Welcome to “The New Monroe Doctrine,” where I give you an update on what’s going on in the Western Hemisphere, south of our border, especially as it relates to the United States.
First, thank for all the kind emails (yes, I’m still behind on responding) and comments you sent me last week, saying you want more Latin America and Western Hemisphere stuff. I’m actually working on some big stories, but those articles are definitely a passion project and are often research-heavy and, to be honest, not the most lucrative, so I have to balance them out. This week, I did some work for an old freelance client that tied me up, plus, I’ve been busy preparing for… a “destructive” ice storm?
I’ve lived in Georgia all my life, and I’ve never heard the word “destructive” associated with winter weather. Tornadoes? Yes. Hurricanes? Oh yeah. Snow and ice? Never. But that’s one of the joys of writing about Latin America and the Caribbean, especially during these cold gray months that suck the life out of me. Mentally, I’m somewhere warm and green.
Care to join me? My plan for this column this week is simple. 1) No Venezuela or Cuba stuff with one tiny exception. 2) Several quick hits on Hemisphere news you may have missed this week. Let’s go!
1. Rafael Tudares Is Free
This is the exception to “no Venezuela” this week. I’ve written a couple of times about how President-elect Edmundo González’s son-in-law has been a political prisoner for over a year in Venezuela. He’s not involved in politics himself, but last January, he was taking his six and seven-year-old children to school when he was kidnapped, detained, and charged with terrorism. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. No one in his family saw or heard from him until this month, when his wife was finally allowed a visit. He was a shell of his former self.
As of Thursday, I can report that he has been released. His wife posted on X:
I hereby inform that, after 380 days of an unjust arbitrary detention and having endured, for more than a year, an inhuman situation of enforced disappearance, my husband Rafael Tudares Bracho has returned home this early morning.
It has been a stoic and very hard struggle for more than 1 year, in which we finally achieved Rafael’s release from prison, and we hope, sooner rather than later, his full freedom, to which he is entitled.
That made me so happy to hear, but there are still nearly 800 political prisoners in the torture centers. Rafael’s case was high-profile, which probably helped, but so many of them are not, and people are growing desperate. As a matter of fact, one young man’s mother actually died outside a prison this week, waiting for his release. She supposedly had a heart attack. She was not very old, only around 40.
If you want to read this week’s political prisoner update, I wrote about it on Tuesday: Extortion and Death: A Heartbreaking Update on Venezuela’s Political Prisoner Crisis.
2. Costa Rican Elections
I definitely wouldn’t mind being in Costa Rica right now, and not just because it’s warm. Several important Latin American countries will hold elections this year. Costa Rica is the first. The Ticos and Ticas go to the polls on February 1. I’ll probably write more about this next week, but so far, it looks like Laura Fernandez will win. By how much and whether a runoff will be necessary is to be determined because there are a lot of “undecideds” in the country, but she has a decent lead right now.
So why does this matter to you? Costa Rica is one of the most unproblematic countries in our hemisphere and one of our greatest allies. Over the past year, it has ramped up its support for our country through moves like changing its constitution so that it can extradite Costa Rican nationals to the United States to face justice and combating the war against drug cartels.
Like current President Rodrigo Chaves, Fernandez is a center-right candidate who promises continuity. She’s also tough on crime, something Costa Ricans want right now because, despite the fact that it’s generally a peaceful country, crime has been on the rise, largely due to cartel activity. There has been some talk that Donald Trump will endorse her, but I’m not sure she even needs it. We will keep an eye on it.
3. Mexico Hands Over Some Bad Hombres
Mexico’s narco-president, Claudia Sheinbaum, sure does walk a lot of fine lines. Right now, she’s trying to keep the cartels happy, keep the other commie leaders in the region happy, and, most importantly, keep Donald Trump happy. Trump and Marco Rubio have put a lot of pressure on her lately, and she seems to be making some concessions, however small they may be. This week, she handed over 37 cartel members to the United States, which makes for a total of 92 all year.
Attorney General Pam Bondi called it “another landmark achievement in the Trump administration’s mission to destroy the cartels,” and claimed, “These 37 cartel members — including terrorists from the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación), and others — will now pay for their crimes against the American people on American soil.”
They won’t pay it with the death penalty, however, because that was part of the agreement. Mexico would only send them over if we agreed to it.
One of the most notable guys was Humberto Rivera, who also goes by El Viejon or “the old man.” He was a “regional leader of the Sinaloa cartel faction in the Valley of Juárez border smuggling corridor, southeast of Juárez.” He’s wanted in the Western District of Texas and faces up to life in prison.
You can read more about these guys here: 37 Mexican Nationals Wanted for Serious Crimes Transferred to the United States from Mexico, Including Leaders of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
4. Milei Every Day, All Day
Argentine president Javier Milei spoke at Davos this week, and he was the breath of fresh air in a sea of dusty old European leaders who smell like mothballs, managed decline, and socialism.
His entire speech gave me the vapors, but the best line was “Therefore, the Americas will be the beacon of light that will once again illuminate the entire West, thereby repaying the civilizational debt with expressions of gratitude towards the foundations in Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Judeo-Christian values.”
— Milei in English – Official Account (@jmilei_english) January 22, 2026
I wrote a lot about him this week, so I won’t rehash. But in case you missed it: Europe Fades As Latin America Rises. Milei Is Leading the Way.
5. Petro is Coming
Mark your calendars! Colombia’s top erotic poetry writer in chief is officially coming to the White House on February 3. Let’s hope and pray and cross our fingers that we get some sort of access to this because it’s bound to be entertaining, even if we just get to watch this clown grovel at Trump and Rubio’s feet.
Rubio actually spoke with Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio this week to ensure everything was in order and promised that Petro would receive full diplomatic guarantees, despite the stunt he pulled back in September when he stood on the streets of New York City and called for a coup against Trump.
6. China is Going
A few months ago, I started a column about China’s presence in the Americas, focusing on stories no one talks about. I took a break around Thanksgiving — those things were super difficult to research and write — and I have yet to start back up. At this rate, I may not have to because the Chinese Communist Party’s presence in Latin America has hit a bit of a brick wall. Maybe I should start a column about China heading in the opposite direction? For now, I’ll let someone else do it.
“In this geopolitical game of thrones presented by China, the U.S. seems to be one step ahead,” one of my favorite writers/journalists, Arturo McFields, wrote back in December. Even though his article is a month old and pre-Maduro arrest, I wanted to share it: China is furious over geopolitical changes in Latin America. He really knows the region and everything he writes is excellent.
He lays out several examples of how China lost in Latin America in 2025, and I believe this is only the beginning. While China is currently creeping into the part of the Hemisphere I don’t like to cover (hint: Canada) and blowing its load all over Europe, it’s getting its butt kicked down south.
7. Expect More From Haiti Soon
Haiti is a mess, but I suspect it’s about to become a bigger one. The country’s transitional presidential council announced this week that it had voted to fire Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé — exactly what the U.S. told it not to do — just days before the council is supposed to step down on February 7. Rubio spoke with the PM on Friday to confirm the United States’ support for him, and the State Department issued the following statement:
The United States maintains its unwavering support for Haiti’s stability and security. We view the recent announcement by the TPC as illegal. Haitian Prime Minister Alix Fils-Aimé’s tenure as Haiti’s Prime Minister remains integral to advancing efforts to combat terrorist gangs…
— Department of State (@StateDept) January 23, 2026
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau posted this on X earlier this week as well.
The US objective for Haiti 🇭🇹 remains the establishment of baseline security and stability. The US would regard any effort to change the composition of the government by the non-elected Transitional Presidential Council at this late stage in its tenure (set to expire on February…
— Christopher Landau (@DeputySecState) January 22, 2026
I’m running out of time this evening, so I can’t dive any deeper into this. Maybe I’ll write about it more next week, but it’s worth keeping an eye on. This situation may escalate significantly in the weeks to come.
My editor, Chris Queen, is yelling at me to wrap this up so he can enjoy his Friday night, so I’m going to stop there. I have so much more to say on Haiti, the Venezuelan regime, what’s going on in Cuba, the Costa Rican elections, etc., and if the ice storm doesn’t take me out, I promise I’ll try to report on all of it soon. If there’s anything else you want me to cover, drop me an email!
As I say, Rubio isn’t handing me exclusives… yet, but maybe if I wait a few days, he’ll drop something in my inbox too. A girl can dream, right?
Stay warm, friends! I’ll leave you with a little scene from my favorite little swimming spot in Costa Rica. This was taken yesterday.
Want to support conservative media? You can do so by becoming a PJ Media VIP member. It’s less than $20 for the entire year when you use the promo code FIGHT, and you get some cool perks too. Come join us!
