Not even two days after losing the presidential runoff to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Flávio Bolsonaro fled Brazil. He did so despite Judge Alexandre de Moraes having ordered him to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving — or perhaps it was for that very reason. He traveled to the United States with his wife, Fernanda, and their two daughters. A State Department spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the United States will issue visas for all four of them.

Seguir leyendo

The night Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won his fourth term, among veteran ministers and old and new allies of the Workers’ Party, there was a man who never left the president’s side and whom almost no one outside Brazil would recognize. He stood out for his big white smile and for being the only one wearing the national team’s yellow jersey. He was André Janones, a lawmaker turned general of a digital army without which Sunday’s historic comeback cannot be understood. A former bus fare collector who had spent three weeks issuing orders via WhatsApp to nearly 11 million Brazilians to tame the algorithm and help the left’s digital communications make, in a few days, a leap they had not achieved in years. “I want to call up the new figure of this campaign, our General Janones,” Lula said from the stage on Avenida Paulista as he celebrated his unexpected victory. “A hug, general.” The crowd replied in chorus: “Janones, warrior of the Brazilian people!”

Seguir leyendo

About 900,000 fresh flowers hung from walls, columns and ceilings; there were tins of caviar for each guest, Dom Pérignon, three wedding dresses and a 30-piece orchestra. The Waldorf Astoria ballroom in New York hosted a wedding in September that was put together in under three months and cost around $10 million, according to the U.S. media. It was the week of the United Nations General Assembly, with Manhattan full of heads of state and diplomats, and the party drew major figures from U.S. power circles, oligarchs, Congolese politicians, the rapper Nelly on stage, and even former boxer Mike Tyson. But above all the celebration brought together the top ranks of Trumpism: the attorney general Todd Blanche; the FBI director Kash Patel; and White House counsel Will Scharf. It was a MAGA wedding for the glossy magazines.

Seguir leyendo

Colombia’s left took to the streets on Wednesday against President Abelardo de la Espriella and fared better than expected. Despite doubts about its ability to mobilize people, fears of police repression stoked by the president himself, the threat of rain and the fact that the protest fell on a weekday, thousands of Colombians demonstrated peacefully for hours. The marches, seen in the country’s main cities, were the first test of the ability of a battered left to mobilize the grassroots after losing power to a right-wing outsider allied openly with the United States and who embodies everything that progressives abhor.

Seguir leyendo

The government of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez has handed Álvaro Pulido — Álex Saab’s Colombian-born associate who had been held in Caracas since 2023 — over to the United States. The transfer was announced Sunday on X by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, while the Venezuelan government has remained silent on the case.

Seguir leyendo

The heirs of Oswaldo Cisneros, once one of Venezuela’s richest men, received unusual news last April: strangers were touring their oil fields in the Orinoco Belt. On paper, they remained the legitimate operators of the assets, but it soon became clear that, even as those visits took place in plain sight, a plan was being put in motion to take the fields away from them.

Seguir leyendo