Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Sept. 30 that he is ready to declare a state of emergency in response to aggression by the United States. Such a declaration would give the army control over public services and the country's oil industry, which Venezuelan leaders say the US is preparing to grab. The US has increased its naval presence in the Caribbean over the past weeks and launched repeated deadly strikes on civilian vessels in international waters off Venezuela. President Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the vessels were carrying drug traffickers. In a confidential notice sent to several Congressional committees and obtained by the New York Times, the White House said that the US is engaged in a formal "armed conflict" with drug cartels that his team has labeled terrorist organizations, and that suspected smugglers for such groups are "unlawful combatants." 

Widespread protests in Ecuador, sparked by cuts to fuel subsidies, reached a boiling point Sept. 28, as an indigenous land defender was killed by the armed forces, a government aid convoy was reportedly attacked by protesters, and 12 soldiers went missing. Meanwhile, the government continued to advance its plan to rewrite the constitution—an initiative that has further intensified public anger. Undeterred, the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), which initiated the nationwide strike, announced the following day that it would extend the action.

The United States decertified Colombia as a reliable partner in the War on Drugs on Sept. 15, citing a rise in coca cultivation and cocaine production. While the White House waived the crushing sanctions that usually come with decertification, the decision underscores the strained relations between the US and Colombia under President Trump. Alongside Colombia, the administration also decertified Afghanistan, Bolivia, Myanmar, and Venezuela, waiving sanctions for the last three.

At least 17 people were killed in an armed attack on a bar in El Empalme, a small town north of Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil July 28—three days before US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security.

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa says he is seeking assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorizing the South American country. In an interview in Paris on May 8, the hardline rightist who won re-election last month said Israel and the UAE have agreed to provide intelligence aid "to help" fight the narco gangs. (ToI)

The bodies of 13 security guards at a major Peruvian gold mine were found on May 4, a week after the men were abducted from the site. Poderosa, the Peruvian company that owns and operates the mine in the northern province of Pataz, La Libertad region, confirmed the deaths after a police search-and-rescue unit recovered their bodies. Poderosa said the guards "were cruelly murdered by criminals allied with illegal mining." (FT)

President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 27 that the US government is revoking a special permit granted to energy giant Chevron to pump and export Venezuelan oil. The move, which reverses a 2022 decision by Biden to allow the company to bring Venezuelan oil to US markets by exempting it from economic sanctions, removes one of the South American country's few economic lifelines at a time of deepening crisis. In his post on TruthSocial, Trump claimed that the Venezuelan government had failed to keep up its side of the original bargain to meet "electoral conditions." He also charged that the "regime has not been transporting the violent criminals they sent into our Country...back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to." (NACLA Update)

Human rights organizations, including the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), have urged an immediate end to violence between illegal armed groups in the northeast Colombian region of Catatumbo. WOLA joined the Colombian movement "Defendamos la Paz" in a call for armed groups in Catatumbo to suspend their conflict. In the Jan. 19 statement, WOLA wrote: "The Ejercito Nacional de Liberación (ELN) must cease human rights violations and adopt a truce to halt armed confrontations with Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) dissidents." The rights organizations also called on the Colombian government to provide immediate humanitarian aid for the large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region. WOLA urged the armed groups involved to "respect international humanitarian law and allow relief efforts to reach those in need."