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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Help World-Outlook Win New Subscribers
(the subscription is free of charge)
Dear reader,
Over the last month, World-Outlook and its sister publication in Spanish Panorama-Mundial have published unique coverage of U.S. and world events.
This includes the three-part interview with Cuban historian and writer Ernesto Limia DÃaz, ‘Cuba Is the Moral and Political Compass of the World.’ A related article by Mark Satinoff, World Votes with Cuba to Demand an End to U.S. Blockade, included information on the campaign to send medical aid to Cuba in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa and was shared widely by the Los Angeles Hands Off Cuba Committee and other Cuba solidarity groups.
A number of readers sent their appreciation for Cathleen Gutekanst’s article Chicago Residents Fight ICE Abductions, Deportations, which provided a compelling, eyewitness account of this example of working-class resistance to the Trump administration’s war on undocumented immigrants. Some readers shared it widely on social media platforms.
The news analysis Bigotry, Jew Hatred Take Center Stage in GOP Mainstream also generated interest. It is part of World-Outlook’s consistent analysis of the danger of the rise of incipient fascism that Trumpism has posed for the working class and its allies in the U.S. and the world.
Most recently, another article by Mark Satinoff, ‘From Ceasefire to a Just Peace’ in Israel and Occupied Territories, was promoted by Friends of Standing Together (FOST NY/NJ) on the group’s website. Alon-Lee Green and Sally Abed — the two Standing Together leaders featured at the November 12 event in Brooklyn, New York, that Mark’s article covered — and Israelis for Peace sent their thanks to Mark for his accurate reporting.
This is a small sample of the news coverage and political analysis World-Outlook offers.
We ask you to use this information to try to convince at least one of your acquaintances, colleagues, friends, fellow students, neighbors, or relatives to subscribe to World-Outlook. As you know, the subscription is free of charge. Increasing World-Outlook’s subscription base will widen the site’s reach. It will also provide new impetus to improve our coverage. Comments and reactions from subscribers, or initiatives from readers to cover events in their areas, often result in unexpectedly invaluable articles or opinion columns clarifying important political questions.
Feel free to share this letter, or part of its contents, with those you are asking to subscribe. And keep World-Outlookinformed about the reactions you get from potential new readers.
In solidarity,
World-Outlook editors
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Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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Stop Cop City Bay Area
Did you know about a proposed $47 million regional police training facility in San Pablo—designed for departments across the Bay Area?
We are Stop Cop City Bay Area (Tours & Teach-Ins), a QT+ Black-led grassroots collective raising awareness about this project. This would be the city’s second police training facility, built without voter approval and financed through a $32 million, 30-year loan.
We’re organizing to repurpose the facility into a community resource hub and youth center. To build people power, we’re taking this conversation on the road—visiting Bay Area campuses, classrooms, cafes, and community spaces via our Fall 2025 Tour.
We’d love to collaborate with you and/or co-create an event. Here’s what we offer:
Guest Speaker Presentations—5-minute visits (team meetings, classrooms, co-ops, etc.), panels, or deep dives into:
· the facility’s origins & regional impacts
· finding your role in activism
· reimagining the floorplan (micro-workshops)
· and more
· Interactive Art & Vendor/Tabling Pop-Ups — free zines, stickers, and live linocut printing with hand-carved stamps + artivism.
· Collaborations with Classrooms — project partnerships, research integration, or creative assignments.
· Film Screenings + Discussion — e.g., Power (Yance Ford, 2024) or Riotsville, U.S.A. (Sierra Pettengill, 2022), or a film of your choice.
👉 If you’re interested in hosting a stop, open to co-creating something else, or curious about the intersections of our work: simply reply to this email or visit: stopcopcitybayarea.com/tour
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to connecting.
In solidarity,
Stop Cop City Bay Area
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Dear Organization Coordinator
I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to invite your organization to consider co-sponsoring a regional proposal to implement Free Public Transit throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
This initiative directly supports low-income families, working people, seniors, youth, and others who rely on public transportation. It would eliminate fare barriers while helping to address climate justice, congestion, and air pollution—issues that disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities.
We believe your organization’s mission and values align strongly with this proposal. We are seeking endorsements, co-sponsorship, and coalition-building with groups that advocate for economic and racial equity.
I would love the opportunity to share a brief proposal or speak further if you're interested. Please let me know if there’s a staff member or program director I should connect with.
A description of our proposal is below:
sharethemoneyinstitute@gmail.com
Opinion: San Francisco Bay Area Should Provide Free Public Transportation
The San Francisco Bay Area is beautiful, with fantastic weather, food, diversity and culture. We’re also internationally famous for our progressiveness, creativity, and innovation.
I believe the next amazing world-leading feature we can add to our cornucopia of attractions is Free Public Transportation. Imagine how wonderful it would be if Muni, BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, SamTrans, SF Bay Ferries, and all the other transportation services were absolutely free?
Providing this convenience would deliver enormous, varied benefits to the 7.6 million SF Bay Area residents, and would make us a lovable destination for tourists.
This goal - Free Public Transportation - is ambitious, but it isn’t impossible, or even original. Truth is, many people world-wide already enjoy free rides in their smart municipalities.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is promoting free transit, with a plan that’s gained the endorsement of economists from Chile, United Kingdom, Greece, and the USA.
The entire nation of Luxembourg has offered free public transportation to both its citizens and visitors since 2020. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has given free transit to its residents since 2013. In France, thirty-five cities provide free public transportation. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, offers free rides to seniors, disabled, and students. In Maricá (Brazil) – the entire municipal bus system is free. Delhi (India) – offers free metro and bus travel for women. Madrid & Barcelona (Spain) offer free (or heavily discounted) passes to youth and seniors.
Even in the USA, free public transit is already here. Kansas City, Missouri, has enjoyed a free bus system free since 2020. Olympia, Washington, has fully fare-free intercity transit. Missoula, Montana, is free for all riders. Columbia, South Carolina, has free buses, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has enjoyed free transit for over a decade. Ithaca, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin, offer free transit to students.
But if the San Francisco Bay Area offered free transit, we’d be the LARGEST municipality in the world to offer universal Free Transit to everyone, resident and visitor alike. (Population of Luxembourg is 666,430. Kansas City 510,704. Population of San Francisco Bay Area is 7.6 million in the nine-county area)
Providing free transit would be tremendously beneficial to millions of people, for three major reasons:
1. Combat Climate Change - increased public ridership would reduce harmful CO2 fossil fuel emissions. Estimates from Kansas City and Tallinn Estonia’s suggest an increase in ridership of 15 percent. Another estimate from a pilot project in New York City suggests a ridership increase of 30 percent. These increases in people taking public transportation instead of driving their own cars indicates a total reduction of 5.4 - 10.8 tons of emissions would be eliminated, leading to better air quality, improved public health, and long-term climate gains.
2. Reduce Traffic Congestion & Parking Difficulty - Estimates suggest public transit would decrease traffic congestion in dense urban areas and choke points like the Bay Bridge by up to 15 percent. Car ownership would also be reduced. Traffic in San Francisco is the second-slowest in the USA (NYC is #1) and getting worse every year. Parking costs in San Francisco are also the second-worst in the USA (NYC #1), and again, it is continually getting worse.
3. Promote Social Equity - Free transit removes a financial cost that hits low-income residents hard. Transportation is the second-biggest expense after housing for many Americans. In the Bay Area, a monthly Clipper pass can cost $86–$98 per system, and much more for multi-agency commuters. For people living paycheck-to-paycheck, this is a significant cost. People of color, immigrants, youth, seniors, and people with disabilities rely more heavily on public transit. 55–70% of frequent transit riders in the Bay Area are from low-to moderate-income households, but these riders usually pay more per mile of transit than wealthy drivers. Free fares equalize access regardless of income or geography.
Free transit would help people 1) take jobs they couldn’t otherwise afford to commute to, thus improving the economy, 2) Stay in school without worrying about bus fare, 3) Get to appointments, child care, or grocery stores without skipping meals to afford transit.
To conclude: Free Public Transit should be seen as a civil rights and economic justice intervention.
The Cost? How can San Francisco Bay Area pay for Free Transit throughout our large region?
ShareTheMoney.Institute estimates the cost as $1.5 billion annually. This sum can acquired via multiple strategies. Corvallis, Oregon, has had free public bus service since 2011, paid for by a $3.63 monthly fee added to each utility bill. Missoula, Montana, funds their fare-free Mountain Line transit system, via a property tax mill levy. Madison, Wisconsin’s transit is supported by general fund revenues, state and federal grants, and partnerships/sponsorships from local businesses and organizations.
Ideally, we’d like the funds to be obtained from the 37 local billionaires who, combined, have an approximate wealth of $885 billion. The $1.5 billion for free transit is only 0.17% of the local billionaire's wealth. Sponsorship from the ultra-wealthy would be ideal. Billionaires can view the “fair transit donation” they are asked to contribute not as punishment or an “envy tax”, but as their investment to create a municipality that is better for everyone, themselves included. They can pride themselves on instigating a world-leading, legacy-defining reform that will etch their names in history as leaders of a bold utopian reform.
Our motto: “we want to move freely around our beautiful bay”
——
Hank Pellissier - Share The Money Institute
Reverend Gregory Stevens - Unitarian Universalist EcoSocialist Network
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*  Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest. Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitskyhttps://freeboris.infoThe petition is also available on Change.org *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) A Study Is Retracted, Renewing Concerns About the Weedkiller Roundup
Problems with a 25-year-old landmark paper on the safety of Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, have led to calls for the E.P.A. to reassess the widely used chemical.
By Hiroko Tabuchi, January 2, 2026
“The retraction points to a wider problem of research secretly funded by industries like tobacco and lead, said David Rosner, co-director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University. ‘Shading the science to favor the corporate interest,’ he said, was likely ‘the rule rather than the exception.’ Journals needed to ‘press scientists more forcefully to identify conflicts of interest,’ he said. ‘Huge financial interests are at stake.’”
U.S. regulators consider it safe, but the World Health Organization has said glyphosate is probably carcinogenic. Seth Perlman/Associated Press
In 2000, a landmark study claimed to set the record straight on glyphosate, a contentious weedkiller used on hundreds of millions of acres of farmland. The paper found that the chemical, the active ingredient in Roundup, wasn’t a human health risk despite evidence of a cancer link.
In December, the study was retracted by the scientific journal that published it a quarter century ago, setting off a crisis of confidence in the science behind a weedkiller that has become the backbone of American food production. It is used on soybeans, corn and wheat, on specialty crops like almonds, and on cotton and in home gardens.
The Environmental Protection Agency still considers the herbicide to be safe. But the federal government faces a deadline in 2026 to re-examine glyphosate’s safety after legal action brought by environmental, food-safety and farmworker advocacy groups.
The E.P.A. has also faced pressure to act on glyphosate from the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by supporters of the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who once served as co-counsel in a lawsuit against Monsanto over exposure to Roundup.
The 2000 paper, a scientific review conducted by three independent scientists, was for decades cited by other researchers as evidence of Roundup’s safety. It became the cornerstone of regulations that deemed the weedkiller safe.
But since then, emails uncovered as part of lawsuits against the weedkiller’s manufacturer, Monsanto, have shown that the company’s scientists played a significant role in conceiving and writing the study.
In the emails, Monsanto employees praised each other for their “hard work” on the paper, which included data collection, writing and review. One Monsanto employee expressed hope that the study would become “‘the’ reference on Roundup and glyphosate safety.” The pharmaceutical giant Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion.
In retracting the study last month, the journal, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, cited “serious ethical concerns regarding the independence and accountability of the authors.” Martin van den Berg, the journal’s editor in chief, said the paper had based its conclusions largely on unpublished studies by Monsanto.
There were indications that the authors had received financial compensation from Monsanto for their work, he said. There was no disclosure of a conflict of interest on the part of the authors beyond a mention in the acknowledgments that Monsanto had provided scientific support. As a result, Dr. van den Berg said, he “had lost confidence in the results and conclusions of this article.”
Brian Leake, a spokesman for Bayer, said Monsanto’s involvement with the 2000 paper “did not rise to the level of authorship and was appropriately disclosed in the acknowledgments” and that the listed authors “had full control over and approved the study’s manuscript.”
He said that glyphosate was “the most extensively studied herbicide over the past 50 years” and that “the vast majority of published studies had no Monsanto involvement.”
The sole surviving author of the 2000 article, Gary M. Williams, who is a professor at New York Medical College, did not respond to requests for comment.
Traces of glyphosate have been detected in foods like bread, cereal and snacks, and in the urine of both adults and children, though there are signs that levels in food have dropped after public pressure led some companies to stop applying glyphosate shortly before harvest, a practice that leaves behind more chemical residues.
The World Health Organization in 2015 classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
“This is a seismic, long-awaited correction of the scientific record,” said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, who is a pediatrician and epidemiologist and the dean of global health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
Dr. Landrigan recently chaired an advisory committee for a global glyphosate study that found that even low doses of glyphosate-based herbicides caused leukemia in rats.
“It pulls the veil off decades of industry efforts to create a false narrative that glyphosate is safe” he said. “People have developed cancers, and people have died because of this scientific fraud.”
Laboratory tests first flagged potential risks posed by exposure to glyphosate as far back as the early 1980s, and soon after, studies of Midwestern farmers exposed to herbicides started to show an increase in certain cancers. A U.S.-backed effort to eradicate coca fields in Colombia and Ecuador by spraying glyphosate from planes onto hundreds of thousands of acres of cropland led to widespread reports of illnesses among local residents.
The 2000 paper declaring glyphosate safe was published against that backdrop.
As the E.P.A. faces its 2026 deadline to reconsider the safety of the weedkiller, the agency’s critics are likely to highlight that the retracted paper appears in the bibliography of past E.P.A.’s risk assessment on glyphosate.
The E.P.A. “should reopen the decision immediately,” said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, an expert in environmental neurotoxins at Simon Fraser University outside Vancouver who specializes in infant exposures. “There also need to be consequences, real financial penalties that reflect medical costs and human suffering,” he said.
An E.P.A. spokesman, Mike Bastasch, said the agency was aware of the article’s retraction. He said the E.P.A.’s assessment of glyphosate’s risks had not relied solely on the study, and that the agency did not intend to rely on it going forward. “It’s our statutory obligation to ensure agency-approved chemicals and pesticides are totally safe for approved uses listed on the label based on rigorous, gold standard science,” Mr. Bastasch said.
Thousands of plaintiffs, mostly farmers and gardeners diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, have sued Monsanto alleging that Roundup caused their cancer and that the company had covered up the risks. In an early case, a jury in a California state court awarded $289 million to Dewayne Johnson, a school groundskeeper, after concluding that glyphosate had caused his cancer. Monsanto, jurors said, had failed to warn consumers of the risk.
Since then, Bayer has paid out more than $10 billion to settle approximately 100,000 Roundup claims, and faces the potential of further costly lawsuits and jury verdicts, given the many thousands of people who may have been exposed. The settlements have not included admissions of liability or wrongdoing, and Bayer has continued to sell the product.
Bayer has also pushed Congress to pass a provision that would effectively shield pesticide makers from potentially having to pay further damages to plaintiffs. The Trump administration recently urged the Supreme Court to hear a case that could also shield manufacturers from liability.
The retraction points to a wider problem of research secretly funded by industries like tobacco and lead, said David Rosner, co-director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University. “Shading the science to favor the corporate interest,” he said, was likely “the rule rather than the exception.” Journals needed to “press scientists more forcefully to identify conflicts of interest,” he said. “Huge financial interests are at stake.”
The withdrawal of the 2000 paper came after two Harvard scientists, Sasha Kaurov and Naomi Oreskes, urged the journal to re-examine the article. They estimated in a recently published analysis that the 2000 paper was in the top 0.1 percent of cited academic literature on glyphosate.
What was surprising, they said, was that other researchers continued to cite the 2000 paper even after the emails were disclosed in litigation, starting in 2017. “This paper has been one of the most cited papers ever written on the topic of glyphosate safety,” Professor Oreskes said.
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2) Watch Live: Trump Speaks After U.S. Captures Venezuela President Maduro
Jan. 3, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/03/world/trump-united-states-strikes-venezuela#pam-bondi-maduro-indictment
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela during a rally in Caracas on Monday, December 1, 2025. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
Venezuela Live Updates: Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Run the Country’ After Capture of Maduro
Here’s the latest:
President Trump said the United States would “run” Venezuela until there can be a proper transition of power following the military operation that captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.
Mr. Trump said the couple was being taken to New York to face drug and weapons charges. A newly unsealed indictment of Mr. Maduro and his wife is similar to one handed up against the Venezuelan leader in 2020.
Mr. Maduro has led Venezuela since 2013 and his capture raised questions about the future of his government. MarÃa Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, called for unity.
Trump put no time limit on the American occupation. It would be up to the United States to decide when to return the country to Venezulan control. And then he turned to oil, saying that American companies would fix the infrastructure, “and start making money for the country.”
David E. Sanger
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:46 a.m. ET
“We are going to run the country until such time that we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said, suggesting an occupation. The United States has done this before, in Germany, in Japan, and of course Iraq. But the history is checkered.
Maggie Haberman
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:45 a.m. ET
What comes next in terms of Venezuelan leadership is unclear, Trump said, the United States would be in charge until there is a clear safe transition. He emphasized it three times.
Tyler Pager
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:44 a.m. ET
“We are going to run the country,” Trump said of Venezuela. He said he did not want the Maduro regime to continue with another leader.
David E. Sanger
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:43 a.m. ET
“They knew we were coming,″ Trump said, arguing the Venezuelan military was quickly overwhelmed. “Not a single American service member was killed,″ he said, though earlier he suggested there were casualties.
David E. Sanger
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:42 a.m. ET
Trump suggested the United States turned off the power in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. He didn’t say how, but either a direct physical attack on the grid, or a cyberattack, would be the most likely method.
David E. Sanger
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:42 a.m. ET
Trump opens by saying “overwhelming American military power” was used, from “air, land and sea” to seize Maduro, and he also compared it to other operations he ordered, including the attack in June on Iran’s nuclear sites. He contends that “no other nation” could pull off this kind of operation.
Maggie Haberman
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:41 a.m. ET
Trump began his Mar-a-Lago news conference saying the Venezuela operation was a force the likes of which hadn’t been seen since World War II. Trump, who has been awake virtually all night, looks and sounds fatigued.
Tyler Pager
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:40 a.m. ET
Trump is surrounded by a number of his national security officials: Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Dan Caine, John Ratcliffe and Stephen Miller. Steve Witkoff and Kash Patel are also on the room but standing off to the side.
Eric Schmitt
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:37 a.m. ET
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee praised Maduro’s capture. “This arrest was the culmination of a monthslong effort by the Trump administration to degrade the narco-terrorist organizations that Maduro oversaw,” said Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of MIssissippi. He called on the administration for a briefing as soon as possible to hear from senior military and law enforcement leaders about the operation.
Tyler Pager
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:32 a.m. ET
Trump just posted a photo on Truth Social that he said is of Maduro aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. The picture shows Maduro in a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants. He is blindfolded and handcuffed and has large headphones on.
Jack Nicas
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:27 a.m. ET
As President Trump prepares to speak about the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, there is quite a split screen with Venezuelan state television. The main government channel is broadcasting a pro-Venezuela rally in Cuba, where speakers are denouncing Trump as a dictator, with an all-caps chyron that says: “The empire kidnapped them. We want them back.”
The USS Iwo Jima docked in Ponce, Puerto Rico, last month.Eva Marie Uzcategui/Reuters
President Trump said that he and key members of his administration watched in real time from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club, the Delta Force raid that captured Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president.
Ruth Igielnik
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:18 a.m. ET
Before this operation, Americans largely did not support the idea of U.S. military activity in Venezuela. Just 25 percent of voters nationally — and about half of Republicans — supported military action in Venezuela, according to a December poll from Quinnipiac University.
A mural of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in the nation’s capital, Caracas. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
President Trump on Saturday announced the capture of the authoritarian leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in a U.S. military operation that appeared to be the culmination of a campaign against Mr. Maduro by the president and other top American officials.
William Rashbaum
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:10 a.m. ET
The new indictment tracks President Nicolás Maduro’s rise through the ranks of the Venezuelan government, accusing him of committing the crimes charged in the indictment every step of the way. “Since his early days in Venezuelan government, Maduro Moros has tarnished every public office he has held,” the indictment charged, using Maduro’s full Spanish surname. “As a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Maduro Moros moved loads of cocaine under the protection of Venezuelan law enforcement.”
The indictment continues: “As Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maduro Moros provided Venezuelan diplomatic passports to drug traffickers and facilitated diplomatic cover for planes used by money launderers to repatriate drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela. As Venezuela’s President and now-de facto ruler, Maduro Moros allows cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members.”
Tyler Pager
Jan. 3, 2026, 11:03 a.m. ET
We are inside the Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago awaiting the president’s news conference.
Vice President JD Vance took to social media on Saturday to assert that the United States’ capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was legal.Tom Brenner for The New York Times
Vice President JD Vance justified the U.S. operation that captured Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, as legal and necessary, praising it in a social media post on Saturday.
Farnaz Fassihi
Jan. 3, 2026, 10:54 a.m. ET
Venezuela’s mission to the U.N. has requested an emergency Security Council meeting and has asked the Council to condemn the U.S. military strikes against the country.
Venezuela’s ambassador, Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta, said in a letter to the Council’s president: “The United States of America always uses lies to fabricate wars. It is an international tyranny imposed with the propaganda of death: the recent past confirms this.” Russia and China, allies of Venezuela and permanent members of the Council, have requested the Council convene an emergency meeting this weekend.
Emiliano RodrÃguez Mega
Jan. 3, 2026, 10:47 a.m. ET
MarÃa Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, posted a statement on social media, calling for national unity following the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
“Given his refusal to accept a negotiated exit, the government of the United States has fulfilled its promise to enforce the law,” she wrote. “We have struggled for years, we have given it our all, and it has been worth it. What had to happen is happening.”
Machado added that Edmundo González, who the U.S. has recognized as Venezuela’s President-elect, must “immediately” take office and be recognized as the country’s commander of the armed forces.
“Today we are prepared to enforce our mandate and take power,” Machado said. “We are going to restore order, release the political prisoners, build an exceptional country, and bring our children back home.”
William Rashbaum
Jan. 3, 2026, 10:47 a.m. ET
A judge in the Southern District of New York has unsealed the new indictment against President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, which opens by saying that for 25 years the leaders of Venezuela have “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.” The charges are the same as in the 2020 indictment, though there is more political rhetoric.
There are four counts in both indictments, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of machine guns, which, when combined with drug trafficking charges, carries a potentially lengthy prison sentence. Both indictments name six defendants, but the new one includes Maduro’s wife and son. It also names the minister of the interior, Diosado Cabello Rondon, who was charged before. It also adds two new defendants, while dropping three others who had been charged in 2020.
Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of having “blatantly” lied to Congress about the administration’s goals in Venezuela.Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times
While President Trump crowed on Saturday about the dramatic capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela by U.S. authorities, Democrats in Congress sounded alarms about the legality of the action and raised questions about recent briefings in which administration officials assured them that they were not seeking regime change in the nation.
Julian E. Barnes
Jan. 3, 2026, 10:39 a.m. ET
The C.I.A. had a group of officers on the ground in Venezuela working clandestinely beginning in August, according to a person familiar with the agency’s work. The officers gathered information about Maduro’s “pattern of life” and movements that was important as the U.S. developed intelligence about his whereabouts and movements.
Anatoly Kurmanaev
Jan. 3, 2026, 10:31 a.m. ET
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy RodrÃguez is in Caracas, according to three people close to her. RodrÃguez is next in line to assume power, according to Venezuelan constitution. She remains the ruling party’s choice to succeed Maduro, said a fourth person, a senior Venezuelan official. The United States has called Mr. Maduro’s government illegitimate, and it’s unclear if the White House would accept RodrÃguez as president.
Emiliano RodrÃguez Mega
Jan. 3, 2026, 10:30 a.m. ET
When asked on Fox News if the attack in Venezuela were intended as a warning to President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, Trump seemed to signal they might. “Well, it wasn’t meant to be,” he replied. “We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman. But the cartels are running Mexico — she’s not running Mexico.”
Trump said Sheinbaum had repeatedly declined his offers to intervene against the cartels. “I’ve asked her numerous times, ‘Would you like us to take out the cartels?’” he said, adding that “something is going to have to be done with Mexico.”
His comments came even after his own officials have lauded Mexico for an unprecedented surge in cooperation, citing a record number of cartel arrests and successful fentanyl seizures.
Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times
Jack Nicas
Jan. 3, 2026, 10:28 a.m. ET
In an interview with Venezuelan state television, Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, called on Venezuelans to take to the streets against the U.S. military action in the country. “We are going to show the world what we are made of,” he said. State television has been broadcasting footage of small pro-Maduro rallies on Saturday.
Saab also demanded the United States produce proof that Maduro is alive, and he called on international organizations to denounce Maduro’s capture. “Before the world, I ask the United Nations at this moment to speak out. Where are the international human rights organizations?” he said.
Vice President Delcy RodrÃguez of Venezuela during an interview in Caracas, Venezuela, in September.Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
The United States captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. But Mr. Maduro’s inner circle appeared on Saturday morning to have survived the U.S. strikes on the country, though it was not immediately clear who was in power.
A crowd gathered in Doral, Fla., to celebrate the United States strikes on Venezuela and the capture of its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, on Saturday.Patricia Mazzei/The New York Times
The party broke out before sunrise in the heavily Venezuelan city of Doral, Fla., west of Miami: Venezuelans and Venezuelan Americans blared music, honked car horns and danced to celebrate the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader.
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, in December. The U.S. government had offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Mr. Maduro’s capture.Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times
A C.I.A. source within the Venezuelan government monitored the location of Nicolás Maduro in both the days and moments before his capture by American special operation forces, according to people briefed on the operation.
President Nicolás Maduro, prosecutors say, is the head of the so-called Cartel de los Soles.Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times
Nicolás Maduro, the captured president of Venezuela, is expected to face charges in the Southern District of New York, where prosecutors had targeted him for years, the U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Saturday.
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3) Trump Says He Watched Capture of Maduro in Real Time
President Trump said members of the Army’s Delta Force broke through the doors of a safe house “in a matter of seconds” after practicing the operation using a replica of the structure.
By Julian E. Barnes, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, Jan. 3, 2026
Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt reported from Washington. Tyler Pager reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
The USS Iwo Jima docked in Ponce, Puerto Rico, last month. Credit...Eva Marie Uzcategui/Reuters
President Trump said that he and key members of his administration watched in real time from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club, the Delta Force raid that captured Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president.
In a lengthy telephone interview Saturday morning on “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Trump offered some details of the monthslong planning that went into the operation, including the construction of a replica of Mr. Maduro’s safe house, where special operations forces could practice the raid.
Mr. Trump said that the military repeatedly rehearsed the operation and was able to execute flawlessly, breaking through steel doors protecting Mr. Maduro in “a matter of seconds.”
“I watched it literally like you are watching a television show,” the president said. “It was an amazing thing.”
The capture operation was the product of months of meetings between Mr. Trump; Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as the national security adviser; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director; and Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top aides. The men sometimes gathered as a group but also met or spoke with Mr. Trump one-on-one.
While Mr. Trump did not identify the military team that conducted the raid, other U.S. officials said it was the Army’s Delta Force. “They are the most highly trained soldiers in the world,” the president said.
No U.S. troops were killed in the operation, Mr. Trump said. But he added that he thought some were hurt when their helicopter was hit. The helicopter, which was damaged, the president said, flew out of Venezuela to safety. Two U.S. officials said that about half a dozen soldiers were injured in the overall operation.
The president provided few specifics of the military operations beyond the raid that captured Mr. Maduro, but noted that the United States had put different kinds of fighter planes into the skies above Venezuela.
Mr. Trump said he vetoed a deal with Mr. Maduro to head off the raid. Mr. Maduro had been offering the United States access to Venezuelan oil, but Mr. Trump said he was unwilling to make an agreement because of Mr. Maduro’s involvement in the narcotics trade.
“What he did with drugs is bad,” Mr. Trump said, adding, as he often does, that Venezuela had emptied its prisons and sent people to the United States.
Mr. Trump said on Fox News that Mr. Maduro and his wife had been taken to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, one of the American warships that have been prowling the Caribbean. He said Mr. Maduro would be taken to New York, where a new indictment was issued.
Mr. Trump suggested that his administration would continue to target Venezuelan government officials if they sided with Mr. Maduro.
“If they stay loyal, the future is really bad, really bad for them,” he said. “I’d say most of them have converted.”
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4) Trump Plunges the U.S. Into a New Era of Risk in Venezuela
President Trump opened a new chapter in American nation building as he declared that the United States had toppled Venezuela’s leader and would “run” the country for an indefinite period.
By David E. Sanger and Tyler Pager, Published Jan. 3, 2026, Updated Jan. 4, 2026
David E. Sanger and Tyler Pager are White House correspondents.
“Mr. Trump was unapologetic about taking that step, and in his justification, he showed he had given much thought to the oil industry. ‘Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars,’ he said of resources that were being pumped out of Venezuelan bedrock. ‘They did this a while ago, but we never had a president that did anything about it. They took all of our property.’ He added: ‘The socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations, and they stole it through force.’ Now, he made clear, he was taking it back, and Americans would be compensated before Venezuelans became, he predicted, ‘rich.’”
People in Doral, Fla., celebrating the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on Saturday. Scott McIntyre for The New York Times
President Trump’s declaration on Saturday that the United States planned to “run” Venezuela for an unspecified period, issuing orders to its government and exploiting its vast oil reserves, plunged the United States into a risky new era in which it will seek economic and political dominance over a nation of roughly 30 million people.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago private club just hours after Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, and his wife were seized from their bedroom by U.S. forces, Mr. Trump told reporters that Delcy RodrÃguez, who served as Mr. Maduro’s vice president, would hold power in Venezuela as long as she “does what we want.”
Ms. RodrÃguez, however, showed little public interest in doing the Americans’ bidding. In a national address, she accused Washington of invading her country under false pretenses and asserted that Mr. Maduro was still Venezuela’s head of state. “What is being done to Venezuela is a barbarity,” she said.
Mr. Trump and his top national security advisers carefully avoided describing their plans for Venezuela as an occupation, akin to what the United States did after defeating Japan, or toppling Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Instead, they vaguely sketched out an arrangement similar to a guardianship: The United States will provide a vision for how Venezuela should be run and will expect the interim government to carry that out in a transition period, under the threat of further military intervention.
Even after Ms. RodrÃguez contradicted Mr. Trump, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, said he was withholding judgment.
“We’re going to make decisions based on their actions and their deeds in the days and weeks to come,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “We think they’re going to have some unique and historic opportunities to do a great service for the country, and we hope that they’ll accept that opportunity.”
Mr. Trump suggested on Saturday that while there were no American troops on the ground now, there would be a “second wave” of military action if the United States ran into resistance, either on the ground or from Venezuelan government officials.
“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” Mr. Trump said. Asked who, exactly, would be running Venezuela, he said “people that are standing right behind me, we’re going to be running it,” pointing to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine.
Mr. Trump paired that with a declaration that a key American goal was to regain access to oil rights that he has repeatedly said had been “stolen” from the United States. With those statements, the president opened a new chapter in American nation building.
It is one in which he hopes to influence every major political decision in Venezuela by the presence of an armada just offshore, and perhaps to intimidate others in the region. He repeated a warning to the president of Colombia, another country targeted by the administration for its role in drug trafficking, to “watch his ass.”
Mr. Trump’s actions on Saturday cast America back to a past era of gunboat diplomacy, when the United States used its military to grab territory and resources for its own benefit.
A year ago this week, he openly mused, also at Mar-a-Lago, about making Canada, Greenland and Panama parts of the United States. Now, after hanging in the White House a portrait of William McKinley, the tariff-loving president who presided over the military seizure of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump said it was well within the rights of the United States to wrest from Venezuela resources that he believes had been wrongly taken from the hands of American corporations.
The U.S. operation, in seeking to assert control over a vast Latin American nation, has little precedent in recent decades, recalling the imperial U.S. military efforts of the 19th and early 20th centuries in Mexico, Nicaragua and other countries.
Mr. Trump and his aides claimed they had a legal basis for the immediate action he ordered on Friday, the extraterritorial rendition of Mr. Maduro. An indictment that dates to 2020 charged the Venezuelan leader with a series of acts related to drug trafficking. A refreshed indictment was published Saturday, one that included Mr. Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores.
But that indictment only deals with Mr. Maduro’s alleged crimes. It did not provide a legal basis for taking control of the country, as the U.S. president declared he was doing.
Mr. Trump was unapologetic about taking that step, and in his justification, he showed he had given much thought to the oil industry.
“Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars,” he said of resources that were being pumped out of Venezuelan bedrock. “They did this a while ago, but we never had a president that did anything about it. They took all of our property.” He added: “The socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations, and they stole it through force.”
Now, he made clear, he was taking it back, and Americans would be compensated before Venezuelans became, he predicted, “rich.”
But that left many open questions. Will the United States need an occupying military force to protect the oil sector while the Americans and others rebuild it? Will the United States run the courts, and determine who pumps the oil?
Will it install a pliant government for some number of years, and what happens if a legitimate, democratic election is won by Venezuelans with a different vision for their country?
All of these questions, of course, could enmesh the United States into exactly the kind of “forever wars” which Mr. Trump’s MAGA base has warned against.
When pressed on that point, Mr. Trump dismissed it. He noted that he had been successful in killing the leader of the Iranian Quds force, Gen. Qassim Suleimani, in January 2020. He cited the success for his attack on Iran’s major nuclear sites, burying its uranium stockpile.
But those were largely one-and-done attacks. They did not involve running a foreign nation, or dealing with the resistance that almost always accompanies an effort like that.
For much of the 20th century, the United States intervened militarily in smaller countries in the Caribbean and Central America. But Venezuela is twice the size of Iraq, with challenges that may prove just as complex.
“Any democratic transition will require the buy-in of pro-regime and anti-regime elements,” John Polga-Hecimovich, a Venezuela scholar at the U.S. Naval Academy, said in an interview.
One crucial test, he said, is how the Venezuelan armed forces react. “If it splinters, with some backing a transition and others not, things could get violent,” he said. “On the other hand, a unified force would help legitimize whatever government comes next."
Simon Romero contributed reporting from São Paulo, Brazil.
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5) Trump Long Wanted to ‘Take the Oil.’ He Says He’ll Do It in Venezuela.
The White House had pointed to drug trafficking and migration as reasons to crack down on Nicolás Maduro. But oil emerged as central to President Trump.
By Anton Troianovski, Reporting from Washington, Published Jan. 3, 2026, Updated Jan. 4, 2026
Workers of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in September. There was little immediate clarity on Saturday as to how the White House envisions the United States profiting from Venezuela’s oil. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
While he was out of office, President Trump mused about what would have happened if the United States had taken control of Venezuela.
“We would have gotten all that oil,” he said in a speech at the North Carolina Republican Convention in 2023. “It would have been right next door.”
On Saturday, Mr. Trump made it clear that he now intends to follow through.
In the last year, as the Trump administration built up pressure against Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, the president and his top aides said that the aggressive U.S. actions were necessary to curb drugs and migration from that country. But on Saturday, as Mr. Trump discussed the predawn attack on Venezuela that led to the capture of its leader, it was evident that the president’s longtime fixation on oil was a driving factor in his decision to greenlight the mission.
“We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he celebrated the seizure of Mr. Maduro, promising that American companies would be able to tap more of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
The money made, he said, would go not only to the people of Venezuela, but also to American oil companies and “to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country.”
There was little immediate clarity as to how the White House envisions the United States profiting from Venezuela’s oil. Analysts warn that large increases to the country’s oil production could take years and tens of billions of dollars in spending. But Mr. Trump indicated that the country’s oil wealth was a key factor not only in his decision to attack, but also in pledging that the United States would “run” Venezuela for the foreseeable future.
“It won’t cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “we’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend.”
Venezuela has about 17 percent of the world’s known oil reserves, or more than 300 billion barrels, more than any other country. But its production is only about 1 percent of the world total.
Before Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in 1976, American companies like Exxon, Mobil and Gulf Oil were major players. The country reopened its oil industry to foreign drillers in the 1990s, but Hugo Chávez, Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, began another phase of nationalization in 2007. U.S. oil giants like Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips claimed they were owed billions of dollars in compensation because their operations were seized.
That history feeds the Trump administration’s contention that Venezuela stole oil from the United States — an argument that the White House increasingly made in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s attack. Stephen Miller, the senior Trump adviser central to the president’s immigration crackdown, posted on social media last month that “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela.”
“If you remember, they took all of our energy rights; they took all of our oil from not that long ago,” Mr. Trump said last month. “And we want it back.”
Laying claim to other countries’ oil has long been a fixture in Mr. Trump’s rhetoric.
“I’ve been saying it for years. Take the oil,” he told The New York Times in 2016, when asked how his strategy to fight the Islamic State in the Middle East would differ from President Barack Obama’s approach.
As the Trump administration increased its pressure on Mr. Maduro during the last year, oil was not initially central to its public rationale. Instead, the White House focused on claims that Mr. Maduro had directed drug trafficking and gang members who migrated to the United States — some of which have been disputed by Mr. Trump’s own intelligence agencies. When Mr. Trump said in March that he would impose tariffs on countries that buy Venezuelan oil, he said he was doing it because, he claimed, Venezuela had “purposefully and deceitfully” sent “murderers and people of a very violent nature” to the United States.
But behind the scenes, as The Times reported last month, the future of Venezuela’s oil was central to Mr. Trump’s deliberations as early as last spring. The White House saw the pressure campaign against Venezuela as a way to combine three separate policy goals: crippling Mr. Maduro, using military force against drug cartels and securing access to Venezuela’s oil reserves for U.S. companies.
Chevron has in recent years been the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela, thanks to permission from the governments of both countries to produce and export oil there. Chevron’s activities played into the White House deliberations, as the company lobbied the White House for an extension of the Biden-era license that allowed it to expand its operations in Venezuela, as The Times previously reported.
However, on Saturday, Chevron was circumspect, even after Mr. Trump said that U.S. companies would soon spend “billions of dollars” on Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.
The company initially sent reporters a statement saying it was “prepared to work constructively with the U.S. government during this period, leveraging our experience and presence to strengthen U.S. energy security.” It later said the statement was incorrect and issued a new one that removed mention of the U.S. government.
“Chevron remains focused on the safety and well-being of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets,” the company said. “We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.”
Ivan Penn contributed reporting from Los Angeles.
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6) Trump Finally Told Americans What This Was All About
By W.J. Hennigan, Jan. 4, 2026
Mr. Hennigan writes about national security issues for Opinion from Washington.
“Mr. Trump’s willingness to use the U.S. military in legally dubious and audacious ways has become a running theme of his second term. The self-proclaimed peace president is showing that American warfare, once contemplated and debated, is now an almost daily expectation. Since returning to the White House not quite a year ago, Mr. Trump has authorized U.S. forces to launch airstrikes or night raids across Yemen, Iran, Somalia, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria and now Venezuela.”
The New York Times
Over the past four months, President Trump and his cabinet members offered a meandering list of vague and at times conflicting explanations why the administration was amassing warships, attack planes and thousands of military personnel off the coast of Venezuela.
It was about drug smuggling (despite the fact that little cocaine and virtually no fentanyl comes from that country to ours). It was about President Nicolás Maduro’s attempts to destabilize the United States by flooding the southern border with freed prisoners and mental patients (a claim made without evidence). It was about how Venezuela stole oil and land from American businesses (though that’s not entirely true, either).
Now Mr. Trump appears to have come clean. In the wake of Saturday’s predawn military operation in Venezuela, in which Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and flown to a U.S. warship, Mr. Trump made clear that it was essentially about the oil all along.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said at a news conference later on Saturday morning.
The president spoke at length about securing American industry access to Venezuela’s oil fields, which account for roughly 17 percent of the world’s known reserves. A sustained U.S. military presence will be required, he indicated, for the foreseeable future. How many troops will be needed and for how long is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, the United States expects to run the Venezuelan government “until such time that we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s willingness to use the U.S. military in legally dubious and audacious ways has become a running theme of his second term. The self-proclaimed peace president is showing that American warfare, once contemplated and debated, is now an almost daily expectation. Since returning to the White House not quite a year ago, Mr. Trump has authorized U.S. forces to launch airstrikes or night raids across Yemen, Iran, Somalia, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria and now Venezuela.
The United States has not formally declared war on these countries, which is why many Americans might wonder why our troops are engaged in operations there. Mr. Trump, after all, campaigned on promises to keep the U.S. military out of such foreign interventions. But looked at another way, his actions are a continuation of something that’s long been happening: For a quarter century the global war on terror has habituated Americans to their presidents authorizing lethal military operations in countries many of them would struggle to find on a map.
Mr. Trump labeled Mr. Maduro a “narco-terrorist,” along with the alleged criminal group the Trump administration says he leads. It’s the language the administration needed to establish political and legal cover to topple a leader for whom it lacked compelling evidence of posing a direct security threat to the United States, though Mr. Maduro has led a repressive regime for more than a decade. While U.S. administrations since Sept. 11, 2001, have stretched executive powers over the military under the banner of maintaining national security, they did so while generally keeping Congress apprised of the missions underway.
Now we’re watching a president seem to unilaterally decide on regime change. It is illegal, it is antithetical to the democratic process, and it’s another example of Mr. Trump misleading the American people about his true intentions.
Leading up to Saturday’s attack, Mr. Trump’s team framed the buildup of U.S. military activities in the Caribbean, including strikes on some 30 boats that have killed at least 110 people, as a limited effort to counter Venezuela’s drug smuggling. Saturday’s operation, which involved months of planning and highly orchestrated execution, resulted in Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores making their way to the United States aboard a naval ship. Both have been indicted in federal court and are expected to appear before a U.S. District Court judge in New York City.
Mr. Trump said that Delcy RodrÃguez, Venezuela’s interim president, would act as a partner in allowing the United States to run her country, though she later declared that Mr. Maduro was the nation’s “only president.” America, of course, has an abysmal track record in helping run other countries; its forays into nation building in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya were all spectacular failures. Ms. RodrÃguez’s comments make clear that Mr. Trump is without a detailed road map for how to prevent the same thing from happening in Venezuela.
But let’s set all that lack of planning aside and recognize the audacity of what’s just occurred: The president has enlisted the United States in an open-ended obligation to govern a foreign country with the stated goal of exploiting its sizable oil infrastructure for America’s economic gain, and perhaps for the Venezuelan people.
In the past, American presidents have tried to perfect the art of preparing the nation for war. This typically has entailed a few months of speeches, international trips to build a military coalition and high-profile offers giving adversaries a way out, short of armed conflict. All of this is done in hopes that the American public and Congress alike will understand and appreciate why conflict — never anyone’s first choice — is necessary to advance the United States’ interests.
Little of that well practiced routine was on display ahead of the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela. The president muddled what his policy goals were as he amassed a wide range of forces in the region. He refused to seek congressional approval for his actions, possibly because some Republicans didn’t agree with them. He didn’t even privately notify Congress in advance of U.S. forces’ capture of Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores.
At every turn, Mr. Trump has demonstrated his unwillingness to concede Congress’s constitutional right to declare war. Last year Republicans blocked a bipartisan Senate resolution that would have legally prevented Mr. Trump from engaging in direct conflict with Venezuela. This was a mistake. Republicans and Democrats must reassert this authority before he acts again unilaterally in the growing list of places he’s already threatened — including Mexico, Panama, Canada and Greenland. Americans must not continually find themselves embroiled in conflicts for reasons they barely understand.
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7) Iran’s Dual Challenge: Unrest at Home, Threat of Strikes From Abroad
Officials said that leaders were in survival mode amid anti-government protests and the prospect of again coming into the cross hairs of Israel and the United States.
By Farnaz Fassihi, Jan. 4, 2026
Farnaz Fassihi has covered Iran for three decades and has lived and traveled extensively in the country.
A photograph released by Iranian state media showing protesters in Tehran, Iran’s capital, on Monday. The demonstrations have convulsed Iran for a week. Fars News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Iran’s government has in recent years weathered wave upon wave of nationwide protests challenging its rule by resorting to force. But for the first time, the country’s rulers face a more complex challenge: growing domestic unrest combined with an external military threat.
The government appears at a dead end in addressing both, with no clear strategy for reversing the economic collapse fueling protests, nor any signs that Iran’s leaders are willing to make the concessions on their nuclear program sufficient to appease Israel and the United States and ward off the risk of another round of strikes.
The protests have convulsed Iran for a week. Though they have not reached the size and scope of the last two major uprisings — one in 2022 led by women and another in 2019 set off by gasoline prices — they have rattled senior officials and drawn a prompt reaction from the United States and Israel.
President Trump threatened to intervene, saying in a social media post on Friday that if Iran killed “peaceful protesters,” the United States would come to their aid, adding, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
The Israeli foreign minister and several government officials have spoken out on behalf of the protesters. Gila Gamliel, Israel’s minister of innovation, science and technology, said in a video posted on social media on Thursday, “Israel is with you, and we support you in every way possible.”
On Saturday, the U.S. military attacked Venezuela, one of Iran’s closest allies, and captured the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro. At a news conference where Mr. Trump said that Washington planned to run the South American country for the immediate future, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that other countries should take note.
Iran’s leaders and political figures have sounded rattled and shocked. The ramifications for Tehran cannot be overstated.
Ali Gholhaki, a hard-line pundit in Iran, said in a phone interview that the dire state of the economy had played a central role in the downfall of the leaders in both Venezuela and Syria, creating a maelstrom of public discontent and dispirited security forces. “The lesson for Iran is that we must be extremely careful that the same scenario does not happen here,” Mr. Gholhaki said. “When the anti-riot police, security forces and the military are struggling for their livelihood, the defense lines collapse.”
On Friday, after Mr. Trump made his threat to strike Iran, the country’s Supreme National Security Council, the body in charge of internal and external security, held a late-night emergency meeting to discuss how to contain the protests with less violence to avoid fueling public anger. They also wanted to prepare for the possibility of military strikes, according to three Iranian officials familiar with government deliberations who asked not be named because they were discussing sensitive issues.
The three officials said that as the protests raged, senior officials in private meetings and conversations had acknowledged that the Islamic Republic had been thrust into survival mode. Officials appear to have few tools at their disposal to deal with either the pressing challenges of a tanking economy fueling unrest or the threat of further conflict with Israel and the United States. President Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly said as much publicly in recent weeks, at one point announcing that he had “no ideas” for solving Iran’s many problems.
“Any policy in the society that is unjust is doomed to fail,” Mr. Pezeshkian said in a speech on Thursday, his first public address since the protests began. “Accept that we must listen to the people.”
Things the government has done so far to address the nation’s economic woes, such as replacing the governor of the central bank and announcing changes to the currency policy, have accomplished little. Really fixing the economy would require major policy changes that would result in a nuclear deal with Washington to lift sanctions, and a crackdown on corruption. Iran’s government appears either incapable of such steps or unwilling to take them.
Analysts say that the country’s woes are intertwined. The economy was seriously damaged by American sanctions on oil sales and international banking transactions, imposed in 2018 when Mr. Trump exited the nuclear deal with Tehran. After the U.N. Security Council brought back sanctions in September, the Iranian currency plunged further. Rampant corruption and mismanagement have also played a role.
Adding to Iran’s troubles is the continuing conflict with Israel. Israel has carried out assassinations and explosions targeting nuclear and military structures, while Iran has armed and financed militant groups in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran in June, setting off a 12-day conflict that culminated with the United States bombing and heavily damaging Iran’s nuclear facilities. This past week, the three officials familiar with government talks said, concern had been rising that if domestic instability continued, Israel would see an opening to strike again. The remarks by Mr. Trump and Israeli officials added to those fears, the officials added.
Mr. Pezeshkian held two emergency meetings with his economic advisory committee last week, asking for guidance and for written talking points if the crises deepen, according to two officials familiar with the details of the meeting who, like some others interviewed for this article, requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Some advisers, they said, suggested that Mr. Pezeshkian should deflect blame in public speeches and point to Iran’s dual-power structure, in which key decisions are made by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei took a harder line than the president, saying in a public speech that “rioters must be put in their place” and blaming foreign enemies for the devaluation of Iran’s currency and other economic problems. He did, though, acknowledge that merchants in Tehran’s bazaar had a right to protest against fluctuating prices.
The current round of unrest started this past week with those merchants shuttering their shops in protest. As the strikes spread to other cities, the government announced a four-day nationwide holiday ending Sunday to try to contain the situation. On Sunday, the majority of the shops in Tehran’s bazaar remained closed, and there were reports of scattered protests and heavy presence of anti-riot police, according to videos on social media and Iranian media reports.
In the past few days, the unrest has turned into riots in many places, with young men attacking government buildings, clashing with security forces and setting on fire cars, motorcycles and trash cans, according to videos posted on social media, Iranian media outlets, and the BBC Persian service.
Security forces have beaten protesters and used tear gas, and in some videos from cities in western Iran, gunshots can be heard. At least eight protesters and two security agents have been killed, according to official media reports, rights groups and video footage of funerals.
Mehdi Rahmati, an Iranian analyst who advises officials on regional strategy, said in an interview, “Unfortunately, I think the government has no understanding or strategy for the domestic situation and international pressures building up.”
“There is no denying that there is raw anger,” he added. “One theory is they are letting the protesters vent their anger because we are at an explosion point.”
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, privately met with some heads of government-affiliated media organizations on Thursday and called the brewing crisis a fight for the survival of the Islamic Republic’s rule and for the nation, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Araghchi told the media representatives that the prospects of negotiations with Washington were currently nonexistent and that decisions about whether to engage with Washington were not up to him, the two people said.
For a week, crowds have taken to the streets to vent anger at the government and to call for the end of Islamic clerical rule. The protests have mostly been in smaller towns and in poorer areas, and on university campuses, where people were chanting “Death to Khamenei” and “Freedom, freedom.” Some also made a broad denunciation of authoritarian rule, chanting “Death to the oppressor, whether king or supreme leader,” activists and residents inside Iran said.
But in Tehran, with the exception of the bazaar downtown, the university campus, and a few working-class neighborhoods, the city seemed normal, residents said in interviews and videos on social media suggested. Ski resorts north of Tehran were packed with affluent day trippers.
The current protests are not as large in scope and size as the uprising in 2022. The unrest at that time coalesced around a progressive women’s rights movement for ending the mandatory hijab rule, and it lasted for several months. But the demonstrations this time could still spread and turn more violent.
Fars, a news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards Corps, said on Saturday that in western provinces some riots had taken the shape of “organized cells,” and “semi-militant” attacks. In one such province, Ilam, the agency reported that the agitators had guns, heavy weaponry and hand grenades. Videos on social media and Iranian media showed a crowd there wearing masks and firingassault rifles into the air while chanting, “Death to Khamenei.”
In a joint statement, 17 Iranian pro-democracy activists, including the jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and the film directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, called on security forces to refrain from attacking protesters.
“The only path to saving Iran is a transition away from the Islamic Republic — a demand that is neither temporary nor suppressible,” the statement said.
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