Adam Isacson

Can’t help but wonder how much this court ruling, if it truly stopped Meta’s algorithm-tweaking, explains Lula’s turnaround.

Wow, Lula won. “51.8 percent of the vote versus 48.2 percent.”

This piece by Blair Goodman at NACLA is the most thorough reporting I've seen about the US military presence at bases in Ecuador. It explains the recent history and digs into contracting details.

While many of Latin America's most shamelessly corrupt live lavishly—at times with US properties and visas—the family of Guatemala's admired former anti-corruption official Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, who was murdered on Saturday, is seeking donations to pay for his funeral.

Pure unadulterated Maduro/Orban tactics. Sorry if I'm slow to respond on WhatsApp, a Meta property, but I already hated using it in the first place.

With Trump waiving the sanctions last night, the House Dems called it 5 weeks ago:

Look what's happened to asylum case outcomes in US immigration court. Under the Trump admin, rushed decisions have exploded, and the overwhelming majority have been denied. FY 2001-2024: 55% denials. 2025: 68% denials. 2026 (Aug): 88% denials. Data in alt text. tracreports.org/phptools/imm...

Here's a post with what I know about the U.S. Jungle Operations Training Course in Panama, which restarted in 2025 and is now in the news because of a big reported deployment.

Public safety has improved in Caracas, @viaSimonRomero writes, because Venezuela's regime out-Bukele'd Bukele. Instead of massively incarcerating young men, the security forces and death squads just straight-up extrajudicially executed many thousands.

I still don't understand why they blow up the boats (in these non-lethal cases) and fail to share incriminating proof (if there is any) with Ecuador prosecutors. "Refueling boats" are a real challenge, but the strategy looks brain-dead when a lack of evidence forces judges to acquit boat crews.

"By the end of 2025, Latin America was home to 22.5 million forcibly displaced people, including 9.9 million internally displaced people." If the forcibly displaced were a country, 22.5m would make them the 7th-largest in Latin America. More than Chile.

During "Plan Colombia," the policy's backers often called US support "bipartisan." In that spirit, @meeks.house.gov—the likely next House Foreign Affairs chair—attended de la Espriella's August inauguration. But de la E. has ditched bipartisanship, even as Dems are poised to make midterm gains.

Alert Kristi Noem's video team: Costa Rica now has a mega-prison, capacity 5,100, that resembles El Salvador’s CECOT. (It’s called “CACCO.”) “President Laura Fernández…used the prison’s opening as an opportunity to lash out at judicial officials, whom she blames for the security crisis.”

Photos of U.S. Marines preparing to blow up a tree on September 30 somewhere in Ecuador (probably the Taura base near Guayaquil).

As Costa Rica opens its first El Salvador-style mega-prison, a ruling party legislator says “I’m absolutely sick and tired of hearing all this talk about human rights.”

New stuff here: - 600 army personnel to train in Panama, and then with Colombian and Honduran forces - A new civilian Pentagon office, given $20m, to "help oversee the military's counter-cartel activities" (there's already a new "Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere" and a new "US Army WH Command")

Medellín's homicide rate was similar to Los Angeles's last year, lower than Houston or Dallas. But the PARES think-tank warns, "When criminal orgs can maintain their businesses without conflict, they have reasons to curb the killings and uphold that order." www.pares.com.co/quien-sostie...

For $3,000-$10,000, you can get a seat somewhere near Argentine President Javier Milei at the "Hispanic Heritage Gala" in Washington DC. Or you could use that money to take your family on an amazing vacation to Patagonia, Mendoza wine country, and Buenos Aires. cenital.com/milei-otra-v...

Here's what Chile's new government is using its resources to place along its border with Peru. 16 tons each. www.defensa.com/chile/ejerci...

"Public lands do not become military installations simply because the president says so, and the military cannot be handed sweeping new authority to police civilians by drawing a line around land that belonged to the public."

13.5 months into the US's lethal boat strikes, cocaine "supply is outstripping demand to the point that prices are plunging" in the US. This piece details many deviously innovative ways that traffickers have adjusted… not really seeing Southcom's vaunted “systemic friction” here.

Here's a post with what I know about recent U.S. transfers or uses of drone technology in Latin America: adamisacson.com/u-s-policy-a...

Hello executive branch employees, both civilian and military. Unless something changes, you have 55 more days during which you can truthfully say "I don't work for an institution that livestreams public firing-squad executions." Savor those days.

Trump admin striking a bold blow against the dollar's position as the world’s primary reserve currency. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/u...

I bet you could eat pink Himalayan road salt

So, of those seven “toss-ups,” if the Democrats hold Michigan and win: - 3 of the 6 red seats: it's a 51-49 Senate Democratic majority. - 4 of the 6 red seats: it's a Fetterman-proof 52-48 Senate Democratic majority. www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/sena...

Here's what's replacing four 200-year-old cottonwood trees, the last of which went down today after a 71-day tree-sit protest ended with aggressive arrests. So bleak. Mason Kumet photo from azluminaria.org/2026/10/05/f...

New boat strike tonight. Yes, they're still happening. The death toll now stands at 238. x.com/Southcom/sta...

If you're a fan of cattle pastures full of giant tree stumps, I've got a first-round election result for you.

Last Friday, I sat in a witness box in El Paso answering questions about a place I’ve never visited. My border-data nerdery helped build the case to halt border barrier construction in the Big Bend. A preliminary injunction is now in place. A rundown:

Flying back to DC, still savoring yesterday’s win. My testimony dove deeply into the numbers showing that Big Bend is *not* an area of high illegal entry. The transcript will show me saying, “OK this is going to get really nerdy.” And yeah, it was. From www.marfapublicradio.org/news/2026-10...

The bot gave an accurate response… but nobody thought to ask it, "Would Venezuelans also celebrate if we left the rest of Maduro's government in power and struck oil deals with them?"

Do you like watching acrobats and contortionists at the circus, bending in impossible directions and twisting themselves in knots? Then you’ll love DOJ’s secret legal memo seeking to justify the lethal boat strikes, if this case manages to declassify it. www.aclu.org/press-releas...

On Venezuela’s side of the border (Táchira), could be significant: “The first reported combat between the Venezuelan security forces and the ELN since Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella’s August arrival in power.”

Again with the testosterone… As someone with a deeper voice and more body hair than Pete Hegseth, let me say: - Few problems have military solutions. - Human rights are a force multiplier, not an obstacle. - Everyone belongs here in the US. - Ordering soldiers to commit murder demands consequences.

You see, Trump is joking about how hundreds of migrants fall from the giant new border wall each year, but "only" dozens of them actually die. Freaking hilarious, right?

Can GOP midterm voter enthusiasm get any lower in South Texas and Miami-Dade? Let's find out: