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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 Díaz, ‘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) Cuba’s Long-Suffering Economy Is Now in ‘Free Fall’
With widespread power outages, medicine shortages and rising food prices, experts say Cuba’s economy has never been worse, with the crisis coming just as the supply of Venezuelan oil is threatened.
By David C. Adams and Frances Robles, Reporting from Florida, Published Jan. 6, 2026, Updated Jan. 7, 2026
Cooking soup over an open fire in Havana after the failure of a major power plant in October. Credit...Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press
By all accounts, Cuba is enduring the worst economic moment in the 67-year history of its communist revolution.
While the island nation has endured periodic episodes of mass migration, food shortages and social unrest in decades past, never before have Cubans experienced such a wholesale collapse of the social safety net that the country’s leaders — starting with Fidel Castro — once prided themselves on.
“I, who was born there, I, who lives there, and I’ll tell you: It’s never been as bad as it is now, because many factors have come together,” said Omar Everleny Pérez, 64, an economist in Havana.
As Trump administration officials congratulate themselves on a triumphant military victory in Venezuela, in which President Nicolás Maduro was seized and the United States claimed control over the South American country, eyes have now turned to Cuba, which enjoyed a warm relationship with the jailed president and which depended on the oil he sent.
Of Cuba, “It’s going down for the count,” Mr. Trump said Sunday, dismissing the need for military action there, because he said the government was likely to collapse on its own.
Odalis Reyes can see evidence of Cuba’s decay with her own two eyes.
From the window in her cramped sitting room, Ms. Reyes, a seamstress in Old Havana, looks out at a relic of the country’s obsolete past, the rusting hulk of an electric power station that once provided electricity to her poor neighborhood on the edge of the popular tourist district of Cuba’s capital.
Now it serves as a reminder of the constant blackouts.
“Yes, many hours without electricity, many, many — 14, 15 hours,” Ms. Reyes, 56, said. “Oh, that terrifies you, it terrifies you, because food — which this is the hardest thing — you’re afraid it will spoil.”
“We don’t even know how we’re going to get by anymore,” she added. “We’re like human robots, humanoids.”
In recent years, Cubans complained because the monthly allotments of rice, beans and other food staples that they received from government ration cards lasted only 10 days. Now the cards are virtually worthless because food is rarely available at the government ration stores.
To buy gasoline, people have to use an app to sign up for an appointment — at least three weeks in advance. One resident of Havana, the capital, said he joined the queue three months ago, and is now No. 5,052 in line.
The lack of gasoline has led to sporadic trash pickup, which has led to outbreaks of mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue and chikungunya. Medicines are nearly impossible to find without relatives abroad to send them.
The blackouts have exacerbated an already bleak situation, particularly in provinces outside the capital, which can go 20 hours a day without power.
It’s dark, people are sick, and they don’t have medicine, said Mr. Pérez, the economist.
The economic situation in Cuba has always been difficult. It was particularly terrible during an era in the mid-1990s known as the “special period,” which came after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had kept Cuba afloat.
The Cuban government has consistently blamed its economic travails on a decades-long U.S. trade embargo that it claims puts a chokehold on its ability to do business in the world market and earn much-needed cash. Economic sanctions by Republican administrations, which have excluded food and medicine, have made it even harder, government officials say.
“Correcting distortions and reviving the economy is not a slogan,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a speech last month. “It is a concrete battle for stability in everyday life, so that wages are sufficient, so that there is food on the table, so that blackouts end, so that transportation is revived, so that schools, hospitals and basic services function with the quality we deserve.”
At the end of the third quarter last year, the country’s gross domestic product had fallen by more than 4 percent, the president said, inflation was skyrocketing, and deliveries of rationed food were not being met.
Mr. Díaz-Canel reiterated the government’s long running goals: to make food production a top priority and work to make state-owned businesses more efficient.
Experts say that it remains unclear how big an effect the fall of Mr. Maduro will have on Cuba, as the Trump administration exerts more control over Venezuela’s state oil industry. When Hugo Chávez was president, he kept Cuba afloat with some 90,000 barrels of oil daily. In the last quarter of 2025, Cuba received just 35,000.
The resulting power outages have hurt industries like nickel production, because the factories are off when there’s no power.
Another crucial industry, tourism, has also suffered in recent years. Before the Covid pandemic, four million people a year used to visit Cuba; that number has struggled to get back to two million, economists said.
Amid the struggles, some were calling for more private enterprise.
Emilio Interián Rodríguez, a Cuban lawmaker who is president of an agricultural cooperative, delivered a blistering speech urging agricultural overhauls and more private enterprise. He made the declaration on the floor of the National Assembly — where pro-government rhetoric is the norm. Private business owners, he said, were doing a better job than state companies.
“Thanks to micro, small and medium enterprises, today we have more things, and thanks to micro, small, and medium enterprises today we are achieving results in many things that we had never achieved before,” he said.
Experts agree that while U.S. policies have hurt Cuba, poor planning and mismanagement are also to blame for the country’s economic troubles. Efforts to allow private businesses to operate have faltered because of onerous regulations.
The private enterprises, known as MiPyMEs, were legalized in 2021 and have been a lifeline in Cuba, Mr. Pérez and other residents said.
Some private stores resemble supermarket chains in the United States, with everything from Goya brands to Philadelphia cream cheese.
But prices at the private stores are exorbitant, particularly for people who earn salaries in the local currency. A typical monthly pension is 3,000 pesos, less than $7, while a carton of 30 eggs costs 3,600 pesos — $8.
“There is food, and plenty of it, but the prices are incredible,” Mr. Pérez said. “Nobody with a salary, not even a doctor, can hardly buy in those stores.”
About a third of Cubans receive economic help from overseas, and some earn dollars in the private sector. But about a third, particularly pensioners, are living in poverty, Mr. Pérez said.
Difficult living conditions helped spur spontaneous mass protests in 2021, but a harsh government crackdown quashed the demonstrations.
Cuba’s financial collapse has fueled an extraordinary exodus — about 2.75 million Cubans have left the country since 2020, according to Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos, a Cuban demographer. While the official population is about 9.7 million people, Mr. Albizu-Campos said 8.25 million would be more accurate.
Some people have taken to cooking with firewood. The country is producing 25 percent less power than it did in 2019, said Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist who is currently a fellow at American University.
Cuba’s economy has declined three years in a row, he said.
“The domestic economy,” Mr. Torres said, “is in a free fall.”
Yoan Nazabal, 32, a bartender and taxi driver in Havana, said his wife had a cesarean section six months ago, and was stunned to find out what they were expected to bring to the hospital.
“We had to bring our own catheter to the hospital!” he said. “Everyone talks about how great our medical system is, and how it is free — and it has been, historically. Our doctors are first-class. But they don’t have any resources with which to do their job.”
Hannah Berkeley Cohen contributed reporting from Miami.
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2) U.S. to Control Venezuela Oil Sales ‘Indefinitely,’ Energy Secretary Says
Chris Wright said the Trump administration was in “active dialogue” with Venezuela’s government about the plan.
By Rebecca F. Elliott, Jan. 7, 2026
An oil refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela. President Trump said late Tuesday that Venezuela would soon send 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
The energy secretary, Chris Wright, said on Wednesday that the United States intended to maintain significant control over Venezuela’s oil industry, including by overseeing the sale of the country’s production “indefinitely.”
“Going forward we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace,” Mr. Wright said at a Goldman Sachs energy conference near Miami.
Mr. Wright’s remarks came after President Trump said late Tuesday that Venezuela would soon hand over tens of millions of barrels of oil to the United States.
Venezuela would send 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil, or up to two months’ worth of daily production, to the United States, Mr. Trump said in a social media post, adding that he would control the profits from those sales.
“We need to have that leverage and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” said Mr. Wright, a former oil industry executive. He added that the money “can flow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people.”
If put in place, the Trump administration’s plans would amount to a sharp reversal in U.S. policy on Venezuela. The nation’s oil production and exports have been severely restricted since 2019, when Mr. Trump imposed tough sanctions on the country, including on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.
More recently, the United States has imposed a partial blockade designed to prevent many tankers from leaving Venezuela with oil. That has choked a vital source of revenue for the country’s government and forced it to keep oil in storage tanks and ships floating off the coast.
It was not clear what legal authority the Trump administration would operate under to oversee Venezuela’s sales of oil.
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said the Trump administration made a deal with Venezuela’s interim authorities for the United States to control the sale of the country’s oil. “Secretary Wright and the Department of Energy are working with the interim authorities and private oil industry to execute this historic energy deal that will restore prosperity, safety, and security in the United States and Venezuela,” she said in a statement.
As of Wednesday morning, leaders in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, had not commented publicly on the U.S. government’s plans or confirmed the existence of an agreement with the Trump administration.
Mr. Wright said the Trump administration was in “active dialogue” with Venezuela’s leadership, as well as U.S. oil giants that have operated in the country. Executives from some of the largest Western oil producers are expecting to meet Mr. Trump at the White House on Friday afternoon, according to people familiar with the plans.
Many Western oil companies abandoned operations in Venezuela over the last two decades. The opportunity there is large given the country’s vast oil reserves, but returning is politically risky and likely would come down to the terms of investment. Chevron is the only large U.S. oil company to stay and continue producing oil in the country.
Oil prices were down around 1 percent on Wednesday morning after Mr. Wright’s remarks.
The energy secretary echoed outside estimates forecasting that Venezuela could potentially boost oil production by several hundred thousand barrels per day relatively quickly. But more substantial increases above current output levels of around one million barrels per day would take much longer, even if international oil companies were ready to invest more money in the country.
“To get back to the historical production numbers, that takes tens of billions of dollars and significant time,” Mr. Wright said. “But why not?”
Emma Bubola, Kenneth P. Vogel and Ivan Penn contributed reporting.
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3) Buy Greenland? Take It? Why? An Old Pact Already Gives Trump a Free Hand.
Analysts say the Cold War agreement allows the president to increase the American military presence almost at will.
By Jeffrey Gettleman, Amelia Nierenberg and Maya Tekeli, Maya Tekeli reported from Copenhagen, Jan. 7, 2026
The remnants of an American air base on Greenland called Bluie East Two, which was built during World War II. Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
President Trump has ridiculed Denmark’s dog sled teams in Greenland.
He has cited mysterious Chinese and Russian ships prowling off the coast.
He seems increasingly fixated on the idea that the United States should take over this gigantic icebound island, with one official saying the president wants to buy it and another suggesting that the United States could simply take it. Just a few days ago, Mr. Trump said: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.”
But the question is: Does the United States even need to buy Greenland — or do something more drastic — to accomplish all of Mr. Trump’s goals?
Under a little-known Cold War agreement, the United States already enjoys sweeping military access in Greenland. Right now, the United States has one base in a very remote corner of the island. But the agreement allows it to “construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.”
It was signed in 1951 by the United States and Denmark, which colonized Greenland more than 300 years ago and still controls some of its affairs.
“The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants,” said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen.
“I have a very hard time seeing that the U.S. couldn’t get pretty much everything it wanted,” he said, adding, “if it just asked nicely.”
But buying Greenland — something that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday was Mr. Trump’s latest plan — is a different question.
Greenland does not want to be bought by anyone — especially not the United States. And Denmark does not have the authority to sell it, Dr. Olesen said.
“It is impossible,” he said.
In the past, Denmark would have been the decider. In 1946, it refused the Truman administration’s offer of $100 million in gold.
Today, things are different. Greenlanders now have the right to hold a referendum on independence and Danish officials have said it’s up to the island’s 57,000 inhabitants to decide their future. A poll last year found 85 percent of residents opposed the idea of an American takeover.
Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has repeatedly scoffed at the idea of being bought, saying this past week, “Our country is not for sale.”
The relatively short, straightforward defense agreement between the United States and Denmark was updated in 2004 to include Greenland’s semiautonomous government, giving it a say in how American military operations might affect the local population. The roots of the agreement go back to a partnership forged during World War II.
At that time, Denmark was occupied by the Nazis. Its ambassador in Washington, cut off from Copenhagen, took it upon himself to strike a defense agreement for Greenland with the United States. (The island is part of North America, along the Arctic Ocean and close to Canada’s coast.)
The fear was that Nazis could use Greenland as a steppingstone to America. The Germans had already established small meteorological bases on the island’s east coast and relayed information for battles in Europe. American troops eventually ousted them and established more than a dozen bases there with thousands of troops, landing strips and other military facilities.
After World War II, the United States continued to run some bases and a string of early warning radar sites. As the Cold War wound down, the United States closed all of them except one. It’s now called the Pittufik Space Base and helps track missiles crossing the North Pole.
The Danes have a light presence, too: a few hundred troops, including special forces that use dog sleds to conduct long-range patrols. In recent months, the Danish government has vowed to upgrade its bases and increase surveillance.
After American special forces captured Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, from a safehouse last week, Mr. Trump seemed emboldened. Stephen Miller, a top aide, then claimed that Greenland should belong to the United States and that “nobody’s going to fight the United States” over it. Danish and Greenlandic anxiety skyrocketed.
On Tuesday night, Danish and Greenlandic leaders asked to meet with Mr. Rubio, according to Greenland’s foreign minister. It’s not clear if or when that might happen.
Tensions between Mr. Trump and Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, have been steadily rising, as Mr. Trump pushes to “get” Greenland, as he puts it, while Ms. Frederiksen refuses to kowtow to him.
Just a few days ago, Ms. Frederiksen cited the 1951 agreement, saying, “We already have a defense agreement between the Kingdom and the United States today, which gives the United States wide access to Greenland.” She urged the United States “to stop the threats” and said an American attack on Greenland would mean the end of the international world order.
European leaders issued their own statement on Tuesday, also citing the 1951 agreement and saying, “Greenland belongs to its people.”
Analysts said that if the United States tried to use the defense pact as a fig leaf to send in a lot of troops and try to occupy Greenland, that wouldn’t be legal either.
According to the 2004 amendment, the United States is supposed to consult with Denmark and Greenland before it makes “any significant changes” in its military operations on the island. The 2004 amendment, which was signed by Gen. Colin L. Powell, who was then the secretary of state, explicitly recognizes Greenland as “an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Peter Ernstved Rasmussen, a Danish defense analyst, said that in practice, if American forces made reasonable requests, “the U.S. would always get a yes.”
“It is a courtesy formula,” he said. “If the U.S. wanted to act without asking, it could simply inform Denmark that it is building a base, an airfield or a port.”
That’s what infuriates longtime Danish political experts. If Mr. Trump wanted to beef up Greenland’s security right now, he could. But there has been no such official American request, said Jens Adser Sorensen, a former senior official in Denmark’s Parliament.
“Why don’t you use the mechanism of the defense agreement if you’re so worried about the security situation?” he said, adding: “The framework is there. It’s in place.”
But Greenland’s strategic location is not the only thing that has attracted Mr. Trump’s inner circle. The enormous island has another draw: critical minerals, loads of them, buried under the ice. Here, too, analysts say, the United States doesn’t need to take over the island to get them.
Greenlanders have said they are open to doing business — with just about anyone.
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4) Federal Agent Shoots Woman Amid Minneapolis Crackdown
Her condition was not immediately known. Gov. Tim Walz asked for calm.
By Julie Bosman and Mitch Smith, Jan. 7, 2026
The aftermath of a shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. Credit...Tim Evans/Reuters
A federal immigration officer shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday during an enforcement operation, state and local officials said.
The shooting came as the Trump administration ramped up a promised crackdown on illegal immigration in Minnesota.
The woman’s condition was not immediately clear. The Department of Homeland Security had no immediate comment.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said in a statement that he had been informed of the shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which took place in a residential neighborhood in South Minneapolis.
“My public safety team is working to gather information on an ICE-related shooting this morning.” Mr. Walz said. “We will share information as we learn more. In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm.”
About 2,000 federal agents were expected to take part in the enforcement operation, which could last for weeks, according to administration posts on social media.
Elliott Payne, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, said in an interview from the scene that a woman appeared to have been driving a maroon sedan while agents were conducting an enforcement operation.
“I don’t know if she was an observer or their target,” he said, condemning the presence of ICE in Minneapolis. “They’re an escalating factor. We need them out of our city.”
Mayor Jacob Frey said on social media that the shooting involved an ICE agent. Mr. Frey, a Democrat who was recently sworn in for a third term, said that “the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city.”
He added, “We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately.”
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5) Oil Firms Say Venezuela Owes Them Billions, Complicating Trump’s Plan
Companies like Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips say that Venezuela owes them billions of dollars for confiscating their assets two decades ago.
By Ivan Penn, Jan. 7, 2026
“ConocoPhillips’s claims against Venezuela add up to $12 billion, while Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil company, has said the country owes it an estimated $20 billion.”
A tanker docked near a refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela. The cost of restoring the country’s oil production after decades of decline is expected to be substantial. Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
Western oil companies have been fighting to recoup tens of billions of dollars that they say Venezuela owes them — debts that could greatly complicate efforts by President Trump to compel U.S. businesses to produce more oil in the country.
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips top the list of oil companies with big financial claims against Venezuela, whose president, Nicolás Maduro, was captured by U.S. forces over the weekend in Caracas.
American and European oil companies once had significant operations in Venezuela, ranked as having the world’s largest proven oil reserves. But most Western energy businesses abandoned the country after disputes with its leftist government, and since then corruption, mismanagement and neglect have greatly eroded oil production.
The foreign oil companies have been fighting for two decades to be compensated for being forced out of the country under Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Oil executives and experts have said that until those debts are resolved these companies will be very reluctant to invest more in the country — something Mr. Trump has made one of his key aims for reviving the Venezuela’s economy.
In the mid-2000s, the Chávez government demanded that oil companies accept a smaller stake in Venezuelan projects without compensation. Most foreign companies left the country rather than accept the new terms.
ConocoPhillips’s claims against Venezuela add up to $12 billion, while Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil company, has said the country owes it an estimated $20 billion.
Chevron is the only U.S. oil company that stayed in Venezuela. That gambit has put it in a potential position to reap a significant reward as the Trump administration presses the country to accept greater U.S. investment.
Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and other companies have spent years trying to make Venezuela pay through international arbitration and cases in U.S. courts.
“It’s a stigmatizing action against a country,” Shon Hiatt, director of the Zage Business of Energy Initiative at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. “It’s basically telling everybody that they’re never going back in to the country.”
European energy companies, including Italy’s Eni, France’s TotalEnergies and Spain’s Repsol, also invested billions of dollars in Venezuela though their operations were much smaller than those of Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, said Mr. Hiatt, who has long tracked the oil industry in Venezuela.
While oil companies have categorized those debts as unlikely to be repaid, they are highly unlikely to give up on their claims.
ConocoPhillips may end up recouping some of its losses as part of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s auction of Citgo, an American subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela.
ConocoPhillips declined to comment beyond what it has said in regulatory filings.
The company had substantial investments in oil projects in central and eastern Venezuela as well as off the country’s coast. International arbitration bodies have repeatedly ruled in Conoco’s favor, but turning those decisions into cash has been very difficult.
Exxon Mobil has said in regulatory filings that it collected awards of $908 million related to its investment in the Cerro Negro Project in eastern Venezuela, and $260 million in compensation related to the La Ceiba Project on a port in the nation’s central region.
But another $1.4 billion arbitration award was annulled in the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Exxon filed a new claim to restore the award, but that and the large majority of Exxon’s claims have gone unpaid.
Exxon Mobil did not respond to requests for comment.
Venezuela has contested many foreign oil company claims, and said it owes much less or nothing at all.
U.S. and European oil companies have been speaking with the Trump administration about their next steps in Venezuela. But new investments pose significant challenges because of the political instability created by Mr. Maduro’s capture.
Mr. Trump said on Saturday the U.S. oil companies would “spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country.”
An Energy Department spokesman said that Chris Wright, the energy secretary, “remains in close contact with U.S. oil companies and plans to meet with several of them” at a conference on Wednesday.
But investors remain wary. Exxon Mobil’s stock price fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday. ConocoPhillips fell more than 1 percent, and Chevron’s share price dropped more than 4 percent after significant gains on Monday.
Even before the Trump administration seized Mr. Maduro, the cost of restoring Venezuela’s oil production would have been substantial.
The Inter-American Development Bank, the primary source of development financing in South America and the Caribbean, estimated in 2020 that it would cost $10 billion a year over a decade to restore Venezuela’s oil production.
The Center for Energy Studies at the Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy estimated that Venezuela’s production peaked in 1998 at 3.4 million barrels of oil a day and dropped to 1.3 million barrels a day by 2018.
In a 2020 report the center noted that the failure to attract more investment into its oil industry has been “one of the key drivers of the economic catastrophe facing the country.”
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6) Trump Says U.S. Oversight of Venezuela Could Last for Years
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, President Trump said “only time will tell” when it comes to how long the United States aims to control the country.
By David E. Sanger, Tyler Pager, Katie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Jan. 8, 2026
The reporters are White House correspondents for the Times. They interviewed President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/us/politics/trump-interview-venezuela.html
President Trump in the Oval Office with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday. Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Trump said on Wednesday evening that he expected the United States would be running Venezuela and extracting oil from its huge reserves for years, and insisted that the interim government of the country — all former loyalists to the now-imprisoned Nicolás Maduro — is “giving us everything that we feel is necessary.”
“Only time will tell,” he said, when asked how long the administration will demand direct oversight of the South American nation, with the hovering threat of American military action from an armada just off shore.
“We will rebuild it in a very profitable way,” Mr. Trump said during a nearly two-hour interview. “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.”
Mr. Trump’s remarks came hours after administration officials said the United States plans to effectively assume control of selling Venezuela’s oil indefinitely, part of a three-phase plan that Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined for members of Congress. While Republican lawmakers have been largely supportive of the administration’s actions, Democrats on Wednesday reiterated their warnings that the United States was headed toward a protracted international intervention without clear legal authority.
During the wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump did not give a precise time range for how long the United States would remain Venezuela’s political overlord. Would it be three months? Six months? A year? Longer?
“I would say much longer,” the president replied.
Over the course of the interview, Mr. Trump addressed a wide range of topics, including the fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis, immigration, the Russia-Ukraine war, Greenland and NATO, his health and his plans for further White House renovations.
Mr. Trump did not answer questions about why he recognized Mr. Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s new leader instead of backing María Corina Machado, the opposition leader whose party led a successful election campaign against Mr. Maduro in 2024 and recently won the Nobel Peace Prize. He declined to comment when asked if he had spoken to Ms. Rodríguez.
“But Marco speaks to her all the time,” he said of the secretary of state. Mr. Trump added: “I will tell you that we are in constant communication with her and the administration.”
Mr. Trump also made no commitments about when elections would be held in Venezuela, which had a long democratic tradition from the late 1950s until Hugo Chavez took power in 1999.
Shortly after four New York Times reporters sat down to speak with him, Mr. Trump paused the interview to take a call from President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, days after Mr. Trump threatened to target the country because of its role as a cocaine hub.
As the call was connected, the president invited the Times reporters to remain in the Oval Office to hear the conversation with the Colombian president, on the condition that its contents remain off the record. He was joined in the room by Vice President JD Vance and Mr. Rubio, both of whom left after the call concluded.
After speaking to Mr. Petro, Mr. Trump dictated to an aide a post for his social media account saying that the Colombian president had called “to explain the situation of drugs” coming out of rural cocaine mills in Colombia and that Mr. Trump had invited him to visit Washington.
Mr. Petro’s call — which ran about an hour — appeared to dissipate any immediate threat of U.S. military action, and Mr. Trump indicated he believed that the decapitation of the Maduro regime had intimidated other leaders in the region to fall into line. During the lengthy conversation with The Times, Mr. Trump reveled in the success of the operation that broke into the heavily fortified compound in Caracas and resulted in the capture of Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
He said he had tracked the training of the forces for the operation, down to the creation of a life-size replica of the compound at a military facility in Kentucky.
The president said that as the operation unfolded, he was worried it could end up being a “Jimmy Carter disaster. That destroyed his entire administration.” He was referring to the failed operation on April 24, 1980, to rescue 52 American hostages held in Iran. An American helicopter collided with an aircraft in the desert, a tragedy that haunted Mr. Carter’s legacy but led to the creation of a far more disciplined, well-trained special operations forces.
“I don’t know that he would have won the election,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Carter, “but he certainly had no chance after that disaster.”
He contrasted the success of the seizure of Mr. Maduro, in an operation that appears to have killed about 70 Venezuelans and Cubans, among others, to operations under his predecessors that had gone wrong.
“You know you didn’t have a Jimmy Carter crashing helicopters all over the place, that you didn’t have a Biden Afghanistan disaster where they couldn’t do the simplest maneuver,” he said, referring to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 13 American servicemembers.
Mr. Trump said that he had already begun to make money for the United States by taking oil that has been under sanctions. He referred to his Tuesday night announcement that the United States would obtain 30 to 50 million barrels of heavy Venezuelan crude oil.
But he offered no time period for that process, and he acknowledged it would take years to revive the country’s neglected oil sector.
“The oil will take a while,” he said.
Mr. Trump appeared far more focused on the capture mission than the details of how to navigate Venezuela’s future. He declined to say what might prompt him to put American forces on the ground in the country.
“I wouldn’t want to tell you that,” he said.
Would he insert American troops if the Venezuelan government blocked him from access to the country’s oil? Would he send them in if Venezuela refused to kick out Russian and Chinese personnel, as his administration has demanded?
“I can’t tell you that,” said Mr. Trump. “I really wouldn’t want to tell you that, but they’re treating us with great respect. As you know, we’re getting along very well with the administration that is there right now.”
He sidestepped a question about why he declined to install the man the United States declared the winner of the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, Edmundo González. Mr. González was essentially a proxy candidate for the lead opposition leader, Ms. Machado.
He reiterated that Mr. Maduro’s allies are cooperating with the United States, despite their hostile public statements.
“They’re giving us everything that we feel is necessary,” he said. “Don’t forget, they took the oil from us years ago.”
He was referring to the nationalization of facilities built by American oil companies. Mr. Trump has already been talking to American oil executives about investing in the Venezuelan fields, but many are reluctant, worried that the operation to run the country could falter when Mr. Trump leaves office, or that Venezuela’s military and intelligence services would undercut the effort because they were being cut out of the profits.
Mr. Trump said that he would like to travel to Venezuela in the future.
“I think at some point it’ll be safe,” he said.
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7) Fatal Shooting by ICE Follows Weeks of Turmoil in Minnesota
Residents of the state said they were reeling after a series of blows that have exposed a deepening rift between the Trump administration and Minnesota leaders.
By Julie Bosman, Jan. 8, 2026
Thousands of people gathered for a vigil on the block where Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman, was killed on Wednesday in Minneapolis. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
The blows in Minnesota began landing last year, when a fraud scandal in the state’s social services system ripped through the national news and disgusted taxpayers.
Then in December, President Trump laced into Somali refugees, a group that has settled in Minnesota in large numbers, saying they were “garbage” that he did not want in his country.
Just after Christmas, another jolt: A conservative influencer posted a video that went viral online claiming that day care centers in Minneapolis were cheating taxpayers out of more than $100 million. And this week, as federal officials threatened to cut funding for Minnesota’s social service programs and a new surge of federal immigration agents arrived in Minneapolis, the state’s beleaguered governor, Tim Walz, said that he would not run for re-election.
But it was the shooting death of a 37-year-old woman by a federal immigration officer along a Minneapolis street on Wednesday that exposed just how a wide a gulf there is between the Trump administration and Minnesota’s Democratic leaders.
At a news conference, Mr. Walz delivered an angry message to President Trump: “You’ve done enough.” Hours later, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, labeled the woman who was killed a terrorist and vowed to continue aggressive enforcement actions in the city.
The clash left residents expressing anguish and fear over where events might lead next.
At a candlelight vigil on Wednesday evening, Andy Cuate, a 24-year-old from Cottage Grove, Minn., said that the eyes of the country on Minnesota brought him back to the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020. More than five years later, he said, it still feels raw.
“Now that we’re the center of attention again, it’s just kind of like, ‘When are the people from Minnesota going to catch a break here?’” Mr. Cuate said.
The Minneapolis neighborhood where the shooting occured on Wednesday is less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed by the police in 2020.
Throughout the day, local and state officials condemned the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis resident who was driving a vehicle when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement fatally shot her on a residential street.
Federal officials had just begun a broad crackdown on immigration in the Twin Cities, with Department of Homeland Security officials promising that 2,000 agents would fan out in search of criminal offenders.
Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called for immigration agents to get “out of Minneapolis.”
“Now somebody is dead,” he said. “That’s on you. And it’s also on you to leave.”
Mr. Walz urged Minnesotans to be calm in their response to the shooting.
Federal immigration officials said that an ICE agent shot and killed Ms. Good in self-defense. They said her vehicle was driving toward the agent and she had refused to cooperate when ordered to stop.
That explanation was sharply dismissed by many people in Minneapolis, a liberal-leaning city where suspicion of Mr. Trump and his immigration crackdown is fierce.
“More than anything, I feel like we’re prepared as a city for events like these,” said Elliott Payne, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, as he drove to join thousands of people at vigil by nightfall. “And sadly, it’s because we have been through many events like these.”
During the Covid pandemic, when the city was recovering from the civil unrest that followed Mr. Floyd’s death, Minneapolis residents organized community aid to help neighbors who were short on food and money. They formed group chats and community patrols as crime spiked. Many of those networks came back to life when ICE agents flooded into the city in recent days, and neighbors began warning one another if agents were spotted.
“This was just a bystander looking to protect their community,” Mr. Payne said of Ms. Good.
Demonstrators mourned the loss of Ms. Good at a vigil Wednesday night. “I’m happy to see the unity of the people,” said Bella Bessantez, a resident who recorded the vigil from her porch on Portland Avenue.
Even outside the Twin Cities, Minnesota residents said it was impossible to ignore the turmoil that had settled over the state.
“It is exhausting,” said Jessie Hennen, a professor of creative writing at Southwest Minnesota State University, who has followed the news of the ICE influx so closely, she wasn’t sure how she would finish preparing for the spring semester. “It’s hard to focus.”
Many people in Minnesota said they were bracing for the weeks ahead, and the protests, investigations and recriminations that were to come.
Hours after Ms. Good’s death, some people had already called for criminal charges to be brought against the ICE agent who shot her, while Ms. Noem said on Wednesday that she will ask the Justice Department to prosecute as domestic terrorism the use of vehicles to block immigration enforcement operations.
Dan Simmons contributed reporting from Minneapolis.
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8) Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis
An analysis of footage from three camera angles show that the vehicle appears to be turning away from a federal officer as he opened fire.
By Devon Lum, Robin Stein and Ainara Tiefenthäler, January 8, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010631041/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html
The Minneapolis neighborhood where the shooting occurred on Wednesday is less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed by the police in 2020
On Wednesday in Minneapolis, a federal agent fatally shot a motorist, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. Trump administration officials said these were “defensive shots” fired because the officer was being run over. But our analysis of bystander footage, filmed from different angles, appears to show the agent was not in the path of the victim’s SUV when he fired three shots at close range. Here’s how events unfolded. Moments before the shooting, the victim’s maroon SUV is stopped in the middle of the street. Multiple unmarked federal vehicles are idling nearby. Secretary Noem alleged the motorist “was blocking the officers in.” Bystanders are blowing whistles and yelling at federal agents. Then, federal vehicles start moving toward the maroon SUV with sirens and lights blaring. A federal agent films the scene on his phone. The driver rolls forward slightly, turning left, then stops and waves for others to go ahead. Two agents exit this silver pickup and walk toward the vehicle. Moments later, shots are fired. Let’s look at the scene again more closely. This is the agent who shoots the driver. He walks around the car filming and disappears from view. Other agents pull up and order the driver to exit her vehicle. One of them grabs at the door handle and reaches inside. The SUV reverses, then turns right, apparently attempting to leave. At the same time, the agent filming crosses toward the left of the vehicle and grabs his gun. He opens fire on the motorist and continues shooting as she drives past. The moment the agent fires, he is standing here to the left of the SUV and the wheels are pointing to the right away from the agent. This appears to conflict with allegations that the SUV was ramming or about to ram the officer. President Trump and others said the federal agent was hit by the SUV, often pointing to another video filmed from a different angle. And it’s true that at this moment, in this grainy, low-resolution footage, it does look like the agent is being struck by the SUV. But when we synchronize it with the first clip, we can see the agent is not being run over. In fact, his feet are positioned away from the SUV. The SUV crashes into a white car parked down the road. A bystander runs toward the collision. The federal agents on scene do not appear to rush to provide emergency medical care. Eventually, the agent who shot the motorist approaches the vehicle. Seconds later, he turns back around and tells his colleagues to call 911. Agents blocked several bystanders who attempt to provide medical care, including one who identifies himself as a physician. At the same time, several agents, including the agent who opened fire, get in their vehicles and drive off, apparently altering the active crime scene.
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9) Victim in ICE Shooting Is Remembered for Her Kindness
Renee Good, 37, a resident of Minneapolis, was mourned on Wednesday as a cherished member of the community.
By Christina Morales, Published Jan. 7, 2026, Updated Jan. 8, 2026
Demonstrators mourned the loss of Ms. Good at a vigil Wednesday night. “I’m happy to see the unity of the people,” said Bella Bessantez, a resident who recorded the vigil from her porch on Portland Avenue.
The woman killed by a federal agent on Wednesday in Minneapolis was remembered as a compassionate, giving person.
The woman, identified by the authorities as Renee Nicole Good, 37, was a cherished Minnesotan, said State Representative Leigh Finke of St. Paul, Minn., who paid tribute to her in a statement. Ms. Good was “a loved and celebrated community member, who has now been stripped away from her family,” Ms. Finke said.
Ms. Good, a U.S. citizen, lived in Minneapolis with her partner, according to an interview with her mother, Donna Ganger, in The Minnesota Star Tribune, which said that Ms. Good had a 6-year-old child.
Federal officials said an ICE agent shot and killed Ms. Good in self-defense, and they accused her of trying to use her vehicle to run over law enforcement officers. Local officials have strongly disputed that account.
Ms. Ganger told The Star Tribune that her daughter “was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” adding that she was “loving, forgiving and affectionate.”
Ms. Ganger declined a request for additional comment, and other family members could not be immediately reached.
Ms. Finke condemned the federal immigration operation that led to the fatal encounter, calling for those activities to end, “as well as full transparency and accountability to ensure justice for the victim.”
Mitch Smith, Kevin Draper and Julie Bosman contributed reporting. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
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10) A Construction Worker’s Suicide Highlights a Wider Crisis
The death of TJ Kimball was a private tragedy that underscores a widespread risk in the stressful field.
By Ronda Kaysen, Photographs by Sophie Park, Jan. 8, 2026
Ronda Kaysen reported this story from Raynham, Mass., interviewing 45 industry leaders, academics, and laborers and their loved ones.
TJ Kimball with his dogs over the years.
A stack of paint buckets. Trowels nestled along the wall. A hard hat. These items remain, untouched since March 15, in Timothy J. Kimball’s backyard work shed.
It has been 10 months since Mr. Kimball, at 37, quietly walked into his Raynham, Mass., bedroom on a chilly Saturday afternoon and killed himself. And it is in his work shed where his father, Timothy Kimball, lingers in his only son’s presence. “This is where he’d come out, smoke, have a cigarette — I feel him here,” the elder Mr. Kimball, 62, said, after rifling through his son’s first tool bag, from when he became an apprentice in the painters union almost 20 years ago. “I tend to talk to him here.”
The younger Mr. Kimball, whom everyone called TJ, was a drywall finisher, known as a taper, the laborer who prepares freshly hung drywall for a coat of paint. He came from three generations in the trades — his father, uncles and great-uncles were all tapers and carpenters in the Boston area.
Over 300 people, stunned by the loss, turned up for his wake.
“It’s just like a big, huge tsunami came in and wiped everything out,” said Mr. Kimball’s oldest sister, Shannon Kilburn, 43.
The shattering loss of TJ Kimball was not an isolated incident. The construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates of any major industry in the country, second only to mining, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Add in drug overdoses, where construction workers die at a greater rate than workers in any other industry, and a bleak picture emerges of a population in crisis.
Construction is already among the most dangerous jobs in the country, with about 1,000 people dying each year from work-related injuries, more than any other industry. But five times as many workers, 5,100, died by suicide, and 15,900 died from drug overdoses, in 2023, according to an analysis of the most recent federal data by the Center for Construction Research and Training, an occupational safety organization. While the number of overdoses declined from 2022, from 17,000, the number of suicides remained virtually unchanged.
“The crisis affects every single job on every single job site in this country,” said Sonya Bohmann, the executive director of the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention, a nonprofit organization. Employers and unions have expanded access to mental health support and drug treatment programs; job sites often stock Narcan, or naloxone, a drug that reverses the effect of an overdose, in first aid kits; drug testing is increasingly commonplace; and companies and unions offer suicide prevention training programs. But the crisis persists.
Construction workers are particularly vulnerable to suicide because of a collision of risk factors. Men without a college degree and veterans, two groups with high rates of suicide and of gun ownership, often work in construction. Guns are used in the majority of all suicides, and men who own handguns are nearly eight times as likely to die by gun suicide than those who do not.
Construction is hard, physical labor, often done outside in the elements and sometimes far from home.
“It’s also a very cyclical job — you can’t guarantee a 40-hour week,” said Shawn Nehiley, president of the Ironworkers District Council of New England. “You don’t know if you’re going to be laid off, if you’re going to work overtime.”
Fentanyl Overdoses: What to Know
Understand fentanyl’s effects. Fentanyl is a potent and fast-acting drug, two qualities that also make it highly addictive. A small quantity goes a long way, so it’s easy to suffer an overdose. With fentanyl, there is only a short window of time to intervene and save a person’s life during an overdose.
Stick to licensed pharmacies. Prescription drugs sold online or by unlicensed dealers marketed as OxyContin, Vicodin and Xanax are often laced with fentanyl. Only take pills that were prescribed by your doctor and came from a licensed pharmacy.
Talk to your loved ones. The best way to prevent fentanyl use is to educate your loved ones, including teens, about it. Explain what fentanyl is and that it can be found in pills bought online or from friends. Aim to establish an ongoing dialogue in short spurts rather than one long, formal conversation.
Learn how to spot an overdose. When someone overdoses from fentanyl, breathing slows and their skin often turns a bluish hue. If you think someone is overdosing, call 911 right away.
Buy naloxone. If you’re concerned that a loved one could be exposed to fentanyl, you may want to buy naloxone. The medicine can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose and is often available at pharmacies without a prescription. Narcan, the nasal spray version of naloxone, has received F.D.A. approval to be sold over the counter.
Get hurt on the job and a painkiller prescription can spiral into addiction, as it did for Mr. Nehiley, who was prescribed opioids in 2001 for an injury, leading to a relapse of an addiction that began in adolescence. “The prayers before I went to bed at night were ‘Please God, don’t let me wake up in the morning,’” said Mr. Nehiley, 62, now sober for 15 years.
In his office hang 45 prayer cards and photographs of union members who died from overdoses or suicide since 2008. “And that’s not all of them,” he said.
No occupation has a higher rate of substance abuse than construction and extraction. A substance abuse disorder, even for someone in recovery, increases suicide risk.
“There’s this high density of risk with this community,” said Craig Bryan, a clinical psychologist and the director of the University of Vermont Medical Center’s suicide care clinic.
Interviews with dozens of construction workers described a culture of widespread drinking and drug use. “There’s cocaine, there’s pills, there’s even alcohol at lunch,” said Paul Reed, a recovering addict who runs Roofers in Recovery, a Colorado nonprofit organization.
The regional chapter of Mr. Kimball’s union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, does not track how many of its 4,000 members die by overdose or suicide. But its quarterly magazine memorializes members who died in the intervening months. In the spring issue, of the 28 people commemorated, four died by overdose or suicide.
One of them was Mr. Kimball.
‘He Was Our Boy’
With five uncles and his father working in the trades, it was no surprise Mr. Kimball became a union apprentice at 19. “We’re just blue collar, get out, hustle, work hard,” his father said. “It was a chance for him to make something of himself.”
But his first few years on the job were troubled, and in the aftermath of his death, Mr. Kimball’s parents and his wife felt compelled to speak publicly to increase awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding suicide and addiction. “There’s no shame,” his father said. “He was our boy. He was our son.”
Mr. Kimball struggled with a Percocet addiction that started in high school after he broke his sternum playing football. At 23, he was arrested for drug possession and distribution, but avoided a felony conviction “with a very expensive lawyer,” his father said. His mother, Angela Kimball, forced him, through the court system, into a drug-treatment program. He got clean, but spent the rest of his life on Suboxone, a maintenance drug for opioid addiction.
By his late 20s, Mr. Kimball, a perfectionist, had gained a reputation as a reliable, fastidious worker, and a good foreman who could motivate a crew. He was considered among the best tapers in the area, someone who used traditional methods to lay the tape and spread the mud along the seams of the drywall, leaving the surface so flat and flawless that a wall could almost vanish behind a coat of paint.
But his days were long, often starting at 4:30 a.m. The pandemic building boom, and the slowdown that followed, added to the pressure and the gnawing sense that at any moment work could dry up.
“Everybody’s under the gun. Everybody’s under stress,” said Ryan Barry, 36, who worked with Mr. Kimball on his last job, at a Google office in Cambridge. “When you walk on the job site the first day, you’re already in the red and everybody’s yelling that you got to go 100 miles an hour to get these jobs done. And you just use and abuse your body.”
While the life of a construction worker can sometimes be described as lonely and isolated, Mr. Kimball’s was not. He dated the same woman, Ashley Kimball, who he’d known since high school, for 15 years before they married, 11 days before his death. The only son in a family with three daughters, he regularly checked in with his parents and was the boisterous uncle who helped his nieces and nephews learn to hit a ball. He played paintball with his high school buddies and was a loyal member of a fantasy football league.
Mr. Kimball left no note, and no one interviewed for this story thought that he might be suicidal. Experts point to a mosaic of risk factors, with warning signs that can be difficult to spot. Interviews with friends, family and co-workers revealed Mr. Kimball’s last few months as a challenging time. One sister was battling cancer, another filed for divorce from Mr. Kimball’s best friend. In June 2024, Mr. Kimball and his girlfriend bought a house, which added new financial strain.
Mr. Kimball picked up overtime and overnight shifts. In text messages to his mother, he spoke about a delirious exhaustion, with days where he only slept a single hour.
“Nights are terrible, they’re just terrible,” said Roger Audet, 64, a retired taper who worked with Mr. Kimball and his father over the years. “You’re angry a lot, you’re stressed out a lot, you’re exhausted a lot.”
Night shifts also meant leaving Ms. Kimball, 36, who works at a dry cleaner, alone all night in a house secluded on an acre of land.
Ms. Kimball bought a pistol for safety, which the couple kept loaded by the bedside table.
In the weeks before his death, Mr. Kimball seemed unmoored and, at times, paranoid. He thought someone in the office building where he was working was watching him and his mother.
On March 4, Mr. Kimball married his longtime girlfriend, ending years of procrastination, and ahead of his upcoming hernia surgery, when he might need her as a medical proxy. “We just went to the courthouse and everything was fine,” said Ms. Kimball, adding that she did not notice worrisome mood or behavioral changes.
A few days later, at a family dinner intended to celebrate, he was so agitated that his mother called him later that night. They spoke for two and a half hours. “He was trying to keep his head above water,” said the elder Ms. Kimball, 61, a bartender. “He was trying to stay here, but something was pulling him down.”
At work, he was uncharacteristically withdrawn and distant. “He was really off,” Mr. Barry said. “He wasn’t really his typical self.”
The morning of his death, Mr. Kimball called his supervisor at New England Finish Systems, Richard Foux, and told him he wanted to take the weekend off. To Mr. Foux, 41, the conversation seemed ordinary. “If I had known there was any sign I would have gone straight to his house,” he said. Ms. Kimball was happy that her husband, who frequently worked Saturdays, had prioritized time with family instead.
Mr. Kimball visited his grandmother in the morning. He came home, ate an Italian sub at the kitchen counter, and called his father to finalize Sunday dinner plans. He and his wife added all their nieces’ and nephews’ birthdays to a calendar.
Ms. Kimball stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. Mr. Kimball let the dog out with her.
An Absent Foreman
At the job site on Monday morning, another taper was filling in as foreman for Mr. Kimball. Other workers were confused, uneasy about Mr. Kimball’s absence. On a coffee break, Mr. Barry scrolled through Facebook, pausing on an cryptic post from Mr. Kimball’s father. As social media feeds filled with photos of Mr. Kimball and messages commemorating him, the mood collapsed.
There was no representative from the company or Mr. Kimball’s union to make an immediate announcement.
“We waited until the family made an announcement,” Mr. Foux said. “We respected their privacy.”
A union representative contacted individual members directly to see if they needed support.
The crew, focused on a pressing deadline, continued to tape. No one considered leaving. “Jesus no, you had to stay, it’s a cutthroat business,” said Mr. Barry.
At the end of the week, Mr. Barry collected Mr. Kimball’s black and red tool bag to bring home to his family. It is still sitting on the floor of Mr. Kimball’s work shed, his hard hat resting atop it.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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