Venezuela And Cuba Are Collapsing

Opinion: Venezuela is collapsing — and don’t look now, but so is Cuba By Daniel Allott, 1 days ago Rolling blackouts. A worthless currency. A once-mighty industry on life support. Doctors, engineers and students leaving in droves in search of a future. That all sounds like Venezuela, but I’m talking about Cuba. As Venezuela’s crisis deepens, another — quieter but just as dangerous — is unfolding just 90 miles from Florida. The drama may be smaller, but the danger is real. If Venezuela is wobbling, Cuba is starting to fall. On Sept. 10, Cuba’s entire electrical grid failed, plunging nearly 10 million people into darkness. It was the island’s fourth nationwide blackout in less than a year. Even before that, much of the country was losing power for half the day. Officials blamed machinery; Cubans blamed the system. The country’s energy network has become a patchwork of corroded plants and emergency repairs. Over the past 14 months, it has suffered a dozen nationwide outages. Years of neglect and the burning of high-sulfur crude have crippled its power stations. As U.S. sanctions tighten on Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s ability to keep its ally supplied with oil has withered. Fuel shipments from Venezuela — Havana’s economic lifeline for two decades — now fluctuate wildly, sometimes dropping below 10,000 barrels a day before rebounding. Russia and Mexico have stepped in with emergency cargoes, but neither offers stability. Without steady deliveries, plants sputter and nights become suffocating. In some towns, residents cook by candlelight, charge phones at work, and sleep on rooftops to escape the heat. The currency collapse has ground down daily life. Even average state salaries amount to less than $20 a monthat the informal exchange rate, far below the cost of living. Gasoline is scarce and ruinously expensive. In rural areas, bicycles and horse carts have replaced cars. Tourism, once the island’s economic engine, has fallen by more than half over the last decade. Even middle-class Havana now endures rolling blackouts, empty shelves, and rising petty crime. The peso trades near 400 to the dollar on the street, its weakest rate on record. Prices for staples climb relentlessly, and stores selling imported goods increasingly demand hard currency that most Cubans cannot earn. The result is a two-tiered economy that mirrors Venezuela’s descent into dollarization, where access to dollars — not work, skill or effort — determines who eats well and who doesn’t. Cuba’s signature crop has fared no better. This year’s sugar harvest is expected to fall below 200,000 tons, the lowest since the 1800s. In the 1980s, sugar harvests topped 8 million. Today, Cuba is importing raw sugar, a stunning reversal for a former agricultural superpower. The collapse gutted exports, weakened the peso and idled thousands of rural workers. The losses aren’t just economic. Over the last four years, roughly two million Cubans — nearly 20 percent of the island’s population — have fled. Hospitals lack doctors, universities lack professors, and small businesses lack skilled workers. Families are scattered, classrooms empty, innovation stalled. What appears to be a pressure valve for the regime is really a slow bleed of the nation’s lifeblood. The parallels with Venezuela are unmistakable. Both regimes chose political control over prosperity. Both leaned on external lifelines — oil, credit, remittances — that are now fraying. Both crush dissent when policy fails. Venezuela’s decay hollowed out a once-rich state. Cuba has the same script, only with a much larger arc and without the oil money. The Havana-Caracas partnership has always been more than transactional. For a quarter century, the two governments have portrayed themselves as revolutionary brothers defying U.S. power. The bond dates back to Hugo Chávez’s rise in 1999 and his admiration for Fidel Castro’s revolution four decades earlier. Cuba sent doctors, teachers, and security advisers; Venezuela paid in oil. Even today, as both regimes falter, each remains the other’s last dependable ally in a region that has largely moved on. Their bond, however, is finally fraying. Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba have collapsed, from roughly 56,000 barrels per day in 2023 to as few as 8,000 in June 2025. Havana still provides diplomatic cover for Maduro, but both governments are now propping each other up with diminishing strength — two exhausted revolutions clinging to the same fading ideology. In both countries, force has replaced persuasion. Independent journalists are jailed, critics harassed, and citizens whisper their frustrations in private. Once-proud social programs — universal education and health care — have decayed and are now mere shells of what they once were. All that remains are schools without teachers, hospitals without medicine, clinics without electricity. Meanwhile, Washington is again engaged in a high-stakes game in the Caribbean. U.S. warships patrol off Venezuela and have destroyed vessels suspected of smuggling narcotics — a show of force meant to pressure Maduro. Cuban dissident and former political prisoner Óscar Biscet sees the regimes as intertwined. “Cuba and Venezuela are twin dictatorships that sustain each other through corruption and transnational crime,” he told me. “The communist Castro regime effectively occupies Venezuela’s political and military institutions and uses them to export repression and to traffic drugs to the United States.” Formally, President Miguel Díaz-Canel leads Cuba. In reality, decisions still flow from a small cadre of aging revolutionaries — Raúl Castro, now 93, and a few longtime comrades in their nineties. Power moves through personal networks rather than institutions. Preservation, not renewal, is the guiding rule. Across the island, billboards still trumpet “Continuity.” For most Cubans, that no longer means stability — it means continued suffocation. To be sure, Cuba is not Venezuela. Its security forces remain disciplined. Tourism and remittances still bring in dollars that Caracas can only envy. Emigration keeps anger from boiling over. And the Communist Party has survived so many shocks that it is always risky to forecast its collapse. But the warning signs aren’t hard to see. The lights keep flickering. The peso buys less every day. The sugar mills are quiet. The young are leaving. The pillars that once held Cuban socialism upright are giving way all at once. Venezuela’s collapse dominates the headlines, but Cuba’s slow-motion breakdown could have far more profound consequences. A failed state just 90 miles from Florida would unleash new migration waves, invite rival powers into the region, and test America’s resolve. Havana’s flickering lights may be the hemisphere’s next alarm bell. Daniel Allott is the former opinion editor of The Hill and the author of “On the Road in Trump’s America: A Journey into the Heart of a Divided Country.” Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

Peru's President Ousted

Peru’s Congress Ousts President Dina Boluarte Over Corruption and Security Failures Peru Peruvian President Dina Boluarte became the latest leader in the country to be ousted over the weekend, following months of political turmoil marked by corruption scandals, deadly protest crackdowns, and a spiraling security crisis that has gripped the country, CNN reported. On Friday, lawmakers from across the political aisle voted to remove Boluarte for “permanent moral incapacity.” They accused her of failing to curb organized crime and cited a series of corruption allegations, including bribery, abuse of office, and misuse of state resources. The president denied the allegations and refused to attend the session. Boluarte became Peru’s first female president in December 2022 after the impeachment of her predecessor, Pedro Castillo. Her downfall comes amid a deepening crisis of governance in Peru, where more than seven presidents have faced trial or legal challenges related to corruption scandals or human rights abuses since 2000. Boluarte’s term was marked by growing backlash over the deaths of more than 60 protesters killed by security forces during unrest that followed Castillo’s ouster in early 2023. She also came under scrutiny for accepting luxury gifts and secretly undergoing cosmetic surgery while in office without delegating authority, violating constitutional protocol. The legislative vote followed closely after a shooting at a concert in the capital that ignited public outrage over rampant gang violence and rising crime in the country. Peru recorded 2,082 homicides last year – half of them contract killings – and more than 22,000 cases of extortion, underscoring the challenges ahead for the embattled nation. Boluarte will be replaced by Congress President José Jerí, who was sworn in as interim president. In one of his first acts, Jerí launched pre-dawn raids at four prisons, where authorities seized cellphones, weapons, and drugs from gang leaders. The new leader pledged he will make it a priority to tackle Peru’s rampant lawlessness, according to the Associated Press. Jerí will serve as interim president until July 2026, when Peruvians will select their new president in elections scheduled for April 12.

Argentina Congress Limits Melili's Decree Power

Argentina’s Congress Limits Milei’s Decree Power in Latest Blow to the Right-Wing Leader Argentina Argentina’s lower house on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill to limit President Javier Milei’s ability to use emergency presidential decrees, the latest in a series of setbacks for the right-wing leader, whose party has a minority in Congress, Reuters reported. According to the bill, a decree can now be overturned by a single house of parliament. Before, a majority of both houses of parliament had to vote to reject a presidential order to overturn it, France 24 added. The Chamber of Deputies approved the measures by 140 votes in favor to 80 against, and 17 abstentions. The bill was already approved by the Senate, but it will now return to the upper house, where it is expected to be approved, following modifications. Milei could still veto the legislation. Milei’s party argued that the bill would be destabilizing and create legal uncertainty but critics say that the president has excessively used executive decrees, causing institutional damage. In an effort to push forward his austerity agenda, he has issued more than 70 decrees since becoming president in December 2023. Milei, who campaigned on being an outsider, described Congress as a “nest of rats” and its members as a “political caste.” The move is a fresh blow to the libertarian leader, who is already grappling with corruption scandals involving his sister, a peso crisis that forced him to obtain financial aid from the US last month, and three previous congressional votes that have overturned some of his spending vetoes. Meanwhile, Milei appears increasingly vulnerable in the run-up to midterm elections on Oct. 26, where half of the lower house and one-third of the Senate will be up for grabs. Last month, his party only secured about 34 percent of the vote in legislative elections in Buenos Aires province, while Milei’s left-wing Peronist opponents won about 47 percent in a vote seen as a referendum on his policies. Share this story

Argentina' Chainsaw Massacre

Argentina’s chainsaw massacre FT author Edward Luce US National Editor and Columnist ‌ ‌ PREMIUM October 10 2025 The speed of Javier Milei’s reversal of fortunes has been brutal. A few months ago, Argentina’s libertarian president was hailed as an economic miracle-worker and a lodestar for the global populist right. It was Milei who donated that infamous chainsaw to Elon Musk a couple of weeks after Donald Trump took office. At that point Milei was seen as a populist iconoclast who had scythed his way through bureaucracy to deliver inflation-beating austerity. This he had pulled off in terminally ill Argentina of all places. He had also written the road map for Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). It was not just Musk, Trump, JD Vance and other Maga figures who hailed Milei’s magical touch. Centre-left leaders such as Britain’s Keir Starmer, also felt obliged to pay their compliments. So complete was Milei’s status as the populist right’s foreign darling that America’s conservative CPAC gathering was held in Buenos Aires last December. This put him on a par with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who also played host to the conference. “We could call ourselves a rightwing international,” Milei told the audience. “In the hands of Trump, [El Salvador’s Nayib] Bukele and us here in Argentina, we have a historic opportunity to breathe new winds of freedom into the world.” A couple of months later Milei told the Economist, “I am today, one of the two most relevant politicians on planet earth . . . I find it fascinating that the chainsaw has become an emblem of a new golden era of humanity.” Pride goeth before the fall but in Milei’s case Trump is trying to catch him first. The irony of the libertarian nationalist who opposed foreign handouts now turning to Trump for urgent assistance is lost on no one. Those who want to explore the balance of payments challenges Milei faces should read this exemplary Alphaville note by Brad Setser and Stephen Paduano. Their assessment of whether Trump’s $20bn credit swap line will stem the Argentine peso’s fall is technical, so for those in a hurry, here is the gist. Milei slashed inflation from more than 160 per cent when he was elected in 2023 to 32 per cent by ending the use of central bank money printing to finance government spending and propping up the peso with Argentina’s dollar reserves. This kept import prices down and curbed inflation. But the impact on incomes of a high peso and sharp spending cuts was severe. When Milei’s party did badly in local elections last month, an-all-too familiar run on the peso was triggered. Having run through most of his reserves trying to prop it up, Milei had little choice but to turn to Trump (the IMF already gave Milei a $20bn soft loan earlier this year). The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, obliged with an unconditional $20bn swap line on the softest terms possible. As was reputedly said by another South American strongman, Oscar Benevides, “For my friends everything; for my enemies, the law.” Either way, Setser and Paduano doubt if Trump’s help will be enough. “The problem with Milei is you eventually run out of other people’s money,” they quip. Argentina’s midterm elections later this month poses Milei’s most critical political test. If the opposition Peronists do well, Milei’s strategy could become untenable and the peso’s slide would continue. It is hard to imagine Trump throwing good money after bad. To be clear, and as history repeatedly tells us, the Peronists’ familiar expansionist recipe would be an inflationary cure worse than the disease. Milei’s exceptionalist moment may nevertheless be over. This means he and Musk still have a lot to talk about. I’m turning this week to my colleague Ciara Nugent, the FT’s Southern Cone correspondent, in Buenos Aires. Ciara, we haven’t met but I’ve enjoyed your coverage of Milei’s rollercoaster ride. I know he is the latest among several economic Wunderkinder that Argentina thrown up over the last few decades — though with a uniquely Trumpian flavour. My question is whether he has now exhausted Argentina’s libertarian option for another few years or does he still have scope to rebound? Recommended reading ‌ ‌

Venezuela Thwarts Terrorist Attack On US Embassy

Venezuela Foils Terrorist Attack at US Embassy Amid Worsening Ties with Washington Venezuela Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced this week that his security forces prevented a “false flag operation” by a “local terrorist group” to plant explosives at the United States Embassy in the country’s capital, Caracas, MercoPress reported. During his weekly TV show on Monday, Maduro said that two credible sources, one domestic and one international, had told the government about the possible attack by “extremist sectors of the local Venezuelan right.” Security forces were sent to reinforce security around the embassy, and authorities are searching for those involved in the failed plan. The president also shared details and information about the threat with the US government, and he said he received a positive response. Maduro described the foiled attack as a “provocation,” warning it was part of a larger destabilization attempt aimed at justifying further aggression against his country and heightening tensions with Washington – the US is expanding its military presence off the coast of Venezuela as part of a campaign against drug cartels, Al Jazeera noted. After the rupture of diplomatic relations between Caracas and Washington in 2019, the US embassy in Venezuela has remained closed, only maintaining necessary staff for security and the upkeep of the premises. Despite the difference between the two countries, Maduro insisted that the embassy is protected and respected by his government under international law. News of this alleged attack arrives as US President Donald Trump reportedly called off efforts to find a diplomatic agreement with Venezuela. The Trump administration does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate president and has accused him of being one of the world’s biggest drug traffickers and also the head of the Cartel de los Soles. The US military campaign in Venezuela currently focuses on attacking Venezuelan ships in the Caribbean Sea, which it believes are carrying drugs. Last Friday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said four people were killed during a strike on a small vessel in the Caribbean, which the White House considered involved in drug trafficking. Venezuelan officials have condemned the US’s targeting of shipping, saying it constitutes a campaign of extrajudicial killing.

Argentina's Bail Out Benefits One Billionaire

Trump’s Argentina bailout enriches one well-connected billionaire A $20 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package for Argentina is a gift for a hedge fund manager with personal and professional ties to the Treasury Secretary Judd Legum Sep 29, 2025 Hedge fund manager Rob Citrone attends a charity dinner in New York City on November 15, 2022. (Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a $20 billion package to rescue the Argentinian economy. The risky taxpayer-financed deal, which involves trading U.S. dollars for Argentine pesos, has little upside for ordinary Americans. Argentina is not a significant U.S. trading partner, and its economy, long in turmoil, has little impact on the United States. However, Bessent’s announcement had massive economic benefits for one American: billionaire hedge fund manager Rob Citrone, who has placed large bets on the future of the Argentine economy. Citrone, the co-founder of Discovery Capital Management, is also a friend and former colleague of Bessent—a fact that has not been previously reported in American media outlets. Citrone, by his own account, helped make Bessent very wealthy. Since Javier Milei, a right-wing populist, became president of Argentina in December 2023, Citrone has invested heavily in Argentina. Citrone has bought Argentine debt and purchased equity in numerous Argentine companies that are closely tied to the performance of the overall economy. Due to Argentina’s massive debt load and chaotic economic history — in 2023, Argentina’s inflation rate was over 200% — Citrone purchased Argentine bonds with an interest rate of nearly 20%. (Citrone has declined to detail exactly “how much of the $2.8 billion he manages is invested“ in Argentina.) Citrone, who is also a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is effectively betting on Milei’s right-wing economic program, which emphasizes deregulation and sharply reduced government spending. Citrone viewed “the probability of default as minuscule,” even though Argentina has defaulted on its debts many times in the past. In the short term, this appeared to be a savvy investment. After taking office, Milei fired tens of thousands of government workers, cut spending on welfare and research, and achieved fiscal balance. Inflation was reduced to around 40%, which spurred economic growth and foreign investment. Argentina’s economic rebound contributed to Discovery Capital’s 52% return in 2024. Then it all came crashing down. The austerity measures slowed economic growth, and unemployment spiked to nearly 8%. Millions had a harder time making ends meet after Milei reduced or eliminated subsidies for transportation, medicine, and other necessities. Milei’s popularity slumped, leading to speculation that his party could be routed in the 2025 midterm elections, which would hamstring Milei’s ability to implement his agenda. This created an economic panic, with investors dumping the peso and liquidating other Argentine assets. Milei has desperately attempted to keep inflation in check. Last week Argentina’s “central bank spent more than $1 billion to shore up the peso.” But Argentina was running out of foreign currency. That spelled trouble for Citrone. Then Bessent and the Trump administration came to the rescue, floating a $20 billion economic package that helped stabilize the Argentine peso and functioned as a political lifeline for Milei. In early September, days before Bessent’s announcement, Citrone purchased more Argentine bonds. Bessent’s personal and professional relationship with Citrone has spanned decades. In a May 14 appearance on the “Goldman Sachs Exchanges” podcast, Citrone revealed how he delivered a financial windfall for Bessent. They were both working for investor George Soros in 2013 when Citrone convinced Bessent and Soros to bet on the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen. I think there’s special times every five or ten years where there’s a really spectacular trade in investment that we then will concentrate in a meaningful way. 2013, the dollar-yen, where we made over a billion dollars long dollar-yen. And, in fact, you know, we discussed it quite a bit with George, and I kind of convinced George and Scott Bessent at the time to go big in that. And, you know, Scott says I’m responsible for 75% of his bonus at Soros, kind of jokingly, over that time. CE Noticias Financieras, a leading Latin American economic publication, describes Citrone as “a friend of the Secretary of the Treasury.” El Cronista, citing government sources, reported that Citrone “has a personal relationship as well as a past working relationship” with Bessent. Citrone has also reportedly leveraged his relationship with Bessent to gain access to Trump. According to CE Noticias Financieras, in November, “Citrone gave a case of four red wines to Javier Milei during his visit to Mar-A-Lago, in Palm Beach, in his first meeting with Trump.” When Argentina’s economy began to falter in April, it was Citrone who “intervened before Scott Bessent…to advocate for an IMF agreement with Argentina,” CE Noticias Financieras reported. Bessent subsequently played a key role in convincing the IMF to extend a separate $20 billion currency stabilization package. (That package ultimately proved insufficient to stabilize the Argentine peso.) Shortly after the IMF deal was secured, Bessent traveled to Argentina to meet with Milei and other top Argentine officials. It was an unusual choice for the Treasury Secretary’s first foreign trip. Citrone arrived in Argentina at the same time as Bessent, meeting with Milei just before Bessent. During those meetings, Bessent emphasized U.S. support for Argentina’s economic agenda. Bessent’s September 24 announcement, thus far, has had the desired impact, increasing the value of Argentine assets, including bonds, stocks, and the peso. “It has helped tremendously that the US has come in to support Milei, and it will pay dividends for the US strategically,” Citrone said in an interview with Bloomberg. Whether the U.S. improves the prospects over the long term is a separate question. Propping up the value of the Argentine currency beyond what the market will support with yet another influx of foreign currency gives wealthy Argentines an opportunity to cash out. The Argentine elite now have the ability to convert their peso assets into dollars and move them abroad. This phenomenon, known as “capital flight,” is why the previous IMF bailout package proved insufficient. Discovery Capital did not immediately return a request for comment about Citrone’s role in securing the U.S. assistance package for Argentina. Popular Information has produced original accountability journalism since 2018. If you value this reporting and want to see more of it, you can support our work by upgrading to a paid subscription. ohomen171@gmail.com password ohomen171@gmail.com Subscribe Argentina’s MAGA lobbyists Another overlooked aspect of the U.S. rescue package for Argentina is the role of the organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an influential right-wing political group. In November 2024, shortly after Trump’s election, key CPAC officials, including Matt Schlapp and Mercedes Schlapp, founded a new lobbying firm called Tactic Global. This is the same group that organized CPAC Argentina in December 2024, an event that featured Milei, Lara Trump, and other right-wing luminaries. CPAC has long played a key role in Trump’s political operation. In February 2025, Tactic Global began representing the Argentine government as a foreign agent. According to the filing, “Tactic will serve as a liason [sic] between Presidencia de la Nacion de la Republica Argentina and its counterparts in the U.S. Tactic will coordinate meetings between officials of the two countries and offer strategic counsel to the Secretaria de Inteligencia de Estado.” The contract specifies that Argentina pays Tactic $10,000 per month. Tactic Global’s official name is Tactic COC because its parent company is COC Global Enterprise. Leonardo Scaturice, an Argentinian businessman and lobbyist who lives in the United States, is the chairman and CEO of COC Global Enterprise and a principal at Tactic Global. In April 2025, Matt Schlapp traveled with Citrone to meet with Milei and other top Argentine officials, according to news reports. They arrived together in Scaturice’s private jet, a striking black Bombardier Global 5000. Also participating in the meetings was Soledad Cedro, the Managing Director of Tactic Global and the CEO of CPAC Latin America. Scaturice once worked for Argentine intelligence, which may explain why Tactic Global’s contract was routed through the Argentine Secretariat of Intelligence. More recently, CE Noticias Financieras reported that Barry Bennett, a former Trump advisor and current Tactic Global principal, “became directly involved” in securing the U.S. rescue package. Although CPAC promotes itself as an “America First” organization, Tactic Global represents not only the government of Argentina but also Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam. After Bessent announced his rescue package for Argentina last week, CPAC promoted the deal on its social media accounts.

Prarguay: Generation Z Protestes against Corruption,

Gen Z Protests Against Corruption Erupt in Paraguay Paraguay Protesters gathered on Monday in front of police and court buildings in the Paraguayan capital of Asunción to demand the release of young people arrested the day before in the Generación Z Paraguay march against corruption, Paraguayan newspaper El Nacional reported. Holding signs reading “Freedom for those imprisoned for fighting,” they demanded the immediate release of those arrested, most of whom had no criminal record, saying the crackdown on the protest by police was a violation of their assembly rights. On Sunday, authorities arrested more than 30 people in Asunción after anti-corruption demonstrations turned violent, MercoPress reported. The march was organized by the youth group Generación Z Paraguay to protest government corruption and demand greater transparency, as well as more funding for education and healthcare. The protests began peacefully, but quickly escalated after a violent police crackdown that continued into the night, according to local media. Dozens of protesters were wounded during the clashes, while eight police officers were injured as protesters smashed store windows and threw objects at law enforcement. Video footage posted on social media showed police, including cavalry and specialized units like the Grupo Lince motorcycle unit, aggressively chasing and detaining civilians, even those walking on sidewalks. The protest is part of a broader wave of public discontent and protests in the country of Paraguay over the past year, with demonstrators demanding transparency, justice, and institutional accountability. Analysts say that Paraguay is now dealing with its most severe institutional crisis since the democratic transition of 1989, following revelations of deep-rooted corruption and collusion between public officials and organized crime networks, implicating top officials, including President Horacio Cartes. Share this story