recently declassified CIA documents. These records, released in March in accordance with a special declassification law known as the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, confirm the remarkably close relationship between the U.S. intelligence agency and the Mexican government during the Cold War. They also reveal key, previously unknown details about the CIA’s mission in Mexico. Among the discoveries is the fact that one of the most sweeping joint surveillance operations in the agency’s history was initiated by the Mexican state. It was President Adolfo López Mateos who approached the CIA with the idea for the project, not vice-versa. (Document 2) In another stunning admission, one CIA document acknowledges that the agency’s partnership with the Mexican government in spying on the Cuban and Russian embassies continued through at least 1994. (Document 10) doc2 The records offer a comprehensive and uncensored picture of espionage activities and pry open secrets that have been guarded by the agency for decades. This legacy of collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico takes on even more significance given that Mexico today remains one of the world’s top surveillance states. “Not In Our Backyard!” While the JFK Records Act mandated the declassification of documents related to the assassination and subsequent investigations, it also cast a wide net on what records were considered relevant for release. Several batches of documents have been declassified over the years since the law was created in 1992. This has led to the declassification of highly sensitive documents from several key U.S. government agencies, which shine a light on intelligence operations conducted in all corners of the world in the latter half of the 20th century. Mexico is prominently featured in the JFK assassination records, with Lee Harvey Oswald making a fateful trip to Mexico City just weeks before the events in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The documents primarily cover the administrations of presidents Adolfo López Mateos (1958-1964) and Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (1964-1970), who were both informants for the CIA. As the first line of defense in U.S. efforts to contain the spread of communism in the region, diplomatic relations between the two countries were frequently strained during the Cold War. Mexico’s political identity, defined by revolutionary ideals and a fierce protection of state sovereignty, endeared it to countries such as Fidel Castro’s Cuba and Salvador Allende’s Chile. In many respects, U.S. policy in Latin America seemed to directly contradict that of its southern neighbor. When it was not explicitly intervening in internal affairs, Washington exhibited a generally patronizing style of diplomacy with its regional counterparts. However mythic the relationship between the United States and Mexico appeared at the time, secret government documents tell a different story. The official declassified record reveals that both countries shared deeply rooted fears of communism and found security in a partnership aimed at squashing political and social dissent. While many of these new documents concern CIA programs targeting the foreign communist presence in Mexico, the records also reveal how the Mexican government used the agency’s surveillance infrastructure to spy on dissidents of their own regime, targeting intellectuals, student and labor organizers, and members of the political opposition. CIA Operations, with Mexican Help A key document from 1965 outlines the mission directive for the CIA in Mexico, providing a macro view of the agency’s broader policies and targets. The mission describes intelligence operations against Cuban, Soviet, and Chinese diplomatic installations and personnel. There was equal focus on leftist activities by Mexican citizens. A specific directive was to infiltrate youth groups and recruit students in “key schools” around the country. The mission also placed emphasis on combatting “ultra-nationalistic and anti-U.S. activities in Mexico” and obtaining information on the “secret intentions and activities of the Mexican government in foreign affairs,” especially through maintaining CIA contacts within the president’s office and foreign ministry. (Document 1) A CIA inspector general report, which was published by my colleagues at the National Security Archive last month, also provides crucial context for understanding the CIA’s objectives in Mexico at the time. Among the agency’s activities targeting Cuba and the Soviet Union were the active recruitment or encouraged defection of diplomatic personnel from these countries, as well as tracking air travel between Mexico City and Havana (Mexico was the only “direct air link” between Cuba and the rest of the region). The CIA also worked with the FBI to “thwart” Americans who sought contact with the Soviet embassy in Mexico. On the domestic front, the CIA maintained a “highly successful” operation targeting the peasant and rural populations, which the agency noted could be a model for a similar project in Guatemala in the near future. (Document 2) Other documents illuminate key details on the joint CIA-Mexican telephone wiretapping operation known as LIENVOY, which was originally proposed to the agency by President López Mateos. The LIENVOY staff was composed of Mexican Army personnel. (Document 2) The project was considered an “excellent operation and an outstanding producer of intelligence,” according to one CIA official at the time. (Document 3) A monthly operational report from September 1963 lists the tapping of the Cuban, Soviet, Yugoslav, and Czech embassies in Mexico City, as well as individuals including former Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas and the painter David Alfaro Siqueiros. (Document 4) The active participation of the Mexican government in LIENVOY was kept secret for many years. Crucially, the full declassification of documents on the joint operation also reveals the names and installations targeted for surveillance, which pulls back the curtain on Mexican motivations for the collaboration and allows us to see exactly who was perceived as a threat by the regime. doc1 The records reveal that the CIA was also operating unilateral intelligence operations in Mexico at the time. This surveillance was described by the CIA as “one of the most extensive and expensive unilateral technical collection programs conducted by the Agency.” (Document 9) A consistent target under the operation LIFEAT was the former president of Guatemala, Juan José Arévalo. The CIA reported in 1962 that LIFEAT telephone tapping of Arévalo in Mexico was “most rewarding in providing leads to [his] contacts.” (Document 5) Spying on Mexico’s Left and Right Other unilateral intelligence efforts by the CIA predictably targeted Mexico’s domestic population. The agency spied on leftwing and rightwing groups alike. Specific operations were designed to monitor leftist and communist sympathies, including the project known as LIANCHOR. Under the auspices of a leftist press service, the CIA’s Mexico Station covertly managed the recruitment of writers and intellectuals to author political articles, which were then distributed to several Latin American countries so the agency could track regional opinions about communism. A progress report for the LIANCHOR operation covering December 1967 through May 1968 reveals the full list of the group’s unwitting participants, including such notable names as Ricardo Garibay, Manuel Calvillo, and Alicia Reyes. (Document 6) The influential Mexican magazine Diálogos was also penetrated by the CIA through an agent working undercover as one of the magazine’s publishers, who furnished information on the country’s left-leaning intellectuals. (Document 7) Citing the agency’s mission directive for Mexico, a recently declassified project outline from 1965 acknowledges that in collecting intelligence, the CIA “ has neglected the equally important extreme rightwing when, in the final analysis, any threat to Mexican political stability by fomenting unrest and incidents does, and will continue to, emanate from the right-wing as well as the left-wing.” This project proposed intelligence gathering of right-wing and conservative elements in Mexico’s business community through a contract agent who was then serving as the executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Mexico City. The significance of the declassification of these documents cannot be overstated. The JFK records law was a vital resource for scholars, historians, and the general public to gain access to extraordinarily sensitive government documents. Without the mandate, many of these records would have stayed secret for decades more. However, over 60 years after the assassination of JFK, some of the files remain hidden from the public. One such record is the elusive CIA Mexico Station history, which has long been considered a key document for historians and JFK conspiracy theorists alike, and is still riddled with redacted sections and missing pages. From the “Dirty War” to Pegasus While the JFK assassination records relate directly to U.S. covert activities in the country, they also unwittingly reveal actions undertaken by the Mexican government within the context of the country’s “dirty war.” A national truth commission recently investigated this repressive period (1965-1990) and documented widespread violations committed against civilians by the state. In evaluating why the Mexican government chose to collaborate so closely with the CIA, one significant motivation would have been the opportunity to gain U.S. technology and expertise in order to develop their own surveillance networks. An enduring legacy of the CIA was its role in nurturing the intelligence capabilities of other countries. The inevitable outcome was that those systems would then be directed inward. The JFK assassination records allow us to see the ways in which Mexico welcomed the CIA into the country and actively sought to participate in espionage operations. This collaboration proved vital and continues to bear fruit today. Mexico was the first country in the world to purchase the infamous Israeli spyware known as Pegasus in the mid 2000s and has deployed it countless times, with targets including journalists, human rights defenders, and environmental activists. Mexico’s northern border with the United States has long been a breeding ground for surveillance technology, with endless streams of data produced on migrant crossings and arms and narcotics trafficking. As one of the world’s leading surveillance states, looking back at the formation of Mexico’s modern intelligence apparatus is more relevant than ever. The Documents doc 1 Document 1 Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, Chief, Western Hemisphere Division to Deputy Director (Plans), “Related Mission Directive for Mexico,” Classification unknown, June 3, 1965 Jun 3, 1965 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10408-10027 doc 2 Document 2 CIA Inspector General, [Extracts of Inspector General’s Survey of Mexico City Station], Secret, 1964 Jan 1, 1964 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10301-10010 doc 3 Document 3 Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, Chief, Western Hemisphere Division to Chief, Foreign Intelligence, “TDY to Mexico City,” Secret, October 2, 1963 Oct 2, 1963 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10187-10030 (pp. 15-16) doc 4 Document 4 CIA Chief of Station Mexico City, “Monthly Operational Report for Project LIENVOY,” Secret, October 8, 1963 Oct 8, 1963 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10187-10030 (pages 6-13) doc 5 Document 5 CIA Chief of Station Mexico City, “LIFEAT Progress Report for August 1962,” Secret, September 20, 1962 Sep 20, 1962 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10188-10003 (pp. 20-22) doc 6 Document 6 CIA Chief of Station Mexico City, “OPERATIONAL/LIANCHOR Progress Report for December 1967 - May 1968,” Secret, June 3, 1968 Jun 3, 1968 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10071-10324 doc 7 Document 7 Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, Chief, Western Hemisphere Division to Central Cover Staff, Non-Official Cover, “Cover for Edward G. Tichborn,” Secret, 1966 Jan 1, 1966 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10218-10009 (pp. 86-92) doc 8 Document 8 CIA Chief of Station Mexico City, “Project Outline” [LIHUFF/1], Secret, circa 1963 Jan 1, 1963 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10218-10035 doc 9 Document 9 House Select Committee on Assassinations, “Mexico City Station History, 200 Selected Pages” [Extracts from CIA Mexico City Station History, ca. 1970], includes HSCA cover memoranda, reviewed by HSCA on August 23, 1978 Aug 23, 1978 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10414-10124 doc 10 Document 10 CIA Station Mexico City, “JFK Assassination Issues,” Secret, December 2, 1994 Dec 2, 1994 Source National Archives, JFK Assassination Records, 2025 release, Doc ID: 104-10326-10087

Seeking To Change Its Fortunes, Oil-Rich Suriname Votes

Seeking to change its fortunes, oil-rich Suriname votes By Laurent ABADIERanu Abhelakh, 1 hours ago Experts say Suriname stands to make billions of dollars in the next 10 to 20 years from recently-discovered offshore crude deposits /AFP/File Suriname votes in parliamentary elections Sunday that will determine who oversees efforts for the next five years to transform the fortunes of one of South America's poorest nations with giant oil reserves. The smallest country in South America, and the only one with Dutch as its official language, is battling high debt, rampant inflation, and poverty affecting nearly one in five of its 600,000 inhabitants. But recent offshore crude discoveries suggest this may all be about to change. On Sunday, Surinamese will elect a new parliament of 51 members, who within weeks must choose a new president and vice-president to run the country for the next five years. Incumbent leader Chan Santokhi is constitutionally eligible for a second term, but with no single party in a clear lead, pollsters are not picking any favorites. Whoever does take the reins will have an awesome opportunity. Suriname president Chan Santokhi, pictured in July 2022, is constitutionally eligible for a second term, but pollsters are not picking any favorites /AFP/File Experts say Suriname stands to make billions of dollars in the next 10 to 20 years from recently discovered offshore crude deposits. Last year, French group TotalEnergies announced a $10.5 billion project to exploit an oil field off Suriname's coast with an estimated capacity of producing 220,000 barrels per day. Production should start in 2028, and the country has created a sovereign wealth fund similar to that of Norway to put money aside for tough times. - 'Royalties for everyone' - Fourteen parties are taking part in Sunday's election, including Santokhi's centrist Progressive Reform Party (VHP), and the leftist National Democratic Party (NDP) of deceased former coup leader and autocrat turned elected president Desi Bouterse. Also in the running is the center-left General Liberation and Development Party (APOB) of Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk, a former guerrilla who rebelled against Bouterse's regime in the 1980s. Santokhi enters the race while coming under fire for austerity measures and tax hikes implemented as part of restructuring required by the International Monetary Fund. Suriname is the smallest country in South America, and one of its poorest /AFP/File In a move rejected as political opportunism by critics, the president recently announced a program of "Royalties for Everyone" from the expected oil and gas boon. It would entail an initial payment of $750 for every citizen into a savings account with a seven percent interest rate, starting with elderly and disabled people. "Everyone shall benefit from this opportunity and no one will be left behind," the president vowed last November. "You are co-owners of the oil incomes." - 50 Years of independence - Suriname, a diverse country made up of descendants of people from India, Indonesia, China, the Netherlands, Indigenous groups and African slaves, will mark its 50th anniversary of independence from the Dutch throne in November. Since independence, it has looked increasingly towards China as a political ally and trading partner and was one of the first Latin American countries, in 2019, to join the Asian giant's Belt and Road infrastructure drive. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a stopover in Suriname in March on a Latin American tour aimed at countering China's growing influence in the region. According to Giovanna Montenegro, a Latin American expert at the Binghamton University in New York, "the United States has overlooked Suriname as a strategic partner in South America and the Caribbean." More than 90 percent of the country is covered in forests, and it is one of few in the world with a negative carbon footprint.

Stunning And Rarely Seen Patagonia

https://www.ft.com/content/58784268-e261-4e43-887f-c6ca8e05ee1a?segmentId=3f81fe28-ba5d-8a93-616e-4859191fabd8

Former President Morales Blocked From Bolivia's Presidential Race

Former President Morales Blocked from Bolivia’s Presidential Race Bolivia Bolivia’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that banned a president from serving more than two terms, regardless of whether they are consecutive or not, effectively prohibiting former President Evo Morales from seeking office for a fourth time in August, Reuters reported. The nine members of the court voted unanimously after years of speculation surrounding the constitutionality of a third term, saying that banning Morales from running again does not violate his human rights, according to MercoPress. Morales reacted to the court decision on social media by saying that “only the people” could convince him not to run again in the next election. He also argued that the Bolivian Constitution only forbids continuous re-election, not the number of terms, and said the court’s decision is a violation of the constitution by “de facto magistrates.” The court said that, according to the law, the president and vice president are eligible to be re-elected only once in a continuous manner, and that the term “only once” also excludes the possibility of running for a third term. A court allowed Morales to serve a third term because his first was served before changes to the constitution took effect. He ran for a fourth term in 2019 but fled Bolivia after the election results were disputed. Current President Luis Arce, once Morales’s ally and mentee, announced earlier this week that he would withdraw from this year’s election, likely to avoid a humiliating defeat after a five-year term marked by turmoil and sinking polls, Al Jazeera noted.

Lessons From Latin America As The US Reckons With Enforced Disappearances

Lessons from Latin America as the United States Reckons With Enforced Disappearance Post Event UPDATE collage Published: May 12, 2025 For more information, contact: 202-994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu Subjects Human Rights and Genocide Political Crimes and Abuse of Power Regions Mexico and Central America South America Enforced disappearance is not codified in U.S. law as a standalone crime. Nonetheless, we are starting to see across the United States actions targeting immigrants that could meet the definition. As of late April, the Trump administration has sent 288 people, most of them citizens of Venezuela, to a notorious prison in El Salvador. It has happened with a near-total lack of transparency. Neither the U.S. nor the Salvadoran government has shared the names of these 288 individuals: what we and their loved ones know comes from media leaks or from victims’ legal actions, as in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. All are now being held in a Salvadoran mega-prison in an extra-judicial manner, without charges or any hope of a day in court. This is enforced disappearance. Latin America has a long and brutal legacy of the use of enforced disappearance. But many countries also have proud histories of human rights defenders who have fought the practice effectively. Read more about Enforced Disappearance Watch the recording On April 30, the National Security Archive and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) co-hosted an online conversation with three Latin American experts to learn from their experiences with enforced disappearance. The motivation behind the meeting was a growing sense of alarm, disbelief, and helplessness among many Americans as we witness the Trump administration’s unprecedented actions targeting immigrants in the United States. At the president’s direction, U.S. government agents have seized men, women, and children for detention and deportation without due process. We have seen the images of masked security forces swarming a student outside her home, a mother driving with her kids, workers in a restaurant kitchen. To take them where? Whether the agents are from ICE, DEA, ATF, CPB, or the local police, they don’t always reveal the victim’s destination. They don’t always inform their families that they’ve taken them. They don’t always allow the victim to contact their lawyer. They don’t always bring them before a judge. And now they don’t even always imprison them in the United States. How do we make sense of this? For those of us working in Latin America, the actions of Trump’s security forces ring a deeply disturbing bell. We can’t help but connect what is happening in our country today, right now, to a long history in the Americas of governments’ use of enforced disappearance to punish people considered dissidents. In Latin America, that could mean armed guerrillas or suspected subversives; more often it meant students, teachers, journalists, investigators, indigenous activists, opposition politicians, lawyers, priests. But if the region has a dark history of disappearing its perceived enemies, it also has a proud and powerful tradition of fighting back. People mobilized. They organized. They created strategies to protest the disappearances, demand information, hold hearings, fight in the courts, create new laws, search for the missing, expose injustice, and tell the rest of the world what was happening. That’s why we invited these three experts – these colleagues and friends – to speak to us. Mimi Doretti, Juan Méndez, and Marcela Turati all have direct experience with enforced disappearance and its impact on a society. We need to hear from them. We need to learn from their histories. We need to pull lessons from what they have to tell us about how to fight back. Our conversation is archived for anyone who missed the live event. And go to WOLA’s posting about the webinar for a transcription of the some of the key remarks and a set of powerful conclusions drawn from our speakers’ presentations.

The Book: "Chile In Their Hearts"

CHILE IN THEIR HEARTS Chile in their hearts book New Book Revisits Murder of Two U.S. Citizens After Chilean Military Coup Archive Publishes Key Documents on Case of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, Executed in National Stadium by Pinochet’s Forces Author John Dinges Challenges Premise of Oscar-winning Film, Missing, That Horman Was Targeted Because He “Knew Too Much” About U.S. Role Published: May 7, 2025 Briefing Book # 892 John Dinges and Peter Kornbluh For further contact: jcdinges@gmail.com peter.kornbluh@gmail.com Subjects Political Crimes and Abuse of Power Regions South America Events Chile – Coup d’État, 1973 Project Chile Dinges John Dinges Books John Dinges | Chile en el corazón Chile en el corazón by John Dinges Assassination on Embassy Row Assassination on Embassy Row by John Dinges Los años del cóndor Los años del cóndor by John Dinges The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents By John Dinges, The New Press (August 1, 2012) book The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability By Peter Kornbluh, New Press (September 11, 2013) Pinochet desclasificado: Los archivos secretos de Estados Unidos sobre Chile (Spanish Edition) Pinochet desclasificado: Los archivos secretos de Estados Unidos sobre Chile (Spanish Edition) by Peter Kornbluh Washington D.C. May 7, 2025 – On November 29, 2011, a Chilean judge stunned the world by indicting a retired U.S. Navy captain as an accomplice to the executions of two U.S. citizens in the days following the violent U.S.-backed military coup in Chile in September 1973. The judge, Jorge Zepeda, charged that the former head of the U.S. “Milgroup,” Navy Captain Ray Davis, knew of the detentions of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi and did not prevent their deaths “although he was in a position to do so.” As the only piece of documentary evidence of foreknowledge, Zepeda’s ruling stated that “the United States Embassy informed the Department of State about the disappearance of Charles Edmund Horman Lazar—according to declassified document 04565252528Z—at the very moment when the victim was still alive, in custody and being interrogated in the upper floors of the Ministry of Defense.” But, according to a new book published by investigative journalist John Dinges, that Embassy cable was dated eight days after Horman was taken by Chilean soldiers from his Santiago home on September 17, 1973, and transmitted a full week after Horman’s unidentified, bullet-riddled body was delivered to the morgue. Far from proof of foreknowledge, the cable stated clearly that the Embassy had received information about Horman well after he was disappeared and had “no firm info on his detention.” “The court,” Dinges concludes in Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing after the Coup, “misread or misinterpreted the cable and used it incorrectly in an attempt to demonstrate [U.S.] foreknowledge of Horman’s death.” The National Security Archive today posted the cable the judge erroneously cited as evidence along with more than a dozen other documents and papers that Dinges used to revisit and revise the dark history of the disappearance and executions of Horman and Teruggi. Among the records are documents generated by an internal State Department inquiry in 1976 after a former Chilean intelligence officer, Rafael Gonzalez, told U.S. reporters that he had seen Horman being interrogated with an American official in the room and had been told that Horman “had to disappear” because “he knew too much”—presumably about the U.S. backing for the military coup. The selection of documents published today also includes a detailed formal retraction of that statement in an affidavit Gonzalez submitted to the Chilean court in 2003, which Dinges located in the judicial files on the case, as well as records of the Horman and Teruggi families’ pursuit of truth, justice and accountability for their loved ones. The disappearance and execution of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi were immortalized in the 1982 Oscar-winning movie, Missing, starring Jack Lemon and Sissy Spacek and directed by Costa-Gavras. The movie powerfully and poignantly depicted the protracted search by Horman’s wife, Joyce—she is named “Beth” in the film—and his father, Edmund Horman, to locate him after a Chilean military unit seized Charles at his home in Santiago. The movie portrayed the callous, malicious treatment the Hormans received from U.S. Embassy officials as they frantically searched for Charles; creating a compelling narrative that he had been killed with U.S. complicity because of revealing conversations he and a companion had with U.S. military officers and contractors on the day of the coup in Viña del Mar. Chile in Their Hearts explicitly challenges the theory that Horman was targeted because he “knew too much” and that U.S. officials had been involved in his death; at the same time, the book excoriates Embassy officials for deceiving the Horman and Teruggi families, colluding in a sham cover story invented by the Chilean military, and maintaining secrecy around its own internal investigations, which concluded the Chilean military had killed the two U.S. citizens. U.S. officials, Dinges concludes, covered up their fate to protect Washington’s relations with the new, U.S.-backed military regime which, with CIA support, had overthrown the democratically elected Socialist government of Salvador Allende. Teriaggi and Horman Frank Teruggi (left) and Charles Horman In his investigation, Dinges sought to determine whether Horman and Teruggi’s political efforts in defense of Allende’s experiment in peaceful revolutionary change led to their detentions and executions. “My investigation was focused on their political associations and actions that might be related to their death,” Dinges writes in his introduction. “In short, who were these two young Americans, how were they killed and why?” KEY CONCLUSIONS Dinges’ meticulous research focused on a thorough review of all relevant documents and files, including the personal papers of Charles’ father, Ed Horman, and the entire 17-volume, 6,976-page court record on the case in Chile. His investigation led to a number of key findings and revelations: As the military coup was looming in Chile, Charles Horman acted to assist the workers’ organizations known as the “Cordones industriales”— the districts of worker-controlled factories that were the heart of the Allende revolution. As the crisis deepened, Allende supporters considered the Cordones to be the strongest bulwark of defense of the embattled popular movement. Horman agreed to raise money in the United States to buy weapons for the Cordones’ resistance against a possible military coup. During a visit to New York a month before his death, Horman persuaded four American friends to give him money for that purpose. Horman was detained in the late afternoon of September 17, 1973, by an Army unit at his house, located in the heart of a Cordones factory area. His body and that of six labor leaders from a nearby factory were delivered to the morgue less than 24 hours later. Horman’s body was deliberately “disappeared.” A Chilean official intervened to block fingerprint procedures from being completed at the morgue, even after the family provided fingerprints from FBI records. The attempt to permanently hide his corpse was, ironically, thwarted by two Chilean military intelligence officials, Sgts. Raul Meneses and Jaime Ortiz, who had been assigned in mid-October to “find the whereabouts” of Charles Horman. They successfully pressured civilian administrators at the morgue to do a fingerprint comparison that identified body 2663 as Charles Horman, finally confirming his death. In a meeting with Ed Horman, they told him that his son “had been shot in the Estadio Nacional on September 18 and…his body interred in the wall of the Santiago Cemetary on October 3.” Teruggi was detained at his house, which was known in the neighborhood to be connected to the militant party MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left). Four other people living in the house were active in clandestine MIR activities, including one who was a member of the elite “Central Force” or military wing of MIR. The Chilean military issued a series of false reports on the fate of Horman and Teruggi. Under pressure to provide an explanation, the military eventually reported to the U.S. Embassy that both men had been killed by leftists masquerading in stolen military uniforms. This cover story was implausible and demonstrably false; but for years the Embassy accepted it at face value and conveyed it in briefings to journalists—even after internal State Department investigations concluded Horman and Teruggi had both been executed by the Chilean military. Three U.S. diplomats acknowledged that Embassy officials exerted no real pressure on the new military government because of instructions from Henry Kissinger to defend the regime that had overthrown Allende, whose progressive experiment was considered a dangerous “communist” model. In a memorandum included in this posting written three years after the deaths of Horman and Teruggi, one State Department official admitted that the U.S. government continued to withhold relevant information from the families and were deceiving them with claims to be actively investigating the deaths of their loved ones. In a 30-page summary of his son’s case, Ed Horman denounced what he called the “negligence, inactivity, and failure of the American Embassy” to hold the Chileans accountable for Charles’ murder. “Whether it was incompetence, indifference, or something worse,” Ed Horman wrote, “I find it shocking, outrageous and perhaps obscene.” In his final ruling on the Horman-Teruggi case, Judge Zepeda convicted Captain Pedro Espinoza, one of the officers in charge of interrogations at the National Stadium; and Rafael Gonzalez as an accomplice. (By the time of the final ruling in 2015, Ray Davis had died, two years before, in a nursing home in Santiago, Chile.) But Dinges’ investigation identified several other key Chilean officers who played a role in Horman’s detention and execution, among them Colonel Fernando Grant Pimentel who dispatched the military unit to detain Horman, and Lieutenant Enzo Cadenasso and Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Soto Mackenney who were also directly involved in kidnapping him. There is no evidence to support the charge that the U.S. government helped the Chileans target Horman and Teruggi and/or approved their executions. The theory of “the man who knew too much,” as advanced in Missing, was later endorsed by a Chilean court when Judge Zepeda indicted the former U.S. Navy captain, Ray Davis. Yet the civilian intelligence agent who—as a defector in 1976—originated the charge has admitted he invented the story. In interviews with both Dinges and Peter Kornbluh, Rafael Gonzalez said he concocted the story as a way to call attention to his efforts to flee Chile. In a five-page affidavit presented to the Chilean court in 2003, Gonzalez retracted his own story as “an absolute falsehood.” An examination of the nearly 7,000-page court record failed to reveal any other evidence of any kind to support the charge of U.S. involvement in the murders. Memorandum The title of the book, “Chile in Their Hearts,” derives from a famous Pablo Neruda poem, “Spain in Our Hearts,” written in 1936 about the Spanish civil war. “Charlie and Frank were internationalists,” Dinges writes, comparing them to the brigadistas who fought and died to defend Spain from Franco’s forces of fascism, “and they are in the noble ranks of so many others who traveled to another country to support and experience a revolution grander than themselves.” “Speaking for myself,” Dinges concludes his book, “Chile is a great love, and what happened there was a great wound in our hearts.” The Documents doc 1 Document 1 Frank Teruggi Jr., [Excerpts of Letter to his sister, Janis], April 30, 1972 Apr 30, 1972 Source Janis Teruggi Page During his time in Chile, Frank Teruggi wrote dozens of letters to his sister Janice; she provided transcribed copies to author John Dinges for his book, Chile in Their Hearts. After just four months in the country, Teruggi described in this letter how being in Chile had changed his thinking: “Being down here is the best thing that could have happened to me as far as my political formation. I’m with revolutionaries from all over the continent and learning theory and practice in a way that is probably not available anywhere in the States. … In retrospect, I didn’t know as much about the U.S. as I thought I did. At first, when people asked me about the panthers, or the weathermen, or Angela Davis I was proud to have a chance to give my rap. But now I’m shutting up a bit, reading like crazy and trying to find out what’s really happening.” doc 2 Document 2 FBI, Intelligence Memorandum, [Report on Frank Teruggi Connection to Anti-War Resisters which includes his Chilean Address], Secret, November 28, 1972 Nov 28, 1972 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project In 1972, the FBI opened a “Security Matter Subversive” file on Frank Teruggi because of intercepted correspondence between him and anti-Vietnam War activists in Germany who were aiding Resisters In the Armed Forces (RITA) and what the FBI called other “deserter organizations.” Those organizations supported U.S. soldiers who went AWOL from their bases in Europe in protest against the war. As John Dinges reports in Chile in Their Hearts, “U.S. Amy Intelligence was closely monitoring RITA activities with the assistance of German intelligence.” Letters to Teruggi intercepted by this spying operation recorded his address in Chile on Hernan Cortes street in Santiago, Chile; that address was included in this FBI summary, raising the troubling question of whether the FBI or any other U.S. agency passed this information on to Chilean authorities before or after the coup. doc 3 Document 3 Steve Volk, [ Notes Taken by Terry Simon on Conversations with Military officials in Valparaiso and Vina del Mar from September 11—15th, 1973, as typed by Volk], September 1973 Sep 1973 Source Steve Volk papers On the day of the military coup, Charles Horman was in Valparaiso with Terry Simon, a friend from New York City; she was present for all the conversations with the U.S. Milgroup officers they met with that day and over the next four days. Simon kept meticulous notes on the conversations, and after Horman’s death, she dictated the notes to Stephen Volk, an American academic who typed them on sheets of onion skin paper. Volk smuggled the notes out of Chile in an empty Chapstick tube. The notes recorded names and addresses of various U.S. officers and the various statements they made. All of them enthusiastically backed the military coup; one Navy contractor named Arthur Creter repeatedly suggested “it had gone smoothly.” But the notes contained nothing that could be construed as secret or that could indicate Horman and Simon had learned “too much” about a U.S. role in the coup. doc 4 Document 4 Department of State, Cable, “W/W AMCIT Missing in Chile,” September 25, 1973 Sep 25, 1973 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project This unclassified U.S. Embassy cable—number 4565—was cited by Chilean Judge Jorge Zepeda as evidence that U.S. Embassy officials were aware of Charles Horman’s detention but did nothing to save him from being executed. Judge Zepeda’s indictment of the U.S. Military Group (MilGroup) commander, Navy Captain Ray Davis, stated that before Horman’s murder, “the United States Embassy informed the Department of State about the disappearance [of Horman]—according to declassified document 04565252528Z—at the very moment when the victim was still alive, in custody and being interrogated in the upper floors of the Ministry of Defense.” But the cable is dated September 25, 1973, a full week after Horman’s body had been delivered to the morgue; nothing in it indicates Embassy knowledge of his whereabouts at any time. According to the book, Chile in Their Hearts, “The court, it must be concluded, misread or misinterpreted the cable and used it incorrectly in an attempt to demonstrate foreknowledge of Horman’s death.” doc 5 Document 5 Chilean Tribunal, Statement of Joyce Horman, November 10, 1973 Nov 10, 1973 Source Chilean Tribunal, Causa 2182-98 por el sequestro y homicidio de Frank Teruggi y Charles Horman [Episodio Estadio Nacional]” In this 30-page typewritten statement, Charles’ wife, Joyce, provided a day-by-day chronology of events as she experienced them from September 10-October 18, 1973. The document is the earliest and most complete accounting of her search for her husband after she learned he had been kidnapped by the military. In an entry for October 5, 1973, the day that her father-in-law, Ed Horman, arrived in Santiago, she recounted their meeting with the ambassador and the consul. Despite ample evidence, including eyewitnesses, that Charles had been seized at his home by a military unit, “Amb Davis said that the Embassy feeling was that Charles probably was in hiding,” she recalled. “My father-in-law replied that this seemed implausible, that even if Charles had been afraid to call me directly, he easily could have passed a message through one of our friends. Edmund Horman went on to ask what had been done to follow up on the probability that Charles had been seized by the Chilean Military Intelligence as had been indicated by the evidence of neighbors who witnessed his arrest, and of friends who subsequently had been called by the Chilean Military Intelligence Service. A reference was then made by Edmund Horman to the two calls received at the US Consulate reporting Charles' arrest. Amb. Davis looked at Mr. Purdy and asked if he knew anything about the telephone calls. Purdy said: ‘No sir.’ I then reminded Mr. Purdy that both calls were recorded on the Consulate note cards being kept on Charles' case.” doc 6 Document 6 State Department, Embassy memorandum, “Horman-Teruggi Cases,” Limited Official Use, December 6, 1973 Dec 6, 1973 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project In a short memorandum of conversation, U.S. Embassy officer Robert Steven reports on a conversation with Chilean foreign ministry official, Enrique Guzman, about the deaths of two U.S. citizens. To obfuscate the facts, Guzman tells Steven that “we may never know” how Horman and Teruggi died. Nevertheless, Guzman insists that “both Horman and Teruggi had not only been deeply involved in leftist activities in the ‘Communist Industrial areas,’” but “perhaps had been shot by their own comrades of the left for some unexplained reason”—which was the military’s cover story to absolve themselves for the summary executions. The reference appeared to be to the worker controlled “Cordones Industriales,” which included the Vicuña MacKenna industrial area to where Horman had moved just days before the coup. doc 7 Document 7 State Department, Memorandum of Conversation, “Deaths: Conversation with Father of Frank Teruggi,” Confidential, February 22, 1974 Feb 22, 1974 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project In February 1974, Frank Teruggi Sr. traveled to Santiago, Chile, to press both U.S. and Chilean officials for judicial accountability for his murdered son. In a meeting with members of the U.S. Consulate, including Vice Consul James Anderson—a CIA officer operating under diplomatic cover—Teruggi Sr. expressed strongly that “he was not happy with Embassy action to protect his son” and requested to see “all the files that you have on the case involving my son.” During the lengthy meeting summarized in this memorandum of conversation, Teruggi Sr. told U.S. officials that he had met with Chilean Interior Minister, General Oscar Bonilla, the previous day; Bonilla had given him the military’s fabricated account about what had happened to Frank Jr. In response, Teruggi Sr. had provided Bonilla with a letter from David Hathaway, Frank’s housemate, who had been detained with Frank in the National Stadium and who had witnessed Frank being taken away for interrogation. Bonilla professed not to have known about these details and promised to re-open the investigation into Teruggi’s execution. “Mr. Teruggi, if your son died in the hands of the Chilean military,” Bonilla stated, “I am terribly sorry.” doc 8 Document 8 State Department, Memorandum, “The Charles Horman Case,” Confidential, July 15, 1976 Jul 15, 1976 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project News coverage of the allegations made by Rafael Gonzalez—including a Washington Post article by Lewis Diuguid titled “The Man Who Knew Too Much”—generated inquiries to the State Department from various U.S. legislators, among them Senator Edward Kennedy. This cover memo to a draft response to Sen. Kennedy addresses how deceptive and inadequate the U.S. response to the murders of Horman and Teruggi has been. “We ‘withheld’ for almost two years any reference to a Chilean memorandum which accused Teruggi, and Horman, of leftist activities,” according to this memo written by State Department officer Rudy Fimbres to Assistant Secretary Harry Shlaudeman. “We failed to pursue the basis for the GOC’s allegations” and “we have done nothing about it,” reads the memo from Fimbres. The fact that the vice-consul, James Anderson, was an undercover CIA official, would eventually be exposed, Fimbres warned. The State Department was deceiving the media and the families by stating “we are diligently pursuing every lead, doing everything to develop the circumstances surrounding the deaths of these Americans,” he reported. “This is overdrawn.” Fimbres pressed Shlaudeman to assign a veteran official, Fred Smith, to conduct a full inquiry of State Department files, although he warned that CIA cooperation would be needed to fully investigate the circumstances of Horman and Teruggi’s murders by the Chilean military. doc 9 Document 9 State Department, Memorandum, “Charles Horman Case,” Secret, August 25, 1976, with “Gleanings” chronology attached. Aug 25, 1976 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project The publicity from Rafael Gonzalez’s claims that Charles Horman had been killed because “he knew too much” and that there was an American in the room when he was interrogated generated two internal State Department investigations and assessments. The first was a review of the case by three officials in ARA, the Bureau of American Republic Affairs: Rudy Fimbres, Robert Driscoll and William Robertson. In this report to Assistant Secretary Harry Shlaudeman, they advised that “this case remains bothersome.” There were “intimations” in the press, Congress and from the Horman and Teruggi families of “negligence on our part, or worse, complicity in Horman’s death.” Despite the public U.S. posture that the circumstances of Horman’s death remained unknown, the files showed that “the GOC sought Horman—and felt threatened enough to order his immediate execution. The GOC might have believed this American could be killed without negative fall-out from the USG.” These State Department officials recommended a “further thorough investigation” of the case and noted that the CIA’s “lack of candor with us on other matters only heightens our suspicions.” The strong but speculative language in the memo was intended to force Secretary of State Kissinger and his deputies to conduct a full inquiry, as Fimbres told author John Dinges. “I was trying to smoke something out,” he said. “We were trying to make the case for an investigation.” doc 10 Document 10 State Department, Report, “Death in Chile of Charles Horman,” Secret, December 10, 1976 [Smith Report with cover memo] Dec 10, 1976 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project At the urging of Rudy Fimbres, and the Fimbres-Driscoll-Robertson memorandum (Document 9), Assistant Secretary Harry Shlaudeman assigned Frederick Smith Jr. to conduct a full investigation of internal State Department and Embassy files. Smith’s report, the result of a five-month investigation, remains the most complete internal probe of the Horman-Teruggi killings. His report concluded that the Chilean military “deliberately killed” the two Americans and that their denials to the Embassy are “dubious” and “difficult to credit.” He found “no evidence” of any role by U.S. government officials “apart from Gonzalez’s statements.” Smith’s report directly contradicted the Embassy and State Department public statements, which gave credence to Chilean military denials. Smith recommended that the Embassy re-interview Gonzalez who, with his family, was still receiving asylum in the Italian Embassy. He also recommended that “high level inquiries” be made of CIA and other intelligence agencies to determine if they had taken any action “that may have led the Junta to believe it could, without serious repercussions, kill Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi.” Chile in Their Hearts lists a series of CIA documents specifically denying any actions of that kind had taken place. doc 11 Document 11 Edmund Horman, Personal Memorandum, “The View After Three Years,” December 22, 1976 Dec 22, 1976 Source Frank Manitzas Papers In late 1976, in the wake of publicity surrounding the claims by Rafael Gonzalez, Edmund C. Horman typed a lengthy report, summarizing his personal investigation and the basis for his suspicion that U.S. officials may have targeted his son for execution. The document was found in the files of CBS reporter Frank Manitzas, who was one of the journalists who interviewed Rafael Gonzalez and did an early investigation of the case. In a section titled, “Scenario,” Horman extrapolates from facts he uncovered to connect the dots of what might have happened. He concludes that Charles “knew too much” about U.S. participation in the coup and asserts that the U.S. officer who gave him a ride from Valparaiso to Santiago asked the CIA to arrange for his arrest by the Chilean military. doc 12 Document 12 State Department, Cable, “Investigation of Horman Case: Interviews with Rafael Gonzalez,” Secret, February 18, 1977 Feb 18, 1977 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project Acting on recommendations in the Smith report to re-interview Rafael Gonzalez, U.S. Embassy officers tape record two interviews with him in late January 1977 and transmit their conclusion “that Gonzalez is not reliable.” They describe him as “intelligent, well informed, and well balanced on some matters,” but also willing to say anything that would get him out of Chile. “Thus, he told us in these conversations that he had talked about Horman with American journalists in June 1976 in order to catch outside attention for his family’s case.” doc 13 Document 13 State Department, Cable, “[Raul Meneses] Reports on GOC Involvement in Death of Charles Horman, asks Embassy for Asylum and AID,” Confidential, April 28, 1987 Apr 28, 1987 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project Almost 14 years after the execution of Charles Horman, Raul Meneses, one of the Chilean military officers who was tasked to investigate his disappearance and located his body , approached the U.S. Embassy to leave Chile and seek protection in the United States. Over the course of four meetings in March and April 1987, Meneses passed on information he had obtained in October 1973 about the circumstances surrounding Horman’s detention and execution. Although the dates are inaccurately presented in this cable—Horman was detained early evening of September 17, 1973; he was executed the next morning and his body was delivered to the morgue later on September 18—Meneses provided important information about the military unit that seized him, and where he was taken. Meneses also criticized the U.S. Embassy for failing to assist the family in locating Horman after he was disappeared, but stated that “to his knowledge, no U.S. official played any role in the death of Charles Horman since he was dead before anyone in the Embassy would have known of his detention.” doc 14 Document 14 Department of State, Cable, “Letelier Case: Mariana Callejas Calls on Political Section,” Secret, April 3, 1987 Apr 3, 1987 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project In the various U.S. Embassy reports on meetings with Raul Meneses, his name was redacted. But in this cable, which addresses a visit to the Embassy by Mariana Callejas, the wife of the DINA assassin of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, Meneses’s name was left uncensored—but is misspelled Menesas. This enabled investigative reporter John Dinges to identify Meneses as the former military investigator in the Horman case who had approached the Embassy in March and April 1987. In this cable, the U.S. embassy expresses some concerns that Meneses and Callejas are “plants” by the Pinochet regime to try and embarrass the United States. Rather than pursue the information on the Horman case and work out an arrangement with Meneses to help him leave the country, the U.S. Embassy turned him away and then professed to be unable to locate him when the State Department decided he might have valuable information on who killed Horman and why. doc 15 Document 15 Chilean Tribunal, Affidavit, [Rafael Gonzalez Recantation of CIA Connection to Horman’s Death], November 2001 Nov 1, 2001 Source Chilean Tribunal, Causa 2182-98 por el sequestro y homicidio de Frank Teruggi y Charles Horman [Episodio Estadio Nacional]” In a signed statement drafted in November 2001 and submitted as sworn evidence in the Chilean court case on Horman in 2003, Gonzalez stated that his June 1976 statements to U.S. journalists implicating the CIA in the death of Charles Horman was “an absolute falsehood” given under duress in an attempt to arrange safe exit from Chile for him and his family. Gonzelez wrote that he saw Horman in custody but that no American officer was present and “neither the State Department, nor the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, nor Mr. Kissinger had any participation whatsoever” in the murders. In his affidavit, Gonzalez recounted that Italian embassy officials had discovered that he had been involved in retrieving Horman’s remains in October 1973; they had given him a London Times article, written by William Shawcross, from which he took the description of Horman as “the man who knew too much.” According to Chile In Their Hearts, in his final ruling, Judge Zepeda ignored the Gonzalez recantation affidavit and convicted him as an accomplice in the death of Charles Horman.