Monday, February 9, 2026

Latest News

All That Glitters Isn’t Trump Nor Petro

By Richard Emblin -

Colombian President Gustavo Petro appeared on Tuesday to melt into the gilded woodwork of the Oval Office, wearing a gold tie and an uncharacteristically sober dark suit. Seated beside U.S. President Donald Trump, the two-hour meeting appeared—at least on the surface—to be a cordial encounter between political adversaries entrenched on opposite sides of the ideological […]

Read More →

Vocal on Gaza, Petro’s Silence on Iran Is Hypocrisy Incarnate

By Opinion Desk -

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has made Gaza the moral centerpiece of his foreign policy. Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, he has devoted extraordinary political capital to denouncing Israel, questioning its right to self-defense, and framing the Gaza war as a singular global emergency. He summoned “Free Palestine” marches, spent public funds hosting […]

Read More →

Democracy Deferred: Did Washington Abandon María Corina Machado?

By Richard Emblin -

The extraction of Nicolás Maduro on Saturday was meant to signal the end of an era. Instead, it has exposed an uncomfortable truth that may loom over Washington weeks and months after the “shock-and-awe” attacks in central Caracas have waned from headlines: was Venezuela’s democratic opposition sidelined at the very moment it appeared closest to […]

Read More →

The New Monroe Doctrine: U.S. Recasts Latin America as Security Priority

By Luis Guillermo Plata -

Why such a massive U.S. military deployment off the coast of Venezuela, supposedly to combat the “Cartel of the Suns” and stop drug trafficking from Venezuela to the United States? After more than four months, the results amount to little more than a handful of small vessels destroyed – an extremely modest impact given the […]

Read More →

Stain on Hay: Should María Corina Machado Refuse the Literary Festival?

By Richard Emblin -

For a literary festival, silence can be more revealing than speech. The decision by three writers to withdraw from the 2026 Hay Festival in Cartagena over the presence of María Corina Machado, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the most prominent figure in Venezuela’s democratic opposition, has exposed a paradox at the heart of […]

Read More →

USS Gerald Ford Enters the Caribbean: What Next for Venezuela?

By Richard Emblin -

The arrival of the USS Gerald Ford in Caribbean waters has raised the stakes in the tense relationship between the United States and Venezuela. The aircraft carrier – the most advanced and powerful in the U.S. Navy – traveled for more than two weeks from the Mediterranean to take up position near South America, joining […]

Read More →

Palace of Justice: Forty Years, Four Peace Processes, and No Peace

By Luis Guillermo Plata -

I remember perfectly the morning of November 6, 1985. I was 18 years old, a high school conscript serving in the Presidential Guard Battalion. Chaos reigned. Commanders shouted orders as we deployed in trucks and on foot – not only toward Plaza de Bolívar, but to different corners of Bogotá. No one knew where the […]

Read More →