Small-time drug dealing "flourishing" in Mexico City, extortions were 'stable'

Petty drug dealing increased "notably" in Mexico City, from just under 2,300 registered cases in 2024 to just over 3,400 in 2025, the daily La Jornada reported on 2 February, citing city prosecutors. The Mexico City prosecution service said this was a 48.5% increase and unrelated to mere posession, which remained at a round 2,600 registered incidents in that time. Prosecutors also noted a rise of just over 4% in illegal property occupation or squattting incidents - with around 10 cases a day reported to the police - and signs this was organized in parts of the city. Extortions, one of the country's most resilient, and under-reported, crimes and a daily staple for gangs and even cartels, remained 'stable' through 2024-25, with around 2,400 reported incidents. The daily separately reported on recent attempts at extortion in the elegant Condesa district in central Mexico City. Several businesses told police they had been asked by phone to pay sums ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 pesos (up to 2,400 euros), to avoid getting "machine gunned," La Jornada reported on 31 January. Police increased patrols in response and were observing the targeted shops.

Venezuela elections may take two years, says U.S. official

Venezuela, currently run by a socialist regime under U.S. tutelage, may not hold a general election for between 18 and 24 months, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, citing the U.S. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright. After capturing the country's last leader, Nicolás Maduro, the United States said it was working to stabilize Venezuela's economy and institutions before activating a transition back to democracy. Wright was speaking in an explanatory meeting with lawmakers and oil executives concerned by the opaque nature of relations between the government of Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez and the administration of President Donald J. Trump, which wants U.S. firms invest in Venezuelan oil. Observers were worried the regime would seek to drag out reforms and 'wait out' the Trump administration, Colombia's NTN24 reported on 2 February. The broadcaster separately cited Reuters as reporting a rise in Venezuelan oil production under U.S. control to 800,000 barrels a day, from just under 500,000 in December 2025. The oil was heading to the United States, now acting as Venezuela's paymaster. Delcy Rodríguez said in Caracas on 2 February that the United States had so far paid Venezuela U.S. $300 million for oil exported in January, CNN reported, without specifying if the United States was supervising Venezuelan state expenditures.

Trump administration to cut off Cuba's oil supplies

The administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump threatened tariffs on 29 January on imports of any country selling oil to Cuba, in a move likely designed to hasten the demise of the island's communist regime. Trump signed an executive order to that effect, though he told reporters in Washington D.C. he was not trying to "choke off" Cuba and its rundown economy, AP reported. Cuba, an ally of all the United States' villain states including Islamic Iran and Russia, was no longer receiving oil aid from Venezuela following U.S. intervention there in early January, while another supplier, Mexico run by a socialist president, may also have to curb shipments sent to Cuba as a lifeline. Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said on 27 January that her country sent oil for humanitarian reasons, though stopping this was a decision for the state oil firm Pemex, CNN reported. On 29 January, the United States declared Cuba to be "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to its national security.

Venezuelan leader says she's not under Washington's thumb..

Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodríguez appeared in late January to play a double game of talking tough at an overbearing United States while collaborating in private, amid U.S. pressures on her government to serve U.S. commercial and diplomatic interests. The Trump administration briefly bombed the country before capturing its president, Nicolás Maduro, in early January, and was now insisting Rodríguez was being collaborative as interim leader. Yet she has declared several times that it was her government, not the United States, that was running Venezuela. On 25 January, she told a gathering in Caracas that only domestic politics "with a capital P" could resolve differences between Venezuelans, so "that's enough orders from Washington." Days before, she called for a national dialogue but "without foreign orders," according to the broadcaster NTN24. Observers separately told CNN on 27 January that such talk was aimed at a domestic audience, as Rodríguez was "walking a tight rope" between Washington and regime hardliners. The immediate reaction from U.S. President Donald J. Trump was that he hadn't heard her comments. The Reuters news agency reported that day on the skepticism of U.S. intelligence over the Rodríguez presidency's readiness to align itself with U.S. interests, notably in opposing powers like China, Islamic Iran and Russia.

Hoodlums shoot wrestler in Mexico "after extortion failed"

A young wrestler or boxer was shot dead in Mexico City on 25 January, in an incident police provisionally pinned on a local extortion racket, the daily La Jornada reported. Christian David López, who fought with MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) México, was shot from a passing motorcycle as he approached a street stand in the Nextenco district of the Azcapotzalco municipality in the capital. Police found that days before, he had refused to pay extortion money to one of the city's gangs, Los Malportados (the 'Badly Behaved'). La Jornada separately reported on 26 January that extortion continued to plague the capital's businesses in spite of the authorities' putative success in reducing violent crime. It stated there were 381 complaints by businesses to the police between June and November 2025, though it is commonly believed most such threats are never reported. 

Venezuelan officials, critics differ over release of opponents..

Venezuela's interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, said in Caracas on 26 January that 808 detainees - presumably including regime opponents - had been freed since December 2025 as a conciliatory gesture toward society, amid skepticism over how many and which detainees were really being released. The regime said it would free a considerable number on 8 January, though the process has been laborious and conditional. The country's interim presidency has insisted opponents were not being freed under pressure from the United States but on the orders of the last president, Nicolás Maduro, given in December before his capture in January by U.S. forces. The rights group Foro Penal believed the regime had so far freed just 266 politicial detainees since January 8, according to CNN. Cabello insisted UN officials could come and check, as "we have nothing to hide." One hundred or 104 dissidents were reportedly freed on 25 January.

Venezuelan policeman reportedly died in custody

A Venezuelan policeman arrested in 2024 on "treason" charges was reported to have died in jail on 10 January, state prosecutors and local rights groups stated. Stated prosecutors declared that Edison Torres Fernández, a 52-year-old officer convicted of "treason against the fatherland," died from a brain stroke followed by a heart attack in spite of "timely" medical attention, Univisión and the Agence France-Presse reported on 13 January. The death in custody came after a pledge by the interim government to release hundreds of detainees. This was being done but at a laborious pace, further fueling suspicions the regime was fiddling the numbers on how many it had released. One activist separately told CNN on 10 January that those released were in any case, effectively on probation rather than unconditionally free.

Murders said to have dropped by a third in Mexico's Tijuana

Authorities in the district of Tijuana in northern Mexico said criminal killings (homicidios dolosos) dropped 32% in 2025 compared to 2024, with better policing and coordination between local and state authorities. "Preliminary figures" given by the state prosecution service of the state of Baja California showed there were just over 1,200 criminal killings in 2025 in Tijuana, a district of around two million residents, compared to just over 1,800 in 2024, the newspaper Excelsior reported on 13 January. It observed that tighter coordination between the various levels of government - local, state and national - was a crucial part of the security strategy of the government of President Gloria Sheinbaum Pardo. A chart showed April to have been the deadliest month in Tijuana in 2024, with 173 reported killings that fell to 102 for the same month in 2025.

Honduran army says stands by election results

The head of the Honduran armed forces confirmed on 12 January that the army had already recognized the results of presidential elections on 30 November and would help assure a transfer of presidential powers this month, regardless of any bid for another recount of votes. The ruling party of President Xiomara Castro whose candidate was roundly defeated, earlier appeared to have engineered a recount. But the head of the armed forces joint chiefs of staff, Héctor Valerio, said the army obeyed the constitution and "we are still backing" the electoral authority's December verdict, which declared the conservative Nasry Asfura president-elect, Spain's EFE news agency reported. The president, he stated, had "at no time given me instructions" to hand over ballots for a recount, referring to the army's role in guarding the premises of the electoral authoritiy. Asfura is to begin a four-year term on 27 January, and travelled to the United States on 13 January to meet with U.S. officials, EFE reported. 

Nicaragua releases detainees..

Nicaragua's socialist regime announced on 10 January that it was freeing "dozens of persons" held in the country's prisons, as a conciliatory gesture and to mark the 19th anniversary of the presidency of Daniel Ortega. This seemed to include "more than 20" of some 60 or more jailed opponents," Spain's ABC newspaper reported, citing agencies and Nicaraguan exiles.The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs reacted online, saying Ortega's presidential term, which began in 2007, should have ended some years back. The release was attributed to pressures by the Trump administration and echoed similar developments in Venezuela. There, the regime freed around 24 detainees on 12 January, in addition to 17 it released in recent days also under U.S. pressure, according to Foro Penal, a rights group. The interior ministry claimed in contrast that it had freed over 100 prisoners in recent days, and 187 in December, CNN reported.

Honduran president orders a recount of all presidential votes

Xiomara Castro, the socialist president of Honduras set to leave office on 27 January, ordered a recount on 9 January of "every single vote" cast in the presidential elections of 30 November, insisting yet again that the results were not right, Spain's EFE news agency reported. The poll gave the conservative candidate a narrow victory that was confirmed by the country's electoral body, though the Liberal contender and Castro's own administration rejected the final count, suspecting it might have been tweaked to satisfy the Trump administration. By loudly backing the conservative candidate, Castro insisted, the United States had thus meddled in the elections, Mexico's La Jornada reported on 11 January. The recount was approved by parliament on 10 January at a session that excluded more than 70 opposition members, and there were speculations the army might block it , EFE reported.

Destruction of the Amazon slowed, somewhat, under Lula da Silva

Satellite pictures showed an 8.7% reduction in Amazonian deforestation in Brazil in 2025 compared to 2024, with a total of just over 3,800 square kilometres cut down or burned that year, Brazil's INPE or National Institute of Space Research revealed in January. There was a similar, nine per cent year-on-year drop in the destruction rate of the Cerrado, a grasslands region listed as a unique ecosystem, Mexico's La Jornada reported on 9 January, citing INPE. This was the first time deforestation dropped simultaneously in both environmental zones even if the area destroyed "remained twice the size of Sao Paulo," the paper observed. It attributed the decline clearly to policies of the administration led by the socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as rainforest destruction peaked at over 10,000 square kilometres in 2022, the last year of the presidency of the rightist Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian state most successful in this regard in 2025 was Pará in northern Brazil, which cut deforestation by 36%. The government wants to end Amazonian deforestation entirely by 2030. 

Venezuelan regime says it is freeing opponents

Venezuela's interim presidency announced on 8 January that it would release an "important number" of political detainees in a gesture of appeasement it insisted was unrelated to any U.S. pressure. The announcement was made by the Speaker of parliament Jorge Rodríguez (the interim president's brother), who also thanked three intermediaries - Brazil's president, a former Spanish prime minister and the state of Qatar - presumably for their role in the release of foreign detainees. Numbers however were scarce nor was there any loosening of the regime's police-state tactics on the streets. The rights group Foro Penal had counted 806 such prisoners as of 5 January, CNN reported on 8 January, while the few released early on appeared to be foreigners and some politicians. U.S. President Donald J. Trump wrote online on 9 January that the regime was freeing "large numbers of political prisoners," with a collaborative attitude that had avoided further U.S. strikes on the country. 

Rights body in Mexico appalled by levels of violence on minors

A Mexican children's rights association revealed in January that around 1,991 children and teenagers were reported as murdered in Mexico through 2025, a figure it described as critical in spite of an 11% year-on-year drop in such crimes. REDIM or the Network for Childhood Rights in Mexico separately observed a 30% rise in kidnappings of minors to reach over 10,680 cases in that period, the daily La Jornada reported on 6 January. Over 2,850 of those minors were still missing, the report stated.

Mexican authorities see steady drop in daily murders, nationwide

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo declared in Mexico City on 8 January that criminal killings or murders (homicidios dolosos) dropped 40% in daily average terms between September 2024 and December 2025. Sheinbaum told her morning press conference that this was due to better security policies and coordination between national and local authorities through the SNSP or National System of Public Security, Once Noticias reported. "This means 34 homicides less a day, and that is the lowest figure since 2016," she said, adding, "it is the result of a security strategy that is giving results and very tight coordination in all areas of security, justice and with state governors." The head of the SNSP, Marcela Figueroa Franco, also spoke, saying Mexico saw an average of 86.9 homicides a day in September 2024 drop to 52.4 in December 2025. That month, she said, the country had a murder rate of 17.5/100,000 residents, compared to "a peak" of 29.1/100,000 in 2018. The announcements broadly coincided with threats by the U.S. President Donald J. Trump to start striking the drug cartels that "are running Mexico."

Police arrest Tijuana couple for killing a puppy

Police arrested a couple in Tijuana in northern Mexico for beating a pitbull puppy to death on 27 December. They were seen, and filmed, beating the creature before putting its remains in a suitcase, the daily Heraldo de México reported on 5 January. The pictures were posted on social media, prompting an animal rights groups, Patitas firmes, to call the police. The couple may be jailed for up to five years and fined if convicted of relevant charges of cruelty to animals. Neighbors were said to be so incensed with the couple's conduct they had gathered for a possible lynching, El Sol de Tijuana reported.

Venezuelan hardliners seek tighter control at home amid U.S. threats..

The Miami Herald reported on 5 January on the Venezuelan interior minister's public defiance toward the United States following its recent capture of the country's former leader, Nicolás Maduro. Diosdado Cabello Rondón, himself a wanted figure in the United States for suspected involvement in large-scale drug trafficking, was cited as urging regime elements to patrol the streets and vowing revenge on those who aided the U.S. raid on 3 January. These faced possible arrest, CNN reported. "I'm in the street... let's go onto the streets, whatever we can (do)," Miami's El Nuevo Herald cited Cabello as saying in unspecified voice messages. He said of U.S. forces, "these rats attacked and will regret it the rest of their lives." It wasn't clear in that case if he would obstruct the acting president's bid to work with the Trump administration, which had threatened further punitive raids. Media reported on 6 January that the administration expected the interim presidency of Delcy Rodriguez to expel agents of Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran, stop selling oil to powers hostile to the United States and boost efforts to fight drug trafficking. Her government's relationship with U.S. officials picked to help run the country for at least a month, remained unclear.

Venezuela swears in acting president in Maduro's absence

Venezuela's former vice-president Delcy Rodríguez was formally sworn in as acting president in Caracas on 5 January even as she insisted the country's former ruler, Nicolás Maduro, remained the proper president. Maduro and his wife, who were captured by U.S. forces early on 3 January, were meanwhile formally charged with drug-trafficking offences in a New York court on 5 January. They rejected the charges and declared themselves to be the president and first lady of Venezuela, and war captives. Maduro is to reappear in court on 17 March, the website Infobae and agencies reported. Venezuela was for now in a state of External Commotion giving its regime emergency powers and postponing any bid to initiate a transition to democratic and constitutional rule. The United States previously threatened to repeat air strikes should the interim administration refuse to collaborate with U.S. forces, though President Donald J. Trump had insisted it was, without giving details. Late on 5 January, Venezuelan authorities claimed they had fought off hostile or suspect drones flying around the presidential palace. This appeared to be unrelated to Trump's threats.

Mexico City publishes its waste bartering calendar

The Mexican capital published provisional dates in 2026 and venues for its trash-for-goods or swap markets where locals bring in recyclable items to receive food or household products. The city was keener to receive PET plastics, paper and cardboard and glass, all cleaned out, for which it would offer items including fresh produce, the daily Excelsior reported on 2 January. The first event was to be in the Bosque de San Juan park near the aiport on 11 January, and residents were asked to take between one and 10 kilograms of recyclables strictly.

Venezuelan vice-president becomes acting president, amid uncertainties

Venezuela's Supreme Court of Justice appointed the country's vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, as acting president on 3 January even as the former president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were to face drug trafficking and organized crime charges in a New York court. The two were nabbed by U.S. forces in a lightning, pre-dawn operation in Caracas that day. U.S. President Donald J. Trump later announced his administration would run Venezuela through an unspecified transition period, apparently dismissing any idea of handing the country over to opposition politicians. While Rodríguez was reportedly talking to U.S. officials in private, in public she immediately formed a national Defence Council and demanded her predecessor's immediate release as, she insisted, he remained the "legitimate president." Trump told the press in Florida that day that it would be "very tough" for Venezuela's leading opponent and Nobel Peace laureate María Corina Machado to lead the country's transition back to democracy, as she lacked the "support... or respect" needed for that. Machado received in contrast an early expression of support for her role in phone call from France's president. Separately in Colombia, a former conservative vice-president, Francisco Santos, suggested, speaking to the private broadcaster NTN24, that Rodríguez appeared to be a more docile option for the United States at present, adding "I am absolutely certain Delcy handed Maduro" over to the Americans. "It's going to be harder now for María Corina," he said, commenting on U.S. goals and business interests in Venezuela.