By Nan McCurdy on July 19, 2025 from Managua

photos: Nan McCurdy
This year was different from celebrations since 2021 when there were perhaps 5,000 people invited – this year there were about 50,000! It took place in the Plaza de la Fe where the July 19th celebrations were held for years and years with open attendance of hundreds of thousands and little organization. That changed in 2020 with Covid. This time invitations were made and organized by the municipalities all over the country and those invited road in on Chinese buses down to the plaza. You can see from the photo, the organization was phenomenal to accommodate the 50,000. (more…)
By Jose Luis Grandos Ceija on July 20, 2025

Relatives welcome some of the men freed from a high-security jail in El Salvador following negotiations between Caracas and Washington. photo: nawseas
Following a months-long campaign demanding their release, the Venezuelan men have finally arrived in Venezuela.
Mexico City, Mexico, July 18, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Two hundred fifty-two Venezuelan nationals deported by the United States and detained for months in El Salvador’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) arrived back in their homeland after a successful negotiation by the Nicolás Maduro government. (more…)
By José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez on July 20, 2025

Ambassador José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez and Josefina Vidal from the Cuban Foreign Ministry stand with US representatives as the Cuban flag is raised. July 20, 2015 Photos: Bill Hackwell
These days mark the tenth anniversary of three distinct yet related events that are a significant part of the history of official bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States. July 1, 2015, was the day that the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations was announced. On January 3, 1961, Washington broke formal ties with Cuba as part of the first stage of the confrontation against the Cuban Revolution that led to the Bay of Pigs invasion. As a result of a negotiation process initiated under the Gerald Ford administration and concluded under James Carter, on September 1, 1977, the so-called interest sections were officially opened in both capitals. The US section in Havana was formally under the auspices of the Swiss Embassy in that capital, while the Cuban representation in Washington was initially assumed by the Embassy of the Czech Republic until that nation’s split, and then it also passed to Swiss responsibility. (more…)
By Stansfield Smith, ChicagoALBASolidarity.org on July 17, 2025

China has mutually beneficial agreements with over 150 countries.
China is a modern superpower, as is the US, but a qualitatively different superpower. The US uses military aggression, coups, and sanctions to impose US corporate interests worldwide. China is a peaceful power that respects national sovereignty, mutual development, and non-interference. (more…)
By Rosa Miriam Elizalde on July 17, 2025

For the cavemen, economic sanctions are not enough: they demand the full implementation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.
Despite the media hype, President Donald Trump’s recent measures against the Cuban government do not represent a radical break or the beginning of a new era in US policy toward the island. They are more of the same: secondary sanctions in the context of an economic strangulation strategy that has failed to achieve its objective for more than six decades. (more…)
By Geraldina Colotti on July 18, 2025.
Joy, culture, and popular participation are included in episode 85 of Con Maduro +, which took place at the closing of Filven 2025. Launched in April 2023, the program, which has replaced previous formats such as “En Contacto con Maduro,” is already a fixture for the Venezuelan people, who look forward to it every Monday, but also on other days of the week, depending on current events or surprise announcements by the president of the Republic. (more…)
By David Bacon on July 17, 202

Community and immigrant rights organizations rally in Oakland’s Latino Fruitvale district protesting immigration raids. One sign says “For my father, who was deported. Watch me from Heaven, Papa. This is Our War!” Photo: David Bacon
Jaime Alanis Garcia died of a broken neck in the Ventura County Medical Center on Saturday. He fell 30 feet from the roof of a Glass House Farms greenhouse, where he’d climbed in a desperate effort to get away from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and National Guard soldiers during an immigration raid on Thursday. (more…)
By Alexandra Garcia and Bill Hackwell on July 17, 2025

Xiomoro Castro meeting with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The second half of 2025 will be a critical period for democracy in Latin America, with presidential and legislative elections taking place in Bolivia, Honduras, and Chile, as well as midterm legislative elections in Argentina. This electoral cycle is expected to be marked by growing fragmentation, deepening political polarization, and the rise of Trump-style and Bukele-style rhetoric. Within this context, Honduras is emerging as one of the most closely watched countries in the region. (more…)