Dear Progressive Reader,

President Donald Trump continues to ramp up what appears to be an undeclared war on the South American nation of Venezuela. On Friday, the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford set sail for the region. The Ford is the world’s largest aircraft carrier at 100,000 tons, powered by two nuclear reactors, and carrying a crew of nearly 5,000 sailors. This deployment brings the U.S. military presence up to more than 10,000 troops. In addition, on October 15, the President announced to the media that he had ordered the CIA to conduct covert operations inside the country—thereby making relatively “overt” these normally “covert” actions. So far ten boats in the Caribbean and Pacific oceans have been destroyed by U.S. airstrikes, killing at least forty-three people—some Venezuelans, some citizens of other nations—none of whom have been tried and convicted of any crime. When asked about the legality of these actions and the need for Congressional approval to engage in such hostilities, Trump said, “I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just gonna kill people . . . . We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead,”

The current military deployment in the region is the largest since the December 1989 invasion of Panama, also ostensibly to oust and capture a “drug dealer,” that country’s leader, General Manuel Noriega. In the military invasion, titled “Operation Just Cause,” the United States deployed 27, 684 troops and more than 300 aircraft, which bombed whole neighborhoods, killing a still unknown number of civilians—although estimates range as high as several thousand. A 1991 Human Rights Watch report concluded, “[T]he controversy over the number of civilian casualties should not obscure the important debate on the manner in which those people died.” Twenty-three U.S. soldiers were killed in the operation, and about 325 wounded, but a percentage of those were from “friendly fire”—mainly when troops were ordered to parachute into crossfire from other fellow U.S. soldiers.

The story of the December 1989-January 1990 attack is throughly detailed in the Academy-Award-winning documentary The Panama Deception, directed by Barbara Trent (whom I met over dinner in Caracas, Venezuela, a few years after a CIA-supported coup attempt in that country which took place in April 2002). The U.S. invasion of Panama accomplished multiple objectives: Noriega, who had been on the CIA payroll for decades (receiving $100,000 per year or more), but had become “less useful,” was captured and held in a U.S. maximum security prison for most of the rest of his life. But the invasion also served as a warning to other nations in Central and South America. I did some reporting in 1990 on how the invasion affected the outcome of that year's Nicaraguan elections, which resulted in the defeat of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega and the victory of a more U.S.-friendly president.

In her acceptance speech at the 1993 Academy Awards ceremony, Panama Deception director Trent told her fellow film industry professionals, “In closing, I'd just like to say we have a tremendous amount of potential in the world. Those of us here have a tremendous amount of potential to impact the world. Let's use it. Let's challenge this new Administration to reverse the legacy that we have left through our policies in the world, and become the Americans that we're capable of.”

This week on our website, Matt Minton reviews the film The Librarians, which highlights the stories of unsung heroes opposing the banning of books; Eleanor Bader interviews Joel Berg, the CEO of Hunger Free America; and Julian Cooper reports on how tech giants are trying to conceal the environmental impacts of their massive data centers. Plus, Mike Ervin takes note of a radical character on PBS that the Trump Administration has not targeted yet; Opheli Garcia Lawler examines the way an out-of-state ID can lead to deportation for some; and Alexander Karn looks at the impact and future of the nationwide “No Kings” rallies that drew more than 7,000,000 people last Saturday. Also, Shyla Lensing pens an op-ed on the importance of housing for domestic violence survivors; and Whitney Wells opines on how paid family leave can lead to better health outcomes for all.

And, lest we forget, the new 2026 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now available. It quick look at this week in history illustrates that U.S. intervention in Latin America is not new to the Trump Administration. October 22, 1962, is noted as the anniversary of the day that U.S. President John Kennedy imposed a “naval quarantine” of Cuba, and October 25, 1983, marks the date of the U.S. invasion of the independent island nation of Grenada. You can get your calendar on our website or with the order form in the front of the latest issue of The Progressive!

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

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