TeleSur: Venezuela Presents 2026 Budget and Defends Oil Sovereignty Against Imperialist Interference The budget proposal includes more than 5 trillion bolivars, of which 77.8% will be allocated to social investment. Prior to the Chavista era, this amounted to 40%. The 2026 US budget stands at 42%. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez stated, “Venezuela is showing the world its ability to reinvent itself, its rejection of subjugation and its full emancipation.” She indicated that the country has found its own ways to move forward despite the psychological terrorism it has faced for 23 weeks, which demonstrates the strength and resilience of the Venezuelan people.
Venezuela is consolidating its position as the country with the highest economic growth in Latin America for 2025. This performance is the result of growth momentum in strategic areas such as oil activity (15.95%), construction (11.76%), mining (9.24%) and manufacturing (8.37%). The Vice-President also highlighted the significant increase in gold production (97.6% between January and September 2025) and 181% growth in iron ore exports.
Opinions of Americans About Venezuela | CBS News Poll | November 2025 (Questions 23-32). 70% oppose US intervention in Venezuela; 75% said Trump need Congressional approval to invade. 76% think the Trump administration has not clearly explained the US position about taking military action, and 82% say he needs to. Only 13% believe Venezuela is a “major threat” to US national security.
Cost of US Military Operation in the Caribbean Cuba’s Granma put the cost at $200 million a day [no source provided]. Since the miliary operation began about 100 days ago, this now amounts to about $20 billion. A DefenseOne article states:
“The United States has assembled a fleet that cost at least $40 billion to buy in total. The carrier Ford alone cost $4.7 billion to develop and $12.9 billion to build. The fleet is backed by at least 83 aircraft of assorted types, including 10 F-35Bs ($109 million apiece), seven Predator drones ($33 million each), three P-8 Poseidons ($145 million per), and at least one AC-130J gunship ($165 million)..The Ford alone costs about $8 million a day to run. The F-35s and AC-130J cost about $40,000 per flight hour; the P-8s, about $30,000; the Reapers, about $3,500. Analysis of the strike videos on the 21 boats show that US forces have fired AGM-176 Griffins ($127,333 apiece in 2019), Hellfires (running about $150,000 to $220,000) and potentially GBU-39B Small Diameter Bombs ($40,000).”
Venezuelanalysis: Alleged US Deadline for Maduro Exit Passes Without Incident An alleged Trump ultimatum giving President Maduro one week to flee Venezuela along with his family passed without major incident. Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has previously rejected reports that suggested ongoing negotiations with the US could involve Maduro stepping down. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had likewise labeled a prior report of a proposal for Maduro to step down as “fake” and a “psychological warfare” campaign. After the reported deadline expired, Trump attempted to unilaterally declare that Venezuelan airspace should be considered “closed in its entirety,” leading to a sharp rebuke by Caracas, which condemned Washington’s “colonialist threats.” However, subsequently the Venezuelan government said it received a request from the US to restart repatriation flights Tuesday, which was subsequently authorized.
TeleSur: 570 Repatriated; Venezuela Exercises Air Sovereignty Despite Trump’s “Order” The number of flights carrying Venezuelan migrants from the US during 2025, at the request of the US administration, rose to 76. The latest come after President Trump ordered the “closure of Venezuelan airspace.”
CubaSi: How the US Used the War on Drugs to Intervene in Latin America Since the 1970s, billions of US dollars have been allocated to the war on drugs across the continent. This has, in reality, been a pretext to conceal military, paramilitary, and interventionist operations. Between 2000-2015, the program provided Colombia with $10 billion, primarily military and effectively used against left-wing guerrillas and the FARC. Colombia remains the world’s leading producer of cocaine. Another key country is Mexico. In 2013, Fox News uncovered the case of Kiki Camarena, an undercover DEA agent in Mexico kidnapped and murdered by drug traffickers in the 1980s. The CIA was involved in the crime; CIA members collaborated with the drug traffickers and used part of the drug profits to fund the Nicaragua Contras. In Nicaragua, the drug problem was closely linked in the 1980s to US support for these anti-Sandinista forces. A 1988 report by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee concluded the State Department provided support to Contra members involved in drug trafficking. Panama President Manuel Noriega provided military assistance to the Contras at the request of the US. Meanwhile, Washington tolerated his drug trafficking activities, known since the 1960s. In 2008, Bolivia President Evo Morales expelled all US DEA agents for helping the political opposition. “The war on drugs is driven by geopolitical interests,” he stated. Hugo Chavez severed ties with the DEA in 2005 for espionage.
NACLA: Trump’s War on Venezuelans: From Operation Aurora to Operation Southern Spear How a Colorado slumlord’s lie about Venezuelan gangs was leveraged by the Trump admin to detain thousands, deploy warships, and rewrite the rules of immigration enforcement. The Caribbean military operation has led to the deployment of the largest concentration of US naval and air assets in the region in 20 years and extrajudicial strikes against alleged drug traffickers that have killed at least 83 people across the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
On November 7, Temporary Protective Status was formally eliminated by Trump admin for an estimated 250,000 Venezuelans in the US, aided in part by a recent Supreme Court ruling. While studies show US sanctions are a root cause of the Venezuelan migration crisis, this is routinely omitted from media reports. Venezuelans are punished at home by US policies that cripple their nation with bombs and sanctions, punished for fleeing the crisis under US narratives of security threats, and punished on US soil as scapegoats for deteriorating living conditions.
David Swanson: Top 10 Reasons to Pretend It’s Unusual for the US Government to Blow People Up For those of us who lived through the Bush-Cheney slaughters, saw people freak out over the collateral murder video, were disgusted by Obama setting up terror Tuesdays to pick men, women, and children to murder along with anyone near them while declaring himself good at killing people, and saw drone murders become routine during the Obama – Trump – Biden – Trump years — for those of us who’ve been watching a livestreamed genocide in Gaza, a Ukrainian meatgrinder, the killing fields of Sudan, the ongoing horrors growing out of the “successful drone war” in Yemen, not to mention the sanctions (now with a no-fly-zone) that have killed huge numbers of people in Venezuela, etc., the newfound outrage at professional, organized mass-murder (whether bizarrely limited to double-taps or not) is confounding.
TeleSur: Venezuela Reports 2.8 Million International Tourists in First 10 Months of the Year That figure, which represents a 56% increase in international tourism, is the result of the opening of 665 new tourist routes.
TeleSur: Venezuela’s National Assembly condemns US takeover of CITGO The National Assembly unanimously condemned the US “plundering” of CITGO in collusion with the “national far right.” It also proposed revoking the citizenship of “leaders” of the “Venezuelan far right” implicated in the “takeover.” Jorge Rodríguez, National Assembly president, proposed revoking the citizenship of José Ignacio Hernández, Dinora Figuera, Carlos Vecchio, Juan Guaidó, and Horacio Medina, identified as the “main ringleaders” of the “gigantic theft” of CITGO. The investigations identified 351 individuals responsible for the “plunder,” who will be subject to sanctions. These include 94 former members of parliament from the 2015 legislature, as well as 108 “pseudo-officials” linked to parallel institutions. Finally, 149 NGO directors who allegedly received funding from the Simón Bolívar Foundation of CITGO were also implicated.
Film: El Caracazo The Caracazo is a Venezuelan historical film directed by Román Chalbaud. It depicts the events known as the Caracazo that shook the city of Caracas on February 27, 1989. The film features special appearances by Beba Rojas and Fernando Carrillo, among other actors.
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Cuba
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