Iran brutally slaughtered its protestors. Up to 20,000 were killed.
Iran’s revolutionary guards are stronger than its regular military and they are loyal to the supreme leader.
Trump literally said that “help is on its way”, and many protesters said they expected Trump to help. When he didn’t, the ones that were still alive, felt betrayed.
A US intervention would likely cause a retaliatory strike, and the US wasn’t prepared for such attacks because it was using resources around Venezuela.
Local partner countries warned against a US intervention, fearing a regional conflict.
“Nicaragua is run by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, a husband and wife who take the term “power couple” somewhat literally. They are now co-presidents of the Central American nation of 7 million. Over the years, they’ve rigged elections, wrested control over other branches of the government and crushed the opposition, while apparently grooming their children to succeed them. It has been a strange and circular journey for a pair of one-time Sandinista revolutionaries who previously fought to bring down a dynastic dictatorship.
Hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans have fled the impoverished country, some to the United States. Meanwhile, the regime has enhanced ties to Russia, China and other U.S. adversaries, while having rocky relations with Washington. Nicaragua is part of a free trade agreement with Washington, but it has also faced U.S. sanctions, tariffs and other penalties for oppressing its people, eroding democracy and having ties to Russia. Even the current Trump administration has used such measures against it, but the regime hasn’t buckled.
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Unlike Venezuela, Nicaragua isn’t a major source of oil, the natural resource Trump covets most. It has gold, but not enough of that or other minerals to truly stand out. (Although yes, I know, Trump loves gold.) It’s also not a major source of migrants to the U.S.”
Trump called his Department of Justice lawyers weak and told them they needed to get on his retribution campaign. After this meeting, the lawyers went after the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell.
Unusually, some Republican Congressmen are breaking with Trump and criticizing this move.
“Rodríguez is neither gracious nor a reformer. She’s a self-identified communist who has held key positions under both former dictator Hugo Chávez and Maduro, Venezuelan political writer Paola Bautista de Alemán tells Reason. In 2017, Maduro tapped Rodríguez to be president of the illegitimate constituent assembly that usurped the powers of the elected National Assembly to silence the opposition. Later that year, Maduro appointed her to the “Anti-Coup Command,” tasked with taking measures against alleged coup plotters and terrorists, labels routinely applied to peaceful opposition figures.
As vice president, she oversaw the agencies responsible for repression and mass human rights violations. From 2018 until April 2021, Rodríguez exercised direct hierarchical control over the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), Venezuela’s feared intelligence service responsible for domestic surveillance and counterintelligence. Under Rodríguez’s leadership, the SEBIN acted as a political police to prosecute perceived enemies of the Maduro regime, including opposition leader Freddy Guevara, whom the agency detained in 2021, two days after Rodríguez publicly accused him of being involved in gang violence. Former SEBIN Director General Cristopher Figuera testified to the United Nations that he communicated with the vice president “practically every day,” including updates on wiretaps and surveillance of politicians.
In 2020, the U.N. concluded there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Rodríguez “knew or should have known” of crimes committed by SEBIN officials, including arbitrary detention and torture. Despite having the authority to prevent these crimes, she failed to do so.
In addition to human rights violations, Rodríguez has been accused of corruption and bribing international officials, as seen in the “Delcygate” scandal. Spanish investigators believe Rodríguez orchestrated a scheme in 2020 to sell 104 bars of Venezuelan state gold to Spanish businessmen through corrupt Transport Ministry officials. The deal allegedly took place at Madrid’s airport, where Rodríguez met with Spanish Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos despite being banned from entering E.U. territory.
The alleged operation extended further. After receiving $62 million in Spanish state aid in March 2021, Spanish airline Plus Ultra allegedly used the funds to repay “loans” to accounts linked to Venezuela abroad. Investigators believe the scheme laundered proceeds from both gold sales and embezzlement of Venezuela’s food distribution program—meaning funds meant to feed hungry Venezuelans may have been funneled into European bank accounts.
On top of this, there are accusations from former Venezuelan officials about Rodríguez’s role in the Cartel de los Soles
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Rodríguez’s track record has earned her sanctions from the U.S., European Union, Switzerland, and Canada for corruption and undermining democracy.
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When Maduro was captured, González and María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and dedicated it to both the Venezuelan people and Trump, immediately called for González to assume his constitutional mandate as the legitimately elected president. David Smolansky, González’s official spokesperson, laid out the opposition’s vision: free political prisoners, restore democratic order, and welcome back the millions of Venezuelans forced into exile by the regime’s failures. Instead, Trump chose to work with Rodríguez, effectively sidelining Venezuela’s democratically elected opposition and forcing them to watch the U.S. partner with the very regime that stole their victory.”
“Guan Heng is a former resident of China who did something amazing: He defied the country’s authoritarian government and documented the abuses of Uyghur Muslims.
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A few months ago, in August, ICE detained him after he admitted he had initially entered the country illegally. Immigration authorities would now like to deport him, either to Uganda—where he would likely be taken back to China—or to China directly.”
“The Trump administration is using a law against impeding federal law enforcement to threaten and arrest people who are recording and protesting immigration officers. However, an unprecedented number of those cases are falling apart once they go to court, according to media investigations, think tank reports, and voluminous court records and video evidence.
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“On their own, yelling, protesting, honking a horn, blowing a whistle, following, and recording are all clearly First Amendment–protected activities, even if done during law enforcement operations,” Bier wrote. “Of course, it is possible to follow an officer in a dangerous manner or physically interfere while recording an operation or protesting, but following and recording by themselves without physical interference are clearly protected.”
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It would be tempting to call these cases failures, and they are in a legal sense, but the administration’s real goal isn’t to win cases. It’s to intimidate American citizens into giving up their First Amendment right to peacefully oppose and monitor the police.”