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Bolivia’s mounting security challenge is emerging as one of the first real-world tests of President Donald Trump’s Shield of the Americas, the country’s defense minister told Fox News Digital, as security forces deploy to strategic locations and the government braces for renewed unrest.

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«I believe this is one of the first real tests of whether Shield of the Americas can move from declarations to concrete results,» Bolivian Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

But Justiniano stressed that Bolivia is not declaring that a coup attempt is underway. «I am not saying today that we have proven evidence of a specific operation currently underway to overthrow the President,» he said. «What we do have are very serious precedents and warning signs that justify preventive action.»

Trump launched Shield of the Americas at a March summit in Florida, bringing together governments across the Western Hemisphere to deepen economic and security cooperation, including efforts to combat transnational crime.

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TRUMP ADMIN BACKS BOLIVIA STATE OF EMERGENCY AS LEFTIST EX-LEADER’S LOYALISTS FRACTURE NATION

President Donald Trump, center, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader, second from left, Argentina’s President Javier Milei, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz and Chile’s President-elect Jose Antonio Kast pose for a family photo during the Shield of the Americas» Summit in Doral, Fla., on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Justiniano’s comments come as President Rodrigo Paz’s government attempts to prevent a repeat of more than 50 days of road blockades earlier this year that caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine and deepened the country’s economic crisis. On Sept. 17, Bolivia’s Assembly approved a 90-day extension of the country’s state of emergency, citing persistent risks of renewed blockades. Some opposition lawmakers and social groups criticized the measure, arguing that it failed to address the underlying causes of the unrest. Reuters

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A U.S. official told Fox News Digital that, «The United States is unwavering in its commitment to support Bolivia’s democracy and the Paz Administration as it rebuilds the country after 20 years of failed socialist policies. The Trump Administration will continue to stand with Bolivia as it works toward stability, security, and a better future for all Bolivians.»

Bolivian Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano, along with Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief General Victor Hugo Balderrama and Police Commander General Mirko Antonio Sokol, wait to speak to the media, after Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz declared a nationwide state of emergency following weeks of violence and blockades, in Achica Arriba, Bolivia, June 20, 2026. (Claudia Morales/Reuters)

«The threat is serious enough for us to take preventive measures, but I do not want to portray a government that is under siege or weak,» Justiniano said. «There is one fundamental difference: Bolivia learned… We do not confuse legitimate social discontent with a threat to democracy. People may agree or disagree with our economic policies. They can march, protest and challenge the government. That is democracy. What is not democratic is trying to impose a decision through violence, indefinite blockades or threats against the constitutional order.»

The defense minister confirmed that police and military forces have already been deployed preventively around the country.

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‘WAVE OF FREEDOM’ SWEEPS LATIN AMERICA AS TRUMP ALLY TAKES FIGHT TO MARXIST TERROR GROUP

«There is a preventive deployment in different parts of the country, particularly along strategic routes, access points to major cities and locations considered sensitive for freedom of movement, supply lines and the protection of critical infrastructure,» Justiniano said.

He declined to provide exact locations, troop numbers or unit movements, saying the scale of the deployment would change according to the level of risk.

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The unfolding situation comes just days after Trump hosted leaders participating in Shield of the Americas on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22. The White House has described the initiative as an alliance focused on economic and national security in the Western Hemisphere. The White House

PRESIDENT PAZ: BOLIVIA HAS REJECTED SOCIALISM AND IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

A police convoy clears one of the main highways after Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency following 50 days of blockades, in El Alto, Bolivia, on June 20, 2026. (Jorge Mateo Romay Salinas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that «the United States values its close partnership with Bolivia, a Shield of the Americas participant, to advance economic growth and solve the security challenges posed by corruption and transnational crime.»

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«President Paz survived 53 days of blockades and violent attempts to undermine his presidency,» the spokesperson said. «As the country’s elected leader, we support his administration’s ongoing work to repair Bolivia’s economy after more than 20 years of corrupt mismanagement by Evo Morales’s Movement towards Socialism (MAS) party.»

The State Department also said visa restrictions announced Sept. 28 targeted Bolivian nationals whom Washington says are undermining «the security and governance progress President Paz and his administration are achieving,» adding that the actions «reinforce, not undercut, our cooperation.»

The Trump administration revoked visas for 27 officials, former officials and relatives across Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, according to the Associated Press. Among those affected was Bolivian Prosecutor General Roger Mariaca, whom the State Department accused of corruption and facilitating narcotrafficking. Mariaca has rejected the allegations.

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Justiniano said Bolivia has formally requested the information underlying the U.S. action.

«The case of Bolivia’s Prosecutor General, Roger Mariaca, is particularly serious because the U.S. government has publicly made specific allegations involving corruption and the facilitation of drug trafficking,» he said.

But the defense minister cautioned against drawing a direct connection between those affected by the visa restrictions and the current unrest. «It would be irresponsible for me to automatically state that everyone affected by those measures is connected to the current mobilizations,» Justiniano said. «We do not have public evidence that would justify that generalization.»

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Asked what assistance Washington is providing in response to the current threat, Justiniano declined to say whether the U.S. was supplying operational intelligence or other direct assistance.

EXCLUSIVE: FBI EXTRADITIONS SOAR AS PATEL RAMPS UP FOREIGN OUTREACH, VOWS ‘NO SANCTUARY’

Police officers fired tear gas at community members who seized the Humberto Suarez oil facility during protests calling for President Rodrigo Paz’s resignation in Santa Rosa del Sara, Bolivia, on June 3, 2026. The protests have caused fuel and food shortages. (Ipa Ibanez/Reuters)

«What I can say is that Bolivia wants to deepen this cooperation,» he said.

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Justiniano said Bolivia is seeking closer cooperation with the United States on information sharing, financial intelligence, counter-narcotics, organized crime, border security, extraditions, training and institutional strengthening.

That push was already evident last week, when Bolivian Minister of the Presidency Fernando Aramayo told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that the Paz government views its struggle against organized crime as part of a wider regional challenge.

«We recognize the legitimacy of protests and demonstrations that demand responses from the government,» Aramayo said. «What we are attacking right now is all the attacks against our democracy that have been financed by narco-traffic money and organized international crime.»

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Bolivia’s new Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo Carrasco spoke with Fox News Digital about his goals for US relationship. (AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images)

Aramayo said the government had received support from Washington. «The White House has supported us and other countries in this fight against these dark forces,» he said, adding that Bolivia was «very proud of being part of this mechanism like the Shield of Americas.»

Asked whether state actors were also involved in fueling the unrest, Aramayo said corruption and organized crime had become deeply embedded during the previous two decades, claiming that institutions, social and political leaders and private-sector actors had become entangled with transnational criminal organizations.

Justiniano stressed that the military deployments are not intended to suppress peaceful demonstrations and said police retain primary responsibility for public order.

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«We are preparing for a risk, not declaring that a coup is underway,» he said.

Bolivia’s Defence Minister Ernesto Justiniano addresses the media outside a hospital where several people were treated following explosions that left people dead and injured at the «Bolivar» Mechanized Artillery Regiment, in Viacha, Bolivia, September 4, 2026. (Claudia Morales/Reuters)

The distinction goes to the heart of the challenge confronting Shield of the Americas: how a regional initiative built in part to combat cartels and transnational organized crime operates when a member government says those networks are intersecting with domestic political unrest.

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Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability. She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events. 

Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s degree in political science.

south america, state department, narco terror, national security, world, foreign affairs

«And all at once, summer collapsed into fall…» – Oscar Wilde

Congress certainly collapsed into fall this year. It lacked the usual mayhem of an imminent government shutdown for the first time in years. The government is usually only funded through September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. Lawmakers solved that fiscal riddle early.

So the beginning of fall in Congress is usually anything but enjoyable. Others are devouring cobbler, enjoying spiced pumpkin lattes and viewing leaves of amber. When a government shutdown looms, the infernality of summer continues to stew on Capitol Hill. Imagine simmering political temperatures mixed with boiling urban concrete and a soupçon of petrichor. That epitomizes the customary fall tension in the halls of Congress when lawmakers are on the precipice of a shutdown.

But this year is different.

TRUMP SIGNS GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL, AVOIDING A SHUTDOWN AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

No shutdown. That’s a good thing, considering last year’s 43-day shutdown odyssey which crawled from October 1 into mid-November. Everything is funded through December 11. So at least members and journalists can enjoy some of those autumnal fall trappings and dash to the pumpkin patch. That’s because we don’t know what’s going to await everyone for the next spending round in mid-December.

Lawmakers are recovering from the battle scars of last fall. So with the midterms approaching, no one wanted to return to the 2025 contretemps. The sides are willing to tussle over spending. But only after the midterms.

Does that mean a shutdown in December? Unclear.

If Democrats seize control of the House or Senate — or both — that could compel House and Senate Republicans to fund the government the way they want through the fall of 2027 right away. They won’t want an interim spending bill which punts things into early next year when Democrats may have power.

That said, if Democrats capture either the House or Senate, they will argue that the voters have spoken and it’s incumbent on them to decide how to spend taxpayer money next year. Under those scenarios, Democrats will push for a stopgap bill, hoping to tangle with President Trump in the early days of 2027.

The only thing which is known is that President Trump will in fact still be in office come January. This scenario could spark a shut down next year – if not December.

The reason? You still need 60 votes to clear a filibuster (and probably two) in the U.S. Senate. That means Republicans just can’t ram through whatever spending package they want. That may work in the House. And the GOP could even test the willingness of Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., to buck their party and assist passing a GOP-favored spending measure in the lame duck.

FETTERMAN STRONGLY SUPPORTS THE FILIBUSTER AS TRUMP URGES SENATE REPUBLICANS TO SCRAP IT

But in the Senate, Republicans will certainly need the cooperation of at least seven Democrats to help them hit the 60 vote threshold. Those Democrats won’t be anxious to assist unless they won the majority and think they can apply their stamp on federal spending in the first quarter of next year.

This is the same problem which vexed the Senate during the shutdown of 2025.

The House passed a partisan spending bill to re-up all current funding on an interim basis. But Senate Republicans could never break a filibuster to lug that spending package across the finish line. The same circumstances may be true in December.

So could the 120th Congress begin in January with a shutdown?

It’s happened before. In fact, under very similar circumstances.

Democrats flipped control of the House during the 2018 midterms – two years into President Trump’s first term. But the President and outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., balked at a bipartisan spending package the Senate cleared just before Christmas that year. So the government closed. There was no way to resuscitate the Senate-approved package. So the 116th Congress began with a shutdown. It ran a then-record 35 days.

A possible government shutdown over spending disputes frankly serves as a symptom for what could be ahead if voters flip either or both bodies of Congress. Democrats will convulse at spending plans made by Republicans and the President. Plus, House Democrats likely add several progressives and Democratic Socialists to their ranks in November in solidly blue districts. Granted, those left-wing politicians won’t take office until January. But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., must court the support of candidates Melat Kiros in Colorado along with Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York to win the Speaker’s gavel. Any missteps by the Democratic brain trust in the lame duck could ignite an internecine firestorm – before Democrats potentially seize the majority in January.

Republicans could face their own issues, too.

SCHUMER PREACHES AFFORDABILITY IN DEM MIDTERM PITCH WHILE SABOTAGING GOP FIXES FOR SOARING COSTS

Some rank-and-file Republicans are ready to move on from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Granted, it is said that Johnson is Speaker as long as President Trump wants him in the job. But what’s not clear is what happens if Republicans lose control of the House. Will the President and others support Johnson for Minority Leader? Does Johnson want that job? What happens to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Minority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.?

There are signals that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is interested in moving into leadership. Especially if the GOP loses the majority. Jordan is tight with President Trump. He lost a bid to become Speaker three years ago after Republicans unceremoniously ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

If Republicans lose the majority, it’s not clear that some Republicans will back Johnson for the top GOP job in the House – regardless of what President Trump says. Some House Republicans will blame the President if the party loses the House. Especially since they believe he’s responsible for the toxic political climate they face right now. It’s unknown if a Republican party out of power might begin pushing back against President Trump, frustrated by the economy, tariffs, the price of gasoline and the war in Iran. Most GOPers have shown a reluctance to break with the President so far. But that could change if voters hand Congressional Republicans their head in the midterms.

We haven’t even raised the question about the future of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. – although the New York Democrat insists he isn’t going anywhere. But questions would emerge if Democrats don’t flip the Senate, considering that progressives and younger activists want to move on from the 75-year-old Schumer.

The same with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. President Trump and Thune have never been close. If Republicans lose the Senate, would the President use that as a reason to call for the removal of the South Dakota Republican?

All of this will color those questions about spending bills, maybe renewing FISA – or even getting the House to sync up with the Senate on the college sports bill during the lame duck Congress.

Summer collapsed into fall. Capitol Hill was bereft of the usual autumnal mayhem.

So go pick out some pumpkins. Sip a cinnamon spice latte. Prepare for trick or treating. Fall is here.

But that autumn Congressional bedlam is only delayed. It will hit Capitol Hill after the election.

politics, congress, government shutdown, midterm elections, house of representatives, senate

Rosângela da Silva, más conocida como Janja Lula da Silva, se convirtió en una de las figuras más poderosas de la campaña electoral que está llegando a su fin en Brasil, a tres días de las elecciones en las que su esposo y presidente buscará un cuarto mandato.

Su influencia es enorme. No solo cumple las funciones propias de una primera dama. Ahora da discursos, programa actos y digita la agenda de su marido, según reconocen fuentes del Partido de los Trabajadores (PT).

No siempre fue así. Un nota del influyente diario Folha de San Pablo reveló que su influencia en las decisiones de campaña se profundizó después de la caída en julio pasado del exjefe de gabinete, Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, alias Marcola, investigado por tráfico de influencias en un escándalo desatado en el Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social.

El temor, puertas adentro del gobierno y el PT, es que esta irrupción de Janja puede repercutir en forma negativa en el voto de centro que necesita Lula para ganar.

¿El motivo? La primera dama tiene una imagen más radical que el mandatario, que se ha empeñado en mostrar una cara más moderada para seducir al electorado independiente.

Lula necesita el voto de centro

Los últimos sondeos muestran una leve ventaja para el actual mandatario sobre su principal rival de la derecha dura, Flávio Bolsonaro, pero insuficiente para ser electo en primera vuelta. La paridad es casi absoluta de cara a un eventual balotaje, previsto para el 25 de octubre, según las encuestas.

En una segunda vuelta, el hijo de Jair Bolsonaro se vería beneficiado por los votos de varios postulantes de centroderecha que se presentan sin posibilidades, como los exgobernadores Romeu Zema y Ronaldo Caiado o el candidato antisistema Renan Santos.

A Lula solo le quedaría rescatar a los votantes del popular psiquiatra Augusto Cury, que intercala propuestas por izquierda y por derecha y convencer a las capas más moderadas y las que eligen la abstención. Hoy toda la izquierda se concentra en torno a Lula como única alternativa de poder.

En ese escenario, el presidente necesita a los brasileños más moderados para derrotar al bolsonarismo.

Bolsonaro