The arrival of the year 2026 was greeted not by the popping of champagne bottles, but by the merry sound of high explosives and bright lights that lit up the sleeping streets of the Venezuelan capital that provided its lucky inhabitants with a spectacular, and absolutely free, fireworks display in the dead of night.

On January 7, Renee Nicole Good was murdered by an ICE agent in the streets of South Minneapolis. She was a mother of three and lived just a few blocks from where she was gunned down.

The kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, and the subsequent press conference held by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, represent a declaration of war against Latin America and a direct threat to the reformist governments elected in Colombia and Mexico.

The criminal US military incursion into Venezuela and the kidnapping of a sitting foreign head of state is the first practical manifestation of Trump’s new National Security Strategy. Washington is determined to establish its domination over the Western Hemisphere, which it considers its backyard, and to kick any “non-hemispheric actors”, mainly China, out of the region.

At 2am Caracas time, US imperialism launched a criminal military attack on Venezuelan soil. There are reports of about six large explosions in the capital, Caracas. There have also been military strikes in El Higuerote, Miranda, La Guaira, and also in Aragua. US military helicopters have also been seen flying over Caracas. Trump has announced that they have captured Maduro together with his wife, and that they have been flown out of the country. Delcy Rodríguez, the Executive Vice President of Venezuela has confirmed this. This is what is known so far.

On 16 December, US president Trump took to social media to announce “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela”. The day after, the world was awash with rumours that he was going to announce war on the South American nation. This represents yet another escalation in the five-month old campaign of imperialist bullying against the oil-rich country. If truth is to be told, the US regime is alreadyat war with Venezuela.

For the first time in Chile, a self-declared Pinochet supporter has been elected to La Moneda. This signifies the restoration of the conservative bourgeois order six years after the October 2019 uprising. And he will come to power with an overwhelming majority.

Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution was a watershed moment in the history of the class struggle. It was a ray of light in the dark years following the collapse of Stalinism. Long before the 2008 crisis, Occupy, BLM, or the rise of Sanders or Mamdani, it gave credibility to anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, and socialism.

“This intellectual decline has reached its lowest level in the persons of the political leaders in Europe. They have led this once mighty continent straight into a morass of economic, cultural and military decline, reducing it to a state of complete impotence.

In the afternoon of 10 December, a US military helicopter took control over an oil tanker travelling from Venezuela. Not content with this act of piracy, when asked what the US was going to do with the oil it was transporting, Trump casually said “Well, we keep it, I suppose”, like a man who has found a ten dollar bill on the floor. This represents a major escalation in the US campaign of imperialist aggression against Venezuela and Latin America.

We have now entered month five of an unprecedented US military build up in the Caribbean aimed at bullying Venezuela, and also Colombia. Over 80 people have already been killed in criminal attacks against speedboats, which Washington claims are narcotraffickers. But so far, Trump’s aim – regime change in Venezuela – has not been achieved. What follows?

The results of the legislative elections on Sunday, 26 October show how far Argentinian capitalism is from resolving its deep social, economic, and political crisis, which drags down the lives of millions of workers. Far from signifying a recovery of the regime, the victory of President Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), is a mere mirage.

On 27 November, President Pedro Castillo was sentenced to 11 years, 5 months, and 15 days in prison for the crime of conspiracy to rebel, following his announcement (on 7 December 2022) to dissolve parliament, reorganise the justice system, and convene a Constituent Assembly.

Just over one year after winning the 2024 election, Donald Trump’s presidency is under severe pressure. The sordid scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein is a totemic symbol of this. This one horrifying story has come to be associated with both the hopes and the mounting disappointment in Donald Trump.

In a surprising defeat, the Ecuadorian people have overwhelmingly rejected the constitutional referendum proposed by right-wing President Daniel Noboa.