The Argentine Supreme Court's rejection of a final appeal filed by the defense team of former president and vice president Cristina Fernández has dominated media coverage in the region. The decision to uphold the six-year sentence against her is a major blow to the left, although many Argentines or Latin Americans dispute whether the Justicialist Party or so-called Kirchnerist peronism can be considered a true left-wing political force. The case, related to the management of public works contracts, is presented as a classic example of lawfare, but an objective analysis will reveal that indications are suggesting that there is something strange or at least suspicious about it. This Wednesday, the head of Federal Oral Court No. 2 dismissed the request by prosecutors to order the immediate arrest of CFK, who, due to her age, would serve her sentence at home. Fernández argues that the essence of the judicial process was always to disqualify her from running for office. Finally, all of this also introduces a corrosive element within the Justicialist Party, which has been marked in recent times by internal struggles.

The immigration raids conducted by ICE and the FBI in the state of California—which have so far resulted in the arrest of just over 100 individuals—have unleashed a series of events rarely seen in recent years, quite disruptive, but perhaps expected or easily explained if we take into account the features of Donald Trump's administration. The Republican leader activated 2,000 National Guard troops stationed in California, appealing to his classic rhetoric of “rebellion” and "invasion", in response to those disputing in the streets the ICE's deployment searching for migrants on its blacklist. Indirectly, local authorities have acknowledged acts of vandalism and looting. The Pentagon is also assisting by sending 700 Marines—another unusual move—while the debate rages over whether or not to invoke the Insurrection Act, and the communications and legal battle between Washington and Los Angeles intensifies.

Elon Musk retweeted a post yesterday celebrating the macroeconomic achievements of the harsh fiscal adjustment implemented by Javier Milei's government. He did so to indirectly criticize his (apparently) former ally Donald Trump, with whom he is engaged in a rare public dispute after serving in the administration. Milei, on a tour of Italy, held a meeting today with Pope Leo XIV, where they discussed “the fight against poverty and the commitment to social cohesion” and a potential trip by the Supreme Pontiff to Argentina. Milei's gifts to Leo XIV are quite a message for a clergyman who knows the region: two books by the ultra-liberal economist Jesús Huerta Soto (Statism and the Economy and Pandemia y dirigismo), and Fatal Arrogance by Friedrich Hayek. Milei had a complicated history with the late Pope Francis, fraught with harsh offenses, but Francis was well above such circumstances: the Argentine did not allow the left in his country to use him for campaigning against the ultra-liberal leader, and allowed him to reinvent himself and rework his discourse toward him.

The Foggy Bottom Congressional Budget Justification for the next fiscal year was released this week. The notification reaffirms some points already contained in the Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request. Still, we should wait to see how the so-called America First Opportunity Fund (A1OF) will be projected in the classic Appendix II of the CBJ, which is unavailable so far. The A1OF, if Trump's aggressive foreign aid reform is approved, could reflect those funds that currently are allocated to accounts closely related to “democratic assistance”, such as the Economic Support Fund—which, for example, has been the channel for financing political subversion against Cuba—, the Transition Initiatives account—which financed the ill-fated Zunzuneo project, aka the Cuban Twitter—, and the Democracy Fund. As anticipated in the discretionary budget request, the Trump administration zeroed out the budget entry for the National Endowment for Democracy in its proposal. Concerning USAID, the State Department proposes the following legislative language

The increase in prepaid mobile data service rates introduced last Friday by the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), along with other restrictions imposed for recharging mobile balances using the national currency, has been a clear own goal for the national authorities. The popular rejection has been humongous, with students leading a movement that is pressing for a return to the previous rates or a significant improvement in the position of all social actors under the new scheme. Executives from ETECSA announced last Monday that they had approved allowing university students to exceed the controversial limit imposed on national recharges once a month, but several student groups from major universities in the Cuban capital, such as the University of Havana and the Technological University of Havana, have demanded that this and other flexibility measures not be reduced for them. The technical and political dissection of the announced measures, which aim to financially rescue an indebted ETECSA and save its ailing infrastructure, has been overwhelmingly negative.

Nicaraguan co-president Daniel Ortega harshly criticized the anti-immigrant raids being carried out by US authorities under Donald Trump's command. “This is like the persecutions conducted by the Nazis as they sought to hunt down Israelis in the various European countries they occupied,” said Ortega, who also pledged to continue receiving Nicaraguan nationals who are deported. The current co-president—the other co-president is his wife, Rosario Murillo—claimed that in the United States there is “brutal, inhumane persecution that is neither democratic nor Christian, but rather fascist behavior.” “It is savage torture against our Latin American, Central American, Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian, and Nicaraguan brothers and sisters,” he added. The four nationalities mentioned benefited for two years from a humanitarian parole program, discontinued by Trump, which allowed the entry of 30,000 individuals every month, as long as they had U.S. sponsors capable of vouching for them.