Latin-America

Venezuela Naval Blockade Kills 105 in 29 Strikes as Trump Refuses to Rule Out War

| Importance: 9/10

The Trump administration’s naval blockade of Venezuela has killed at least 105 people in 29 strikes on 30 vessels as of December 22. The US Coast Guard seized the Centuries tanker carrying 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan crude to China. Approximately 15,000 US troops and more than a dozen …

Donald Trump Nicolas Maduro Stephen Miller Pete Hegseth Jeff Merkley +2 more venezuela military-strikes naval-blockade war-powers drug-war +1 more
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Cardinal Robert Prevost Elected Pope Leo XIV - First American Pope

| Importance: 9/10

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago was elected the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, taking the name Leo XIV and becoming the first American pontiff in the Church’s 2,000-year history. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary was elected on the fourth ballot by 133 …

Pope Leo XIV Robert Francis Prevost College of Cardinals Vatican U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops +1 more vatican pope-leo-xiv papal-succession chicago catholic-church +3 more
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U.S. Invades Panama to Capture Former CIA Asset Manuel Noriega

| Importance: 9/10

The United States launches Operation Just Cause, deploying nearly 26,000 combat troops in the largest and most complex military operation since the Vietnam War to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. The invasion targets two dozen locations throughout Panama in a massive show of force …

George H.W. Bush Manuel Noriega foreign-policy cia drug-trafficking military-intervention latin-america
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Monroe Doctrine Proclaimed, Establishing Imperial Paradox of Anti-Colonial Rhetoric Masking U.S. Expansion

| Importance: 8/10

President James Monroe articulates the Monroe Doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress, declaring that any European intervention in the political affairs of the Americas constitutes a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine establishes three …

President James Monroe Secretary of State John Quincy Adams European colonial powers imperial-expansion foreign-policy latin-america anti-colonialism manifest-destiny
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