#alba-tcp

#alba-tcp

Members of a convoy that delivered humanitarian aid to Cuba were detained and interrogated by Customs and Border Protection upon returning to the United States on a charter flight from Havana.

The Trump adminstration has pledged a renewed focus on Latin America, which it has described as the 'Trump Corollary' to the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine which back then sought to ban European incursions in the Americas. The White House has billed the summit as the founding of the 'Americas Counter Cartel Coalition' which they described as a new military partnership with leaders in the region.

The DEA is in Bolivia, he said. Just as the DEA is now present, we also have cooperation from European intelligence and police bodies. Oviedo explained that the initial focus of the law enforcement efforts would be to tighten border surveillance and dismantle trafficking networks.

The European Union will on Saturday sign a deal 25 years in the making with the South American trade bloc Mercosur, creating one of the world's largest free trade areas at a time of growing protectionism and volatility. The long-awaited agreement comes amid the sweeping use of tariffs and trade threats by US President Donald Trump's administration, which has sent countries scrambling for new partnerships.

The decision to send humanitarian assistance to Cuba was announced during a press conference on Friday to mark the end of the four-day Caribbean Community (Caricom) meeting in St Kitts and Nevis, which secretary of state Marco Rubio attended to discuss US relations with Caribbean governments.

The United States demanded on Wednesday that Cuba undertake very dramatic changes very soon, while increasing pressure on an island facing its worst economic crisis in decades. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is holding conversations with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, grandson of Raul Castro, the regime's strongman, according to the U.S. outlet Axios, which claims these talks are taking place outside the Cuban government's official channels in Havana.

Cuban state media outlet Cubadebate said the blackout was caused by a fault at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, located about 100km (62 miles) east of Havana, which cut electricity from Pinar del Rio in the far west of the country to the eastern Las Tunas province. In all, two-thirds of the country, including Havana, were left without power, according to the national electric company UNE, which said it was working to restore services.

Petro said he had invited Rodriguez to meet in the border city of Cucuta to discuss energy cooperation and infrastructure projects. Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez has announced that she and Colombian President Gustavo Petro agreed to hold a bilateral meeting to discuss security issues, as well as economic and energy matters. We continue to promote a relationship of understanding and shared benefits for the wellbeing of our peoples, Rodriguez said in a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday.

On Havana's Fifth Avenue, where the trees and lawns remain elegantly groomed even as the rest of Cuba wilts, a billboard outside the Venezuelan embassy reads: Hasta Siempre Comandante (Until For Ever, Commander) next to a vast picture of a smiling Hugo Chavez. It is a staunch declaration that the two nations are bound together for ever. But this week, after the US operation to grab Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro, those ties are in danger of unravelling.

While Mexico has been doing this since 1993, as of 2024 these shipments have been carried out diligently as humanitarian aid in response to the island's energy crisis. Recent criticisms of these shipments by some U.S. members of congress have complicated the Mexican government's position. President Claudia Sheinbaum has offered some explanations, but the state-owned oil company, Pemex, has not provided a clear picture of the ships departing from its terminal in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, bound for Cuba.

When Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured and taken out of Venezuela by U.S. military forces in the early hours of Saturday morning, a group of young Cubans were celebrating a birthday at a house in Havana's Vedado neighborhood. They were sharing music, jokes and drinks when the hostess noticed an alert on her phone. News of the U.S. strike on Caracas, part of the operation to capture the Venezuelan leader, sparked a conversation that dominated the rest of the evening.

The two Mexican navy ships docked on Thursday laden with humanitarian aid as part of Mexico's efforts to support Cuba amid a deepening crisis exacerbated by Donald Trump's economic pressure campaign. The boats, carrying more than 800 tons in aid, arrived at the Caribbean nation two weeks after Trump signed an executive order allowing the US to slap tariffs on any country selling or providing oil to Cuba, effectively choking off fuel to the island.

As a stunned world processes the U.S. government's sudden intervention in Venezuela - debating its legality, guessing who the ultimate winners and losers will be - a company founded in California with deep ties to the Golden State could be among the prime beneficiaries. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet. Chevron, the international petroleum conglomerate with a massive refinery in El Segundo and headquartered, until recently,