Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was sworn into office on Wednesday, unlocking the needed support to force the House of Representatives into a vote over the Epstein files.

Now having received the oath of office, Grijalva is free to become the 218th — and final signatory — to advance a discharge petition on a bill to instruct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its documentation on Jeffrey Epstein. If successful, the petition would bring the bill to the floor over the objection of the chamber’s leadership.

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Grijalva, who now fills the seat formerly held by her father, the late Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said signing the petition would be her first act as a member of Congress.

«I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as the check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people,» Grijalva said.

Epstein, a former businessman and financier, died in 2019 while jailed on federal sex-trafficking charges involving minors. During his career, he accrued an impressive social circle that included rich and powerful figures like former President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew.

His sudden death, ruled a suicide by investigators, left unanswered questions about whether he had used his expansive social circle to facilitate illegal sexual encounters for some of his contacts.

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Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were both indicted on federal sex trafficking charges stemming from Epstein’s years of abuse of underage girls. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

After disappointing announcements from the DOJ that the investigation met a dead end earlier this year, lawmakers led by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., demanded Congress vote to force the DOJ to release its documentation on the matter.

Those demands went unheeded by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who said the DOJ was already conducting its own internal evaluation and complying with congressional requests for information.

For Massie and three other Republicans, that wasn’t good enough.

Massie joined Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., — and all House Democrats — in signing the petition, falling just one signatory short of putting it over the needed 218 threshold.

EPSTEIN VICTIMS PRESS LAWMAKERS TO SUPPORT BILL TO RELEASE HIDDEN FILES, SAY AMERICANS WILL BE ‘APPALLED’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks with Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna during a news conference with alleged victims of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 3, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Two of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims joined lawmakers in the House chamber for Grijalva’s swearing in.

«Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation — including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. They are here in the gallery here this evening,» Grijalva said.

Johnson has said he supports the measure in principle but believes aspects of it are poorly written or may provide insufficient protections for Epstein’s potential victims.

With Grijalva’s support, Democrat leadership believes the petition will come to the floor sometime in December.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, noted that Johnson might try to derail its timeline.

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«It should ripen in early December. That doesn’t mean that the speaker of the House [won’t] try to do some shenanigans, but if all goes the way we want it to go, early December,» McGovern said.

Jeanette Jara se distancia de Gabriel Boric

El acto de cierre de Jeannette Jara, en Maipú, en las afueras de Santiago. Foto: Bloomberg

José Antonio Kast se presenta por tercera vez a la presidencia de Chile. Foto: Bloomberg

Las incógnitas

As President Donald Trump warns of «zero tolerance» for narco-states in America’s backyard, China is tightening its grip on Venezuela — a high-risk economic and political bet that could soon collide with U.S. power.

U.S. defense officials confirmed to Reuters last month that a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group had entered the Southern Command region, which covers the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America, to monitor narcotrafficking routes linked to Venezuela’s military leadership.

The Pentagon said the arrival of USS Gerald R. Ford, carrying more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft, would «bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities.» It added that the mission aims to «degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.»

CHINA CONDEMNS US MILITARY BUILDUP OFF VENEZUELA COAST AS FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN REGIONAL AFFAIRS

Within weeks, Venezuelan officers were reportedly training for guerrilla-style defense against a possible U.S. strike — an acknowledgment, according to Reuters, of «rising anxiety inside Caracas.»

Into this standoff, Beijing unveiled a «zero-tariff» trade agreement with Caracas at the Shanghai Expo 2025, announced by Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade Coromoto Godoy. Venezuelan officials said the accord covers roughly 400 tariff categories, removing duties on Chinese and Venezuelan goods.

While final implementation details remain pending verification, the goal is clear: Beijing is moving fast into a sanctioned economy that Washington has sought to isolate.

«This really looks like China is going to completely take over the Venezuelan economy,» said Gordon Chang, an expert on China’s global trade strategy. «It’s going to decimate Venezuela’s local industry.»

«Venezuela basically sells petroleum to China and very little else,» he said. «China, of course, is a manufacturer of many, many items. Venezuelan manufacturing is not going to experience a renaissance anytime soon — it’s going the opposite direction.»

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Sailors aboard the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), launch a Carrier Air Wing 8 F/A-18E Super Hornet attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 31 from the flight deck, Sept. 26, 2025. (Mariano Lopez)

Chang added that Maduro’s sudden embrace of Beijing stems from fear of Trump’s next move.

«Maduro probably doesn’t have a choice,» he said. «He realizes he’s got a problem in the form of Donald J. Trump. There’s a U.S. aircraft carrier not far from his shores, and a lot of military assets bearing down on him. He needs a friend, and he’s desperate.»

«For Maduro, the zero-tariff pact may offer temporary relief — but it only deepens dependence,» Chang added. «I don’t see this trade deal as strengthening Venezuela. I see it strengthening China’s stranglehold over Venezuela.»

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From Beijing’s perspective, the tariff-free pact opens a commercial and strategic doorway into the Western Hemisphere just as Washington doubles down on sanctions.

The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that China has extended around $60 billion in loans to Venezuela over the past two decades, much of it repaid through oil shipments — a figure still cited by both Chinese and Venezuelan officials in 2025.

Members of the Bolivarian National Militia patrol on a street in the 23 de Enero neighborhood during a military exercise, in Caracas, Venezuela, January 23, 2025. (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)

«China has leveraged multibillion-dollar loans and the establishment of satellite positioning and surveillance facilities to secure strategic control over Venezuela’s natural resources and critical infrastructure,» said Isaias Medina III, an Edward Mason Fellow at Harvard University and a former Venezuelan diplomat to the U.N. Security Council.

Medina was referring to the El Sombrero satellite ground station in Venezuela’s Guárico province — a joint China-Venezuela project that Western analysts, including a recent Associated Press report, describe as part of a wider space cooperation network giving Beijing an intelligence foothold in Latin America.

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Medina said the new pact must be understood as one layer in a wider anti-Western alignment.

«Under the banner of so-called ‘21st Century Socialism,’ initiated by Hugo Chávez and expanded by Nicolás Maduro, the nation has evolved into a forward operating base for regimes openly hostile to the United States and its allies,» he said.

«Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba have entrenched themselves across Venezuelan territory, using the country as a platform for asymmetric warfare, intelligence operations, and ideological expansion throughout Latin America.»

President Nicolas Maduro stands in front of a portrait of Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez.  (AP Photo/Miraflores Press Office, File)

He noted that «Russia’s military footprint includes more than $12 billion in arms sales and ongoing defense cooperation and Wagner Group presence in military exercises,» while Cuban military advisers remain embedded inside Venezuelan security institutions.

«Iran has exploited this environment to embed terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas, using Venezuela as both a financial hub and a logistical corridor. These activities extend to former training camps in Syria, where Venezuelan operatives and mercenaries have been indoctrinated in hybrid warfare tactics,» he added. «Iranian interest includes potential drone manufacturing and uranium mining.»

«The Maduro government, shielded by the absence of the rule of law or legitimate governance, has replaced statecraft with criminal enterprise,» Medina said. «Grand corruption is not the exception; it is the system.»

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has yet to publicly comment on the strike. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

«The humanitarian toll is catastrophic,» he added. «Over 30% of Venezuela’s population has been forcibly displaced. Starvation has been weaponized as a tool of social control, amounting to a war crime under international law. Despite the enormity of these crimes, many United Nations member states continue to recognize and engage with this illegitimate regime, thereby perpetuating its impunity. The failure to confront this crisis decisively enables a coalition of adversaries, state and non-state actors alike, to project power dangerously close to U.S. territory.»

For now, Washington’s sanctions campaign still constrains Venezuela’s oil lifelines. In March 2025, Reuters reported that U.S. threats to impose tariffs on nations buying Venezuelan crude caused a temporary disruption in shipments to China. Beijing dismissed the measures as «illegal extraterritorial actions» and vowed to continue cooperation — but has not disclosed how it will enforce the new tariff-free pact.

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The Maduro administration is seeking to rally government supporters amidst a sagging economy and refugee crisis. (Jesus Vargas/AP Photo)

Chang said the underlying reality hasn’t changed: China can’t protect Caracas from U.S. hard power.

«It can certainly launch a propaganda blitz,» he said, «but it can’t project military force in the region. It’s really up to what President Trump does. China does not have the military strength to oppose American intervention if that’s what Trump decides.»

Medina agreed that the stakes reach beyond economics. «Just three hours from U.S. shores, this narco-terrorist regime has become the operational convergence of organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, and human rights atrocities,» he said, urging a Western response combining «diplomatic isolation, targeted sanctions, and, when necessary, defensive deployments.»