En el centro de la manipulación electoral se encuentra un criminal llamado Fernando Cerimedo.El escándalo que lo rodea conecta prácticamente a todos los líderes de derecha en América Latina y llega directamente hasta la Casa Blanca.
Latinoamérica se ha visto sacudida por un gran escándalo que lo dice todo sobre cómo funciona la política en el siglo XXI.
Hechos recientes demuestran cómo algunos grupos de extrema derecha, con el respaldo de empresas adineradas y estrechos vínculos con el gobierno estadounidense, han creado una sofisticada maquinaria de manipulación electoral.
Utilizan las redes sociales como arma, con ejércitos de bots que difunden desinformación sin cesar, engañando a los votantes para poner en el poder a líderes ultraconservadores que promoverán los intereses de Washington y las corporaciones estadounidenses.
En el centro de esta campaña de injerencia electoral se encuentra un criminal llamado Fernando Cerimedo.
Es uno de los operadores políticos más importantes de los que probablemente no hayas oído hablar.
El escándalo criminal que lo rodea conecta prácticamente a todos los líderes de derecha en América Latina y llega directamente hasta la Casa Blanca.
El principal especialista de la derecha en injerencia electoral en América Latina intenta asesinar a su exnovia embarazada.
Fernando Cerimedo es originario de Argentina, pero ha trabajado con los líderes de la mayoría de los gobiernos de derecha en América Latina, y está estrechamente vinculado a la administración de Donald Trump y a políticos estadounidenses de extrema derecha en Florida.
Cerimedo es un especialista en manipulación electoral. Se le atribuye el mérito de haber llevado al poder a varios presidentes ultraconservadores en América Latina.
Pero esto no es orgánico. De hecho, Cerimedo agradeció públicamente a Brad Parscale, quien fue jefe de campaña de Trump en las elecciones presidenciales de 2020, por proporcionarle la tecnología que ha utilizado para manipular elecciones en toda la región.
En agosto de este año, Cerimedo fue arrestado por la policía boliviana tras contratar sicarios para asesinar a su exnovia embarazada, la conocida activista política y abogada Nadia Beller.
Beller sobrevivió al intento de asesinato, aunque resultó herida. Desde su cama de hospital, concedió entrevistas a varios medios de comunicación, sacando a la luz los secretos inconfesables de Cerimedo.
El gobierno boliviano también está investigando a Cerimedo por narcotráfico , además de las investigaciones sobre el intento de asesinato y sus delitos financieros.
El trabajo de Cerimedo para líderes de la derecha latinoamericana
Según Beller, Cerimedo también admitió en privado que Milei está «loco» y que su hermana Karina, la todopoderosa jefa de gabinete de Milei, está profundamente involucrada en la corrupción. (Karina Milei ha sido investigada por malversación de fondos públicos destinados a la compra de medicamentos para personas con discapacidad).
En el momento de su detención, Cerimedo también trabajaba como asesor oficial del presidente de derecha de Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz.
Desde entonces, Paz ha intentado distanciarse de Cerimedo, con poco éxito. Cerimedo era tan influyente en la administración conservadora de Bolivia que tenía su propio despacho al lado del del presidente.
Paz visitó Estados Unidos en marzo, cuando la administración Trump lanzó una nueva alianza de derecha llamada Escudo de las Américas.
En el acto inaugural celebrado en Florida, Paz se reunió con Trump y con la segunda persona más poderosa del gobierno estadounidense, Marco Rubio, un halcón neoconservador que simultáneamente ejerce como secretario de Estado y asesor de seguridad nacional.
Este escándalo resulta muy inconveniente para el presidente de Bolivia, Paz, un aliado de derecha de Estados Unidos que ha apoyado firmemente a Trump. Pero debido a que la víctima del intento de asesinato de Cerimedo, Beller, es una figura pública boliviana, el gobierno se ha visto obligado a actuar.
Sin embargo, el trabajo de Cerimedo en Argentina y Bolivia apenas roza la superficie de la controversia. Cerimedo asesoró a prácticamente todos los líderes de derecha prominentes de América Latina en la actualidad.
Cerimedo también desempeñó un papel fundamental en el fraude electoral en Honduras, e incluso en un intento de golpe de Estado en Brasil.
Fraude electoral respaldado por Estados Unidos en Honduras
En 2025, Cerimedo supervisó las campañas presidenciales del presidente ultraderechista de Honduras, Nasry “Tito” Asfura, otro aliado clave de Estados Unidos estrechamente vinculado a los cárteles de la droga.
Marlon Ochoa, exasesor electoral de Honduras , publicó grabaciones filtradas que demuestran el fraude electoral de 2025 en su país. En las grabaciones, se escucha claramente a Cerimedo hablando sobre el flagrante robo electoral: la campaña de Asfura sumó votos para sí misma en ciertos distritos, mientras que restaba votos a los demás candidatos de izquierda.
Trump también interfirió personalmente en las elecciones de Honduras. Indultó y liberó de prisión al exdictador hondureño Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), respaldado por Estados Unidos, quien había estado encarcelado por traficar toneladas de cocaína y ametralladoras.
JOH pertenece al Partido Nacional de derecha de Asfura, controlado por narcotraficantes. Estos traficantes gobiernan Honduras una vez más, con el pleno apoyo de Washington.
Tras la declaración de Asfura como ganador, el sitio web propiedad de Cerimedo le atribuyó el mérito de la victoria , declarando con orgullo: «Fernando Cerimedo fue uno de los principales líderes de la campaña ganadora de Tito Asfura en Honduras, que llevó al poder a un nuevo presidente de derecha en un país latinoamericano».
Pero el papel de Cerimedo en el fraude electoral en Honduras es solo un ejemplo de una operación antidemocrática mucho mayor en la región.
Las elecciones de 2025 en Honduras se celebraron el 30 de noviembre. Sin embargo, el resultado oficial no se anunció hasta casi un mes después, el 24 de diciembre, en medio de graves irregularidades y acusaciones generalizadas de fraude .
Cerimedo gestionaba enormes granjas de bots para difundir desinformación de derecha en las redes sociales.
Además de supervisar el fraude electoral, Cerimedo se especializó en difundir desinformación de derecha en las redes sociales.
Las autoridades bolivianas allanaron Cerimedo y encontraron grandes sumas de dinero en efectivo, en varias divisas.
Cerimedo y sus asociados gestionaban miles de cuentas falsas en las redes sociales, en las que difundían noticias falsas con el fin de desestabilizar a los gobiernos y candidatos de izquierda en América Latina.
De hecho, Cerimedo amenazó públicamente con derrocar a todos los líderes de izquierda en América Latina, incluidos Evo Morales de Bolivia, Rafael Correa de Ecuador, Manuel Zelaya y Xiomara Castro de Honduras, Daniel Ortega y Rosario Murillo de Nicaragua, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) de México, Lula da Silva de Brasil y Gustavo Petro de Colombia.
Fernando Cerimedo fue cofundador y propietario de un medio de propaganda de extrema derecha llamado La Derecha Diario. Esta plataforma es muy influyente en América Latina y, a agosto de este año, contaba con más de 600.000 seguidores en Twitter (X) .
El nombre de dominio del sitio web fue registrado a nombre de Cerimedo .Este “personaje” dirigía el sitio web junto con un activista español ultraconservador llamado Javier Negre .
Este diciembre, Negre publicó en Twitter (X) una foto con su amigo cercano Cerimedo. Escribió: Estoy celebrando con mi compañero Fernando Cerimedo un año de victorias electorales y de crecimiento vertiginoso de La Derecha Diario.
“Todos ustedes ya saben que Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Honduras y Chile fueron conquistados por la derecha, y el papel de los medios de comunicación fue fundamental”, continuó Negre.
“Cuando Javier Negre me pidió dinero para montar La Derecha Diario en México”, explicó Portillo en una entrevista, me dijo que él y su colega, Cerimedo, tenían el secreto para hacer estallar el algoritmo en las redes sociales: un eufemismo para referirse a muchas cosas, entre ellas, las granjas de bots.
“Él [Negre] nunca lo negó”, continuó Portillo.
Lo usaba y se jactaba de ello si era necesario para conseguir dinero. Quienes lo conocemos sabemos cómo actúa.
Portillo afirmó que La Derecha Diario no solo estaba contaminada por granjas de bots, sino también por la creación de noticias falsas, la fabricación de entrevistas, el tráfico de influencias y el «estafa a la gente».
“Es solo cuestión de tiempo antes de que Negre vaya a la cárcel”, advirtió Portillo, refiriéndose al colega cercano y socio comercial de Cerimedo.
Desde la detención de Cerimedo, muchos de los robots que él ayudaba a operar han comenzado a fallar .
En Twitter (X), muchas cuentas falsas han publicado mensajes automatizados que repiten argumentos propagandísticos comunes de la derecha en español, pero todos precedidos por el término en inglés “Reply2”, “Reply6”, “Reply9”, etc.
Al parecer, el encarcelamiento de Cerimedo ha interrumpido sus masivas campañas de desinformación en las redes sociales.
Cerimedo recibió un premio en Mar-a-Lago, la residencia de Trump, unos meses antes de su arresto.
Cerimedo y sus asociados no solo estaban activos en América Latina, sino que además tenían vínculos directos con la administración Trump.
El evento fue organizado por un grupo de derecha con sede en Estados Unidos llamado Latino Wall Street. Sus cofundadores , el matrimonio formado por Gabriela Berrospi y Tony Delgado, son republicanos que trabajan estrechamente con la administración Trump y se reunieron con el presidente en la conferencia conservadora CPAC.
Berrospi usa el nombre de Gaby Wall Street en las redes sociales , donde ha conseguido un gran número de seguidores difundiendo propaganda de derecha y a favor de Trump. También es comentarista habitual en Fox News.
Gaby Wall Street publicó un vídeo en su perfil de Instagram en el que presumía de haber organizado la reunión de la » élite latina en Mar-a-Lago : lujo, poder e influencia».
El discurso de apertura de la Gala de la Prosperidad Hispana 2026 de Latino Wall Street, celebrada en febrero, fue pronunciado por el presidente argentino Milei.
Otra invitada de honor en la Gala de la Prosperidad Hispana en Mar-a-Lago fue Keiko Fujimori , la líder de extrema derecha de Perú.
Berrospi (Gaby Wall Street) publicó una foto en Instagram donde se la ve junto a Delgado reunida con el presidente argentino Milei . Junto a Milei estaba nada menos que Javier Negre, el propagandista ultraderechista y experto en bots que dirigió La Derecha Diario con Fernando Cerimedo.
Gaby Wall Street también publicó una foto de una reunión con Negre y Marco Rubio, el influyente secretario de Estado y asesor de seguridad nacional. Ella y sus seguidores de derecha fantaseaban con que Rubio se convirtiera en el próximo presidente de Estados Unidos.
Negre, el estrecho colaborador de Cerimedo que ayudó a dirigir La Derecha Diario, no era una persona cualquiera que posó en estas fotos. Trabajó estrechamente con Latino Wall Street para organizar la Gala de la Prosperidad Hispana en Mar-a-Lago este mes de febrero.
En publicaciones de Instagram donde aparece Negre con Berrospi y Delgado , Negre escribió que fueron “tres meses de trabajo contrarreloj”, y agregó: “ Tuve el honor de organizarlo con mis amigos Gabriela Berrospi y Tony Delgado de Latino Wall Street”. (Berrospi respondió: “Un honor trabajar contigo”).
En la Gala de la Prosperidad Hispana, Latino Wall Street homenajeó a Cerimedo con el premio al «Consultor Político Hispano del Año». Fue elogiado por su labor supervisando las campañas presidenciales de Rodrigo Paz en Bolivia y Nasry Asfura en Honduras.
El hombre que estaba en el escenario junto a Cerimedo cuando Latino Wall Street le entregó este premio era otra figura importante en la política latinoamericana de extrema derecha: Eduardo Bolsonaro.
Cerimedo ayudó en el fallido intento de golpe de Estado de Jair Bolsonaro en Brasil en 2022.
Eduardo Bolsonaro es hijo del expresidente de extrema derecha de Brasil, Jair Bolsonaro. Eduardo fue legislador en Brasil, aunque reside en Estados Unidos desde hace varios años.
La razón por la que Eduardo Bolsonaro se encuentra en Estados Unidos es que huyó allí como fugitivo de la justicia , tras haber ayudado a su padre en un intento fallido de golpe de Estado.
Jair Bolsonaro se negó a aceptar que perdió las elecciones brasileñas de 2022 ante el izquierdista Lula da Silva. Por eso intentó dar un golpe de Estado.
El Tribunal Supremo de Brasil declaró a Bolsonaro culpable de intento de golpe de Estado y lo condenó a 27 años de prisión . Sin embargo, hasta el momento solo se le ha impuesto arresto domiciliario.
Fernando Cerimedo, el propagandista de extrema derecha que intentó asesinar a su exnovia embarazada, está estrechamente vinculado a la familia Bolsonaro. Según se informa, ayudó a Jair Bolsonaro en sus campañas presidenciales.
Otro hijo de Jair Bolsonaro, Flavio, es el candidato presidencial de extrema derecha en las elecciones brasileñas de 2026, y la administración Trump lo apoya firmemente.
Los estrechos vínculos de Cerimedo con la administración Trump.
Fernando Cerimedo no solo desarrolló su actividad en Latinoamérica, sino que también trabajó constantemente en Estados Unidos.
Descubrieron que Cerimedo había registrado una empresa en Florida llamada NUMEN Advisors LLC.
También descubrieron que Cerimedo está vinculado al principal asesor de Trump en asuntos latinoamericanos, Mauricio Claver-Carone, así como a miembros del Congreso de extrema derecha de Florida, entre ellos Marco Rubio, María Elvira Salazar y Mario Díaz-Balart.
De hecho, cuando el congresista Díaz-Balart se reunió con el presidente derechista de Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, en Florida el pasado mes de marzo, Cerimedo se unió a ellos , quien asistió a la reunión como uno de los principales asesores de Paz.
Pero, una vez más, los vínculos son aún más profundos.
Porque una de las figuras que ayudó a moldear a Cerimedo y a entrenarlo en ingeniería electoral fue un importante aliado de Trump, Brad Parscale.
Parscale fue el influyente jefe de campaña de Trump en la contienda presidencial de 2020. Anteriormente, fue director de medios digitales de la campaña de Trump en 2016.
Parscale ha dominado el arte de usar las redes sociales para difundir desinformación, utilizando anuncios segmentados para ganar votantes en estados clave. Elogió la política publicitaria de Facebook como un “regalo” .
A Parscale se le conoce como » el jefe de Cerimedo «. Le enseñó al político argentino de extrema derecha gran parte de lo que sabe.
De hecho, cuando Cerimedo pronunció un discurso tras recibir un premio en la Gala de la Prosperidad Hispana celebrada en Mar-a-Lago, la residencia de Trump, el pasado mes de febrero, agradeció personalmente a Parscale por haber contribuido a forjar su carrera.
“Quiero decir algo en inglés”, dijo Cerimedo, interrumpiendo sus comentarios en español : “Gracias a Brad Parscale por creer siempre en mí y por prestarme su tecnología”.
El
Nuevo York Times ha publicado: “En Miami, Abelardo De La Espriella se
movía en el turbio mundo de los abogados de «polvo blanco»: abogados
defensores de los narcotraficantes latinoamericanos”
Ben Norton, periodista estadounidense
Estados Unidos tiene una larga historia de
injerencia en los asuntos internos de América Latina. Pero en los
últimos años, la injerencia estadounidense se ha vuelto aún más extrema y
explícita.
Y no es solo Estados Unidos quien se inmiscuye en la política latinoamericana, sino también Israel.
Un ejemplo de esta injerencia extranjera es la situación política actual en Colombia.
Colombia tiene un nuevo presidente
multimillonario de extrema derecha llamado Abelardo de la Espriella. Es
ciudadano estadounidense, votó por Donald Trump y trabajó durante años
como abogado en Miami, Florida, defendiendo a narcotraficantes.
De la Espriella ha delegado la política
exterior de Colombia en Washington y apoya firmemente a Israel, al
tiempo que promete limitar los lazos con China.
De la Espriella promueve las bases militares estadounidenses en Colombia y anunció: “ Quiero el Plan Colombia Dos ”.
También hizo un llamamiento a «dolarizar» la economía colombiana y adoptar el dólar estadounidense como moneda oficial del país.
El expresidente de Colombia acusa a Estados Unidos e Israel de robar las elecciones.
El expresidente izquierdista de Colombia,
Gustavo Petro, acusó formalmente a Estados Unidos e Israel de injerencia
en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones de su país, que se celebraron en
junio.
De la Espriella fue declarada ganadora por
un margen mínimo de menos del 1 por ciento, en medio de numerosas
acusaciones de sabotaje e irregularidades extremas.
Petro afirmó que el gobierno colombiano
había recopilado pruebas que demostraban que empresas tecnológicas
estadounidenses e israelíes interfirieron en las elecciones de Colombia para poner a De la Espriella en el poder.
Petro mencionó específicamente a la empresa israelí BlackCore , que ha sido acusada de interferir en elecciones en numerosos países.
Incluso el gobierno francés ha afirmado
haber reunido pruebas que demuestran que el grupo israelí BlackCore
socavó las elecciones en Francia, Escocia y Nueva York .
De la Espriella no ocultó el hecho de que
estaba conspirando con el gobierno estadounidense en el período previo a
las elecciones de 2026.
En marzo, apenas unos meses antes de que
se celebrara la primera ronda de votación en mayo, De la Espriella viajó
a Miami para reunirse con altos funcionarios estadounidenses.
Tras años de residir en Estados Unidos,
decidí convertirme en ciudadano de esta gran nación. Aquí nacieron mis
cuatro hijos, y he sido muy feliz en estas tierras.
Tras la declaración de Trump como ganador, De la Espriella publicó un video de celebración en TikTok
, en el que él y sus hijos bailaban al ritmo de la canción «YMCA», que
Trump suele usar en sus mítines. Ondeaban banderas estadounidenses y
movían los puños arriba y abajo, imitando al presidente de Estados
Unidos.
De la Espriella escribió: “Hagamos que Estados Unidos vuelva a ser grande. Hagamos que Colombia vuelva a ser grande”.
También se hizo famoso por defender a los narcotraficantes.
En Miami, Abelardo De La Espriella se
movía en el turbio mundo de los abogados de «polvo blanco»: abogados
defensores de alto precio que ayudan a los narcotraficantes
latinoamericanos acusados y a otros a evitar duras condenas convirtiéndolos en informantes o testigos del gobierno estadounidense.
Contrató a un antiguo narcotraficante colombiano que, según consta en los registros judiciales, ayudaba a abogados del sur de Florida a encontrar ese tipo de clientes.
Además de la fortuna que amasó defendiendo
a los narcotraficantes, el nuevo presidente colombiano tiene un negocio
que modestamente bautizó con su propio nombre, llamado De la Espriella Style .
El sitio web de la empresa está repleto de
imágenes de De la Espriella. Él vende ropa de hombre de lujo, además de
sus libros, música, poemas e incluso sus propias líneas de ron, vino y
café.
De la Espriella es conocido en Colombia
por su extremo narcisismo y superficialidad. Es ante todo un influencer y
celebridad de las redes sociales, y carece de experiencia política.
Abelardo de la Espriella apoya que el ejército estadounidense albergue bases militares en territorio colombiano.
Ha propuesto lo que él llama Plan Colombia
Dos, en referencia a los miles de millones de dólares que el gobierno
estadounidense entregó a Colombia en la década de 2000 para librar una
brutal guerra de exterminio contra grupos armados de izquierda.
Miles de personas fueron asesinadas
durante el Plan Colombia, incluyendo no solo militantes, sino también
muchos campesinos, líderes indígenas y organizadores sindicales que
fueron blanco de paramilitares de extrema derecha y escuadrones de la
muerte patrocinados por el gobierno colombiano, y en ocasiones por corporaciones estadounidenses .
Apenas unos días después de la toma de
posesión de De la Espriella en agosto, Colombia firmó un acuerdo con el
Pentágono que permite al ejército estadounidense entrar en su
territorio.
La idea de que De la Espriella se dedique a
luchar contra los cárteles es descabellada, dado que se labró una
carrera como abogado defensor de narcotraficantes.
Estados Unidos apoya a los narcotraficantes en América Latina.
Este es uno de los muchos ejemplos de cómo
el gobierno estadounidense apoya a algunos de los peores
narcotraficantes de América Latina, mientras afirma cínicamente que está
luchando contra los cárteles.
Las agencias de inteligencia del gobierno
estadounidense han reconocido que Álvaro Uribe, el expresidente de
derecha de Colombia, era un narcotraficante.
Un cable desclasificado de la DIA reconocía que Uribe era un “ amigo personal cercano de Pablo Escobar ” que estaba “dedicado a colaborar con el cartel de Medellín en altos niveles del gobierno”.
El gobierno estadounidense apoyó
firmemente a Uribe cuando este gobernó Colombia entre 2002 y 2010. Este
fue el apogeo del Plan Colombia, y la administración de George W. Bush
consideraba al narcotraficante Uribe un aliado clave en su denominada
«Guerra contra las Drogas».
El apoyo del gobierno estadounidense a los
líderes de derecha del narcotráfico en América Latina se ha mantenido
constante y bipartidista durante décadas, pero se ha intensificado bajo
la presidencia de Trump, y en particular bajo la de Marco Rubio, un
halcón neoconservador que se desempeña como secretario de Estado y
asesor de seguridad nacional.
En 2025, el gobierno estadounidense
intervino descaradamente en Honduras para poner en el poder a otro líder
de extrema derecha, proestadounidense, proisraelí y antichino, Nasry
“Tito” Asfura.
Como parte de la operación de injerencia electoral de Estados Unidos, Trump indultó oficialmente y liberó de prisión a uno de los peores narcotraficantes de la historia moderna, el exdictador de derecha de Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH).
JOH había estado encarcelado por traficar
toneladas de cocaína y ametralladoras. Su partido conservador, el
Partido Nacional, utilizó dinero del narcotráfico para manipular las
elecciones en Honduras.
Hoy, Honduras está gobernada por el mismo
Partido Nacional. Asfura es un aliado cercano del capo de la cocaína
JOH. El gobierno de Estados Unidos apoya todo esto.
Lo mismo está ocurriendo en Ecuador, país gobernado por el dictador de derecha Daniel Noboa.
Noboa ha ilegalizado al principal partido
de la oposición, el movimiento izquierdista Correísta, para poder
presentarse a las elecciones sin una oposición política efectiva.
Noboa es hijo del oligarca multimillonario más rico de Ecuador, y su familia está profundamente involucrada en el narcotráfico . La empresa familiar del presidente, Noboa Trading Co., transporta cocaína en cajas de plátanos desde sus puertos privados.
Noboa es probablemente el narcotraficante
más poderoso de la actualidad. Y cuenta con el apoyo total e
incondicional del gobierno estadounidense.
Al igual que De la Espriella, Noboa ha dado carta blanca al ejército estadounidense para llevar a cabo operaciones en territorio ecuatoriano
. El Pentágono ha lanzado incursiones armadas en Ecuador, supuestamente
para combatir el «narcotráfico», mientras que el país está gobernado
por un narcotraficante.
Al igual que De la Espriella, Noboa es
ciudadano estadounidense. El dictador de Ecuador nació en Miami,
Florida, y se educó en Estados Unidos.
Apenas unas semanas después de su investidura a finales de 2023, Noboa viajó a Miami, Florida, para que su esposa diera a luz a su tercer hijo en suelo estadounidense . Al igual que los hijos de De la Espriella, los de Noboa también son ciudadanos estadounidenses.
Esto resulta profundamente irónico, dado
que Trump se ha jactado de estar intentando abolir la ciudadanía por
derecho de nacimiento en Estados Unidos. La Casa Blanca de Trump
prometió acabar con lo que denomina » turismo de nacimiento «.
Pero cuando los líderes de derecha de
América Latina viajan a Florida para que sus esposas den a luz en
Estados Unidos, garantizando así la ciudadanía a sus hijos, la
administración Trump lo apoya firmemente.
Colombia reconoce la ocupación israelí de los Altos del Golán y la ocupación marroquí del Sáhara Occidental.
Otro factor que une a estos líderes de
extrema derecha respaldados por Estados Unidos en América Latina es que
todos ellos están estrechamente aliados con Israel.
Contrastan marcadamente con los presidentes de izquierda de América Latina, que apoyan firmemente a Palestina.
Bajo el mandato de Petro, Colombia rompió
relaciones diplomáticas formales con Israel. Su gobierno también se sumó
a una demanda presentada por Sudáfrica ante la Corte Internacional de
Justicia, que acusa a Israel de genocidio.
De la Espriella ha hecho exactamente lo contrario. Ha sido lo más proisraelí posible.
Solo otro país en el mundo reconoce los Altos del Golán como territorio israelí: Estados Unidos.
Estados Unidos tomó esa decisión en 2019,
durante el primer mandato de Trump como presidente. El régimen israelí
respondió rindiendo homenaje al presidente estadounidense de extrema
derecha, inaugurando un nuevo asentamiento colonial en territorio sirio
ocupado, en flagrante violación del derecho internacional, llamado Trump
Heights.
Los habitantes indígenas del Sáhara
Occidental son el pueblo saharaui, que ha establecido su propio
gobierno, llamado República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (RASD), bajo el
liderazgo de un partido político revolucionario, anticolonialista y de
izquierda llamado Frente Polisario.
La RASD es miembro de la Unión Africana y está reconocida por decenas de Estados miembros de la ONU.
Sin embargo, Estados Unidos ha ejercido
una presión considerable sobre otros países para que pongan fin a su
reconocimiento diplomático de la RASD.
A cambio del reconocimiento de Israel por
parte de Marruecos, la Casa Blanca de Trump anunció en 2020 que Estados
Unidos reconocería formalmente la supuesta soberanía de Marruecos sobre el Sáhara Occidental, territorio ilegalmente ocupado.
Colombia se compromete a reducir sus lazos con China y a retirarse de la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta.
Bajo el liderazgo del ciudadano
estadounidense De la Espriella, Colombia también se ha comprometido a
reducir sus lazos con China.
China es el principal socio comercial de Sudamérica, e incluso superó a Estados Unidos como el principal socio comercial de Colombia
. Pero, al igual que otros líderes de derecha latinoamericanos, De la
Espriella ha asegurado a Washington que reprenderá a Pekín.
Durante el mandato del anterior presidente
de izquierda, Petro, Colombia se había acercado mucho más a China.
Petro viajó a Pekín y anunció que su país se uniría a la Iniciativa de
la Franja y la Ruta (BRI), un proyecto global de infraestructura.
La nueva administración en Colombia ha hecho precisamente lo contrario.
En agosto de este año, el Senado
estadounidense celebró una audiencia para el nuevo embajador de la
administración Trump en Colombia, Nate Morris.
Un senador estadounidense preguntó a
Morris sobre el memorando de entendimiento (MdE) que Colombia había
firmado bajo el programa Petro para unirse a la Iniciativa de la Franja y
la Ruta, y esto fue lo que dijo en la audiencia
: “Me siento muy alentado por el presidente electo (De la Espriella) y
su compromiso de retirarse de ese memorando de entendimiento.
Y creo, obviamente, que todas las naciones tienen que tomar una decisión: o Estados Unidos o China”.
El mensaje que llega desde Washington
refleja la lógica de la Guerra Fría: todos los países del mundo tienen
que elegir un bando, o estás con Estados Unidos o estás con China; no
puedes tener buenas relaciones con ambos.
Los nuevos líderes de derecha en países como Colombia, Ecuador y Honduras han dejado claro a quién son realmente leales.
¿ Te has preguntado , por qué el secretario de Estado de EEUU nos quiere destruir? Su rabia no es contra Cuba y los cubanos. Es contra sì mismo.
Marco Rubio: el hombre que odia al espejo, resumen de la impotencia.
Hablar de Marco Rubio no es hablar de política exterior. Es hablar de una herida. De una grieta que nunca cerró y que terminó convirtiéndose en doctrina, en discurso, en odio organizado. En ganas de matar.
Su desprecio hacia Cuba y los cubanos es evidente. No ha pisado la isla. Cuba no le roba el sueño. Pero sí le robó su sueño: ser, sin discusión, sin lìmites, un estadounidense. Da igual dónde haya nacido. Para el gringo verdadero, Rubio siempre será un latino. Un cubiche con traje caro. Un apellido que no encaja del todo. Un muerto de hambre màs.
No logra odiar a sus padres, así que odia al país que los vio nacer. La familia Rubio no tuvo problemas con la Revolución. Se fueron antes, durante Batista. No hubo despojo ni épica. El conflicto no es político: es interno. Marco nace en Estados Unidos y aun así queda fuera. Condenado a no pertenecer completamente a ningún sitio.
Estudia, asciende, hace carrera, llega lejos. Incluso alcanza el cargo de secretario de Estado. Pero el éxito no es pertenencia. Es utilidad. Rubio no manda: sirve. Es un instrumento bien educado, bien vestido, pero instrumento al fin. Un perro que mueve su rabo cuando el amo llama. Y eso lo sabe.
Por eso su relación con Donald Trump es tan reveladora. Trump se le acerca como estratega. Lo mira con el ojo del fotingo. Lo mide, lo usa, lo mantiene a distancia. No hay respeto, hay cálculo. Para el período presidencial iniciado el 20 de enero de 2025, Rubio era un accesorio indispensable: su discurso de odio contra Cuba garantizaba el voto del enclave cubano en Florida. Trump necesitaba esos votos.
Para los demócratas, Florida era negociable. Para los republicanos, no. Sin Florida no había victoria. Matemática pura. Trump se ve obligado a acercarse a un hombre al que nunca habría elegido por afinidad. Para él, Rubio es un mal necesario. Para Rubio, una oportunidad que tal vez no vuelva a repetirse.
La diferencia entre ambos es brutal. Trump camina seguro de su raza, de su linaje europeo, de su pertenencia incuestionable. Rubio, el hijo mestizo de cubanos, avanza al lado de un jefe racista que jamás lo verá como igual. A Vance Trump lo nombra por semejanza, admiración y hasta afecto. Son de la misma sangre simbólica. Rubio es la píldora amarga del gabinete.
Marco Rubio sueña con la silla presidencial. Y en el fondo sabe que nunca la tendrá. No es Barack Obama. La comunidad afroestadounidense es fuerte, cohesionada, orgullosa. Obama tenía un pueblo detrás. Rubio no. Es un latino mestizo perdido en la jerarquía social estadounidense, muy abajo en la cadena alimenticia. Los blancos no votarán por él. Los negros tampoco. El nacionalismo y el orgullo racial marchan juntos en este país. Rubio no será bandera. Será servidor. Y lo sabe, y eso duele.
No es tan solo tener complejos de inferioridad, sino la certeza de ser un humano realmente inferior en la sociedad en la cual naciste. Saber que no podrás luchar contra tu impotencia, ni saltar el muro que te separa de alguien como Obama o Trump. Ellos son americanos. Tú nunca lo serás. Continuas siendo un cubiche.
Ahí está el centro de todo. El espejo.
Imagínate ser Rubio, mirarte en el espejo y ver tu tez trigueña, tu cabello oscuro, y saber que todo el peróxido del mundo no alcanzará para convertirte en gringo.
Rubio se mira y no ve lo que quiere ser. Ve lo que es. Ve un mestizo. Ve congo y carabalí. Ve un apellido que no ayuda. Vivir dentro de ti y no aceptarte debe doler con pinga. Debe doler todos los días. Debe doler cuando te vistes, cuando hablas, cuando sonríes, cuando callas. Debe doler saber que, hagas lo que hagas, nunca será suficiente.
Trump lo sabe y lo hiere con precisión. Cuando dice que podría verlo como “presidente de Cuba” después de una invasión, no es una broma. Es una puñalada. Es como deportarlo. No es la Casa Blanca: es el destierro. No Washington: La Habana. Es decirle que su lugar no está aquí. Que sigue siendo un emigrante más. Trump no le perdona haberlo necesitado. Nunca le perdonará haber dependido, aunque fuera un instante, de un ciudadano de novena clase. De un cubiche.
Por eso su desprecio hacia Cuba. Cuba es para Rubio la piedra en el zapato. No por lo que Cuba es, sino por lo que representa. Cuba es la imagen de lo que nunca quiso ser y no puede dejar de ser. Es su raíz. Es su procedencia. Es su reflejo más incómodo.
Nosotros aprendimos a cargar la mezcla como orgullo. A levantar la cabeza sabiendo que somos Hatuey, Galicia y Kunta Kinté; Yoruba y cristianismo; rumba y danzón; turrón, fufú y casabe. Eso nos hizo fuertes.
Marco Rubio no nació en Cuba. No tuvo esa escuela. No aprendió a quererse mezclado. Por eso anda roto. Por eso tiene los ojos tristes.
No te sorprendas si nos desprecia. Si desea hundir al caimán en el Caribe. Es su intento desesperado de arrancarse de adentro lo que no puede aceptar.
El mayor peligro para Cuba no es Trump. Es Marco Rubio. Porque un hombre sin identidad no conoce la piedad, la empatía ni la decencia.
Infeliz aquel que nunca tuvo hogar.
Más infeliz aún, quien no puede vivir dentro de sí mismo.
History,
as it’s understood in most Western countries, often misses important
chapters that leave critical gaps in the story of how modern countries
came to be. In Latin America in the 20th century, episodes of guerilla
warfare and juntas are acknowledged, along with portrayals of a drug
war, usually depicted through popular culture.
What
is left out, however, is the clandestine involvement of American
intelligence agencies, including the C.I.A. and D.E.A., and how their
drug operations were intimately tied to the Latin American anticommunist
brigades funded by Western capital throughout the Cold War, and the
brutal liquidation of the Left these narco-terrorists often carried out.
Maureen Tkacik, investigations editor at The American Prospect, joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report,
to chronicle some of these missing chapters, including ones connected
to the current U.S. Secretary of State and Acting National Security
Advisor Marco Rubio.
In her article “The Narco-Terrorist Elite,”
Tkacik dives into Rubio’s [peripheral] personal ties to the drug
trafficking racket in the 20th century as well as how this history
informs his own policy, one that attempts to cynically use drug
trafficking as a means to achieving the Trump administration’s
extrajudicial goals.
“When
Marco Rubio maligns the efficacy of interdiction and other traditional
law enforcement approaches to mitigating narco trafficking in favor of
military operations, as he did in a recent speech on Trump’s speedboat
bombings, he is contradicting every empirical evaluation of drug war
efficacy that exists,” Hedges says.
Host:Chris Hedges
Producer:Max Jones
Intro:Diego Ramos
Crew: Diego Ramos, Sofia Menemenlis and Victor Castellanos
Transcript
Chris Hedges: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
is being held in a Brooklyn jail charged with smuggling cocaine into
the United States. But even the Drug Enforcement Agency estimates that less than 10 percent
of cocaine shipments to the U.S. come through Venezuela. The vast
majority of cocaine shipments originate in Colombia and move through the
Pacific route and Mexico. Added to this, most overdose deaths in the
U.S. come from fentanyl. And fentanyl does not come from Venezuela.
There
are no shortages of Latin American leaders and military chiefs who are
heavily involved in drug trafficking but who are considered close allies
of the United States. One of them, former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández,
was pardoned by Donald Trump last month, after he was sentenced to 45
years in prison for conspiring to distribute over 400 tons of cocaine in
the U.S., a conviction that was justified with far greater evidence
than that which supports the charges levied against Maduro.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio,
who is also Trump’s national security advisor, comes out of the
rightwing Cuban exile community in Miami, one that has for decades
engaged in drug trafficking and a dirty war against those it condemns,
like Maduro, of being communists.
The investigative journalist Maureen Tkacik at The Prospect in her article, “The Narco-Terrorist Elite,”
looks at the close ties these anti-communist Cubans, including Rubio’s
inner circle, have with the drug trade and their full throated support
for Latin American leaders who are engaged in drug trafficking,
including Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, whose family fruit business is accused of trafficking 700 kilos of cocaine,
Joining
me to discuss this long nexus between the drug trade in Latin America
and the Cuban anti-communist movement is Maureen Tkacik. It’s a great
article and let’s just go through it. I want to begin with how you open
it. So you’re talking about Marco Rubio as a teenager working for his
brother-in-law Orlando Cicilia. Explain.
Rubio, right, with Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro in 2020. (Alan Santos, Palácio do Planalto / Flickr /CC BY 2.0)
Maureen Tkacik: Well,
Marco Rubio has a sister who is substantially older than him, maybe 10,
8 or 10 years older than him, and got married fairly young. She met a
man named Orlando in high school. He had come over to Miami in the early
70s, I want to say 1972. They fell in love. His family moved to Las
Vegas in 1979.
And
I’m not sure why he, I think he has suggested that there was a strike.
He thought that he would get better opportunities. He was working as a
bartender and a banquet waiter. So he thought that there was a better
opportunity in the restaurant business in Las Vegas.
So
they go to Las Vegas and his sister doesn’t want to go and she stays in
Miami with Orlando and many of his happiest childhood memories are
times when they returned for Christmas to Miami, times they went home
and Orlando made them a big home-style Cuban meal.
He
butchered a whole pig. He put together Marco Rubio’s bicycle at
Christmas when he was eight years old. Just this sort of wonderful
figure in Marco Rubio’s life when they finally decide to move back to…
Chris Hedges: Let me just interrupt — this is according to Marco Rubio’s memoir, right? This is his version.
Maureen Tkacik: Yes, this is according to Marco Rubio’s memoir and there’s also been biographies. There’s a biography of him written by the Washington Post reporter, Manuel Roig-Franzia. So this is sort of, yes, this is the version of his life.
Orlando
Cecilia begins working for a pet store in 1983 and he has Marco, little
Marco, literal little Marco doing some odd jobs, building cages and
looking after his dogs, pet related jobs. And Marco Rubio makes enough
money to go see every single Miami Dolphins home game in, you know, the
1985 season, I think, maybe 1984-1985 season, I gotta get that right.
Anyhow,
turns out, 1987 rolls along and Cecilia gets locked up. He’s one of, I
think, 11 individuals indicted in this in Operation Giraffe or something
like that, some reference to the pet store. Actually, it was a front
for a cocaine and marijuana trafficking organization that, what do you
know, had been in operation since 1976, was accused of trafficking at
least $79 million worth of drugs, speaking in code words about the drugs
on wires.
Marco Rubio yearbook photo at Miami Senior High School. (South Miami Senior High School / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)
Basically,
the idea was that the pet store was a front for a cocaine trafficking
organization. Now, the leader’s son of this operation has since starred
on a very popular show called “Tiger King.”
And he claims now that he only sold coke to support his animal habit
because he loves exotic animals so much. But it’s an awful lot of drugs
that he trafficked.
And
this is a known story. It’s not like I broke the story of Marco Rubio’s
brother-in-law being a drug trafficker. This has been well known since
2011. The story was broken by Univision. It somehow did not reach
conventional wisdom. I sort of thought it had, but a lot of people have
been shocked by this.
But
I thought, if I look a little bit into this guy’s drug trafficking
organization, I bet it might tell us something about the milieu of Cuban
drug trafficking in Miami in the 80s and kind of how that fits into the
larger geopolitical scene here, right?
And
what do you know? What I didn’t realize until I started peeling away
the layers is that cocaine trafficking, drug trafficking generally, in
the United States between the late 60s, at least, and the late 80s was
totally dominated by Bay of Pigs
veterans, veterans of this supposed massive fuck up in American
history, this sort of joke that [inaudible] years ago, it was a very, it
lives on. It was a very successful sort of network.
All
of those guys who were veterans, and I think that there were 1,500
veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion, they had a level of prominence and
a certain amount of respect in the community.
And
a massive percentage of them got into drug trafficking in the late 60s.
And this is from the very beginning, I found a story that had been
totally forgotten from the early 60s, I think 1964, where a Cuban woman
comes to the C.I.A. and says, listen, I think that my husband, I got
this anonymous letter, my husband has been at a training camp for Manuel Artime,
who was a doctor who led the Bay of Pigs Brigade 5206 or the MRR
[Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria], there were various words
for the group that launched the attack.
Manuel
Artime was the sort of charismatic leader of this group. He was also
very controversial. And this woman says, listen, my husband’s
disappeared, I haven’t heard from him. He was recruited by Artime to go
to Nicaragua to train for an invasion and overthrow of Castro.
But
I’m told that he was killed. And indeed, what they discovered is that
he had been, it was an inside job and he had been killed because he was
complaining about the fact that Artime wasn’t actually training anyone
to do any invasions, overthrow Castro; he was training them to smuggle
contraband.
And
at the time, it was whiskey and clothing, it was not narcotics that
they were accused of smuggling. But very quickly, by 1971, there’s this
massive drug bust, 150 drug traffickers, the 150 of the biggest drug
traffickers in America all get arrested on a single day. [Operation Eagle,
June 21-22, 1970 with 135 arrests.] And what do you know, maybe 70
percent of them are Bay of Pigs veterans. [Many of those arrested were
part of the C.I.A.’s anti-Castro Operation 40.]
So,
one of the Bay of Pigs veterans in the cocaine trafficking, in the drug
trafficking scene, not arrested that day is a guy named Guillermo
Tabraue. I’m probably mispronouncing that, but Tabraue had probably been
a criminal before the revolution. I found an old clipping of him
getting arrested for a car theft, as part of a car theft enterprise in
Havana in 1959.
He
ran a jewelry store that was extremely popular and they sold stolen
jewelry. And the jewelry store was renowned for giving police officers
and judges very, very good prices on gold cufflinks and Rolex watches.
So this was a very popular jewelry store. And at some point he signs up
to be a D.E.A./C.I.A. informant.
And because the D.E.A. has just been established [it was established in 1973 and was principally the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
(BNDD) before that], they realize that, shit, all of these C.I.A.
affiliated Bay of Pigs veterans are in the cocaine trafficking and
heroin trafficking business now, we’d better figure out what they’re up
to.
And
a gentleman from the C.I.A. comes in and says, I can handle that. I’ll
set up a little agency inside this new D.E.A. and I will make sure that
we know everything about what the Bay of Pigs veterans are doing in the
drug trafficking community. [The C.I.A. had been involved with drug enforcement since the 1950s. ]
Prisoners of Brigade 2506 guarded by Cuban Fidelistas in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion, 1961. (Miguel Vinas / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)
So
Tabraue signs up as an informant for this guy. And at the same time, he
gets into trafficking marijuana and soon after, cocaine through the
jewelry store and he also has an unlicensed abortion clinic. He’s got a
few different… and then later his son comes in and starts the pet store.
And this is the enterprise and it’s connected to just an unbelievable
array of Bay of Pigs-veterans-run trafficking organizations.
Later,
people associated with this, Artime has this accounting whiz kid
protege who he trains in these… he sets up this like money laundering
sort-of university where he trains this kid in hotel rooms and the kid
doesn’t know the names of his instructors or anything, but this guy goes
on to become the Medellin Cartel’s lead accountant. So it’s this unbelievable cast of characters.
Very
quickly after, the C.I.A. is always talking, they’re always writing
memos about how they need to cut these guys loose. But what they really
became was this sort of secret police deep state of Latin America. One
of these characters is a guy named Félix Rodríguez.
He remained a C.I.A. asset, I think. I mean, he’s still alive too,
which is saying something, because a lot of these guys have been
murdered.
And Félix Rodríguez is a real kind of rich and prolific character in the history of Latin America.
Chris Hedges: Well,
let me just interrupt since I met him during the war in El Salvador. He
was disguised as a Bolivian captain when they captured Che Guevara,
was there for the execution of Che, and he used to show us his
wristwatch and tell us that he’d taken it off the body of Che Guevara.
And this was during the whole Iran-Contra [affair], which we’ll get into, but I want to just stop and go back to Rubio.
You
write that Rubio’s approval ratings, you’re writing about how they’re
the highest in the Republican Party, but you write, “even as he is the
architect of what is arguably Trump’s single most cynical policy, the
scheme to appoint drug cartel bosses and their cronies atop the
governments of every Latin American country in the name of fighting drug
cartels.”
And then you go on,
“In September, Rubio hailed
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, who leads a country whose homicide
rate has risen eightfold since 2016, as an “incredibly willing partner”
who “has done more just in the last couple years to take the fight to
these narco-terrorists and these threats to the security and stability
of Ecuador than any previous administration.”
Just five months earlier, a damning investigation revealed that Noboa’s family fruit business had trafficked 700 kilos of cocaine to Europe in banana crates between 2020 and 2022.
Rubio
has tirelessly promoted the cause of convicted (alas, just-pardoned)
drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández. In 2018, Rubio personally and
publicly commended
Hernández, then president of Honduras, for combating drug traffickers
(and supporting Israel), just seven months before his brother was
indicted for trafficking 158 tons of cocaine in containers stamped ‘TH,” for Tony Hernández.
Former
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo poses for a photo with Honduran
President Juan Orlando Hernandez at the U.S. Department of State in
Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2018.(Wikimedia Commons / State Department photo/ Public Domain)
Rubio
has raved about the crime-fighting efforts of Salvadoran and Argentine
junior strongmen Nayib Bukele and Javier Milei, in spite of the former’s
documented alliance with MS-13 and the various Miami cocaine trafficking scandals that enveloped his libertarian political party last fall, as well as both leaders’ slavish devotion to the drug cartels’ single favorite mode of money laundering.
Rubio has been one of the Beltway’s biggest
backers of newly elected Chilean president José Antonio Kast, the son
of a literal Nazi war criminal who has spent his entire political career
lionizing, whitewashing and promising a restoration of the brutal
reign of Augusto Pinochet, who personally ordered the Chilean army to build a cocaine laboratory, consolidated the narcotics trade inside his terrifying secret police and then allegedly “disappeared” key conspirators like his secret police chemist Eugenio Berríos.
And
for at least a decade, Rubio has lauded, strategized with, and
viciously condemned the multitude of criminal investigations into former
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whom some describe as a kind of
Kissingerian figure to the former Florida senator.
I just want to read that because Rubio has, for years and years and years calling for the overthrow of [Hugo] Chávez and [Nicolás] Maduro,
made these alliances with a variety of figures who the D.E.A. and other
agencies have investigated and found to be huge drug traffickers.
Maureen Tkacik: Indeed.
And again, this is not my area of expertise, I come into writing about
Latin America in a very circuitous fashion. But when you examine the
evidence, it’s shocking. It’s not shocking to you, you covered
Iran-Contra. But I grew up thinking, initially, that C.I.A. involvement
in cocaine was some sort of conspiracy theory.
And
then I did a little bit of research and realized, oh no, the C.I.A. did
traffic cocaine. That happened, there are various excuses and reasons
for that but not really that like the C.I.A. and its assets veritably
invented cocaine trafficking, really that you must be intelligence
affiliated to kind of play in this game.
And
the right wing in Latin America, it’s so unbelievably cynical. It makes
your head spin. But that the major drug traffickers are fascist
right-wing jerks and just who you would think would be involved in such a
predatory and destructive industry as narcotics. There you go. And all
of what’s really, really surprising to me and I understand that I think
to do business in Latin America, in order to be a politician in Latin
America, you have to deal with this being one of your industries.
These
are the power brokers in your region and you have to contend with them.
You can’t sort of pretend that they don’t exist and you can’t put them
all away. They are more powerful than you will ever be. But it is the
cynicism, and it’s also something that, because of the recently
published Fort Bragg Cartel, in which…
Chris Hedges: This is Seth Harp’s book, which I interviewed him [on], but the book is amazing. Yeah, you can explain just a little bit.
Maureen Tkacik: In
that book, which is not about Latin America, it’s about Afghanistan, he
really digs into, he expresses the similar sense of awe that he felt
upon discovering that everything that we had ever said, that we had ever
heard about the Taliban trafficking heroin was the opposite of reality.
The
Taliban, that was the source of almost all of their popular support,
was that they had clamped down on that industry because it was not
popular for the reasons that there are destructive industries and
addictive narcotics are probably the most destructive and they’re not
popular with anyone.
But
the Taliban had successfully sort of eradicated that industry in
Afghanistan, then we come in, we overthrow the Taliban, and what do you
know, the poppies are back like never before.
A U.S. Marine greeting local children working in an opium poppy field in Helmand Province, 2011. (ISAF / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)
Chris Hedges: Well, Hamid Karzai, who was our puppet, and his brother controlled 90 percent of the heroin trade. And what Seth documents in his book is how Delta Force
and these other elite units came back, essentially, and started
dealing, they could ship the drugs over easily, started dealing drugs
all up and down the eastern seaboard.
Maureen Tkacik: And
he also documents this really systematic effort by the D.E.A. to
suppress the evidence that this is happening. So, they’re saying, hey,
look, we’ve tested the heroin and absolutely no heroin from Afghanistan
is coming into America. It’s all from Mexico or it’s all from here. And
those kinds of efforts that are made to conceal and distort what is
plainly happening that everybody knows is also really quite astonishing.
And
in the earlier days of the D.E.A., the agency had, I think, I’m not
sure, but it seems like the agency had a lot more folks working for it
who understood that their relationship with the C.I.A. was going to be
adversarial and that in order to like actually eradicate drugs, they
were gonna come up against some very powerful people within their own
government.
Like
that was sort of understood. I think by now the D.E.A. is just fully in
on it. But I felt a similar… When he’s been given a lot of interviews
describing how rigorously he fact-checked his thesis because the
propaganda was so… the certainty was among all of the chattering classes
that… it’s sort of like, “Maduro is a terrible, ruthless killer.” So
many people will tell you this with all the conviction you could muster,
but you don’t really ever know where it comes from.
And
in this case, it was the same. We accused the Taliban of being drug
traffickers. We were the drug traffickers. And as soon as the Taliban
takes charge, they get rid of the drug traffickers, and that’s why we
hate them. And that’s why they hate us.
Chris Hedges: Well,
we also occupied their country for 20 years. I want to talk about
Iran-Contra, which I did cover, because it was during the [Ronald]
Reagan administration, and Reagan was having trouble getting funds
approved. The Congress was more adversarial. Now it’s completely supine,
of course.
And so they set up this system of trafficking drugs to fund the Contras. Edén Pastora,
who was a renegade Contra leader operating out of Northern Costa Rica, I
knew him as well, was very involved in this, as was Félix Rodríguez,
who went by the pseudonym Max Gómez. But talk about that, because it’s
an important moment where you’re, in essence, really setting up this
infrastructure which continues.
Maureen Tkacik: Sure,
I would just like to say the infrastructure did predate Iran-Contra.
One of the reasons that these gentlemen have been so resilient in our
deep state is because they funded their own, they self-funded their
operations. So the Church Committee happens, the C.I.A. endures all of these scandals in the 1970s. You wanna do some covert ops, who are you gonna call?
This
was happening very early. Artime was getting in all of these scandals.
There was the woman whose husband had been murdered. There was also, he
had this wife who was maybe a bit of a prostitute. She’d been the
mistress of [Fulgencio] Batista and some other big dictators and she’d also posed for smut, lesbian smut.
And
so they send him off to Nicaragua and he sets up a base there. This is
sort of the start of this Black Ops regional dirty army that does a lot
of coke trafficking, but they also sort of form militias. And there’s
something called Operation Condor,
which actually turns out to be two things, but maybe they are the same.
And it supposedly started with Pinochet and the Argentinian…
Chris Hedges: It was three countries that united to fight communism, led perhaps by Argentina and Chile, right? Operation Condor?
Maureen Tkacik: Yes,
so that is the one that most people know and supposedly launched in
1975. But I was speaking to a scholar of this stuff who was saying,
really, it started with the murder of Che Guevara posing as a Bolivian
colonel. But Félix Rodríguez, this Bay of Pigs veteran and this sort of
long-time C.I.A. asset, and he also, he not only took Guevara’s Rolex,
but apparently he would brag that he had cut off his finger and sent it
to Fidel Castro.
C.I.A. agent Felix Rodriguez, left, with Che Guevara, center, before Guevara was executed in Bolivia, in 1967. (AP Photo / Courtesy of Felix Rodriguez / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)
So
I’ve been told that, this is in 1967, this is sort of the soft launch
of Operation Condor and the beginning of this kind of like cooperation
between all of these right-wing forces throughout Latin America.
There’s
another Operation Condor in Mexico that started in the early 70s that
was a crackdown. It was a specifically sort of D.E.A.-Mexican military
project that cracked down on marijuana farmers.
And
this was… I don’t know if they were the same thing but it had some of
the same effects. It was this real crackdown on left wing sort of
guerrilla movements, labor organizers. It was very easy for them to get
sort of rounded up in this blitz to eradicate marijuana throughout
Mexico.
So,
all together we see an enormous amount of cooperation. A lot of it is
orchestrated by the C.I.A. Pinochet at some point comes in and does some
things that the C.I.A. supposedly doesn’t know about.
I
read one interesting passage about how the C.I.A. wasn’t really on
board with Operation Condor. They weren’t entirely behind it and they
were very, very intent on making sure that it wasn’t headquartered in
Miami because that would have been the obvious place to headquarter such
a mission. But all of these guys funded their operations by trafficking
massive quantities of drugs.
And
this is something that like there is on the left, I think there’s this
sort of conventional wisdom. This public intellectual, Michael Massing, he’s got a Genius Grant, he’s written a few books on drug policy. And his line on Gary Webb was always like, it didn’t really matter that the C.I.A. was…
Chris Hedges: Let
me just interrupt for people that don’t know, Gary Webb was the
reporter who really broke the story, he did break the story of the
shipment of cocaine by Contras and C.I.A.-affiliated operatives into
American cities like Oakland. The press, the establishment press, worked
overtime, including, I was at the New York Times, to discredit him.
They
discredited him not by going down and checking on his reporting or
trying to re-report what he did, but by getting background briefings at
the C.I.A., and then he ultimately committed suicide.
Maureen Tkacik: Yes,
and with the benefit of hindsight, it is absolutely mind-blowing to
read any of the reports from Iran-Contra or a lot of the sources that I
used in this story just came from some of the collections of
declassified JFK files, right? Because these guys also were deeply
involved in that assassination and others. You can look up, anybody who
was a Cuban exile in Miami in the 60s, you can probably see if they’ve
had any prominence.
You
can probably find some information about them in these files. But
anyway, you look at the evidence that was just known by the end of the
80s about the C.I.A. involvement and the Contra involvement in drug
trafficking and this wasn’t new news. [Robert Parry, the founder of Consortium News, first broke the story for the Associated Press of Contra involvement in the drug trade.]
One
thing that Gary Webb really, a connection that he really nailed down
was the connection between the drug dealers that really first
popularized crack in the… I think Rick Ross was the name of one of them
in 1985, because when crack hit, I mean, it hit, it changed everything.
When I started writing for newspapers in the mid-late nineties, crack
was still people under the influence, it [was] the source of a lot of
violence in cities.
It
was a drug that really had just a devastating effect on already
devastated American cities. And he nailed down the connection between
this C.I.A., this just massive supply of cheap drugs and this
desperation to find new customers for this stuff. And to do that, they
had to go to people who had way less money than your average cocaine
consumer. And that’s what they did with it. This supply matters.
You
know, there’s this idea that the only way you can really fight drug
addiction and the scourge of illegal drugs is by working on the demand.
And there’s an element of truth to that. It makes a lot of sense. But
the fact is, our government’s run by drug traffickers, our institutions
of power. And that’s one of the reasons, look at what the Sacklers did. That was a supply side addiction epidemic.
And
we allow these things for whatever reason, but the evidence was
absolutely overwhelming that the C.I.A., that the highest levels of the
American intelligence apparatus were deeply involved. And even that,
there’s a documentary that came out recently that has a lot of quite a
few D.E.A. and other intelligence officers from the 1980s saying that
Félix Rodríguez himself, remember this character who assassinated Che
Guevara, Bay of Pigs veteran…
Chris Hedges: He didn’t actually assassinate Guevara. It was a Bolivian soldier shot, but he was there. Just as a small point, he was there.
Maureen Tkacik: He cut his finger off after he was dead.
Chris Hedges: Well,
no, he sent the… He is assassinated in the sense that they ordered,
they determined that there was no way Che was going to — he was captured
alive, of course — was going to live, but he didn’t actually pull the
trigger. They got some poor Bolivian soldier to do it. That’s just a
small footnote. You can read Jon Lee Anderson’sgreat book on Che.
Maureen Tkacik: Sorry.
But Félix Rodríguez is supposedly now, according to these folks, the
guy who actually ordered the murder, the torture and subsequent murder
of a D.E.A. agent who had sort of run afoul of it had become sort of a
whistleblower named Kiki Camarena.
Chris Hedges: This is Kiki Camarena.
Maureen Tkacik: Yeah,
and that is something that the cartels had long sort of been blamed
for. Now somebody tried to, I think, sue the Netflix documentarian for
defamation, but Félix Rodríguez, who’s still alive and still kicking,
indeed, recently hosted none other than Álvaro Uribe, former Colombian Prime Minister and good, good friend of Marco Rubio at a Bay of Pigs reunion event.
So
Félix Rodríguez is still a figure of some prominence in Miami. He’s got
a lot of blood on his hands, allegedly and not allegedly and by his own
testimony. But this is the type of guy who is sort of in the milieu of
this crew that ran this drug trafficking organization that Marco Rubio’s
brother-in-law had sort of ascended relatively to the number two spot
in essentially.
Another
thing that is interesting about Rubio’s own biography is that he has
said that his father trained at 18, I forget where, but he trained in
some training camp in Central America to — this would have been back in
the 40s — for a mission that never came off to overthrow and possibly
assassinate [Rafael] Trujillo,
the 30 year dictator of the Dominican Republic, who was sort of a
C.I.A. asset and then sort of a C.I.A. thorn in its side for many years.
So
I don’t know, that’s the only sign I’ve ever gotten that Rubio’s own
family was involved in any of this stuff. His family came to Miami
before the revolution, escaping Batista, and then subsequently would
move back and forth, trying to kind of scrape some money together
because I don’t think that anybody in his family was particularly
privileged.
Rubio
would change all that. And one thing that’s really also fascinating is
that the prosecutor that prosecuted his brother-in-law and the entire
drug trafficking organization, then the following year prosecuted Manuel Noriega
in a really fascinating trial that is another one of these unbelievable
windows into the C.I.A. involvement in drug trafficking.
Because
Noriega’s defense attorney, and a lot of evidence was suppressed in
this case, but his defense attorney was constantly cross-examining
various government witnesses saying like, okay, wasn’t the C.I.A. paying
Noriega this whole time as well? And Noriega claimed that he’d made $10
million cooperating with the C.I.A. over the years.
Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega in a 1990 mugshot taken after his capture by U.S. forces. (U.S. Marshals Service / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)
They
never had any problem with him facilitating money laundering. And
that’s the other thing, so there’s a lot of rich history. That
prosecutor then, his wife, gives Rubio his first job literally like the
year after the indictment. I think that this might still be going on
during the trial or directly after the trial. The prosecutor’s wife, Ileana Ros[-Lehtinen], God, what is this last name? I can never… she’s a giant in the Congress in Miami, a good friend of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
And her father was another Cuban exile deeply involved in Voice of America, I believe [he hosted shows for U.S.-funded Radio y Televisión Martí.]
But this congresswoman gave Marco Rubio an internship when he got out
of high school. They were very early on, it was decided that he was sort
of a preternatural political talent. His ties to drug traffickers never
stopped Marco Rubio, but he is very sensitive about the story, he
really went on a little jihad against Univision when they broke the story.
And
it’s just not really necessarily part of the conventional wisdom of who
he is. And I think it’s important not because I would accuse Marco
Rubio of being involved in drug trafficking himself, but understanding
the landscape of social capital, not to sound annoying, in Miami in the
1980s to understand how intertwined right-wing politics and drug
trafficking are in that community and how sort of this cognitive
dissonance is just something that everybody lives and breathes down
there.
Drug
crimes are only illegal when the wrong people are committing them and
that is something that is understood in, I think, throughout Latin
America that we don’t seem to comprehend.
Chris Hedges: Yeah, you succinctly write,
“Drug
traffickers who were allied with the C.I.A.’s ideological objectives
were protected, assisted and/or recruited as assets, while drug
traffickers who bribed or cooperated with leftists, crossed the Agency,
or outlived their usefulness were set up for prosecution or discarded.”
That’s
precisely correct. And I want to also mention, and you may have heard
this, but the common understanding is that Maduro, like [Claudia] Sheinbaum in Mexico, was fairly clean.
Maureen Tkacik: Oh
my god, yes. I have read the indictment against Maduro. There are
episodes, it’s a strange document. Nothing like the indictment of Juan
Orlando Hernández, which is very, it’s a classic indictment. The
evidence is there. You see it. I don’t know how the grand jury that… I
could see a Florida grand jury going for this, but it’s not very strong.
And
one of the things, one of the pieces of evidence, one of the passages
that was most bizarre to me was this, they have a section about toward
this 2013 drug bust, the biggest drug bust in the drug seizure in the
history of commercial air travel was 2013 Charles de Gaulle Airport,
probably one of the biggest, most busiest airports in the world — 1.3 tons of cocaine are found in 33 suitcases in this Air France flight from Caracas.
Immediately
Maduro, who is very new, Chavez has just died, he’s just taken over, he
has 25 airport security and sort of military officers who are involved
in the airport operation arrested. And then this strange British guy
gets arrested for having claimed on a wiretap that he was the actual
owner of the 1.3 tons of cocaine.
He’s
a very strange figure, supposedly a big crime boss in the U.K., but
he’s never really been written about before that except for some very
strange harassment charges, doesn’t seem particularly bright.
And
his lawyer claims, and then he later claims, no, he was just saying
that the coke was his on the wiretap to get them off his back. I don’t
understand. I’ve been meaning to kind of look into this a little bit
more closely, but it seems like it was some sort of setup, this whole
thing. It’s a very strange way to try and traffic cocaine, just putting
it into suitcases in a commercial airliner that is destined for the
busiest passenger airport in the world.
Something
about that is a little off to me. The whole thing is a little off. And
there was never any suggestion that Maduro had any involvement or
knowledge in that. And at the time, none of the investigations revealed
anything of the sort. But it’s used in this, it’s deployed in this
indictment as like this sign of what an unbelievably prodigious drug
trafficker Maduro is. So a lot of it is stuff like that.
There’s
something about Malaysian heating oil. The fact is that commerce itself
in Venezuela is mostly criminalized because of the severity of the
sanctions that we’ve imposed over the years on that country.
I
think that we almost feel like, as you see with the blowing up the oil
tankers, there’s this sense of entitlement that we have to sort of get
our way with Venezuela because we’ve literally criminalized most of the
economic activity that that country is involved in.
Another thing about Maduro is that he has two nephews who were
apparently arrested for narco trafficking a few years back and they sort
of claimed that they were framed.
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, 2016. (Cancillería del Ecuador via Flickr)
They
don’t seem particularly intelligent. They were trying to do a drug deal
so that they could get some money to win, I think, the 2018 election.
But this massive quantity of cocaine apparently was found in their room
at La Romana, I think that’s what it’s called. It’s a resort in the Dominican Republic. It’s owned by the Fanjul family.
One
Bob Menendez in 2013 claimed that he was, that the Fanjul family was
trying to set him up by sending whores to his villa at La Romana. It
just triggered something in my mind, like, hmm, I wonder if there’s
something to that. I wonder if that cocaine they found really belonged
to the narco-nephews. What’s really going on there? I wanna delve a lot
more deeply into this, but the indictment against him, I don’t
understand how they think…
Now,
Miami, if they were trying him in Miami, he might be a dead man. But in
New York, are they going to get a conviction in New York? On this? It
seems absurd.
Chris Hedges: I
want to go back to Rubio. You’re right, when Marco Rubio maligns the
efficacy of interdiction and other traditional law enforcement
approaches to mitigating narco trafficking in favor of military
operations, as he did in a recent speech on Trump’s speedboat bombings,
he is contradicting every empirical evaluation of drug war efficacy that
exists, yes.
But
he is also pining for a kind of Cold War-era blanket license to commit
dirty war in the name of some bigger goal. I was telling you before we
went into the interview that I was in Argentina at the end of the dirty
war.
Of
course, Carter had imposed some sanctions, which Reagan lifted, a
full-throated support under the Reagan administration for this junta,
which disappeared 30,000 of its own citizens. But it was common
knowledge that in police stations there were large industrial-sized
freezers full of cocaine.
And
when we talk about that dirty war, that nexus, which I think you
capture in the story between drug trafficking and the desaparecidos, the
killing of labor union leaders, student leaders, they’re intimately
intertwined.
Maureen Tkacik: There’s a book called Powderburns,
I believe, by a former D.E.A. agent, recalling his odyssey of being rat
fucked by C.I.A. guys in his efforts to combat drug trafficking in
Latin America in the 80s and early 90s. And at one point he recalls a
few conversations where somebody’s like, well, the war on drugs is
important, but the war on communism is even more important.
And
he’s like, where are you from? Because I’m from, I forget, I’m from a
city that’s been devastated by deindustrialization and now is being
brought to its knees by addiction. I’m not a fan of communism, but I
don’t really think that it’s a threat to my society. He just describes
how he was not able to understand that rationalization. But now we’re
using the drug war as its own, as the same sort of blanket license.
And
what it really is, I guess, is the same as the Cold War, is this
country has decided to threaten… This is another thing, there’s so much
talk about the oil curse, and it is true. I grew up, a lot of my youth I
spent in China, my dad was in the State Department, and I always
wondered, gosh, the Taiwanese, they had a lobby just like the Miami
lobby, the Cuba lobby and the Zionist lobby, they have the China lobby.
And
they trafficked drugs and they were bad guys and they were right-wing.
But at some point, maybe they switched drugs for bicycles and then
semiconductors and they started to build factories in China even though
they were technically at war and those two places are very
interdependent right now.
There’s
a lot of parallels that we like to make, but why were they allowed? Why
was China allowed to build an industrial economy? And why did we allow
our agents in Taiwan to facilitate this? Would they have been even able
to do it if they hadn’t sort of all done it in Taiwan first and they had
the language, yada yada? It’s just such a different story.
And
it seems like part of the benefit that China had other than its 1
billion people was that they didn’t have any resources to exploit. It
had to be their human capital, as they like to say in the business. But,
we do not allow countries with resources to nationalize those resources
in hopes of trying to nationalize the surpluses that they might bring
and then diversify their economy into something more sustainable.
The
resource curse is something that countless nations, obviously Libya,
Iran, Venezuela, Russia have all tried to sort of reverse and figure out
how to deal with and whenever they do, they feel our wrath. And so it
really pisses me off when pundits talk about the resource curse as
though it’s not really the sort of gratuitous sanctions for having the
temerity to threaten hegemony curse.
Chris Hedges
Well, that’s how [Allende] was overthrown in ‘73. It was at the service of Anaconda Copper. It’s how [Jacobo] Árbenz was overthrown in ‘54 in Guatemala on behalf of United Fruit.
As soon as you go, and that’s what’s happening with Venezuela. Trump,
unlike previous presidents, was quite open about it. It’s about the oil,
the largest reserves of oil in the world.
And the article is smart and good and people should read it, “The Narco-Terrorist Elite.” It’s in TheAmerican Prospect,
where Moe works as the investigative editor. It’s really a fine piece
of journalism and important for understanding what’s driving this policy
and who Marco Rubio is. Thank you, Moe.
Maureen Tkacik: Thank you so much. It’s an honor.
Chris Hedges: And
thanks to Victor [Padilla], Diego [Ramos], Max [Jones], Sofia
[Menemenlis] and Thomas [Hedges], who produced the show. You can find me
at ChrisHedges.Substack.com.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and NPR. He is the host of show “The Chris Hedges Report.”
